Tales to Astonish #56
The Coming of the Magician!
Giant-Man is testing out a new series of tension rings he has set up in flagpoles around the city as a means of carrying his large body to locations quickly. The test works and he soon arrives at his new over-sized lab in record time. Alone in his lab, Hank shrinks down to ant-size so he can inspect an engagement ring he bought as he intends to ask Janet to marry him. When the Wasp returns to the lab, Giant-Man quickly hides the ring. Janet has come to show off her new hairdo. When he compliments the new look, Janet is disappointed that Hank never thinks about marriage.
She then remembers that she is due to go to a party being held by Sterling Stuyvesant, a local socialite. She is running late and rushes to get ready. As she heads out, she mentions how she has known Sterling for years and suspects that he might propose to her during the party. Janet only says this in the hopes of pushing Hank to propose to her, however, Pym is upset to hear this and it instead discourages him from proposing to her.[1] Turning to anger, Hank throws the ring across the room, figuring Janet isn’t really interested in romance, only money. Calming down, Hank admits to himself that he’ll always love Janet even though he can’t tell her how she feels and assumes it is just as well since his membership in the Avengers puts him on call 24 hours a day, giving him no time for things like parties.[2]
That’s when he gets an alert from his network of ants and sees what danger they have detected. Through his viewing device, Hank sees a magician doing all sorts of magic tricks. This harmless practice doesn’t hide the sinister look in the magician’s eyes. The ants also report that this man is currently at the building owned by Sterling Stuyvesant. Fearing there might be trouble at the party, Hank shrinks down to ant-size flies there with his flying ants.
Meanwhile, at the party, Sterlin pulls Janet aside and is about to ask her something important when she asks him to wait until after the party. Deciding to get things going, Sterlin then announces the entertainment for the evening the Magician, a performer who can apparently pull off feats that no other magician can.[3] To prove this, the Magician uses his magic want to make doves appear a puff of smoke, and makes multiple rabbits come out of his top hat. After a few more tricks, the Magician then has his doves drop a massive canvas over the party goers. While they are trapped under the weighted canvas, the socialites are then robbed by the Magician. Luckily, Janet brought some of her size-changing capsules and uses this cover to change into the Wasp. However, when she confronts the Magician he raises his magic wand at her. The tip suddenly opens up and sucks her inside. Considering the Wasp a greater prize than any of the money, the Magician then disappears in a puff of smoke.
When Giant-Man arrives he remains at ant-size to overhear what happened. Having heard what happened, he resumes normal size and questions Sterling to find out where he hired the Magician. As it turns out, Styvestant was contacted by the Magician directly and convinces Sterling to hire him, he doesn’t even know where to reach the Magician, nor his real name. Returning to headquarters, Hank orders his network of ants to search for Janet, but they find no trace of the kidnapper. Hank then decides that if he can’t find the Magician he will instead lure him into a trap. He then organizes a ritzy yacht party and invites the cities most well to due as bait to lure the Magician into a trap.
However, this is only to generate buzz to draw the Magician out. When the villain appears aboard the yacht he discovers that it is deserted and the “party” was nothing more than a trap set by Giant-Man. Caught off guard, the Magician tries to disappear in a puff of smoke. However, due to his increased height, Giant-Man discovers that the Magician’s “teleportation” trick is just to cover the fact that he is climbing up a rope to a blimp hovering overhead. However, before he can go after his foe, he has to break off his pursuit in order to save a couple whose boat has capsized. After he rights the sailboat, Giant-Man then snares the blimp with a lasso, but he is too heavy to climb up. He then swallows a shrinking capsule and scales up the rope at ant-size.
Inside the blimp, Giant-Man evades the Magician’s attempts to squash him and frees the Wasp. Pym then catches to overpower the Magician, even at ant size, because even in his smaller form he still retains his natural strength. He then sends the Wasp off to let the gas out of the blimp’s balloon while he squares off against the Magician. His foe tries one last trick to defeat Giant-Man, his powers of hypnosis. By this time, the Wasp has opened the release valve causing the blimp to fall in the ocean. When the harbor patrol pulls the Magician out of the water, Janet fears that Hank drowned and begins to cry. That’s when Giant-Man — ant-sized once more — flies to her on a paper airplane. Resuming normal size, he tells her that he resisted the Magician’s hypnosis thanks to the cybernetic devices in his mask. Janet is happy to see that he is still alive and tells him that he will always be the only man for her.
Recurring Characters
Giant-Man, Wasp, the Magician
Continuity Notes
Will they or won’t they? Hank and Janet eventually do get married eventually. See Avengers #60.
It’s weird that Hank is imposing 24 hours of Avengers duty on himself, considering that the Wasp also joined the Avengers when they first formed in Avengers #1.
The Magician’s real name is never mentioned in this story. His name is revealed to be Lee Guardineer in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #8.
Topical References
Hank watches the Magician perform tricks on a black-and-white television.
Beware the Bog Beast!
Giant-Man, after being overpowered by the Hulk, has decided to try and bulk up in the hopes of becoming stronger.[1] The Wasp convinces her partner to take a break by answering the riddle in her latest story…
On a far off planet, a princess has fallen in love with a commoner named Lorenzo, who is notoriously lazy. Her brother, King Maximus, wants Lorenzo to have nothing to do with his sister and orders an end to their romance or else Lorenzo will be imprisoned. Her brother has decided that the only man who is worthy to marry her will be a man brave enough to defeat the bog beast.
The typically benign creature lives on the Isle of Perilca. Over the next month, Maximus has his sister spend time bonding with the creature to the point that it will attack any man who comes near her. Soon potential suitors are gathered to test their might against the bog beast. Among them is none other than Lorenzo, who tells the others to go first.
First, the local strong man tries to fight the creature into submission with his great feats of strength, but he fails to overpower the beast and ends up running away in fear. Next, the kingdom’s greatest hunter tries to trap the bog beast in a net. However, the creature manages to burn through the net, prompting him to flee in terror as well. That left only Lorenzo left to try and beat the bog beast.
Without explaining how Janet tells Hank that Lorenzo managed to defeat the creature and won the right to marry the princess. Dying to know the answer, Hank agrees to take Janet to dinner so he can learn the answer to this riddle. Janet explains that while the bog beast would protect the princess while she was on the island, Lorenzo won the contest by asking the princess to join him on the mainland. Unable to leave its domain, the bog beast was defeated. Hank can hardly believe that the answer could be so simple and reminds himself to never match wits with Janet again, as she is smarter than any villain he’s faced.
Recurring Characters
Giant-Man, Wasp
Continuity Notes
I suppose by this point Hank still hadn’t heard the law of physics that dictates that the madder Hulk gets = the stronger Hulk gets. Anyway, at the time of this story, Giant-Man has fought the Hulk a handful of times as Giant-Man. See Avengers #2-3, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1-2, and Fantastic Four #35-36.
