Tales to Astonish #66, Apr. 1965

Tales to Astonish #66, Apr. 1965

Story: Smilin’ Stan Lee
Art: Beamin’ Bobby Powell
Inking: Friendly Frankie Ray
Lettering: Sunny Ol’ Sherigail

Power-Packed Script by… Stan Lee
Hard-Hitting Art by… Steve Ditko
Two-Fisted Inking by… Vince Colletta
Silken-Soft Lettering by… Art Simek

Shit, here I go again with another half-baked idea. So, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the dichotomy between the way that a character acts and what we’re told they’re like, and in some situations it’s so different that it just makes such a rift you can no longer associate with the character at all. I really get that feeling with the relationship between Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, because there is no way that Giant Man gives a SHIT about the Wasp from the way he acts, but he’s always talking about how deeply he’s in love with her and stuff. I guess this could just be another deal with a different time’s attitudes towards women.

Jan learns about an “oriental scientist” named Madame Macabre who apparently has the ability to shrink and grow objects with her mind. We, the audience, learn that she can only do this with things made of a special metal made by her assistant Gogo (who is an old man. An old man with a hilarious name), and that she wants to team up with Giant Man to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!! He doesn’t go along with it, so she sets a trap for him, which he of course falls for. Fucking Ant Man… anyway, the Wasp saves the day and it turns out Macabre had a mechanical wig which was the device she used to grow stuff. That’s weird.

And in the Hulk, the jolly green goliath is still stuck behind the Iron Curtain. The Leader uses his web of informants to locate the Hulk, which he believes may possibly have some sort of vague connection to Bruce Banner. Then… nothing happens. Fucking nothing at all happens in this entire Hulk story. I guess he smashes some stuff, but that really shouldn’t count. A Hulk story without smashing is like a Howling Commandos issue without a tank exploding.

I am so angry that nobody knows that the Hulk and Bruce Banner are the same person. Even the Leader, who supposedly has a “super-brilliant brain” only has a sneaking suspicion that they might have something to do with each other, maybe. HOW IS THIS NOT EXTREMELY OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE?! Arrgghhhhh…