Tales to Astonish Vol 1 56

Rushing home, Giant-Man inspects a ring that he plans to give the Wasp. Finding it perfect, he waits for her. When she comes home, he acts nervous, causing the Wasp to wonder if he will ever express his true feelings. Thinking that making him jealous will spur him to finally talk about his feelings, the Wasp tells Giant-Man that she's going to a party with another man (social register member Sterling Stuyvesant) and leaves. Upset that he cannot muster the guts to express himself to the Wasp, Giant-Man tosses the ring away and decides to lose himself in his work, instead of trying to be a romantic.

Soon he is alerted by his ants about a character named the Magician. Finding him rather sinister looking, Giant-Man decides to investigate on his own.

A short time later, at Stuyvesant's party, the Magician appears as the entertainment and dazzles the crowd with his magic tricks. He soon traps the audience under a large blanket and begins robbing them of their valuables. Janet shrinks down to her Wasp identity and tries to tackle the Magician on her own, but is soon trapped in the Magician's magic wand. The Magician then makes his escape. Giant-Man arrives shortly after and is informed what happened.

Deciding to trick the Magician into appearing for him, as Hank Pym, Giant-Man stages a fake yacht party. The plan works and the Magician appears at the fake party. He ends up battling Giant-Man, until he attempts to escape in his personal blimp. The two battle on the blimp. The Wasp is freed, and the Magician tries to kill both ant-sized heroes by setting his trained rabbit on them. Giant-Man resumes his giant size and scares the bunny away and attacks his foe.

The Magician uses hypnosis to stop Giant-Man in his tracks, while the Wasp unplugs the blimp, causing it to deflate and crash into the water. Realizing Hank was possibly still aboard, the Wasp laments having killed the only man she loved. However, Giant-Man soon turns up alive, riding into sight, ant-size, on a paper airplane.

With the Magician fished out of the water by the police, the two weary heroes are taken back to shore.

Appearing in "The Balloon"

Appearances not yet listed

Synopsis for "The Balloon"

A text piece

Appearing in "Beware the Bog Beast!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Bog Beast

Other Characters:

Maximus
Lorenzo
Hulk (Bruce Banner) (Mentioned)

Races and Species:

Humans
Insects (Mentioned)

Locations:

Earth-616
- Earth
  - North America
    - United States of America
      - New York
        New York City
- "A Far Off Planet"
  - Perilica

Items:

Giant-Man's Suit
Wasp's Suit and Wings

Vehicles:

Synopsis for "Beware the Bog Beast!"

While Giant-Man is training, the Wasp distracts him with a riddle in the form of a tale. This story involves two young lovers on a distant planet. The woman, a princess, is denied the right to marry the man of her choice by her father the king, because the man in question (Lorenzo) is a lazy lout.

Soon the king devises a contest to find a suitable husband for his daughter: Whoever can rescue her from the dreaded bog beast will be allowed to marry her. Three men accept the challenge: Lorenzo, and their planet's strongest man and greatest hunter. The strong man goes first, but his strength is no match for the bog beast, who easily defeats him. Next the hunter tries, but his net proves ineffective, because the bog beast's body causes the net to burn away, and he soon gives up as well.

The Wasp stops there, and Giant-Man asks her how Lorenzo could defeat the bog beast unarmed, and the Wasp informs him she won't tell him the end of the story, until he takes her out to dinner. Later that evening at a restaurant, she explained that Lorenzo won the right to marry the princess by telling her to cross the bridge. The bog beast, too heavy to cross the bridge itself, was unable to stop her, and so Lorenzo won her hand in marriage.

Notes

Story One, "The Coming of the Magician" is Story # X-659. Story III, "Beware the Bog Beast" is Story # X-646.
The Maximus in Story III is not to be confused with Maximus the Mad of the Inhumans.
This issue also contains a Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation.

Links and References

References

Tales to Astonish Vol 1 56

Appearing in "The Coming of the Magician!"

Synopsis for "The Coming of the Magician!"