Marvel Database
Register
Advertisement

Quote1 Never again did Henry Pym knowingly step upon an ant hill. For he knew that somewhere beneath him ... was one little insect—one small ant, to whom he owed his very life! Quote2
Narrator

Appearing in "The Man in the Ant Hill!"

Featured Characters:

  • Henry Pym  (First appearance) (Origin revealed) (Main story and flashback)

Supporting Characters:

  • Ants (First appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Various unnamed scientists (Main story and flashback)

Races and Species:

Locations:

Items:

Synopsis for "The Man in the Ant Hill!"

Tales to Astonish Vol 1 27 Title

Doctor Henry Pym declares success! He has successfully used his reducing serum to shrink a chair to doll size and used his enlarging serum to return it to normal size. Pym had been ridiculed months ago by his peers for his outlandish theories but has now perfected a pair of serums capable of changing the size of any object. Confident that his serums work, Pym tests them on himself.

Henry Pym (Earth-616) from Tales to Astonish Vol 1 27 0001

Placing a few drops of reducing serum on his arm, Henry Pym quickly shrinks. Now ant-sized, he realizes that he left the enlarging serum on the window sill; it might as well be on the moon. He goes out into the yard. Ants sense his presence and move toward him. Pym, still not thinking clearly, runs into an ant hill. Fleeing blindly through the tunnels, he falls into a shaft and lands in a pool of honey. Hopelessly trapped, he spots an ant crawling towards him. To Pym’s surprise, the ant pulls him free from the honey and lets him go unharmed. More ants appear. Pym notices a matchstick set in the ground and, hoping to create a diversion, throws a pebble at it. His aim is true, and the match lights.

Henry Pym (Earth-616) from Tales to Astonish Vol 1 27 0002

Pym fashions a lasso and climbs up to a ledge. There, another ant grabs him in its mandibles. Pym uses judo to flip the ant over the ledge and scrambles upward. Once out of the ant hill, with the colony in hot pursuit, he sees the friendly ant who saved him earlier. He points upward to tell the ant where he needs to go. The ant climbs the wall with Pym aboard. He wades into the test tube with the serum and immediately returns to normal. Convinced that his invention is dangerous, he dumps his serums down the drain.

Appearing in "Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall..."

Featured Characters:

Other Characters:

  • Antique shop owner

Races and Species:

Locations:

Items:

  • Enchanted mirror

Synopsis for "Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall..."

Bill Carter enters an antique shop looking for a birthday gift for his wife, Anne, and finds an antique mirror. Although the antiques dealer warns him the mirror belonged to a sorcerer and is thought to be enchanted, Bill gets it for his wife, thinking the strange story will enhance the mirror's appeal. Anne puts the mirror in the bedroom, so she can dress in front of it.

Over the following days, Anne spends increasing amounts of time in front of the mirror, becoming irritable and angry with her husband. Soon, she begins talking to the mirror, performing magical rites and reciting spells. Eventually, she tries to release the sorcerer trapped in the mirror. She tricks Bill into the next room and locks him in and begins the ritual. Bill pounds on the wall, asking to be released, and the vibrations knock the mirror from the wall, breaking it and releasing Anne from its spell.

Appearing in "The Talking Horse"

Featured Characters:

  • Barney Sloan
  • "Big" Mike Jordan

Other Characters:

  • Silverstreak

Locations:

  • Racetrack

Items:

Synopsis for "The Talking Horse"

Barney Sloan is a tough jockey to work with: he's dangerous on the racetrack to his fellow jockeys, mistreats the horses, and borrows money from gangsters like Mike Jordan. Barney is given a new horse named Silverstreak. As usual, Barney is dismissive, but this horse is different; it complains to him about being called dumb. The horse is confident it will win tomorrow, so Barney borrows money from everyone he knows, including more money from Mike Jordan.

The next day, Barney quickly falls behind in the race, and he and Silverstreak are beaten. Barney is stopped from beating the horse and is banned from jockeying. Mike Jordan and his thugs appear, and Barney desperately tries to get the horse to say something. The horse, however, believes Barney's threat that he will be killed if he speaks again. The story ends as Jordan's thugs move in on Barney.

Appearing in "Dead Planet!"

Featured Characters:

  • Grokor
  • Mopox

Other Characters:

  • Komok warriors

Locations:

Items:

Synopsis for "Dead Planet!"

Tales to Astonish Vol 1 27 027

The warrior race of the planet Komok begin to conquer the galaxy, taking over planets with intelligent life one by one. There is one condition to their conquest: if a Komok warrior is defeated, the rest will return to their home planet in disgrace. After conquering several worlds, the Komok send one of their conquerors to a planet where they have detected intelligent life. The warrior, Mopox, searches in vain for a new species to conquer but can find nothing, despite the fact that his device registers the existence of intelligent life. Mopox waits for years, but, eventually, the warrior loses the will to live and expires on what appears to him to be a dead world. After his death, the inhabitants of the planet begin to stir. Intelligent life does exist on the planet but in the form of beings who look like rocks.

See Also

Links and References

References

Advertisement