Marvel Comics · Tales to Astonish #45 · July 1963 · 12¢ · 36 pages
Grade: G/VG 3.0
Cover by Jack Kirby.
“The Return of Egghead!” brings back Elihas Starr — the disgraced scientist introduced just a few issues earlier — looking to settle the score with Hank Pym. Ant-Man and the Wasp team up to stop him, with Janet Van Dyne still in the early stretch of her career as a costumed hero. Stan Lee scripts; Don Heck pencils the lead. Heck's linework is cleaner and more grounded than Kirby's bombast — figures are solid, faces expressive, action sequences legible without the cosmic crackle. A different energy than what Kirby brought to the feature, and worth noting on its own terms.
Egghead never quite cracked the A-list, but Lee and the early Marvel architects kept bringing him back — he'd eventually graduate to threatening the Avengers themselves. This is the ground floor of that trajectory, when he's still strictly Pym's problem.
Tales to Astonish #45 sits in the middle of the Ant-Man solo run — post-Wasp introduction, pre-Giant-Man — a stretch that doesn't get much collector attention but tracks the early development of one of Marvel's stranger corners. The Hank Pym issues from this period are genuinely undervalued relative to their age and the characters involved.
Condition G/VG 3.0 — .
We use what the scientists are calling artificial intelligence to research and write our descriptions — it gives us more time to add books to our website and provide you with a wider array of inventory. We think Klaatu would approve. Details are verified but the robot does slip up. We're not infallible. Every book is graded by a human collector who has actually held it. If anything ever looks off, reach on out at robopictocomics@gmail.com.
Marvel Comics · Tales to Astonish #45 · July 1963 · 12¢ · 36 pages
Grade: G/VG 3.0
Cover by Jack Kirby.
“The Return of Egghead!” brings back Elihas Starr — the disgraced scientist introduced just a few issues earlier — looking to settle the score with Hank Pym. Ant-Man and the Wasp team up to stop him, with Janet Van Dyne still in the early stretch of her career as a costumed hero. Stan Lee scripts; Don Heck pencils the lead. Heck's linework is cleaner and more grounded than Kirby's bombast — figures are solid, faces expressive, action sequences legible without the cosmic crackle. A different energy than what Kirby brought to the feature, and worth noting on its own terms.
Egghead never quite cracked the A-list, but Lee and the early Marvel architects kept bringing him back — he'd eventually graduate to threatening the Avengers themselves. This is the ground floor of that trajectory, when he's still strictly Pym's problem.
Tales to Astonish #45 sits in the middle of the Ant-Man solo run — post-Wasp introduction, pre-Giant-Man — a stretch that doesn't get much collector attention but tracks the early development of one of Marvel's stranger corners. The Hank Pym issues from this period are genuinely undervalued relative to their age and the characters involved.
Condition G/VG 3.0 — .
We use what the scientists are calling artificial intelligence to research and write our descriptions — it gives us more time to add books to our website and provide you with a wider array of inventory. We think Klaatu would approve. Details are verified but the robot does slip up. We're not infallible. Every book is graded by a human collector who has actually held it. If anything ever looks off, reach on out at robopictocomics@gmail.com.
