Trapped by the Protector!
by
Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
False Flashback: Considering how the story ends, this means that the flashback we get from Gerald at the beginning is a complete fabrication. This sort of storytelling is almost like an unreliable narrator, but it feels more like a contrivance for the story's sake. Had we had Gerald's narration while seeing what actually occurred I think would be stronger. There's an issue of Tomb of Dracula from the 70's where they do just this and it's awesome.
Obsessive Crime Disorder: Ant-Man's means of travelling out of his home is still very silly. It almost kills him in this story, which seems like an acknowledgement of how silly it is. He still has very little in the way of personality. He only seems to be obsessed with ants and stopping crime. That's all there is to him right now.
Inside his shop, Gerald Marsh comes to his senses while a police car races over to the scene. The ants pick up the signal of this emergency and alert Henry Pym to action. Donning his red and blue costume, Pym inhales his shrinking gas and shoots himself through his catapult gun into the air above New York. He lands safely on a pile of ants that support his weight right outside Marsh's jewelry store.
With the police already gone, Ant-Man questions owner Gerald Marsh about his emergency. He explains that earlier in the day a large masked man came into his jewelry store. The man calls himself "The Protector." The Protector is running an extortion scheme. He uses a disintegration ray to destroy Gerald's merchandise since he hasn't made his last payment. Then he knocked him unconscious before leaving. He called the police, but was too frightened to register a complaint. Ant-Man says he has enough to go on and leaves the shop. As he leaves, a figure spies on the tiny hero through binoculars. Before it can stop him, Ant-Man hops onto a nearby car's bumper to head back to his lab.
Henry Pym spends the next few days listening for ant signals. He tells the ants to guard every jewelry shop in town. Once their antennae pick up the words "Protector" or "disintegrating ray" they will alert him through electronic impulse. Three days later, they pick up these words and the Ant-Man is ready to chase it down.
Catapulting through the air, Ant-Man makes a narrow landing. With too many people blocking the ants on the sidewalk, he uses a stroller and a pant-leg to help him safely to the ground. Ant-Man leads his ants into the store, where he finds the Protector in the middle of extorting money. Finding a pearl necklace, Ant-Man unfurls the beads sending them all scattered to the floor to trip the Protector. As he struggles to get up, Ant-Man leads him outside where he can get more ants.
Once outside, the Protector grabs a young boy's water gun. He squirts a stream of water from the edge of a sidewalk that drains into a gutter. Ant-Man is taken by surprise as the deluge of water washes him down towards the gutter's grating. Spying a discarded lollipop stick, Ant-Man quickly commands the ants to bridge it over the sewer grate. Ant-Man grabs it and carefully dangles over the grate opening as the water falls behind him. Having barely survived this encounter, Ant-Man heads back home to come up with a new plan.
Henry Pym has rented out a jewelry store. After a few days of waiting, he is approached by The Protector. The criminal shows him just what would happen to his store without his help. The Protector then proceeds to disintegrate his merchandise. Pym promises to pay him $300 a week, if he fails to do this, the Protector will use the gun on him.
After the Protector leaves, Henry Pym turns back into Ant-Man. He notices on the ground where the Protector stood, tiny droplets of machine oil. Before the Protector left, Pym also hit a button to signal to the ants to follow the Protector. Tracing him back to his hideout via ant signals, Ant-Man slips inside. He finds a darkened room, where he stumbles into vacuum in a trap setup for him by the Protector. The Protector proceeds to seal him inside the vacuum bag with some glue until he suffocates.
The Protector didn't account on Ant-Man retaining his human strength. Ant-Man easily punches a hole through the paper vacuum-bag. Seeing a metal fan on a table nearby, he commands the ants to take him there. When the Protector removes his goggles to search for a dead Ant-Man in the bag, Ant-Man turns the fan on full blast so it scatters the vacuum dust right into the Protector's face. It completely disorients the bad guy.
Moments later the police arrive. They received a message from Ant-Man's ants that he had caught the Protector. Before they take The Protector into custody, Ant-Man asks them to removes the Protector's costume. They reveal it to be Gerald Marsh all along. Using platform shoes and metal exo-sekeletal arms, Marsh was able to convince store owners he was an intimidating figure. The "disintegration ray" was actually a gun that shot out smoke which distracted people from seeing him pour sand everywhere to make it appear like things had disintegrated while he stole the gems. With that solved, Ant-Man takes off on mounted ant.
Notes:
Meddling ants!: This is one of those stories where if you don't look at it too carefully as I have just done, it's a fun little romp. Picking it apart there are numerous problems in regards to the villains motive. The Scooby-Doo ending doesn't really make sense, The action sequences it inspired are pretty good, though. My favorite part is where Ant-Man is dangling over the sewer grating. If this was in a more thought-out piece it would a lot more dramatic. I wish we knew more about Gerald Marsh to care why he's become such a crook. Where did he get those mechanical arms? Was he working alone or for some bigger gang? Did he owe somebody money and that's why he was resorting to extortion? Any of these would be a lot more satisfactory than just the "he was poor" explanation they give. This might be why a lot of these early stories deal with aliens or communists. They don't have to have an explanation for being different enough to be an "enemy." It's just generally given that they are.
False Flashback: Considering how the story ends, this means that the flashback we get from Gerald at the beginning is a complete fabrication. This sort of storytelling is almost like an unreliable narrator, but it feels more like a contrivance for the story's sake. Had we had Gerald's narration while seeing what actually occurred I think would be stronger. There's an issue of Tomb of Dracula from the 70's where they do just this and it's awesome.
Obsessive Crime Disorder: Ant-Man's means of travelling out of his home is still very silly. It almost kills him in this story, which seems like an acknowledgement of how silly it is. He still has very little in the way of personality. He only seems to be obsessed with ants and stopping crime. That's all there is to him right now.
List thoughts: The couple of actions scenes in this story are great. Everything else to get those scenes is kind of a hot mess. We learn nothing new about Ant-Man, none of this story has any consequence later and it doesn't even win on a novelty factor like Hulk's battle with Mongu in Incredible Hulk #4b. Therefore, I think it fits right below that story, just above the Circus of Crime issue which didn't have as interesting action sequences.
List:
List:
- Amazing Fantasy (Spider-Man) #15
- Fantastic Four #1
- Fantastic Four #4
- Incredible Hulk #1
- Fantastic Four #5
- Amazing Adult Fantasy (X-Men) #14
- Fantastic Four #6
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #85
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #83
- Fantastic Four #2
- Fantastic Four #8
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #86
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #36
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #35
- Incredible Hulk #4a
- Journey into Mystery (Thor) #84
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #27
- Strange Tales (Human Torch) #102
- Fantastic Four #3
- Incredible Hulk #2
- Fantastic Four #7
- Incredible Hulk #4b
- Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #37
- Incredible Hulk #3
- Strange Tales (Human Torch) #101
Next Issue: The Human Torch fights some Atlanteans?
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