Written by Stan Lee – Penciled by Jack Kirby – Inked by Dick Ayers – Lettered by Art Simek

The formula is starting to work.

Ant-Man is back. And this time, he feels more like a superhero.

The shrinking serum is now a gas. His control over ants is more defined. The powers are clearer, more deliberate — less like an experiment and more like a toolkit.

Hank Pym has embraced the role. He’s monitoring police radio. Tracking down bank robbers. Operating out of a lab that now feels more like a headquarters — complete with a catapult gun that launches him into action. He’s less a reclusive scientist and more a pulp-style detective, dropped into a superhero framework.

It’s a shift.

And for once, the old formula actually works.

There’s a damsel in distress. A mysterious villain. And, of course, communists. This time it’s Comrade X, trying to steal Pym’s shrinking secrets — which, at least, makes a little more sense than some of Marvel’s other Cold War threats.

The story plays out like a classic anthology tale, just with a superhero at the center.

Pym doesn’t win with strength. He wins with strategy and ingenuity. The final twist — revealing that Comrade X is the woman he’s been trying to save — feels like something pulled straight from Marvel’s pre-superhero stories.

But here, those early Marvel tropes work.

This is still a small story. Disposable. Self-contained.

But for the first time, it feels like Marvel’s past and future are working together instead of pulling in opposite directions.

Marvel in the 60s – Entry #17