Marvel Feature #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Feature #5 is the first appearance of Patricia 'Trish' Starr, Egghead's niece, a character who would go on to play a pivotal role in the long-running Egghead–Hank Pym rivalry across the Defenders and Avengers titles for more than a decade. The issue also marks a new costume design for Ant-Man, executed by Herb Trimpe, and delivers what reads at the time as Egghead's apparent death — a dramatic punctuation on the villain's Silver Age history before his later Bronze Age resurrection. Set within Marvel Feature's deliberate function as a tryout anthology, it represents a creative bet that a solo Hank Pym strip could sustain reader interest apart from his Avengers context, a wager the run ultimately honored for seven consecutive issues.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 14 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
Raw — FN/VF ▾ $6.99–$14.5 2 listings
Raw — VG+ ▾ $8.6–$19.95 3 listings
Raw — GOOD ▾ $3.82–$9.95 2 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $5–$35 20 listings
More listings for this title
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Marvel Feature was conceived by Stan Lee as one of several tryout anthology titles — alongside Marvel Spotlight and Marvel Premiere — designed to road-test characters without committing to a full ongoing launch. Writer Mike Friedrich scripted the Ant-Man issues of the run, with Herb Trimpe handling both pencils and inks throughout; Roy Thomas served as editor. The series gave Hank Pym his first sustained solo showcase since his Tales to Astonish days, exploring a period in which he had stepped away from the Avengers.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Patricia 'Trish' Starr (credited in-story as 'Trixie Starr'), niece of the villain Egghead (Elihas Starr), who becomes a recurring figure in the Hank Pym and Defenders storylines through the late 1970s and into the 1980s.
- Story title: 'Fear's the Way He Dies!' — written by Mike Friedrich, with pencils and inks by Herb Trimpe; edited by Roy Thomas. Cover date: September 1972; on-sale date: June 20, 1972.
- The issue depicts Egghead's apparent death when his 'Hypno-Kon' brain-drain machine overloads and his van explodes — presented at the time as a seemingly definitive end for the villain.
- Egghead's scheme in this issue involves attempting to drain his niece Trixie's 'child prodigy' intellect and transfer it to a robot that would also house his own consciousness.
- A new Ant-Man costume for Hank Pym is introduced in this issue, drawn by Herb Trimpe — original interior art pages explicitly label page 15 as depicting the 'New Ant-Man Costume.'
- Orkie, Hank Pym's pet dog, and Janet Pym (in cameo, unconscious in the final panel) also appear; the Janet cameo is sourced from an image originating in Avengers #100.
- The story was reprinted in the French anthology Etranges Aventures #59 (1978, in black and white), the Spanish Marvel Gold: El Hombre Hormiga (Panini España, 2015), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man Vol. 3 (2018), and the Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection #2: Ant-Man No More (2022).
- Marvel Feature was an explicit tryout book — one of three such anthology titles proposed by Stan Lee after he moved from writer-editor to publisher — with the Ant-Man strip running issues #4 through #10 before the title shifted focus.
Cast · 5 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Etranges Aventures #59 (1978), Marvel Gold. El Hombre Hormiga: ¡El Hombre en el Hormiguero! #[nn] (2015), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #3 (2018), Ant-Man / Giant-Man Epic Collection #2 (2022)
Key issues in Marvel Feature
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.