Tales to Astonish #44
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTales to Astonish #44 introduced Janet Van Dyne as the Wasp — one of the first female superheroes in the Silver Age Marvel universe, and a character whose fingerprints are all over the company's foundational mythology. Just a few months after her debut here, she joined Ant-Man as a founding member of the Avengers in Avengers #1, and it was Janet who gave that team its name. The issue also delivered the first glimpse of Hank Pym's backstory — his late wife Maria, killed in Hungary — grounding a previously shallow adventure-strip hero in genuine emotional motivation and effectively relaunching the entire Ant-Man feature as a more character-driven strip.
In "The Creature from Kosmos!", a young woman named Joe steps into a world beyond her father’s lab when a deadly alien threat emerges from the cosmos. With Ant-Man’s help, she gains the power to shrink and fly, becoming his unlikely partner in a battle to protect Earth. The fate of the city hangs in the balance as they face a foe whose very nature holds the key to its destruction.
In the year 2000, New York City is gripped by panic as authorities hunt a mysterious "plague carrier" believed to be fleeing the city. When the man is finally caught at a transportation hub, the source of the fear is revealed—not a disease, but a stolen handgun from a museum, its presence enough to trigger a city-wide frenzy over the return of war.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 22 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
CGC 6.5 ▾ $1,250–$2,350 6 listings
CGC 4.5 ▾ $750–$1,392 2 listings
CGC 4 ▾ $1,095–$1,450 2 listings
CGC 3.5 ▾ $500–$881 7 listings
CGC 3 ▾ $420–$425 2 listings
CGC 2 ▾ $385–$450 2 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $34.99–$1,485 11 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
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
The story was plotted by Stan Lee and scripted by H. E. Huntley — a pen name for Ernie Hart, a Golden Age veteran whose background was primarily in humor and funny-animal comics and who contributed very few Silver Age superhero scripts; this issue represents by far his most consequential work in the Marvel Universe. Jack Kirby handled pencils and the cover (inked by Don Heck), on a title he had been anchoring since Ant-Man's debut in issue #35. According to multiple sources, one editorial motivation behind adding the Wasp was a recognition that the Ant-Man feature had not captured readers the way the Fantastic Four or Spider-Man had, prompting Lee and Kirby to inject a new dynamic with a female partner.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Janet Van Dyne (the Wasp), one of the earliest female superheroes in the Marvel Silver Age.
- First appearance of several supporting and antagonist characters: Vernon Van Dyne (Janet's father, killed in this issue), Maria Pym (Hank's deceased first wife, seen only in flashback — her first appearance in the series), the alien Pilai and the Kosmosians (the Creature from Kosmos), and FBI agent Lee Kearns (voice only).
- Story title is 'The Creature from Kosmos!'; cover date is June 1963, on-sale date March 5, 1963. Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by H. E. Huntley (pen name of Ernie Hart), penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Don Heck; cover by Kirby and Heck.
- The issue also retroactively establishes New York as the setting for Ant-Man's adventures, replacing the earlier 'Center City' of prior issues — widely regarded by fans and annotators as Marvel's first significant continuity retcon.
- Janet's powers as established here differ from her later depiction: Pym implants wasp cells into her body so that she grows insect wings and antennae when she shrinks, and she initially relies on Pym's shrinking gas rather than controlling the transformation herself.
- The Wasp co-starred in Tales to Astonish from this issue through #69 (1963–65), and headlined her own solo backup feature ('Tales of the Wasp') in issues #51–58 of the same series.
- The issue also introduced this issue's emotional core: the revelation that Hank Pym's drive to fight crime was rooted in grief over his murdered first wife, Maria — a retcon of the character's previously motivation-free origin.
- The story has been reprinted numerous times, including in The Superhero Women (Simon & Schuster, 1977), Essential Ant-Man Vol. 1 (2002), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man Vol. 1 (2006 and 2013), Secret Invasion: Requiem #1 (2009, recolored), True Believers: Kirby 100th — Ant-Man and the Wasp #1 (2017), and Wasp: Small Worlds (2023).
Cast · 7 characters
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Marines in Battle #6 (1955)
Reprinted in Sinister Tales #20 (1965), Pow! and Wham! #68 (1968), Marvelserien #39 (1970), Hit Comics #144 (1970), Hit Comics #146 (1970), Marvel Feature #8 (1973), The Superhero Women #[nn] (1977), Hulk Comic #20 (1979), Hulk Comic #21 (1979), The Empire Strikes Back Weekly #130 (1980), Le Motard Fantôme #2 (1982), Miss Hulk #8 (1983), Strange Spécial Origines #178 (1984), The Marvel Saga the Official History of the Marvel Universe #1 (1985), The Marvel Saga the Official History of the Marvel Universe #9 (1986), Essential Ant-Man #1 (2002), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #1 (2006), Secret Invasion: Requiem #1 (2009), Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales to Astonish #4 (2011), Ant-Man & Wasp: Small World #[nn] (2011), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #1 (2013), The Ultimate Graphic Novels Collection - Classic #1 (2014), Die offizielle Marvel-Comic-Sammlung #1 (2015), Ant-Man / Giant-Man Epic Collection #1 (2015) + 13 more
Key issues in Tales to Astonish
Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.