Tales to Astonish #52
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTales to Astonish #52 is the debut issue of Professor Nathan Garrett as the villainous Black Knight — the second character to carry that name in Marvel history and the direct predecessor to Dane Whitman, the heroic Black Knight who would become a long-running Avenger. Garrett's dying-breath charge to his nephew in Avengers #48 to "use my research for good" is one of Silver Age Marvel's more resonant villain-to-hero legacy handoffs, making this issue the root of an entire decades-spanning lineage. The issue also illustrates Marvel's period approach of grafting Cold War spy-thriller mechanics onto medieval mythology: Garrett is simultaneously a communist spy, a geneticist, and a jousting knight on a bioengineered flying horse — an only-in-the-Silver-Age mashup that Stan Lee and Dick Ayers execute with complete earnestness. Because it also marks the final chapter of Giant-Man's solo feature run before Tales to Astonish was retooled as a split book, issue #52 closes out an era for Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne in their own title.
In "The Black Knight Strikes!", a disgraced scientist turned fugitive from Giant-Man’s justice unleashes a twisted experiment in Europe, fusing horse and eagle DNA to forge a winged steed. Armed with a deadly lance and a thirst for vengeance, he returns as the Black Knight, challenging the hero he once betrayed. Giant-Man stands ready—but the knight’s escape leaves the battle far from over.
In "Not What They Seem!", the Wasp recounts a tense sci-fi tale of fugitives fleeing across a dangerous planet where a deadly trap lies in wait—only to find themselves caught in a far more unpredictable danger: a conflict that divides the crew along unexpected lines. With survival hanging in the balance, their choices are tested not by force, but by the hidden currents of a battle they never saw coming.
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The issue was written and edited by Stan Lee and drawn by Dick Ayers, who served as both penciler and inker on the lead story — a relatively unusual all-Ayers art job at a moment when Marvel was leaning heavily on Kirby and Heck for its superhero line. The cover was supplied by Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky, following the standard Marvel practice of the period in which the interior artist and the cover artist were often different. The backup 'Tales of the Wasp' feature — which uses Janet Van Dyne as a framing narrator for a standalone science-fiction story — was scripted and penciled by Larry Lieber, part of a six-issue run of such Wasp-hosted vignettes (#51–56) that gave the character solo page-time outside of Pym's adventures. Tales to Astonish #52 was released on newsstands on November 5, 1963 (cover-dated February 1964), placing it squarely in the formative months of the early Marvel Universe.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Professor Nathan Garrett as the Black Knight (the second Marvel character to use that name), created by Stan Lee and Dick Ayers.
- Garrett is established as a descendant of Sir Percy of Scandia, the 1950s Atlas Comics Black Knight from the five-issue Black Knight series (1955–56), directly tying the Silver Age Marvel Universe back to its Atlas predecessor.
- The lead story is titled 'The Black Knight Strikes!' and the backup Wasp feature is titled 'Not What They Seem'; the backup was scripted and drawn by Larry Lieber.
- Cover art is by Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky; interior art for the lead story is by Dick Ayers (pencils and inks).
- Garrett's origin device — genetically engineering a stallion with eagle's blood to grow wings, producing the flying horse Elendil — is introduced here and later inherited (via Garrett's dying instructions) by Dane Whitman, who uses the same technique to create his own winged horse, Aragorn.
- After escaping Giant-Man at the story's end, Garrett goes on to join Baron Zemo's original Masters of Evil in Avengers #6 (July 1964) — making TTA #52 the origin point for that membership.
- Garrett was mortally wounded by Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #73 (January 1966), after which he summoned his nephew Dane Whitman, passed on the Black Knight mantle, and urged him to use the technology for good — directly leading to Whitman's heroic debut in Avengers #47 (December 1967).
- The lead story has been reprinted in Essential Ant-Man #1 (February 2002, black-and-white), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man Vol. 1 (2006 and 2013 editions), and the Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection Vol. 1: The Man in the Ant Hill (2015).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Out of This World #15 (1959), Marvel Tales #7 (1967), Terrific! #27 (1967), Terrific! #28 (1967), Hit Comics #145 (1970), Iron Man #43 (1971), Creepy Worlds #131 (1972), Le Monstre de Frankenstein #1 (1973), The Marvel Saga the Official History of the Marvel Universe #12 (1986), Essential Ant-Man #1 (2002), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #1 (2006), Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Omnibus #[nn] (2010), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #1 (2013), Ant-Man / Giant-Man Epic Collection #1 (2015), Marvel Gold. El Hombre Hormiga: ¡El Hombre en el Hormiguero! #[nn] (2015), Creepy Worlds #66, El Sorprendente Hombre Araña #33
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