Tales to Astonish #62
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTales to Astonish #62 (December 1964) is the first appearance — in cameo, hooded, face unrevealed — of the Leader (Samuel Sterns), one of the Hulk's most enduring and conceptually distinctive adversaries. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko conceived the character as the deliberate mirror-image of Bruce Banner: where gamma radiation made Banner physically monstrous but mentally dulled, it elevated Sterns from a menial laborer to a superhuman intellect, producing the 'brains vs. brawn' dynamic that would anchor Hulk storytelling for six decades. The issue also marks the first cover appearance of the Chameleon in the Hulk strip, and the first appearance of the Leader's artificial Humanoid construct, seeding a villainous infrastructure that later issues would develop. Because Tales to Astonish was Marvel's dual 'split book' format — pairing Giant-Man/Wasp and Hulk in the same issue — this single comic captures the breadth of the expanding Silver Age Marvel universe at one of its most prolific moments.
In "Giant-Man versus the Wonderful Wasp!", Stan Lee and Steve Ditko deliver a sharp, suspenseful tale where the Hulk’s capture sets off a chain of tense confrontations and clever deceptions. With Rick Jones torn between loyalty to Captain America and his friend Banner, and the Chameleon posing as the scientist to steal a gamma grenade with Betty as a pawn, the stakes rise fast. Jack Kirby’s dynamic cover captures the chaos, while Ditko’s intricate art brings every twist to life.
When Hank accidentally knocks himself out after a failed lab experiment, a petty thief makes off with his costume and begins to use the Giant-Man powers to commit crimes. Now, the thief—known only as Second-Story Sammy—must face off against the very hero whose powers he’s stolen, in a battle that’s as much about identity as it is about size.
In "Enter... the Chameleon!", the Hulk’s capture sets off a chain of events that brings Rick Jones racing to Gamma Base, while the mysterious Leader dispatches the shape-shifting Chameleon to uncover what went wrong with a missing agent. Disguised as Bruce Banner, the Chameleon manipulates Talbot and uses Betty as leverage to steal a gamma grenade, but the Hulk’s return threatens to unravel his deception.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
By late 1964 Tales to Astonish had transitioned from a science-fiction anthology into a split superhero title featuring Giant-Man and the Hulk, with Stan Lee scripting both features under editor-in-chief duties. The Hulk story — titled 'Enter…the Chameleon!' — was penciled by Steve Ditko with inks by George Roussos (miscredited in the issue itself as George Bell), while the Giant-Man story was drawn by Golden Age veteran Carl Burgos with inks attributed to Dick Ayers (though the Grand Comics Database credits Roussos here as well, a discrepancy the original indicia contains). The cover was produced by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone, and the issue also includes a standalone Hulk pin-up page by Kirby and Roussos. A small but noted production error has Betty Ross called 'Betty Brant' at one point — an apparent cross-contamination from the Spider-Man books Lee was simultaneously writing.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First (cameo) appearance of the Leader (Samuel Sterns): he appears hooded and in shadow, with his face not revealed; his full appearance follows in Tales to Astonish #63.
- First (cameo) appearance of the Humanoid, the Leader's artificial android henchman construct.
- First cover appearance of the Chameleon (Dmitri Smerdyakov) in a Hulk/Tales to Astonish story; the Chameleon had previously debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #1.
- Written by Stan Lee; Hulk story penciled by Steve Ditko, inked by George Roussos (credited as George Bell); Giant-Man story penciled by Carl Burgos, inks credited to Dick Ayers (GCD attributes to Roussos); cover by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
- Publication date: December 1964 (on-sale date per Marvel legacy records: September 1, 1964); cover price 12 cents; 36 pages.
- The issue contains a standalone Marvel Masterwork Pin-up of the Hulk by Jack Kirby and George Roussos, placed between pages 5 and 6 of the Hulk story.
- Captain America (Steve Rogers) appears in a cameo at the start of the Hulk story, granting Rick Jones permission to leave and help the Hulk — one of the early Silver Age instances of cross-title character continuity being woven through the shared Marvel universe.
- Both stories were reprinted in black and white in Essential Ant-Man Vol. 1 and Essential Hulk Vol. 1; under Marvel's Legacy renumbering the Hulk feature corresponds to Incredible Hulk #62.
Cast · 10 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Incredible Hulk #72-124 (1966), Uncanny Tales #24 (1966), Los Vengadores #11 (1966), Smash! #51 (1967), Demonen og Koloss #9/1968 (1968), Incredible Hulk [King Size Special] #2 (1969), De Vier Verdedigers Classics #47 (1971), Hit Comics Die fantastischen Vier #203 [227] (1971), Sinister Tales #115 (1972), Etranges Aventures #25 (1972), The Mighty World of Marvel #15 (1973), Eclipso #38 (1974), Hulk #8 (1974), Hulk #9 (1974), The Incredible Hulk #3 (1975), Incredible Hulk Annual #1978 (1978), The Incredible Hulk #[nn] (1978), L'Incredibile Hulk #13 (1981), O Incrível Hulk #4 (1983), Essential Hulk #1 (1999), Essential Ant-Man #1 (2002), Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk #2 (2004), The Incredible Hulk Omnibus #1 (2008), Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man / Giant-Man #2 (2008) + 8 more
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