Many superheroes exhibit powers that defy easy logic, chosen instead for their look on the 4-color page or for the concept. Ant-Man is one of those. Not only does Henry Pym figure out a way to miniaturize himself, but he also can communicate with insects and can withstand behind shot from a catapult-like device to nearly any part of the city (the G-forces must be tremendous) where he lands on a hill of ants that have congregated on the exact spot he was aiming for. When Lewis Carroll asked us to believe several impossible things before breakfast, Stan Lee wants us to accept even more before lunch and dinner.

The addition of the Wasp to the stories helped, mainly to give Pym someone to talk to because Lee’s characterizations of women in the 1960s had more issues than the number of comics he was publishing at the time. For every case where the super-heroine came through with an independent attack and saves the day there’s a dozen instances of the same heroine decrying her lack of make-up, her fashion, or expressing her infatuation for some male. Lee also loved to put those women in Damsels in Distress roles, often forgetting they were supposed to be heroic as much as the men. (He did get better, and comics in general would improve upon this in later decades).

And, as much as Ant-Man’s powers are hard to believe, the villains here are almost equally outrageous, including, for example, the Human Top, who spins his way into banks, etc., to complete his burglaries.
Better things are to come with these characters, especially the reboot that occurred when Ant-Man became a Marvel Universe movie franchise. Reading these early stories is only for the historians and those interested in the development of the characters. ( )