Tales To Astonish #52

TALES TO ASTONISH #52 (1963)
by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers
cover by Jack Kirby

It’s been ages since I’ve covered Henry Pym: last time was Tales To Astonish #38, but since then he’s changed from Ant-Man to Giant-Man and now he’s teamed up with the Wasp.
This time he battles a supervillain that will not be particularly associated with him, but who will go on to have a WEIRD legacy: the Black Knight.

We begin with Giant-Man arresting Nathan Garrett for “delivering scientific secrets to red Chinese spies”.

Little known fact, if you’re a famous researcher you can get away with treason. Wait, WHAT!?

Garrett flees to “a remote Balkan kingdom”, where he gets to run evil science experiments in a castle. Notably, Latveria won’t be introduced until one year later… coincidence?

So Garrett is able to create a flying horse (!!!) and all sorts of high-tech gadgets, coming back to America on a crime spree. That must’ve been very busy days for him!!!

Pym is just insufferable in this period: Wasp tells him that she saw Black Knight, but he refuses to believe the existence of a flying horse until he hears it from the radio.
Dude, you talk to ants and have been to a microscopic universe but you draw the line at flying horses!?!?

And so we have the Black Knight versus Giant-Man, and it’s WEIRD.
Why the emphasis on giving Black Knight the means to fly!? The Wasp can fly, but it’s hard to depict an insect-sized person fighting a horse! And Giant-Man rarely grows big enough to allow a cool fight, so we have oddities like the hero having to dangle from a helicopter.

Not only that, but the Black Knight’s arsenal feels quite random. Blinding lights and bolos!?

I mean… machine guns, flame throwers, paralyzing rays and itch rays?

Wait wait wait… what was the last one?

Yep. We have a medieval knight riding a flying horse using a flamethrowing lance and itching powder. Did Stan pick up his weapons out of a hat!?

Giant-Man still has shrinking powers, so he breaks free that way… but he can’t stop Black Knight without crashing his horse, plus he’s worried by the fact that the Wasp is also currently on the horse.
Yes. He’s worried about the Wasp falling from the horse.

The Wasp. Who can FLY.

And who then SAVES HIS BUTT but unbuckling the saddle!!!

Your regular reminder that the Wasp is, in fact, freaking awesome… when she’s not turned into a complete idiot to make her the damsel in distress.

Giant-Man has to take his guard off Black Knight to save her. Fortunately for him, I guess Garrett didn’t get the memo that he used to be Ant-Man, so watching him shrink freaks him out.

And that’s it! Black Knight will indeed return… but this is the last time he faces Giant-Man.

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Historical significance: 4/10
Black Knight is not as significant as he may seem… the most important thing about him is that his nephew becomes a superhero (more on that soon), but he’s quite removed from the whole Black Knight legacy.

Silver Age-ness: 8/10
On the Marvel scale, this is sheer Silver Age.

Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
Well this sucked. Black Knight is so generic in his motivations and actions that the comic itself makes fun of him! He’s just a mismatch of too many elements… the medieval theme, the super-spy, the super-scientist, nonsensical gadgets… plus he’s also a bad match for Giant-Man.

How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Black Knight has a very deep history: as a legacy character, he actually pre-dates Marvel itself!

The first Black Knight debuted in his own series in 1955, when Marvel was still publishing as Atlas Comics. I will eventually cover its first issue; I was actually convinced I already DID review it!

 

That particular Black Knight operated in King Arthur’s time and he was created by Stan Lee. So I can see why he liked the concept enough, but… why re-introduce the name as a villain who has little to do with the original?

Nathan Garrett will actually be revealed to be a descendant of the original Black Knight.
Other than joining the Master Of Evil, Garrett won’t amount to much… he will die in 1967 and leave the mantle to his nephew Dane Whitman, who will turn out to be a good guy and join the Avengers.
Whenever someone talks about Marvel’s Black Knight, unless they add a bunch of specifics they’re talking about Dane Whitman. Who in addition to the name inherited something else from his uncle: he also mixes the themes of science and fantasy, because despite being a knight with a magical sword he’s actually a scientist.

There are A LOT of Black Knights… it’s a legacy title going back to the Middle Ages, so there are tons of flashbacks of other eras where there’s a different Black Knight. And more than one person has picked up the mantle in present time as well.
All of that, however, is the legacy of the original Black Knight and to a much lesser extent of Dane Whitman.

Nathan is pretty removed from the entire mythology of the Black Knight, but he does have a legacy of his own: his arsenal and even his flying horse have been inherited by the supervillain Dreadknight.

The only Black Knight that is SLIGHLTY related to Garrett’s legacy is a teenage girl that was a member of the Young Masters, a junior version of the Masters of Evil that fought the Young Avengers. Presumably she’s still around.

We don’t know ANYTHING about her… I like to think she’s just a fan of the “original” Black Knight. Statistically, SOMEONE has to be!