Saturday, November 18, 2023

Saturday Splash Page #99

 
"Arbor Day Surprise," in Tales to Astonish #13, by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber (writers), Jack Kirby (penciler), Dick Ayers (inker), Stan Goldberg (colorist), Ray Holloway (letterer)

Tales to Astonish would be Hank Pym's book for a time. First as Ant-Man, then Giant-Man, with the Wasp as his partner for much of it. Eventually, Pym would share the book with the Hulk, until being pushed out in favor of Namor as Marvel decided to gear a book towards fans of shirtless guys.

But before all that it was a book for short sci-fi/horror/suspense stories, the kind of stuff that would get reprinted in Fear. Minus two stories reprinted in that issue of Fear I linked, the only story I've got is the first appearance of Groot.

Or, a Groot, at least. It's your "monster of the week" fare, as Groot lands on Earth near an out-of-the-way town, and soon reveals himself, declaring his intent to take the town and its inhabitants back to Planet X for study. Which he's going to do by making the trees encircle the town and grow their roots underneath it and then carry the whole thing into space.

Where all the people will die from exposure to the vacuum. I guess Groot's people will learn at least one thing about humanity.

So this Groot is rocking some powers the Abnett/Lanning version didn't demonstrate, including the ability to draw strength from trees around him. This makes him too tough to burn, and the townspeoples' bullets can't penetrate deep enough to hit organs. But without guns and fire, what does humanity have? Why, science of course! The local scientist, who everyone (including his girlfriend) has derided as a milquetoast weakling for not picking up a gun at the first sign of trouble, saves the day with the power of termites he's been breeding in his lab.

The termites, high off alien lumber, went on a rampage, defoliating the entire valley and the local economy, heavily reliant on logging, tanked. Everyone left, except the scientist, who turned to making meth.

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