You know, that was actually kind of fun. Stupid? Oh, yes. But fun. I wish I could have gotten a truly untainted reaction from my kids to that panel featuring the diagram of the ant-hill, but as soon as I saw it I burst out laughing. What the heck was that diagram doing there? Did Burgos have some other idea for how Pym was going to defeat the plant, an idea that Stan either misunderstood or simply rejected? Either way, Stan didn't do himself any favors with his ham-fisted segue to the diagram: "But we pause for a moment now, to bring all of you ant-lovers a special diagram which will better acquaint you with the intricacies of an average ant city." And then, immediately afterward the panel: "And now we return again to the astonishing antics of peerless Mr. Pym!" It's almost as if Stan's announcing, "Yeah, I know this diagram has absolutely nothing to do with the story, but Carl draw it already, and I guess it isn't entirely uninteresting, so here it is!"

And, bizarre entomological fixations aside, Carl's work did show some improvement over his recent fill-in on the Human Torch. He seems to be getting the hang of the Silver Age style. (Or maybe Dick Ayers is just getting a better handle on how to ink him.)

For whatever reason, I enjoyed this issue much more than I probably should have. Maybe it was the black ants.

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