One scene in superhero stories always amuses me. It’s the bit where some bully, smartass, or predatory criminal decides to victimize an innocent, seemingly weak victim, only to find the tables turned in spectacular, colorful fashion. It satisfies my taste for immediate, recognizable justice.
Here it’s Dr. Hank Pym, Giant-Man, who enjoys cleaning a few clocks in Tales to Astonish 59 (Sept. 1964). Three street thugs learn that before you make crude remarks to the pretty girl, you should consider the possibility that her boyfriend might instantly become a dozen feet tall.
Another example is in Thor 142 (July 1967), when a motorcyclist taunts Thor about racing. He gets treated to aerobatic nausea instead, courtesy of a surprisingly droll thunder god.
And then there was the drunk who disliked “…that society type, all decked out in a cape, yet!” and decided to pelt him with a snowball in Dr. Strange 181 (July 1969).
The sorcerer’s extradimensional girlfriend Clea was all for blasting the “witless mortal” with a “searing cosmic bolt,” but the good doctor suggested a more proportionate response. He turned the drunk into a snowman for a few morally corrective moments.
In the early Marvel stories, Stan Lee and Roy Thomas used such interludes to provide pacing, wit, and reader identification. It is so satisfying to contemplate how a searing cosmic bolt or two might settle a few scores.
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