One of my favorite foes for Ant-Man was the Scarlet Beetle — not only because of his strident, 1950s-Marvel-monster absurdity, but also because he was such a perfect example of the theme of the mirror-image enemy.
What’s the opposite of a tiny human superhero who controls insects by telepathy? A gigantic, intelligent would-be world conqueror insect who also controls other insects by telepathy, of course.
The conclusion of Scarlet Beetle’s first appearance in Tales to Astonish 39 (Jan. 1963) was even touching, with Henry Pym gently releasing the de-powered and re-sized insect — who, after all, had merely been a pawn of fate — to crawl away on his lawn.
As I’ve said before, it’s perhaps the best ending since the Fantastic Four turned the Skrulls into cows and left them mooing in a pasture.
In resurrecting this outrageously odd adversary a decade later, writer Roy Thomas and artist Ross Andru tapped something of the spirit of Will Eisner’s Spirit.
The story focuses, like many of Eisner’s, on an extraneous figure: hapless candy store owner Wilbur Grabowski. After a lifetime of loser-dom, Wilbur plans to torch his own business for the insurance money.
Meanwhile, passing overhead is Ant-Man, perched on his flying ant Spa Fon (Thomas’s wink at an early fanzine). A force like “some mythical Siren” pulls them into the darkened candy store, where they are confronted by…
“The Scarlet Beetle!” Ant-Man exclaims. “But — you lost your radiation-spawned powers — years ago!”
Explaining that his power loss was merely temporary, the Coleoptera conqueror says, “As you can see, I have revived my dream — to unleash an army of insects upon frail humankind! And this time — since by sheer coincidence you have fallen into my web — there will be no one to organize resistance to my legions.”
With megalomaniacal relish, the Scarlet Beetle tells the captured Ant-Man of his plans to subject humanity to an arthropodic version of Hitchcock’s The Birds.
After trying and failing to use Ant-Man’s enlarging gas on himself, the insect seizes the superhero’s cybernetic helmet as a means of improving his mutant telepathic control over the social insects like bees and ants.
Things look bad, but as fate would have it, Wilbur’s torching of his store frightens and scatters the Beetle’s insect army, permitting Hank Pym to jump the mastermind.
Their struggle seesaws.
“One sweep of my radioactive pincers will…”
“Will do nothing, if they don’t connect!” Ant-Man interjects as he flips the Beetle over his head.
“You gain a moment’s respite, nothing more!” the Scarlet Beetle taunts. “For now I shall — no! That shadow! No! Nnooo!”
Distracted by an ant crawling on his leg, Wilbur has dropped his gas can.
The supervillain is flattened.
Wilbur’s reward for saving the world is to be arrested by the police as firefighters pour into his candy store.
And pity the poor Scarlet Beetle. A would-be world conqueror who was reduced to the insignificance of an insect. And then, when he returned like Napoleon a decade later, squashed like a bug.
Only Mr. Mind might really have understood his pain.
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