The Weekly Planet - Ant-man's Dumbest Enemy - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: July 3, 2018

We return to a second Ant-man story, this time a classic comic tale from a while back I can't remember specifically when. He fights an egg man.Video Version ► https://goo.gl/96YxgvTwitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesFacebook ► http://facebook.com/mrsundaymoviesBuy Ant-Man & The Wasp Amazon ► https://amzn.to/2OpVCvbPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-moviesThe Weekly Planet YouTube ► https://goo.gl/1ZQFGH Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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hope so we watch a thing that's bad i'll watch read a thing that's bad what is it today have you ever listened to a thing that's bad i mean each other that's very goddess why anyway this time we're gonna read a thing that's bad yeah because uh ant-man and the wasp is coming out in cinemas correct so i was like why not read a story about Ant-Man and his arch nemesis, who is, of course... Some kind of bat? No. A frog.

No? His neighbour with a rolled up newspaper. You're getting closer. Look, I'll level you. He doesn't really have much of a rogues gallery. Well, there's Yellowjacket. But that's him. Yeah, yeah.

In the comic books, that's him yeah yeah that's in the comic books that's him and in ant-man and the wasps it's going to be the ghost which is a iron man villain sure mostly he's fighting like dogs and just whatever hasn't he got an enemy that's a guy in a bear suit boy if only if only we were talking about that one oh no well what this time we're talking about where we're going to be reading Tales to Astonish, issue 38, which is from 1962. Great. It's a story entitled Ant-Man Betrayed by the Ants.

So his greatest enemy is ants. No, it's a guy called Egghead, this guy. So many Mr. X. I know, right? I can't keep up already. Yeah. Yeah. Great cover, by the way.

It's my first time seeing it. I love it well here's this cover what you might enjoy about this cover is it looks like egghead is this enormous threatening figure but that's how they trick you another yet another ant-man misdirect he's a regular-sized man ant-man just very small yeah so anyway ant-man debuted i'm gonna struggle on this one to keep up right yeah there's a lot of there lot of... It goes in so many directions. So Ant-Man debuted in Tales to Astonish 27. Right. It was called The Man in the Ant Hill,

and it's Hank Pym, and he discovers shrinking technology, and he shrinks down, and he's running from ants. Does he have his helmet and all that? Stan Lee was like, no, he doesn't. Okay. And he was like, what if a man was really small, and he got chased by ants or bees? That was the original plot line, I believe.

Anyway, it was a single issue. It was like seven pages or seven or eight pages or something like that. Okay. And then he disappeared for like five issues, a few issues. I guess because they don't know until the numbers come in if anything works. Well, apparently the minimum print run back in the day was like 200,000 copies. Wow. Yeah, I know, right?

That is madness. If you were to sell 200,000 copies today. You'd be the richest man in hollywood richest man in hollywood exactly yeah yeah anyway so he was quite well received so they brought him back in his tales to astonish 35 and he's like i'm i'm back and now i'm ant-man i've got the costume or whatever and then he defeats the bad guys and he's like well i'll probably never fight crime again and then like three issues later every criminal in in New York is like, I'm scared. I'm so scared of Ant-Man. He's dismantled all the crime in New York.

We've got some stereotypical gangsters. If you can imagine just like slicked back hair and plaid suits and just weird, ugly mugs. Dick Tracy left. Yeah, white faces. Exactly. So they're like, man, we keep getting beaten by this Ant-Man. We got no smarts. And they're like, well, maybe brute force isn by this Ant-Man. We got no smarts.

And they're like, well, maybe brute force isn't the answer. We're going to get a real smart guy. Therein lies the genius because they bring in a genius. Right. Egg head. Is his brain bigger than an average man's brain? Is that why? Or does he just shave his head and people just assume?

Okay, so I'll give you a breakdown of his powers. I'm ready. He's got a head shaped like an egg. Gotcha. And he comes up with plans. Are they good plans? They're not. So he's a man.

He's just a man with a head shaped like an egg. I've got friends like that. Right, exactly. Yeah. Basically, he's introduced in like some sort of, in Washington, D.C. He's in some sort of like interview with various government officials. And they're like, you're doing some crime. We suspect you're selling secrets and doing crimes. And he like no i ain't doing any crimes and they're like

well we can't prove it but we'll fire you and then like just the gangsters approach him and like you want to do some crimes and he's like yeah i'll do crimes they're like you want to kill ant-man and he's like yeah i'll do murder yeah for sure right is he like a guy who will stab you it will be fistfight will he set a trap no well he's definitely set a trap okay yeah what he does okay it says with cold scientific precision the man called egghead embarks upon his evil task and he starts by watching a documentary about ants well you know that's your base level knowledge you need and then he reads a book called all about ants oh you can see it's there it's a weighty tome and he's like and since he works ant-man

works with ants he must have some method of communicating with them he says ants are unable to utter sounds they don't use sign language the only way they can communicate is by electronic signals to their antennae first of all absolutely not true ants communicate through sound ants communicate through touch. They communicate through body language. Song. Pheromones, all sorts. It's basic stuff, egghead.

It'd be like somebody about to embark on a crime spree and they're like, well, it turns out that security cameras can't see yellow things, so I'm going to paint myself yellow. There's a flaw in that. Anybody could see that. Come on, mate. I mean, this is scientific knowledge from the 60s as well. I feel they still knew. This is comic book writers' knowledge of the 60s.

Oh, okay. I got you. Yeah. Yep, yep. Anyway, what he does is he builds a device. He builds a machine. And he's like, well, I'm going to commute. And it's the same as Ant-Man's helmet.

He's like, well, I'm going to build a bloody machine. I'm going to command these ants. I'm going to convince them to work for me instead of ant man great good stuff and he goes he finds a big ant hill he goes out to a field or a meadow of some sort i'm not sure but then you gotta take the ants to where you want them to go is that what's happening no no he's like well i'm gonna communicate to these ants in his ant hill they're gonna communicate to every other ant in New York. And all of a sudden, they'll all be loyal to me. Not a bad idea.

That's what I'm thinking. I mean, it's a bad idea. It's so bad. It's not the worst idea he's had. Thus far. Thus far. I mean, it's his best and worst at this point because it's his first appearance. Sure.

And he got away with those secret sellings. That's true. I just meant his idea in terms of how he thinks ants communicate. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's bad. Anyway, he's like, hello, I'm your friend. I've come to free you from the slavery of Ant-Man. Listen to my instructions.

Tell the ant... Wait, listen to these instructions that he's giving to ants. Yep. That are the size of ants that have brains smaller than an ant. Sure. Tell the Ant-Man that thieves are planning to steal the Wentworth necklace from the museum Thursday night. That's a lot of information to convey to some of the dumbest creatures on the planet. And even if they could convey that, don't you think Ant-Man would be like, where did this information come from?

The network of ants. Yeah, but they can't perceive wealth or theft or diamonds. The term Wentworth's net place. All of these things. From the museum? What do they know from museum? They don't. They don't have frames of reference from museum.

Plan not complete. There will be lookouts posted to warn them of the police. Only the Ant-Man can get past the lookouts and capture the thieves red-handed. Pretty good stuff. When the Ant-Man falls for the the lookouts and capture the thieves red-handed. Pretty good stuff. When the Ant-Man falls for the bait, lead him to the museum. Have him enter through an open window where I shall be waiting for him. Waiting with flypaper. Oh, very good.

Couldn't he just grow big and then be unstuck from the flypaper? But then he's stuck in the museum. Exactly. Not if Egghead's plan is correct. Okay. It's not. It's a bad plan. He's a dumbass with an egg-shaped head they say don't judge a book by its cover don't judge a man with an egg-shaped head and think he's a smart man he's not he's just a man

with an egg for a head not even an egg for a head just a regular man's head anyway he's like remember betray the ant-man and i will free you from his domination then you will be his masters and he will serve you the rest of his days. You shall give the orders. Okay, very good. That's pretty good, right? To this one guy. Yeah, yeah, right?

Who cares? Why would they even want that? I mean, he could bring them fruit, I guess. I guess, but they could probably get their own fruit. Yeah, it's true. I mean, he's a man. Yeah. Anyway, Egghead goes back to the gangsta and he's like,

flypaper, and they're like, you're a genius. This guy. I'm glad we's a man. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, Egghead goes back to the gangsta and he's like, flypaper. And they're like, you're a genius. This guy. I'm glad we got him in. And they're going to get the... See, that's the thing. They're going to get the diamonds and they're going to get Ant-Man, trap him in flypaper. Then Ant-Man, he's received the information from the ants about the Wentworth diamonds. They climb up the bloody side of the museum, right?

He comes in the open window and then Egghead hits him with the bellows. He hits him with a puff of air from the bellows. His one weakness, a puff of air. Oh, man. I haven't heard the word bellows. Right? Since 1962. Correct.

Well, you're in luck. Then he gets flung into a box lined with flypaper. Nice. He's trapped, as you can see. Yeah. He's right, right. And he's like, you've been betrayed, Ant-Man. Betrayed into my trap full of flypaper.

Yeah, that's good. First of all, you are correct. He could just... He'd tear that box asunder. He's got... They even say it in this issue. Even when he's small, he has the strength of a normal man. Oh, yeah.

And if you ever have flypaper stuck on your hands, you know what you do? You just take it off. Yeah. You just take it off and you rip it. It might be like a howl for a second, maybe. No, I think he even would. Not even, yeah. Yeah, right?

But he's like, ha-ha. It's not wax, is it? No, exactly. It's like masking tape he even would. Not even, yeah. Yeah, right? But he's like, ha-ha. It's not wax, is it? No, exactly. It's like masking tape. Not even. Not even. That's right. But then Egghead's like, oh, my God, you're not trapped on the flypaper.

How did you do that? And he's like, I'll tell your lady, you dumb prick. Here we go. And then he activates some springs in his boots. Spoing. Does he need springs in his boots, though? No, he can just leap like a normal man. Great heights.

Because he's got the powers of a normal man as is established in the comic book itself but now he's got the powers of a normal man and springs on his feet and springs in his boots yeah anyway springs out of the box they try to catch him he ropes one of them up he gives them the old flip and madoo

that's right he had a lasso kind of thing at one point didn't he yeah it was a weapon of his it's unbreakable nylon the technology of the 1960s very good then they're like we're gonna bloody get this ant man but of course the ants have brought in a giant man-sized sheet of flypaper which they then fling over the villains oh that's right good they should have brought in like a scrambler they should have bought something relevant to him you know what i mean put him in a big frying pan and cook him to death a flamethrower something like that you know what i mean a bomb a bomb's fine one of those tennis rackets that's electrified you can slap

you slap flies out of the air with it something egg related oh right if he's doing fly paper oh i see what you're going with there yeah something egg related well that's how i cook my eggs on one of those tennis rackets to electrify anyway the rest of them go the rest of the rest of the remaining gangsters attempt to escape the museum they find their tires have been slashed oh no then they can't escape then the cops arrive and then ant-man's like don't even worry about it officers i sorted this it's no problem and they're like how'd you do it ant-man i've got i've got a lot of questions also. Yep. Ready. Go ahead. So, okay. Let me just kind of puzzle this out.

Yes. He was probably told by the ants this full story. They went, yeah, a guy with an egg-shaped head came to our ant hill and told us these really specific details about a heist. And then we just told you that. Correct. Okay. Good.

See, what you need to know is the ants are like Ant-Man's wife. Right. Okay. They're like a married couple. Correct. They're like a married couple. Correct. They're like a married couple. If you're like, hey, I'm going to tell you

this secret, don't tell your wife. Of course you're going to tell your wife. Yeah. I mean, come on. Because don't you think he would have gone,

where did you get this information from? Yeah. Even if they didn't tell him straight up. Yeah, for sure, right? But he's like, listen, here's the thing,

here's what Ant-Man knows that Egghead never knew. Right. He misunderstood the psychology of ants. He didn't know that the antshead never knew. Right. He misunderstood the psychology of ants. He didn't know that the ants did not consider themselves slaves. They regard themselves as my friends and my partners in the war against crime. You dummy, Egghead.

Yeah. How could you not know that they were his partners in the war on crime? How could you know that ants, despite being some of the tiniest, dumbest creatures in the world, are fully aware of the concept of crime and they are against crime? Egghead tried to appeal to their sense of greed of vanity but insects have no such emotions unfortunately it's only we humans who possess such primitive traits so they have no concept of greed or vanity but they do have a concept of justice yeah it seems that way pretty good right i think these books and uh documentary series that he watched were incorrect. Yes.

It seems like they were way off. Maybe the ants made them. It's very possible. To all my suspicion, right? Anyway, so he's told the entire plan. Before he gets there, he takes a little bath in an oily chemical so he won't stick to the flypaper. Very good. Weirdly, though, he's not wearing his costume when he's doing that.

He's just a naked man in a bowl of oil. Weirdly, though, he's not wearing his costume when he's doing that. Wait, how does he- He's just a naked man in a bowl of oil. A tiny naked man in a bowl of oil. But how did he know he was going to be flypapered? Because that part of the plan was never relayed. He must have had ants following Egghead. That's a good point, actually, yeah. Yeah, probably.

I don't know. Then he slashes the gangsters' tires. Sure. Then he steals the keys out of their ignition. Good stuff. Then all the ants sleep with their wives, I assume. Oh, no. Yeah, I know, right?

Anyway. I don't like that part of the story so much. The rest of it, so great. Yeah, I mean, they're smooth. They're smooth operators, the ants. I guess they are. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, the only thing that happened, the only thing that went wrong is Egghead escapes, of course.

He's a slippery character. He's got all, he's got the cunning and instincts of an egg. You mean this man, with the strength of a man, was able to get out of flypaper? Yes. How? Look, I don't know. Eggs can't get out of flypaper. It's a flawless plan.

Is there a scene where there was a nude egghead slipping around in a bath full of oil? Yeah, a man-sized bath. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. It's probably on the cutting room floor. Maybe he's smarter than we give him credit for.

He's absolutely not. Anyway, the final three panels is just egghead. He's disheveled and he's got some five o'clock shadow as all defeated eggs do. And he's like, ah ah they are been defeated by ants those lousy ants and and a couple of other flop house denizens are like who's this idiot now he's just just talking about ants and they're like yeah probably some bum without a brain in his head which is intended to be ironic because he's supposed to be a genius but he really is a bum

without a brain in his head. When you think about it. He was before this comic and he continued to be at the end. Anyway, he, Egghead, is Ant-Man's most notorious recurring villain. Is he? Did you know about that? Well, it says here that Place of Death was on Long Island. So he mustn't be at the moment. Like currently he must be a dead man.

No, he's been replaced by another Egghead. Oh, that's right. There's multiple Eggheads. There's two Eggheads, yeah. Okay, very good stuff. But he had a good run, let me tell you. Like currently, he must be a dead man. No, he's been replaced by another egghead. Oh, that's right. There's multiple eggheads. There's two eggheads, yeah. Okay, very good stuff. But he had a good run, let me tell you. Boy, did he. Well, look at this.

Okay, I'm looking at his powers and abilities, right? On the Marvel grid. This is egghead. Okay. Okay, so all this stuff is pretty standard. Fighting skills, two. Energy projection, one. Which means he has some.

No, I think it's because he can go... If he's got especially hot coffee or soup, he can go. Or use his billows. Yeah, he can use his billows, exactly, yeah. Durability, two. That's probably egg-like, isn't it? Speed, two. We couldn't get us out of that.

He got out of that fly trap, I guess. That's true. So that's two. Strength, two. Intelligence, five. Out of ten? I don't know. It looks like it could be seven or eight.

I can't tell. So out of seven or eight, the Marvel scale. Yeah. Yeah, you've got to be different, don't you, Stan? You've got to be. Anyway, that's kind of delightful. It's kind of a little bit of a bloody throwback. I didn't hate it.

It's a bit of a fun, fun, fun, fun fun dumb time. Let me tell you I hated it. I guess that's the end of the episode. Yeah. I'll tell you this much though Mason. Every week we do a Caravan of Garbage. Sometimes it's a comic. Sometimes it's a movie or a TV show. Sometimes it's a video game. If you've got a suggestion please leave it below. A movie. We also have a podcast called The Weekly Play. Oh wait a video game.

Ah where we talk movies and comics and TV shows. And there's videos here every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Don't forget to tell all your friends how great this video was. All my friends? Yes. I don't really have that many friends. You can tell me. You're right here. You can still tell me. Are you saying you're unconvinced by the actual

thing of the episode? Let's just see how it turns out, alright? Alright. Thanks for watching everybody. I'll grab that gem you guys. We'll see you next week. Goodbye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want. It's up to you.

FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.

FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.