It began as a science-fiction anthology that served as a showcase for such artists as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, then featured superheroes during the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books.

A second Marvel comic bearing the name, reprinting stories of the undersea ruler the Sub-Mariner, ran 14 issues from December 1979 to January 1981.

[4] It contained science-fiction mystery/suspense stories written primarily by editor-in-chief Stan Lee and his brother, Larry Lieber, with artists including Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, Don Heck and Paul Reinman.

49 (November 1963),[9] starred in 10- to 13-page and later 18-page adventures, with the rest of Tales to Astonish devoted to the anthological science fiction and fantasy stories the comic normally ran.

Aside from Lee and Lieber, occasional writers included Ernie Hart, under the pseudonym H. E. Huntley, Leon Lazarus (#64, February 1965) and Al Hartley (#69, the feature's finale, July 1965).

His new stories here were initially scripted by Lee and illustrated by the seldom-seen team of penciler Steve Ditko and inker George Roussos.

Lee recalled that he simply told artist Gil Kane to "make him bigger and stronger than the Hulk and we'll have a lot of fun with him.

[3] Giant-Man and Wasp were featured prominently in Namor stories in issues #77-78, steering their return to the Avengers in #26 of that series.

Stan Lee had originally removed all Avengers with their own series/serials from the team ten issues earlier to make continuity easier to maintain.

That last issue also included three Namor pinups, one by creator Bill Everett, reprinted from Marvel Mystery Comics No.

1 (December 1994) was a 72-page one-shot special starring the Hulk, Namor, Ant-Man, and the Wasp in the story "Loki's Dream" by writer Peter David, with painted art by John Estes.