March 1964: Who Pines for the Porcupine?

Sometimes you simply run out of animals.

That may have been Stan Lee, Ernie Hart and Don Heck’s problem when they created the much-mocked Porcupine to battle Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish 48 (October 1963).

Actually, at age 9 I had no problem with the Porcupine, who was really just a variation on the already familiar Iron Man theme. Embittered Army research scientist Alex Gentry realized that the protective combat suit he designed could make him “as rich as Midas” (yes, Gentry’s personality could fairly be described as “prickly”).

His “quills” could do all sorts of cool stuff — spray fire, fog, liquid adhesive and knock-out gas or fire off stun pellets, suction cups, darts and even jets that enabled him to fly — and escape Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Months later, in Tales to Astonish 53 (March 1964), Ant-Man has become Giant-Man, and his higher profile has attracted a fan club of kids. Anticipating comics conventions, they like to dress up as pint-sized versions of their hero’s enemies.

“How do you like our costumes, Giant-Man?” the fans ask. “Can you tell who we are?”

“Of course I can!” replies Giant-Man. “You’re the Black Knight, standing next to Dr. Doom. But yours is the most realistic costume, Porcupine!”

As well it should be, because it’s the real Porcupine. He captures the Wasp, but lets her escape so his radio-transmitter quill can trace the location of the superheroes’ lab. He outwits himself when he grabs and swallows what he thinks are Giant-Man’s growth capsules, and shrinks himself to the size of a microbe.

That diminishing figure might have been the last we saw of the Porcupine, but Lee had other plans for him. Roy Thomas had taken over the scripting of the X-Men title, and Gentry reemerged there as part of a team of also-ran villains (X-Men 22-23, July-August 1966). The Porcupine was recruited by Count Nefaria along with the Eel, the Unicorn, the Scarecrow and the Plant Man.