Tales to Astonish, Vol. 1

Inventor Henry Pym is tired of being ridiculed by his colleagues, but that's all about to change. He has secretly developed potions which allow him to shrink and enlarge any object, though they still require human testing. Testing the shrinking potion on himself, he rapidly shrinks so much that he can no longer reach the growth potion. Ants in a local colony spot the unusual individual, and begin to attack. Demonstrating the kind of effective, emotionless, rational judgement that will characterize him for decades to come, Hank decides to hide from the ants by fleeing into the ant colony. He finds himself in even worse danger now, and survives with the help of a lone, friendly ant, who helps him escape the colony and carries him up to his growth serum. Deciding that the potions are too dangerous to be used, he pours both down the sink and returns to his colleagues claiming failure. At no time does he explain why the test tubes containing the potions do not shrink and grow like everything else.