In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, we look at the surprising first instance of Ant-Man riding flying ants in the comics!

My buddy, Chris, is reading the entire Marvel Universe at his blog from the start of the Marvel Age (with a number of Golden Age flashbacks) and as he goes along, whenever he hits upon something that piques his interest, he drops me a line. This time, it's the somewhat unusual first instance of Ant-Man riding flying ants.

In his very first appearance in Tales to Astonish #27 (by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee), Hank Pym rode an ant, but it was more of a case of the ant giving him a lift, like a lifeguard or a firefighter...

When he decided to become a superhero eight issues later, Hank, now calling himself Ant-Man, had an unconventional method of getting around - a rubber band!

Later in that story, he rode an ant like a steed for the first time...

In the following issue, Kirby and Lee introduced the idea of a catapult for Ant-Man to get around, with ants cushioning his fall...

It's such a bonkers idea and yet Kirby actually sat down and diagrammed it like it was not absolutely loony.

I mean, just check out this moment in the next issue...

Just suddenly giant piles of ants are in various spots in the city? And how, exactly, do they CUSHION his fall? Is it by them being crushed to help him? It's so weird.

In the next issue, Ant-Man introduced springs in his shoes that allowed him to hop like a grasshopper...

The big game-changer, though, was when the Wasp was introduced as Ant-Man's new partner. She had wings and could fly and so it was weird that Ant-Man could not...

Often, artists would just draw Ant-Man flying and then add in a bit about how it was from the catapult. It's like, come on, the catapult has him on perfect flight paths each time?

So finally, in Tales to Astonish #46, Don Heck, Ernie Hart and Stan Lee had Ant-Man ride a flying ant...

However, as Chris noticed, Ant-Man actually had already flown ants!

When he guest-starred in Fantastic Four #16 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Dick Ayers) a couple of months before Tales to Astonish #46, he was flying ants like little flying water skis...

Interesting stuff, Chris, thanks!

If anyone else has a suggestion for a notable comic book first that they'd like to learn, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!

Or, like Chris, you can just do all of the work for me and I can just repeat it. Either or!