Grottu, King of the Insects (Monsterbus p.172)

This is Kirby at his best.!

• Exotic locations,
• learn about the natural world (soldier ants and how they differ from others)
• learn about the human world (what it's like to live near soldier ants)
• cold war politics and economics (making secret deals to test atom bombs in poorer countries)
• atom bombs and their effects (think of the poor villagers, so near the blast!)
• radiation and its effects (a key Kirby theme)
• statistics (out of billions of ants only one was mutated. We don't know how many billions died.)
• a serious puzzle to solve (how can you stop such a creature with the limited tools available?), racing against the clock
• a thought provoking, realistic solution
• spectacle! (giant ant, running across rooftops, etc)
• realistic restraint (don't have an army of giant ants when just one will do)
• etc., etc.

And so much to think about:

• All the ant did is what we would have done
• He must be so lonely
• Parallels with how humans might think about defeating a more powerful force (machine, emperor, natural force, whatever)
• The symbolism of sugar as a mindless motivator: we could replace "sugar" with "money" and realise that, in large enough groups, human behaviour can be predicted: on average we will follow money, even if on individual cases we might not. This raises issues of free will: are we any different from mindless atoms? Unpredictable as individuals but predictable as a group?

So much to think about, so many abstract principles that apply to al of life. This is why I call Kirby a prophet. He sees things others do not: true ideas, important ideas, the ideas that guide the future. It's the principles that matter. Sugar and giant ants are merely instances or illustrations of fundamental essential truths.