Monday, March 3, 2008

Hurl Your Tiny Might Against Gormuu!!

My pal Mark is doing a great occasional series on the wonderful Marvel (or Timely) Monsters of the late 50's and early 60's.

While I don't want to horn in on his act, I DO want to note one of the great modern pastiches of those stories, as presented by John Byrne in Fantastic Four #271 (1984):

Do these would-be conquerors know each other? Share notes?The story flashes back to a time shortly before the fateful rocket trip, when apparently giant monsters from space were landing every other day. And Byrne hits all the notes during his little 8 page story-with-a-story. It starts with a drive through the countryside (galactic monsters never, it seemed, landed in cities)...

Central City--still in the Marvel Universe??...our hero alone initially encounters the would-be conqueror (so nobody can believe the hero until it's too late)...

Why are alien invaders never named George?...who has a deliciously goofy name ('cause he's alien, see?)...

Read my name, and despair!!...and is no big fan of E.T....

Remember: pre-Spielberg, all aliens=bad!!I won't spoil the rest of the story, but it is a delightful homage to a delightfully silly time in Marvel history. OK, I will spoil that Reed defeats Gormuu with the help of "a simple, wooden ruler." And that Gormuu's attack, and the threat of other space dictators, was the impetus for Reed hurrying his rocket test without proper shielding...


GAARD!!--still desperately lameGAARD!!! says: C'mon, now, after that, you can't possibly say I was the lamest FF villain ever!!! C'mon!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great story...thanks for refreshing my memory!

As for "horning in" on the monster posts, don't worry your pretty little head over it. I'm sure I'm copying something others have done hundreds of times before, so anything goes out here in the Wild West blogosphere. But I thank you for the mention, anyway!

Speaking of "monsters", though....I'm again reminded of how much fun Byrne's FF run was...second only to the great Lee and Kirby run (in my opinion). Too bad Byrne had to turn into such a marginalized, Gormuu like figure...

CaptainAverage said...

Gormuu?A goofy name? what are you,racist?
Did he get a hula hoop stuck in his jaw to keep it in that O shape in every panel?
"You were a terrific embarrasment" Oh Reed,you hopeless romantic.

Anonymous said...

Gaard was, is, and shall always be the LAMEST FF villain.