Marvel Monsters: Where Monsters Dwell

Archive

Reviewer: Paul Sebert
Publisher: Marvel Monsters Group!

This is the second Marvel Monsters Group oneshot, an anthology of short stories just in time for Halloween featuring the likes of BOMBU, MANOO, MONSTROLLO, and a perhaps not-so-classic story “I WAS TRAPPED BY TITANO!” Yes it’s a virtual all you can eat buffet of giant monsters. And as each story was told by a different creative team, I will review them all one after another lickedy-split.

Story Title: Bring On The Bombu!
Writer: Keith Giffen
Pencils: Keith Giffen
Inker: Mike Allred
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Dave Lanphear
Editor: Mark Paniccia

Keith Giffen gives us a sequel to the 1960 story “Bombu: The Witch Man” from Journey into Mystery #60. In that story an immortal seemingly all-powerful being named Bombu landed in the Amazon jungle and enslaved the natives to prepare gathering information before leading an invasion of the planet Earth. Unfortunately for him, Bombu was defeated by a freak bolt of lightening. This tale picks up immediately after that story with Bombu’s superiors being no too happy about his performance in conquering our world. This time around Bombu arrives in New York to threaten our world with potential Armageddon. Alas actually getting us puny humans to take his threats seriously proves to be much harder challenge than Bombu thought, and once again he finds himself facing defeat in a rather humiliating fashion.

Giffen & Allred’s art is an intentionally grotesque homage to Kirby’s work from the era, while Lovern Kindz provides the appropriately loud four-color style. The dialog is delightfully tongue in cheek, both poking fun at the bombastic over-the-top prose that was popular at the time.

Story Title: The Return of MONSTROLLO, The Terror of Hollywood
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Arnold Pander
Colorist: Val Staples
Letterer: Dave Lanphear
Editors: Nathan Cosby, Mackenzie Cadenhead, Mark Paniccia

How’s this for a lucky break? Way back in Tales of Suspense #25 movie producer Charles Hudson managed to thwart an alien invasion by using Monstrollo a giant animatronics robot gorilla prop from a new movie to frighten off the aliens. Alas ten years later Hudson’s life has changed for the worse. His studio is on the verge of bankruptcy, everyone thinks he’s insane, and the television concept that would have been his last chance at redemption has been stolen by an unscrupulous producer. Things take a change for the bizarre when it appears that the terror of Monstrollo may indeed be very real.

This all boils down to a sight gag too ridiculous for me to give away. It’s essentially a one joke story, but for an eight page story it packs a hell of a punch-line. Pander’s art style is rather Kirby-esc, although somewhat mired by an overly heavy ink job. Still an enjoyable little story.

Story Title: The Shadow of Manoo
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artists: Russel Braun & Jimmy Palmoiotti
Colorist: Val Staples
Letterer: Dave Lanphear
Editors: Nathan Cosby, Mackenzie Cadenhead, Mark Paniccia

A girl by the name of Billie Jones is out camping in the woods with her boyfriend Evan, when she sees a spaceship crashing to earth. One of the dying alien astronauts tells Billie that a dangerous alien fugitive named Manoo has arrived on earth, and is killing and impersonating humans. Handed a spiffy ray-gun by the fading alien, Billie goes hunting for Manoo armed with the knowledge that the creature’s shadow gives away his identity.

Despite some swank Mike Allred-style art from Braun & Palmiotti, this only serious tale of the collection and alas the weakest of the new tales. Jeff Parker’s script reads precisely like a weaker episode of the Twilight Zone, complete with the obligatory “twist” ending. There is a rather cute little nod to Plan 9 from Outer Space as an added epilogue though.

Story Title: I Was Trapped By Titano!
Writer: Joe Sinnott
Artist: Jack Kirby

Reprinted from the Tales To Astonish #10, this monstrous story from Marvel’s past is clearly an attempt to cash in on the popularity of B-Movies such as “THEM!” and more specifically “It Came From Beneath The Sea.” In this story a 500-foot tall crab rises from the South Pacific Ocean and causes havoc. Curiously despite being a Polynesian legend the creature has a Greek name… Titano!

Nothing can stop Titano. The monstrous crustacean causes Japan to be hit by tidal waves before later traveling all the way to Hawaii to munch on tasty U.S. battleships. The navy even sends an antique bathysphere to look for the monster, this leads to the immortal dialog “Great Scott! We’re NOT on a Mountain! We’ve LANDED on… TITANO!”

Naturally the U.S. Navy decides to rectify this situation in the only logical way. A wacky plan involving painting a submarine in glow-in-the-dark paint. However with the door left open for a sequel one knows that Titano will be avenged.

This story is no classic, but really where else are you going to see Kirby drawing a giant lumbering crab AND a bathysphere in the same story?