It! The Living Colossus

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It! The Living Colossus
It! The Living Colossus was featured in his own short-lived miniseries starting with Astonishing Tales #21 (Dec. 1973)
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceTales of Suspense #14 (Feb. 1961)
Created byJack Kirby
In-story information
Team affiliationsHowling Commandos (formerly)
PartnershipsBob O'Bryan
Abilities

It! The Living Colossus is a fictional character appearing in

special-effects
designer.

Publication history

It! The Living Colossus debuted in the 18-page science fiction story "I Created the Colossus" in the anthology series

Monsters on the Prowl
#17 (June 1972) and 25 (Sept. 1973).

The character was revived in Astonishing Tales #21 (Dec. 1973) by writer Tony Isabella and artist Dick Ayers, who both drew and lettered the stories. The feature ran four issues, through #24 (June 1974).[3]

Isabella said in 2001 that after the

swamp monster in the Man-Thing, so, "looking over the sales figures for recent issues of Marvel's giant monster reprint books, we discovered the issues which reprinted the 'Colossus' stories by Jack Kirby [Monsters on the Prowl #17 and 25] sold much better than the other issues which had been published around the same time".[4]

In 2009, Isabella elaborated, saying editor-in-chief Roy Thomas:

...wanted to give me a series to write and knew I was a monster-movie fan. He asked for my input on our new 'It', and that's when I learned [the "Colossus" sales information]. I pitched him on the new 'It' being a continuation of those stories, though in my original pitch, the

special effects-man hero of the second Colossus story had married his actress sweetheart and already started a family with her. Any member of the family would have been able to activate and control the Colossus. Roy steered me to the more dramatic premise of the hero being paralyzed.[5]

Assessing the series, Isabella said, "It was an honor working with Dick Ayers, one of the original 'Big Four' artists of the Marvel Universe. However, I don't think Dick was at his best here. He wasn't being treated very well by Marvel and it was showing in his work".[4]

In an unusual storytelling technique for the time, Isabella made longer stories than the budgeted 15-page tales by inserting reprint panels or pages from 1959-61 pre-superhero monster stories. "I could expand the page count of the 'It!' stories while including backstory which would have otherwise eaten up some of those new pages".[4]

Had the series continued, Isabella said in 2009, "subsequent stories would have featured

Storm Giants of Norse legend".[6]

The character perished in

Avengers.[7]

Fictional character biography

It! the Living Colossus was a 100-foot-tall stone humanoid

special effects designer Bob O'Bryan and the statue was again rendered inanimate.[10]

An accident later robbed O'Bryan of the use of his legs, compelling him to use a wheelchair. The statue was stolen by the evil Doctor Vault, who reduced its size from 100 feet (30 m) to 30 feet (9.1 m). Animated by the mind transferal of O'Bryan, It! battled Vault's minions and escaped.

Lotus Newmark.[15]

After a battle with Doctor Doom, It! was lost in the Pacific Ocean near the Galápagos Islands. O'Bryan lost his connection to both his normal body and It! and his body was left in a vegetative state. Five years later, Deadpool assisted O'Bryan's niece in retrieving the Colossus from the ocean floor and restoring O'Bryan's mind.[16]

O'Bryan and It! were being considered as a "potential recruit" for the Initiative program.[17]

It! later appeared on Monster Isle when

Magik appeared to look for a mutant girl named Bo.[18]

Powers and abilities

Bob O'Bryan becomes It! through mind transferal into an animated stone statue and its composition had been altered by the Kigors. It has tremendous strength, stamina, and durability, as well as the ability to fly via gravity manipulation. As a statue, It! can survive underwater without air. However, it is vulnerable to nerve or knockout gas, which forces the command intelligence back into its original body.[19]

"Special

psychokinetic nerve endings" implanted by the Kigors allow It! to be animated, either directly (as with those aliens) or by psychic transference (as with O'Bryan).[20]

Other versions

Clones of It! the Living Colossus

Reed Richards made a duplicate of It! using the "Ionic Inanimate Matter Converter". It was sent to oppose the Cosmic Cube-empowered Doctor Doom.[21]

Another duplicate of It!, as well as a second brown version of the creature, fought on behalf of the terrorist front organization H.A.T.E., defending the secret State 51 installation from the Nextwave squad.[22]

Other characters named It

There have been other characters in the Marvel Universe known as "It". These include:

Reception

It! The Living Colossus was ranked #27 on a listing of Marvel Comics' monster characters in 2015.[23]

References

  1. ^ Markstein, Don. "It, the Living Colossus". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  2. ISBN 978-1605490564
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1465455505
    .
  4. ^ a b c Comic Book Artist #13, p. 100
  5. ^ Tony Isabella interviewed in Millsted, Ian (October 2009). "It! The Living Colossus". Back Issue! (#39). TwoMorrows Publishing: 69.
  6. ^ Isabella in Millsted, p. 71
  7. ^ Buttery, Jarrod (February 2014). "Hulk Smash!: The Incredible Hulk in the 1970s". Back Issue! (#70). TwoMorrows Publishing: 18.
  8. ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0
    .
  9. ^ Tales of Suspense #14 (Feb. 1961)
  10. ^ Tales of Suspense #20 (Aug. 1961)
  11. ^ Astonishing Tales #21 (Dec. 1973)
  12. ^ Astonishing Tales #22-24 (Feb., April and June 1974)
  13. ^ The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #244 (Feb. 1980)
  14. ^ Wonder Man Annual #2 (1993) and Marvel Comics Presents #169 (early Dec. 1994)
  15. Beast
     #2-3 (both July 2000)
  16. ^ Deadpool Team-Up #895 (March 2010)
  17. ^ Civil War: Battle Damage Report #1
  18. ^ The Uncanny X-Men vol. 3 #33
  19. ^ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 #14 (June 2010)
  20. ^ Astonishing Tales #22 (Feb. 1974)
  21. ^ Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Comic Magazine #12 (Jan. 2002)
  22. ^ Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #11 (Feb. 2007)
  23. ^ Buxton, Marc (October 30, 2015). "Marvel's 31 Best Monsters". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on September 30, 2018. It...remains one of the most famed pronouns in Marvel monster lore.

External links

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