Marvel Monsters: The Weird Horror Comics Marvel Published Before the Superheroes Took Over
Full Report
Before Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, Marvel filled its comics with giant monsters like Groot, Xemnu, Goom and Fin Fang Foom.
Before Spider-Man swung through Manhattan, before the Fantastic Four launched into space, and before Thor picked up Mjolnir, Marvel Comics had another problem to deal with.
Giant monsters. Lots and lots of giant monsters.
They crawled out of the ocean. They arrived from space. They woke up underground. They were created by scientists who really should have known better. And because this was the late 1950s and early 1960s, many had wonderfully ridiculous names like Goom, Googam, Xemnu and Fin Fang Foom.
For collectors, this era is more than a strange footnote. These comics capture Marvel immediately before its superhero explosion, and several introduced characters that eventually became permanent residents of the Marvel Universe.
1. Before Marvel Was Marvel
During much of the 1950s, the company we now know as Marvel published comics under the Atlas name. Superheroes had largely fallen out of fashion, leaving publishers to experiment with westerns, romance, war, science fiction, suspense and horror.
By the end of the decade, enormous monsters were everywhere.
Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, Journey into Mystery and Strange Tales regularly featured gigantic creatures threatening humanity.
The formula was beautifully simple.
A scientist discovers something he shouldn't. An expedition goes somewhere it shouldn't. Something falls from space.
Monster appears. Panic follows.
Then somebody has roughly ten pages to save civilization.
2. Jack Kirby Built Monsters for the Newsstand
These stories gave Jack Kirby exactly the kind of canvas where his artwork could dominate.
Kirby could make a monster feel genuinely enormous. Covers often featured towering creatures looming over cities while tiny humans scattered beneath them. Add oversized lettering announcing the monster's bizarre name and the result practically demanded attention from the spinner rack.
Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Steve Ditko and other creators also contributed to this period.
That creative overlap is important. These books were not completely separate from the Marvel superhero era. Many of the same creators, storytelling techniques and visual ideas simply evolved into something new.
The monster books became part of the bridge between Atlas Comics and the emerging Marvel Universe.
3. Groot Was Here Before Spider-Man
One of the best examples is Groot.
Groot first appeared in Tales to Astonish #13 in 1960, roughly two years before Spider-Man debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15.
This was certainly not the friendly Groot modern audiences associate with the Guardians of the Galaxy. The original version was a towering alien visitor with considerably less friendly plans for Earth.
He wasn't alone.
Xemnu appeared in Journey into Mystery #62 in 1960. Goom arrived in Tales of Suspense #15 in 1961, followed by his son Googam in issue #17. Fin Fang Foom debuted in Strange Tales #89 later that year.
Marvel's Monster Cabinet
Groot Tales to Astonish #13 1960 Xemnu Journey into Mystery #62 1960 Goom Tales of Suspense #15 1961 Googam Tales of Suspense #17 1961 Fin Fang Foom Strange Tales #89 1961
For collectors, these issues have something that cannot be manufactured later: historical position.
They document Marvel characters and creative ideas forming before the superhero universe had fully taken shape.
4. The Monsters Never Really Left
Then came Fantastic Four #1 in November 1961.
Marvel's superhero age had begun, but the monster era did not simply disappear.
Early Fantastic Four stories remained packed with gigantic creatures, aliens, underground civilizations and impossible threats. Even the Hulk looked like someone who could have wandered directly off the cover of an Atlas monster comic.
The major change was perspective.
Previously, the monster was usually the attraction. Now Marvel had recurring superheroes standing between the monster and the reader.
That makes these pre-superhero books particularly interesting to collect. They show that the Marvel Universe did not suddenly appear fully formed in 1961. It evolved from the science fiction, horror and monster comics Marvel was already producing.
Before Heroes, There Were Monsters
Marvel's monster era is one of those corners of comic history that becomes more interesting the deeper you dig.
Groot, Xemnu, Goom, Googam and Fin Fang Foom are entertaining on their own, but their earliest appearances also preserve the creative DNA of the Marvel Universe just before everything changed.
Before Marvel had superheroes everywhere, it had giant monsters.
And some of those monsters never really went away.