It the Living Colossus
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It the Living Colossus (Robert "Bob" O’Bryan) is a fictional character from Marvel Comics who first appeared in Tales of Suspense vol. 1 #14.
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[edit] Publication history
The Jack Kirby pre-superhero monster book was revived by writer Tony Isabella in Astonishing Tales. Dick Ayers drew and lettered the stories.
Isabella said in 2001 in Comic Book Artist #13, page 100, that after the Ted Sturgeon story "It!" in Supernatural Thrillers #1 had sold well, "Came the word from on high that Marvel should do a regular 'It!' series." But Marvel already had 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 sold much better than the other issues which had been published around the same time."
Isabella, in the interview above, 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 this best here. He wasn't being treated very well by Marvel and it was showing in his work."
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 the classic pre-superhero monster stories. "I could expand the page count of the 'It!' stories while including back story which would have otherwise eaten up some of those new pages."
[edit] Fictional character biography
It the Living Colossus was an immense stone statue constructed by Boris Petrovski to protest against the oppressive nature of the Soviet government. It became animated initially by Kigor and rampaged briefly through Moscow after being attacked by the military. When the rescue party arrived, Kigor abandoned the Colossus which was later controlled by Bob O'Bryan, a man with a physical disability who could project his consciousness into the Colossus. Later It was reduced from 100' to 30' by the evil Dr. Vault who took control of the Colossus and used it in battle against invaders from Stonus V. It was eventually destroyed by the Hulk[1] but was rebuilt as a robot[2], and reformed by O’Bryan under the control of Lotus Newmark. It is currently a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Howling Commandos Monster Force.
Reed Richards made a duplicate of It using the Ionic Inanimate Matter Converter. It was sent to oppose the Cosmic Cube empowered Dr. Doom[3]
Another duplicate of It, as well as a second, brownish, version of the creature, fought on behalf of terrorist front organisation H.A.T.E., defending the secret State 51 installation from the Nextwave squad.[4]
[edit] Powers and abilities
It the Living Colossus has tremendous strength, can fly, and can command intelligence which was forced back into it’s original body by nerve gas.
[edit] Notes
There have been other characters known as It. These include:
- Roger Kirk, was known as It (and also The Thing That Couldn’t Die), in Supernatural Thrillers #1. Kirk had died in 1929 and became a swamp creature created from the reanimated human corpse and vegetation which accumulated around his skeleton. It murdered those around it until it fell into a stream, which washed the skeleton clean.
- An operation of Roxxon was known as I.T. and was run by Albert DeVoor. I.T went under different alias on each world in an effort to ignite a nuclear war between Earth-616 (as Technologies), Earth-A (as Inter-Related Technocracies) and the Fifth Dimension (as Inter-Politan Thermodynamics) in order to generate power for Polemachus. This occurred in Fantastic Four vol. 1 #160-163.
- In the House of M, Ben Grimm, the only survivor of the ill-fated space shuttle flight of Reed Richards and his crew, was captured and named It by Victor von Doom and was a member of the Fearsome Foursome. It first appeared in House of M: Fantastic Four #1
- In Tales to Astonish vol. 1 #92-93, a robot of unknown origins was called It the Silent One. It was activated on the ocean floor and battled Namor. It was destroyed after a collision with a submarine,
[edit] Bibliography
- Astonishing Tales #21-24
- Avengers Two: Wonder Man & the Beast #2-3
- Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #244
- Marvel Monsters
- Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #11
- Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #1-6
- Tales of Suspense vol. 1 #14, 20
[edit] Footnotes
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