STRANGE TALES #89 (1961)
by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby
The villain origins retrospective has reached 1961, which means Marvel villains will start to be included. But we technically have a villain who predates the Fantastic Four by a whole month!
Fin Fang Foom is easily the most famous monster from the pre-Fantastic Four days (at least until Groot was completely re-invented for the Guardians Of The Galaxy).
While he’s depicted in his classic green on the cover, within the comic itself he’s this ugly shade of orange.
In a 1961 story set in China, obviously we’re going to have a lot of propaganda.
Our story’s protagonist is Chan Liuchow, son of a Chinese man and an American mother who is already dead before our story begins.
Interestingly the story is set on Formosa, which is how Taiwan was still called in 1961… which means that not that much has changed in the 60 years since this story was published.
Aside from the coloring and the fact that every single Chinese person drops the word “honorable” in half the sentences, for a 1961 comic there is SOME attempt to avoid clichés.
There’s also a potentially interesting dynamic between Chan and his brother Chung, since the former is a pacifist and the latter a gung-ho anti-communist soldier.
While Taiwan’s army prepares to defend itself against a Chinese invasion, Chan takes a boat to China (ALONE) to reach a crypt guarded by “a primitive tribe”.
Because as we all know, dragons are the natural predator of communism.
Chan has some guts, considering the first thing he does after awakening a dragon is blackmail him!!!
Hey, I said he has guts, but I never said anything about brains.
This whole introduction was naturally was just an excuse to have Jack Kirby go ABSOLUTELY NUTS.
I have the slight suspect that Stan Lee was very bad at geography, considering he has Chan attempting to go from the Great Wall ON HORSEBACK…
…and doesn’t make it just because of a river!!!
Sounds legit.
Fin Fang Foom is unable to capture Chan (!!!!) and instead does his thing against the Chinese army.
I’m honestly surprised nobody bothered to recover Chan and turn him into a superhero since HOW IS HE STILL ALIVE!?!?
I have to say Fin Fang Foom is being very disappointing.
Chan is able to lure him back into his original tomb… what, are we going from the coast to the Great Wall AGAIN!?!!?
And so we end with FFF being put to sleep by Chan’s “magical herb”…
…and the lesson that war is not the only defense against tyranny.
There’s also dragons.
Bonus: there’s also another story written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, but this time penciled by Paul Reinman, about a guy who discovers the fountain of King Midas…
…and who thinks has figured out the solution to avoid turning into gold stuff you don’t want to transmute: just wear gloves!
Except he has to, you know, touch the gloves in order to wear them.
Historical significance: 0/10
Future Fin Fang Foom stories mostly ignore this one. Although since FFF is nearly immortal, this story is STILL considered to take place in 1961 despite the sliding timescale.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
We’re supposed to believe Chan went from Taiwan to the Great Wall on his own, mostly on foot, TWICE. Once while being chased by a dragon!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
While it has its charm, you couldn’t possibly play this straight nowadays. Although to be fair there is almost no racism to take care of, something rare for this period.
The pacifist summoning a dragon to defend his country could still work, sure, but everything else strains credulity.
How close is this to the modern character? 4/10
The look is almost there… but the coloring is wrong, he doesn’t have his signature purple speedo, and like I said he’s rather underwhelming considering he can’t seem to keep up with a single human.
The fact that Fin Fang Foom is an alien and not a mystical dragon is not brought up since that is a VERY late addition: in 1990 he will be retconned to be part of the same species of space dragons responsible for the Mandarin’s origin (in an Iron Man story, naturally).
While never a big name, FFF has showed up all over the place over the years, both as a serious threat and as a joke character.
How can you not love Fin Fang Foom? He has a killer design and a gloriously Silver Age name.
Speaking of which, we DO have some information on how Stan Lee came up with the name!!!
When I was a kid, I loved going to the movies. When I say a kid, I mean 10, 11, 12 years old. And there was one movie I’d seen. I remember nothing about it except the name. It took place in China, I believe, and the name of the movie was Chu Chin Chow. Now I have no idea what it meant — I don’t know if it was somebody’s name or a country or a city, but I never forgot that name. Those three words just stuck in my memory: Chu Chin Chow. So when I was looking for the name of a monster, I remember Chu Chin Chow… and that particular meter, that beat, somehow led to Fin Fang Foom.
STAN LEE