Fin Fang Foom

History: On the island-nation of Formosa, Chan Liu Chow heard rumors of an invasion of his homeland by Communist Chinese forces. From his studies of ancient legends, Chan heard of the legend of the dragon Fin Fang Foom. Chan headed to China to the site of the crypt where the dragon slumbered. Using a special herb, Chan roused the monster from his sleep, then lured the dragon towards a battalion of armed troops and ships of the Red Chinese invasion force. Fin Fang Foom's rampage ended the threat of an invasion as he destroyed the army's weapons. Chan lured the dragon back to the crypt and used another herb which caused the dragon to once again fall asleep.

Fin Fang Foom (or else another monster that resembled him) was later seen among a group of monsters being held in the Collector's subterranean museum beneath the surface of Canada. The monsters escaped captivity during the Collector's battle with the Mole Man, and some of the monsters attacked New York City, but were fought off by an alliance of the Thing, the Hulk, Giant-Man, and the Beast. The defeated monsters were later dispatched into the Negative Zone.

In modern times, Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four once created duplicates of four monsters, including a duplicate of Fin Fang Foom, to battle Dr. Doom.

The real Fin Fang Foom was revived by Dr. Vault and joined forces with IT the Living Colossus to battle an invasion of gargoyles from Stonus Five (see Gorgolla).

Fin Fang Foom and the dragon aliens were manipulated by Iron Man's nemesis, The Mandarin, to attack the human race, but later all the dragons turned against The Mandarin. It took the combined efforts of Iron Man and The Mandarin to defeat Fin Fang Foom and the dragons; all were apparently disintegrated.

Fin Fang Foom was able to reform his body and battled Iron Man once more, but was knocked unconscious and taken into custody. Placed on Monster Island (see Monster Isle), Fin Fang Foom would come into conflict with the heroes of the JLA from the DC Universe (who were visiting the Marvel Universe at the time).

At some point in time (in an as yet unrecorded tale), Fin Fang Foom battled with and was defeated by the Fantastic Four during the early years of their career. Later, since he simply desired a quiet retirement, Fin Fang Foom was enrolled into Reed Richards' “Monster Isle Parole Plan”, he was reduced to human size by Richards' molecular compactor, and employed as a chef at the Green Wok restaurant in the Baxter Building. Fin Fang Foom later joined forces with Elektro, Gorgilla, and Googam (his fellow parolees) to battle the menace of an enlarged Tim Boo Ba.

A Fin Fang Foom imposter recently battled The Incredible Hulk. The Hulk pinned back the dragon's wings as he flew, then forced him to dive into a volcano.

Height: 60 ft.
Demonstrated Powers: Fin Fang Foom had great strength and could destroy buildings and military vehicles. Fin Fang Foom was intelligent and could speak. In later appearances, Fin Fang Foom was shown using his wings for flight and breathing fire from his mouth.

Comment: In Iron Man # 263, it was revealed that “Fin Fang Foom” is a crude translation of a long and complex name which means “He whose limbs shatter mountains and whose back scrapes the sun”.

Comment: Speculation - In Iron Man # 272, it was revealed that Fin Fang Foom was one of the survivors of a spacecraft which crashlanded on Earth centuries ago (see Axon-Karr). The spacecraft was from a race of dragon-like aliens called the Makluans from the Andromeda galaxy. Most of the Makluan survivors took on human form in China (the dragons could alter their size and shape, which could explain why Fin Fang Foom's size changed so much in his history). The Makluan technology from the wreckage was used by Iron Man's nemesis The Mandarin in Tales of Suspense # 62.

It is possible that Grogg, whose first appearance preceded Fin Fang Foom's, may also be one of the survivors of the Makluan spaceship crash.

It is possible that the dragon monster Rro (see Journey Into Mystery # 58) was also a Makluan.

In Journey Into Mystery # 60, in the story “We Were Trapped With the Silent Monster!” (art by Don Heck), a colony of subterranean dragon creatures was discovered by a mining team; possibly the dragon creatures are connected to Rro and also possibly Malkuans.

Comment: The Midgard Serpent once took on the form of Fin Fang Foom to trick Thor (see Thor # 379).

For another entry on Fin Fang Foom, click HERE.

The dumbest, and therefore the greatest, monster from all those monster stories. Once you read the Fin Fang Foom story, you will never forget it, no matter how hard you try. I suspect that it is the real eponym of the old FOOM fanclub.

Other Marvel / Atlas monsters wore cute little swimming trunks, but they seem especially ludicrous on a dragon.

I heard that the Comic Code Authority really insisted that the ol'Foomster wear his trunks.. He is quite popular with the lady dragons, you know. {nudge, nudge} Say no more!

Fin Fang Foom!
Bringer of Doom!
Makes a big Boom!
Scares you so much ya gotta go to the bathroom!

But, Seriously, one of the best monsters ever created with size XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL purple boxers

Isn't there a scene in this story where FFF cracks the Great Wall of China like a bullwhip? And all while wearing swim trunks! Truly brilliant.

FFF also shows up in LEGION OF THE NIGHT, a two-issue mini by Steve Gerber and Whilce Portacio, in which he's played as an occult menace of the greatest magnitude.

Ahh another one of Kirby's famous toothless wonders!!! I still remember getting my Marvel Masterpiece Fantastic Four as a lil girl and wondering why the mosters all had bog gaping mouths, but no snarling teeth. Until I found out that the Comics Code didn't want monsters with sharp razor like teeth. Man they sure had some weird censorship back then. Glad Marvel came to it's senses and dropped the old dinosaur that is the Comics Code!!!!!!!!

Has anyone else ever noticed that Fin
Fang Foom also posesses incredible
eyesight and dexterity? “Next, I take
hold of you as I would a worm!” he
tells our hero (p. 8, panel 6).
Wouldn't you like to see him pick up
a worm?

le dessin est trop bien fait slt je m'appelle thibaut votre site est super je suis comme qui dirais dans mon élément slt a +

Man, this dragon looks like my sister, and 'daths because she piss me off a lot with my f&%!” Lego's!

Yeah, one of my favorite Marvel Monsters, but lately… he's getting b****ed way too easily. First by the Justice League, and now by the Hulk. Now, I can handle him being defeated by these people… but I'd at least like him to put up more of a fight like I'm used to seeing. He hardly even got a hit in during either fight. It was pathetic to see how he was being treated.

Or maybe I'm just pissed that the promised “smackdown” between Foom and the Hulk in the recent Hulk comic didn't materialize. 9_9

I remember Fin Fang Foom from the Legion of Night as well. Gerber did his best to turn him into a Lovecraftian Great Old One figure. The Iron Man story happened near the same time and it was hard to reconcile the two. I guess the simplest way would be to state that there were two FFF, one was the original occult horror, and the second was the space alien who was merely named FFF by ignorant peasants who thought he was the real FFF.

Hello, my name is Mitz from CKXU radio in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. I'm just wondering if we can get your cd for radio airplay.

I don't know if the Fin Fang Four comic is really cannon or not. Just seems to be more of an alternate reality/comedy comic to me personally. A great and funny read, but I seriously doubt it's considered cannon.

A monster closely resembling Fin was also seen in the “Monsters on the Prowl” one-shot, a captive of the Collector before being freed, presumably, by the Mole Man.

That was indeed FFF in the Collector's zoo in Marvel Monsters: Monsters on the Prowl. Please note that while he was in the zoo, he is not among the creatures that rampage through New York in the same issue.

Weeelll… I co-wrote the thing and the approach Scott, my co-writer, and I took was that there are so many versions of FFF that they're impossible to reconcile — so we decided to treat the original Kirby story as canon and everything else as apocryphal. So I guess that means that Fin Fang Four isn't in continuity, although, to be honest, the subject never came up with Marvel editori

Recently, the rogue heroes of Nextwave fought and… well… really, really hurt Fin Fang Foom as he rampaged through a major city. It wasn't pretty, even by giant-monster-fighting standards. In fact, it was quite messy indeed.
Also recently, the cross-time travelling Exiles met a version of Foom in an alternate universe where “kaiju” are so common as to be likened to disease and resistance on a planetary scale. He fought and wrecked a human-piloted robot, but team veteran Blink simply misdirected him by pretending to be a “fairy sidekick” and sending him off to fight Krakoa, the Island That Walks Lika a Man. Much fun was made of Foom's habit of constantly announcing his name.
Also also recently, though perhaps not in chronological terms, a team of Marvel misfits dubbed the “League of Losers” ventured to the latest incarnation of the future year 2099 and fought Fin in the future streets. At least one of them seemed suitably impressed.

Interestingly, in Exiles a description is made of Foom's status in the multiverse. Apparently, of all Foom's alternate selves only a few have been stopped with herbs, most have ravaged their Earths, and none have ever been conclusively defeated.

All things considered, this seems rather unbelievable… if he wasn't “defeated” in Nextwave, then I don't even want to know what the word is meant to imply… but it may offer some explanation as to why he experiences so many contradictory fates. Perhaps we're actually seeing parallel Fooms in parallel universes.

I liked this charactor in his initial appearence. When the so-called coward went to Red China on the eve of the invasion and had Fin Fang Foom chase him that was great. With all of the Red Chinese bases in ruins that was quite a sight.
In a secand story in which Fin Fang Foom cornered the Red Chinese officers in the cave that was also good. The sight of the commanding officer facing him last was something.
When Colossus and he had the martial arts showdown that was good, all be it stretching
both caractors to a degree. I did not really like the idea of making him a survivor of a crashed space ship. The original Chinese legend concept was better.

I think the references to Grogg can be removed from FFF's bio here. It has since been shown that while FFF was an alien, Grogg was part of a monstrous elder race that existed on Earth long before men.

Next time I do a Fin Fang Foom story, if there is a next time, what I'd like to do is insert a throwaway line about how Foom wishes he'd never let SHIELD take a DNA sample all those years ago. I think that would sort out the multiple version thing quite nicely. (Or if not quite nicely, at least close enough. That “alien” origin is a bit of a weak link in the chain, frankly…)

so,rodger;if you ever DO,do a sequel to FIN FANG FOUR,who will the villain/s be?i thought it was cool it was 4 kirby monsters vs.a ditko monster,very funny,reminiscent of the business relationships between kirby with marvel,and ditko with marvel,or did you intend this?

............. TURRRRRRRRRRRD THE THING THAT COULD NOT DIE!!!!!!! :: 04 December 2006

The Kirby monsters vs Ditko monsters thing was deliberate; it seemed a good way to represent two opposing philosophies, at least to those in the know. If we get our sequel approved (the proposal has been doing the rounds for a while now), we were going to introduce Foom's wife from an arranged marriage centuries ago, Soo Sa Sow, as the main villain. And a bunch of other old-time villains as well (all Kirby or Ditko creations). It would be four issues… but don't hold your breath or anything. I'm not.

For the record, Roger, your version of Foom is by far my favorite. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.
The “alien” origin never did sit well with me either… there's enough mysticism and wonder in the Marvel universe to explain away things like dragons without bringing science-fiction into the mix.

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