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January 10, 2007
It the Living Colossus in Nextwave #11?
Nextwave #11 featured an incredible array of double-page spreads, where the team attacks wave after wave of H.A.T.E. agents. There are some pretty good gags in here, like a bunch of Stephen Hawking clones attacking the team from wheelchairs, and a giant Wolverine-ape like thing. The giant creature in the panel above appears to be IT, the Living Colossus! When I saw the wheelchair guy on the next page, instead of Hawking, I first thought it might be Bob O'Bryan, the crippled man who mentally controls the grey giant known as IT!
I knew I had to have IT when I first saw this Marvel advertisement. I'm a sucker for power-transformation fantasies that help sooth my insecurities. What's better than Shazam, Hulk, or Thor? How about turning into a 30-foot living statue that can demolish a skyscraper and fight Fin Fang Foom? Like Thor, the alter ego of the character was crippled--literally in a wheelchair. Bob O'Bryan was an actor who got his legs destroyed by a rival thespian. While he mourns the loss of his career and probably his inability to screw his hot girlfriend, Bob accidentally discovers that he can project his mind into the body of IT!
IT appeared only in four issues of Astonishing Tales (21-24) during 1973-1974. Short stories written by Tony Isabella and artwork by Dick Ayers. I loved Ayers artwork on this title, and surprised by the Wikipedia entry on IT where Isabella is quoted as saying it wasn't the best that Ayers could do. According the Wikipedia, IT was featured in other Marvel books and recently appeared in the Howling Commandos mini-series.
What I loved about IT was the utter simplicity of the premise, and goofy fun that Isabella had with the stories. Take this panel from the Fin Fang Foom (who appeared in Nextwave #1-2) battle, where he inserts a reference to the popular ABC TV show, Kung Fu: "How do you fight a dragon-sized David Carridine?" The sound effect after the karate chop is an affectionate nod to one of my favorite artists, Mike Ploog.
IT disappeared from Astonishing Tales to make way for Deathlok, but I always wondered about the mysteries that Isabella had created. Why could O'Bryan control IT? Why did his body lapse into a coma? Why was there a time limit? If you know, email kidflash {at} photontorpedoes {dot} com. Nuff said.
