Comics Rainbow - Marvel's Legion of Monsters

Edited by Robert Beach

Well, it’s October: the Goosebumps movie is about to come out; Halloween is just around the corner, and I have a crippling addiction to ‘70s comic books. Let’s talk about Marvel's Legion of Monsters. As I’ve mentioned before, the ‘70s was a time of serious upheaval and horizontal expansion at both DC and Marvel. The young readers the companies had attracted over the Silver Age were growing up to be young adults with disposable income and a continued interest in comic books, a relative first for the medium. 

This ended up fueling a rush to diverse the story market with stuff beyond the straightforward superhero fair of the previous decade.  Marvel had always prided itself on creating stories and content that was beyond the boundaries of the superhero genre. Many of their core characters like the Fantastic Four or Thor sprung out of weird science and epic fantasy respectively. 

When it came time to diversify, they were ahead of the game on DC and came out of the gates strong with a whole slew of new, horror-based comics. This was right around the time the Comics Code, a self-imposed industry code of censorship, was losing its teeth, so the horror genre was finally getting its fangs back after being neutered for well over a decade. 

Marvel cranked out all sundry manner of demons, vampires, zombies, mummies and anything else they could come up with and, occasionally, they all teamed up to become the Legion of Monsters. Since then, the title has been resurrected multiple times for new monsters of the Marvel universe. So this is your full spectrum look at the Legion of Monsters in all their shades, shames, and successes. 

2005 really was a terrible year for Marvel. Aside from being the year Civil War and kicked off, it was also the year that started Marvel Zombies. To be fair, the original mini-series, which explored an unstoppable zombie outbreak taking place in the Marvel universe and written by Walking Dead scribe Robert Kirkman was actually pretty good and well received. In fact, I’d argue it was too well received because Marvel went on to sequelize and mass produce Marvel Zombies pretty much into oblivion, to the point they even started crossing over into other comics like Secret Wars or Ultimate Fantastic Four. 

The original story was a fun, little blend of horror and comedy that came out at a time when zombies still weren’t the most overexposed thing on the planet. Since then, the Marvel Zombies have completely worn out their welcome, piling mini-series upon mini-series as they continually fail to ride the trend they accidentally predated. While not exactly hated in the comic mainstream, Marvel Zombies have gone from a fan-favorite curiosity to a tolerated nuisance at best.   

Son of Satan isn’t just my favorite Marvel Monster, he’s easily one of my favorite Marvel characters period. Created in the mid-‘70s, pretty much everything you need to know about the character is right there in the name: he’s the literal son of Satan. Satan was actually a pretty common reoccurring part of the Marvel Universe in the ‘70s, and I do mean Satan. Nowadays, Marvel likes to have the demon Mephisto fill this particular role. Back when they were first challenging the shackles of the comic code, it was the Devil himself who menaced Marvel’s supernatural heroes. 

The Son of Satan was basically Satan’s unruly child whose chosen form of teen rebellion was to do good deeds, fighting demons on Earth with his pitchfork, and demonic sorcery powers. He’s an awesome character who had some fun stories on his own, but really grew into his own as a member of Marvel’s mystic superhero team the Defenders. There may be more beloved combinations of demonic imagery and teen rebellion on this list, though Son of Satan stands above the rest.

Michael Morbius is one of the three really mainstream monsters on this list as he’s commonly the anti-villain of Spider-Man. Much like Spidey’s other quasi-villain the Lizard, Michael Morbius was a scientist whose experiment went wrong and turned him into “the living vampire.” This essentially means that even though Morbius has some of the qualities of the vampire, like a need for blood and ability of flight, he’s not actually a vampire in the same vein of Blade or Dracula. 

Morbius’ place as a fixture of the Spider-Man mythos, and alongside Marvel’s ‘90s supernatural heroes the Midnight Sons, has earned him a lot of fan love, but I just can’t stand him. He’s thoroughly reminiscent of the DC Comics character I, Vampire in that they’re both the sad, tragic, conflicted vampires who have a real problem moving stories forward. There’s also a bit of the Hulk Paradox in him as his whole character is predicated on wanting to NOT be a vampire, and that’s the opposite of what I’d like to see.  Still, he’s got a great visual design. I get why people like him, even if his constant whining over being a super-powered master of the night gets tedious in the extreme. 

Man-Thing may be the worst imaginable name for an all-ages comic book imaginable, but that’s the only downside to the character. Created almost a year prior to the much more well known DC Comics character Swamp Thing, Man-Thing has almost the exact same basic origin. That similarity isn’t a coincidence either as Man-Thing creator Gerry Conway and Swamp Thing creator Len Wein happened to be roommates at the time. 

Man-Thing was once Ted Sallis, a scientist who was transformed by a lab accident into the hulking mass of vegetable matter that is the Man-Thing. A completely mute giant of the Florida swamps, the Man-Thing has empathic powers allowing him to sense people’s true nature, an invaluable tool given how often he stumbles into the affairs of others. His other, very bizarre, power is beings that knows fear burns after touching Man-Thing. 

I admit, pretty much everything about the Man-Thing seems to be the result of a mad fever dream that underwent no editing whatsoever, but somehow it all works perfectly. The character is sort of like the Hulk only tonally darker and without the key paradox of looking for a way to become human again. The Man-Thing only knows to move through the Florida swamps. 

He's attracted to the suffering of others so that he might deal out some deadly monster justice. This is essentially the same set-up Marvel would use for a lot of their monster heroes, but with the Man-Thing, his mute nature ends up keeping the focus totally on the situation he’s stumbling into and the tone of the problems was a lot grittier.  90% of the time, Man-Thing would end up putting the hurt on murderers and abusive jerks instead of other monsters. 

Eventually the comic ditched this approach when Steve Gerber took over. Gerber was more of an absurdist comedy author most famous for creating Howard the Duck, so naturally his first act as writer was to have the Man-Thing team-up with Howard. The Gerber stuff is fun, especially because Man-Thing’s silence makes him an excellent straight man for Howard’s antic in a more surrealist Wallace and Gromit routine. This version of Man-Thing tends to color a lot of fan perception of the character now, but the original stories are still enjoyably dark and weird and worth looking into.

The Wendigo is the most removed from the definition of “monster” on this list given that he’s mainly acted as an antagonist for Marvel heroes like The Hulk or Alpha Flight (This is my rainbow, so we’re talking about it.) The Wendigo actually shares its first appearance with Wolverine as both characters popped up to menace the Hulk during an ill-advised jaunt through the Canadian wilderness. 

I’ve always loved the idea that in Canada things like hideous white-haired Wendigo beasts just exist and roam the Earth.  It fits; given the Wendigo’s place as a monster of First Nations mythology and in the Marvel universe, all myths are basically real.  

Nowadays, most folks probably know the Wendigo as a freaky, stag-like creature born of cannibalism after its appearance on NBC’s Hannibal, or maybe they think of the gangly chalk-white abomination from Mike Mignola’s B.P.R.D. For me, this angry, chalk-white sasquatch creature will always be my go-to Wendigo. 

Despite its place in Marvel history, most folks actually don’t like the Wendigo, which is understandable. The beast of the North doesn’t really have much personality; it’s just a great big monster. Over time, Marvel has added some very weird and dopey affects to it like a whole pack of Wendigos that roam the woods of Canada.  

Even so, I’m an absolute sucker for Sasquatch monsters of any kind, and the Wendigo’s creepy and ferocious nature has made him a long-time favorite of mine. Also, I’d be remise in my duties if I didn’t mention his role as one of the mini-bosses in the 6 player X-Men arcade game where he continually howls his own name for no discernible reason. How does anyone not love this guy?

All right, this one is a little strange. The Straw Man was a minor Marvel character who starred in two stories in the Marvel anthology horror comics Marvel Spotlight. He was basically a living scarecrow and was, at the time, actually named the Scarecrow. That was later changed to avoid confusion with the DC Comics Batman villain the Scarecrow, and Marvel reintroduced an Iron Man villain named The Scarecrow. The whole idea of the Straw Man is that he’s some extra-dimensional monster that lives inside of a painting and occasionally pretended to be a news anchor for reasons I’ll explain. 

His limited range of appearances means there’s not a lot to say about The Straw Man, but he did show up recently as part of Marvel’s incredibly ill-advised Fear Itself event. It was established that the Straw Man was one of the Fear Lords, a group of quasi-demonic Marvel characters with fear-based powers. During the Fear Itself event, the group fell into a civil war trying to become the King of Fear.

Okay, first things first: the Straw Man is a pretty transparent rip-off of Steve Ditko’s DC hero the Creeper. Both of them have a creepy laugh that can do damage to their enemies; both are manic monsters, and both pose as news anchors. Despite that I actually think the Straw Man has a ton of interesting potential as a monster in the Marvel universe, mainly through his place as one of the Fear Lords. The nature of his origins and powers is shockingly opaque while also extremely unique in the Marvel universe.  

While most Marvel monsters come from abstractions like Nightmare (lord of nightmares), the Scarecrow seems to come from a plane of cultural iconography and symbolism for his source of power. Such a plan would be a really cool thing to explore in the Marvel universe and the idea of a cackling, fear-mongering scarecrow monster/hero fighting evil across the multi-dimensional weirdness of Marvel’s supernatural stories sounds awesome to me. 

Pretty sure everyone knew this guy was going to be on the list.  When discussing the monsters of Marvel, both good and bad, you have to talk about Ghost Rider; however, believe it or not, that kind of obsession with Ghost Rider is actually a fairly modern occurrence. When the character first appeared in 1972, he was popular but he wasn’t a ubiquitous symbol of instant nerd affection like he is today. At the time, Ghost Rider was a lot like the Son of Satan: someone with dark supernatural origins trying to do good and a chance for the Marvel creators to pair up cool teen affects with horror plots and imagery. Specifically, Ghost Rider was trying to cash in on the motorcycle trends of the time. It meant if he had been created only 4 years later, he might’ve been driving a big rig truck instead of a flaming motorbike.

The original Ghost Rider had most of the modern characters backstory and abilities; he was Johnny Blaze, the son of a stunt rider who sold his soul to Satan to save his dad’s life. He ended up cursed to turn into a flaming skeleton biker named Ghost Rider, but used his demon powers for good. Also, there’s an amazing issue where Jesus shows up to tell Satan off and set Johnny free of his curse, (yes, really).  A lot of the stuff people really love about the character (like his chains, the penance stair, and his more silent affect as the rider) didn’t pop up till the ‘90s when Danny Ketch took over as the rider. Ketch’s time as the Rider was easily the most popular, even scoring a Ghost Rider-centric toy line. 

I might do a future Rainbow on Ghost Rider given the huge amount of characters that have embodied the spirit of vengeance. For now, it’s easy to see why he’s the most beloved Marvel monster. Ghost Rider is a perfect embodiment of what I call the "Street Sharks Effect" in that nothing else in fiction looks like Ghost Rider.  Despite being the most amazing combination of elements ever, I can’t think of anything even close to Ghost Rider’s visual design and identity in fiction, so really, it doesn’t matter what the character’s personality or stories are. He’s too specific and unusual not to read.

In case the picture wasn’t obvious enough, this is, in fact, Frank Castle. Yes, the Punisher turned into a Frankenstein Monster complete with neck bolts and a stitched-up forehead. Entitled Frankencaslte, because Marvel just didn’t care with this one, this version of the Punisher isn’t even the weirdest shift the character has undergone, or the dumbest for that matter. 

This kind of thing is actually pretty par for the course with the Punisher on account of him being a fairly normal vigilante in the madcap world of superheroes and Gods and aliens. That’s part of why Marvel afforded Punisher the MAX mini-series as a way to get away from all the insanity of the standard superhero universe. 

In any event, I have no idea what behind-the-scenes logic led to turning Punisher into a Frankenstein monster, but in 2009, that’s what they did. The Punisher had been killed as part of the ongoing Dark Reign arc, in which a group of supervillains had tricked the world into making them powerful heroes. After his death, the Legion of Monsters resurrected Punisher as Frankencastle, spurring his quest for vengeance against his murderer: Wolverine’s son, Daken. 

The whole enterprise was a weird and whacky misadventure full of Marvel monsters I didn’t even get to like the Living Mummy, Manphibian, and Werewolf by Night. Eventually, Punisher returned to his normal state, and the Marvel universe agreed to never talk about his time as a Frankenstein ever again.

And here’s Blade, the other Marvel Monster you can’t NOT talk about. The success of Marvel’s vampire slayer is actually pretty similar to their other big monster hit Ghost Rider, yet for different reasons.  For decades in the comics, Blade was a D-lister at best, not helped by his incredibly goofy costume. It wasn’t until the late ‘90s when his movie came out that he actually found crossover success along with his comic being part of Marvel’s ‘90s supernatural adult universe of the Midnight Sons. 

Blade is a bit like the Street Sharks in that he’s visually unique, but in his case, it’s not his costume or design that’s unique; it’s the action. There are plenty of movies and TV shows and comics where vampires are slain but none of them are as incredibly bloody and gory as Blade. That’s the whole appeal of Blade’s universe, and at the same time, part of what makes it so visceral satisfying while narratively empty. 

What makes Blade so great is he’s so unapologetic and wallows in childish affects of maturity and “adult” storytelling there's no need to justify those elements. That’s not a bad thing. As fun as stuff like Buffy’s character development or Underworld’s myth making is, sometimes you just want to cut loose and embrace your inner 13-year old’s love of violence and swearing. That’s why Blade’s most famous line is so amazingly beloved despite being so stupid; it’s unapologetic. 

Finally, I want to showcase Marvel’s solid-stone hero: The Golem.  Coming to us out of Marvel’s revived Strange Tales comic, the Golem was an animated stone giant who fought quasi-supernatural evil for about 3 issues before fading into Marvel obscurity, but he remains one of my favorite Marvel monsters. A big part of my love for the Golem is that I’m Jewish, so I have a major affection for Golems in general. Also, he actually kind of fought terrorists in his first appearance. 

Obviously, this was 1974, so it’s not in the classic sense. But the Golem was a defender of Jews in the Middle East during his first appearance and then went on to fight kabbalistic demons in his second appearance. Having a monster character so thoroughly informed by aspects of the Jewish identity is actually very rare in comics despite the Jewish people's integral role in shaping the medium. Plus, the Golem’s creator was Len Wein, so this is all coming from a place of actual Jewish identity. 

And so we reach the end of the Legion of Monster’s rainbow. Next time: something else.


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