Real Name: Gargantus

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial robot

Occupation: Warrior, temporary enslaver of the citizens of Granville

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Unidentified extraterrestrial race (creators)

Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark), populace of Granville

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "Gargantus, the Mighty One" (as referred to by itself)

Base of Operations: Granville, somewhere in America (I'm not sure where it was, but you'd need to take a plane to get to Long Island, New York City in a short time-period)

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#40/1 (April, 1963)

Powers/Abilities: Built in the likeness of a giant Neanderthal Man, the robotic Gargantus could speak, and was programmed with limited independent thought; it also possessed superhuman strength (Class 25) and durability, and it used a large club as a weapon.

Garantus' eyes could fire mesmerizing beams, enabling it to hypnotize and command anyone who caught its gaze.

Being a mechanical construct, Gargantus was vulnerable to powerful magnetic forces.

Height: 12'
Weight: 2400 lbs.
Eyes: Mirror-like lenses
Hair: Brown

History:
(Tales of Suspense I#40/1 (fb) - BTS) - An unidentified extraterrestrial race visited Earth 80,000 years ago, where they found the world to be populated by primitive Neanderthal hominids.

(Tales of Suspense I#40/1 (fb) - BTS) - In the modern era, descendants of the original extraterrestrials returned to Earth, with the intent of conquering the planet. Mistakenly believing mankind still resembled the Neanderthal cavemen their ancestors had previously encountered, they built the robotic Gargantus in that likeness, to lead their takeover of the world by hypnotizing humanity.

   The aliens sent Gargantus to the city of Granville, where the robot used its mesmerizing power to take control of the residents. While its alien masters' spaceship hovered above, concealed by a dark cloud, Gargantus forced the citizens to build a wall around Granville, preventing anyone else from entering or leaving.

(Tales of Suspense I#40/1) - The invasion attempt might have succeeded, but one of the residents of Granville -- Marion (see comments) -- had a date with Tony Stark, but missed it due to her entrapment by Gargantus -- this led Stark to investigate as Iron Man, and he learned of the wall surrounding the city.

   Investigating further, Iron Man tunneled into the city and learned of Gargantus, but the residents under its control attacked him, so Iron Man fled to avoid injuring them; then he used a loudspeaker to challenge and draw out Gargantus.

   After a brief battle with Gargantus, Iron Man avoided its hypnotic powers and surmised that the giant prehistoric man was really a robot, so he surrounded it with three powerful magnets, and Gargantus was torn apart by the powerful opposing forces. Iron Man then sent the magnets to the dark cloud hovering over the city, for he correctly guessed that Gargantus' creators were using it as a cover for their spacecraft.

   Realizing that their intelligence regarding Earthlings was out-of-date, and fearing the destruction of their spaceship by the magnets, the aliens fled to their home-planet to report that their visit to Earth was a failure.

(Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#5-6 - BTS) - Although Gargantus was destroyed, the aliens sent three other robots in another attempt to enslave Earth shortly afterward (see comments).

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, and Jack Kirby.








The story with the three robots in Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#5-6 took place less than forty-eight hours after Cap officially joined the Avengers (@ Avengers I#4).
 
The Neanderthal-like Gargantus would have another (sort of) "appearance": In Tales of Suspense I#67/1, Count Nefaria used a machine to attack Iron Man in his sleep with dream-images of some of his past foes, including Gargantus. (However, the cover of that issue mistakenly depicted Colossus instead of Gargantus.) - Ron Fredricks

Gargantus' creators look pretty similar to the Guna, right down to the green skin, three fingers, no nose, and major eyebrows, although the Guna don't have ears. They're almost dead ringers for the Guna; see the Sun-Stealer profile for comparison.

Tony dated a Marion in this story, whom some sources have identified as Marianne Rodgers.

The robot slaver Orogo is a prototype for Gargantus.
--Gammatotem

Gargantus has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1960s Handbook.

Profile by Snood. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Gargantus has no known connections to:

Gargantus' extraterrestrial creators

Members of an unidentified extraterrestrial race (see comments), their ancestors had visited Earth 80,000 years earlier. Using outdated information their ancestors had collected on the planet's populace, they built their robot Gargantus in the likeness of a Neanderthal Man -- they had mistakenly assumed that Earthlings still resembled the cavemen their ancestors encountered.

They intended to conquer Earth by using Gargantus to hypnotize the population of the planet, starting with the city of Granville; they hovered above the city in their spaceship while Gargantus mesmerized the populace. But after Iron Man destroyed Gargantus, they fled back to their home-planet to report their mission as a failure.

A short time after Gargantus' destruction (see comments), the aliens sent a trio of robot warriors to New York City, apparently as part of another attempted invasion. Iron Man and Captain America (Steve Rogers) happened to be on the scene, and Iron Man managed to destroy one of their robots; but having learned from their first defeat, the aliens took control of Iron Man, hoping to use him to further their efforts for conquest. The mind-controlled Iron Man fired a repulsor ray blast at Captain America, but Cap used his shield to deflect the beam and destroyed their second robot.

Their third robot tried to hypnotize Captain America, but Cap overcame the mind-control and hurled his shield at it, smashing the robot to pieces and freeing Iron Man from its control.

To dissuade any further invasion attempts, Captain America picked up the last robot's head and told it to carry a message about the fighting spirit of humanity back to its creators, apparently causing the extraterrestrials to abandon their efforts against Earth.

--Tales of Suspense I#40 - BTS (Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#5-6

"Gargantus 2.0"

A short time after Gargantus had failed (see comments), these three robots were created by the same extraterrestrial race that had built Gargantus, apparently as part of another attempted invasion. These robots also possessed Gargantus' strength, along with the ability to mesmerize and control others.

The robots were sent to New York City, where they began to hypnotize the citizens; but Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Iron Man happened to be present near the attack. Iron Man tore apart one of the robots, and he recognized its circuitry as the handiwork of the same extraterrestrials who built Gargantus; but even as he warned Cap about the robots' mesmerizing power, the remaining two robots placed Iron Man under their control, in the hopes to use him to further their efforts for conquest. The robots then commanded the hypnotized Iron Man to eliminate Captain America.

As Iron Man fired his repulsor rays at him, Cap used his shield to deflect the beam and destroyed the second robot. But when the third robot attempted to take control of Captain America, Cap was able to overcome its mind-control due to his strong will, and he hurled his shield at his would-be controller, smashing it to pieces, which also freed Iron Man from its control.

Cap picked up the robot's still-active head and told it to take a message back to its alien masters: So long as even one man stood vigilant against the loss of liberty and freedom, they would never take this planet.
In a beam of light, the robot's consciousness vanished into the stars, apparently relaying Captain America's message to its creators 

With the battle over, Iron Man compressed the remains of the three robots into a large metal ball, then carried it away to study as Tony Stark.

--Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#5 (Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#5-6

images: (without ads)
Tales of Suspense I#40/1, p1, pan1 (Main Image - Gargantus attacking Iron Man with club; enslaved citizens of Granville (background))
Tales of Suspense I#40/1, p11, pan2 (Headshot - Gargantus using hypnotic gaze against Iron Man (thought-balloon))
Tales of Suspense I#40/1, p12, pan5 (Iron Man uses magnets against Gargantus)
Tales of Suspense I#40/1, p12, pan6 (Gargamtus, torn apart by magnetic force)
Tales of Suspense I#67/1, p8, pan1 (dream-image of Gargantus holding boulder; dream-images of Crimson Dynamo and Jack Frost (background))
Tales of Suspense I#40/1, p13, pan4 (unidentified extraterrestrials aboard spaceship)
Tales of Suspense I#40/1, p13, pan5 (unidentified extraterrestrials aboard spaceship)
Tales of Suspense I#40/1, p13, pan6 (unidentified extraterrestrials' spaceship leaves Earth)
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#5/1, p4, pan4 (three robots, firing mesmerizing beams)
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#6/1, p9, pan3 (third robot, smashed to pieces by Captain America's shield)

Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#40/1 (April, 1963) - Stan Lee (plot/editor), Robert Bernstein (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Don Heck (inks), Stan Goldberg (colors), John Duffy (letters)
Tales of Suspense I#67/1 (July, 1965) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Don Heck (pencils), Mike Espostio (inks), Sam Rosen (letters) - [Gargantus dream-image]
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#5 (January, 1999) - Mark Waid (writer), Ron Garney (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Shannon Blanchard (colors), John Costanza (letters), Matt Idleson (editor) - [three robots]
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty#6 (February, 1999) - Mark Waid (writer), Ron Garney (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Jean Segarra-Rosa (colors), John Costanza (letters), Matt Idleson (editor) - [three robots]

First Posted: 09/06/2001
Last updated: 06/15/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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