GORMUU

Real Name: Gormuu

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Kraalo)

Occupation: Warrior

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Reed Richards

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "The Infinite Monster" (as called by Reed Richards)

Base of Operations: Mobile on Earth, near Central City, California;
   originally from Kraalo

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#271 (October, 1984)

Powers/Abilities: Gormuu could absorb a kind of broadcast energy from his spaceship, which allowed him to grow from his normal height and attain immense size and strength; but he was dependent on the ship's mechanisms to control the growth caused by that energy.

Reed Richards eventually discovered that although Gormuu's size increased, no actual mass or weight was added to his body, thus his form was just "inflating"--Richards used this fact to defeat Gormuu by hitting the extraterrestrial with a similar energy from his power beamer, which caused Gormuu to grow so big that his atomic structure was dispersed.

Height: 20'; variable
Weight: Unrevealed.
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: None

History:
(Fantastic Four I#271 (fb)) - On a mission of planetary conquest, Gormuu traveled from Kraalo to Earth. He landed his spacecraft in the wilderness near Central City, California--the spacecraft was immediately spotted by Reed Richards and Sue Storm, who were driving home.

   When Gormuu emerged from the ship's hatchway, Reed initially welcomed him, naively assuming that a race advanced enough for space-travel would have left its warlike history far behind. But Gormuu merely laughed and informed Reed that he had come to conquer the planet, and he figured that if all creatures of Earth were as foolish, it would only make his conquest so much the easier! Then Gormuu walked away from Reed and Sue, and he began to grow larger and larger with each footstep as he headed toward Central City.

   In the terrible hours that followed, the gigantic Gormuu was large enough to dwarf buildings, and it seemed he could not be stopped... at least not by the puny weapons of mankind; fighter jets from the U.S. Air Force fired missiles at the alien behemoth, but he merely shrugged off the deadly projectiles, and it seemed like only nuclear weapons would have a chance at stopping Gormuu.

   But while the United States and the USSR were in a stalemate over the use of nuclear bombs against Gormuu, Reed Richards sneaked aboard the alien’s ship, trying to find some weakness he could exploit. After examining Gormuu's technology, Reed noticed something odd about the depth of Gormuu's footprints, which gave him a clue to defeat the gigantic extraterrestrial.

   As Gormuu lumbered closer to Central City, Reed set up his power beamer and blasted the approaching monster with its ray. Reed's solution was proven correct when the ray caused Gormuu to grow to even larger proportions, until the extraterrestrial was no more than a gigantic phantom, and he finally dissipated into space.

   Afterward, Reed explained to Sue Storm and Ben Grimm that when he examined the depth of the alien's footprints, he learned that while Gormuu's body expanded, his footprints didn’t get any deeper--Reed realized that although Gormuu was gaining size, his body was not gaining mass or weight, and thus he was more or less a sentient "balloon".

Comments: Created by John Byrne.

And it was because of this encounter with Gormuu that Reed became desperate to get his experimental rocket finished; but his haste resulted in cosmic rays penetrating the rocket's weak shielding, which caused Reed, Sue and Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm to become the Fantastic Four (@ Fantastic Four I#1).--Ron Fredricks

Gormuu is obviously an homage to the classic Jack Kirby creations of pre-FF monster comics--the entire flashback is done in that style. In fact, he greatly resembles the Kirby creation Rommbu, and the name of his home planet appears to be derived from Kraa.  Also, the scenes depicting Reed and Sue sighting Gormuu's spacecraft, and Reed investigating the craft were lifted almost directly from "I Challenged Groot" (Tales to Astonish I#13)--Prime Ed-ternal

The whole flashback sequence with Gormuu only lasted about 9 pages (about the same length as some of the old monster stories). And Gormuu's spacecraft looked somewhat similar to Rommbu's spaceship, which could also suggest that they were both from the same extraterrestrial race. I'd further speculate that Gormuu's race had discovered their own version of size-altering Pym Particles, which would account for Gormuu's ability to increase his size.--Ron Fredricks

This was probably the first of what would become many "Fantastic Four having adventures before they were the Fantastic Four" stories.

In Conspiracy#1, it was revealed that General Edward Harrison was Reed Richards' military liaison, and responsible for funding Richards' technology; as a member of CONTROL, Harrison had also cleaned up after Gormuu to keep the public from becoming aware of his existence.

Profile by Madison Carter. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Gormuu should not be confused with:

Gormuu's home-planet Kraalo should not be confused with:

Gormuu's spaceship

An immense spacecraft capable of interstellar travel, it transported Gormuu from his home-world of Kraalo to Earth.

The interior featured a proportionally large pilot's seat with circular plates mounted on either side of the operator's head--these apparently worked in conjunction with power relays that regulated the flow of enormous energies; the combined instruments transmitted energy to Gormuu, empowering him to increase his size from his standard height, until he was larger than most man-made structures.

The vessel apparently had no alarms or defensive systems to prevent intruders from entering once it had landed, so while the gigantic Gormuu was rampaging on Earth, Reed Richards easily walked aboard the spacecraft to examine it.

After investigating the technology aboard the spacecraft, Reed discovered the connection between it and Gormuu's ability to grow to gargantuan proportions, and he came up with a solution to defeat the extraterrestrial with his power beamer.

--Fantastic Four I#271 (fb)

Reed Richards' power beamer

Originally developed as a special broadcast power unit for a U.S. government contract, Richards feverishly worked to adapt it for the purpose of combating Gormuu.

Despite Ben Grimm's objections, Richards planned to fire the device at the gigantic extraterrestrial Gormuu, to give him a massive dose of power and make him grow bigger still.

At first, Gormuu was pleased when the energy beam struck him and he grew larger; but he began to panic when he noticed that although his size was increasing, he was actually growing weaker. Gormuu was soon no more than a gigantic phantom as he grew beyond the limits of the world, and his atoms were dissipated across the universe, until he was truly no more.

Afterward, Reed explained to Sue Storm and Ben Grimm that after he investigated Gormuu's spaceship, he learned that the extraterrestrial was dependent upon mechanisms within the ship to control his growth; Reed had also discovered that even though Gormuu had gained size, he was not gaining mass or weight, so Reed used his power beamer to feed so much energy to Gormuu that the extraterrestrial's atomic structure was spread thinner and thinner as he grew.

(Comment: Maybe Reed eventually modified this large gizmo and reconfigured it into the Stimulator.)

--Fantastic Four I#271 (fb)

images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#271, p8, pan4 (main image - Gormuu)
Fantastic Four I#271, p9, pan3 (headshot - Gormuu, attacked by fighter jets)
Fantastic Four I#271, p13, pan5 (Gormuu, struck by ray of power beamer)
Fantastic Four I#271, p14, pan6 (Gormuu expands beyond limits of Earth)
Fantastic Four I#271, p7, pan7 (Gormuu's spaceship [exterior]; Sue Storm, Reed Richards [foreground])
Fantastic Four I#271, p11, pan2 (Gormuu's spaceship [interior]; Reed Richards [center])
Fantastic Four I#271, p11, pan3 (Gormuu's pilot seat; Reed Richards [foreground])
Fantastic Four I#271, p11, pan4 (power relays within Gormuu's spaceship; Reed Richards [silhouette])
Fantastic Four I#271, p12, pan2 (Reed Richards working on power beamer; Sue Storm, Ben Grimm [foreground])
Fantastic Four I#271, p12, pan4 (power beamer [front view]; Ben Grimm, Reed Richards [left])
Fantastic Four I#271, p13, pan2 (Reed Richards activates power beamer)

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#271 (October, 1984) - John Byrne (writer/pencils/inks), Glynis Wein (colors), Janice Chiang & Michael Higgins (letters), Mike Carlin (editor)

First posted: 06/04/2003
Last updated: 01/26/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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