MONSTEROSO

Real Name: Monsteroso

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Microverse, Sturdian) creature

Occupation: Conqueror

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Kid Kaiju (Kei Kawade), Psycho-Man;
temporarily Abominable Snowman, Blip, Bruttu, Crawling Creature, Creature from Krogarr, Creature from the Black Bog, Fin Fan Foom, Googam, Goom, Gorgilla, Green Thing, Insect Man, Klagg, Kraa, Metallo, Monstro, Monstrom, Moomba, Oog, Orrgo, Pildorr the Plunderer, Quogg, Rommbu, Sporr, Thing that Crawled by Night, Tim Boo Ba, Ulvar, Vandoom's Monster, Zetora, Zzutak

Enemies: Fantastic Four (Invisible Woman/Susan Richards, Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards, Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Thing/Ben Grimm), Giant-Man (Hank Pym), Leviathons

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: The planet Sturd, Microverse

First Appearance: Tales To Astonish I#18/3 (April, 1961)

Powers/Abilities: Superhuman size, constantly growing; superhuman strength (variable from enhanced to class 100)

History: (Tales To Astonish I#18/3) - Monsteroso emerged from an egg on a deserted planet, and soon began to grow in size. Before long, the mountains themselves dwindled beneath Monsteroso. Being the master of all it surveyed, it planned to conquer all life-forms it encountered -- until suddenly, a flood struck his world. Unable to breathe underwater, Monsteroso drowned. Meanwhile, in a laboratory, a scientist washed a slide tray, not knowing of the microscopic world that had existed upon it.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#661 - BTS) - Psycho-Man artificially caused Monsteroso to grow from the Microverse to Earth where Monsteroso grew further.

(Amazing Spider-Man I#661) - The gigantic Monsteroso caused havoc in the East River. The Fantastic Four were called in to deal with the monster. Thing and Spider-Man attacked Monsteroso while Invisible Woman kept them in a force field. Mister Fanastic feared the Fantastic Four's recent visit to the Microverse had caused the monster appear on Earth, but Giant-Man arrived and due to his experience with growth knew that someone had artificially induced the monster's growth. Giant-Man asked Invisible Woman to take down the force field, then attacked Monsteroso while Spider-Man kept him distracted. Giant-Man then shrunk down Monsteroso to the size of a small ape. Invisible Woman put Monsteroso into a force field and Mister Fantastic took the monster back to their HQ.

SECRET WARS III HAPPENED

(Monsters Unleashed II#2) - The Inhuman Kid Kaiju summoned Monsteroso along with numerous other monsters to an area outside San Diego, California in defense against the Leviathons.

(Monsters Unleashed II#3) - Monsteroso joined the fight against the Leviathons. Earth's heroes watched the monsters summoned by Kid Kaiju defeat the Leviathons. After the battle Monsteroso and the other monsters were teleported back from where they came.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee (?) and Steve Ditko.

This story was clearly cut from the same cloth as Tim Boo Ba...and several other Ditko stories that had the same finish.

In the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z#7, in the profile of the Microverse, the name of Monsteroso's homeworld was revealed to be Sturd, and his race was known as the Sturdians (obviously derived from the Bullpen nickname for "Sturdy Steve" Ditko).
--John Kaminski