Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (race unrevealed) (pre-modern to modern era)

Occupation: None

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Black Bolt, Blinky, Kid Kaiju (Kei Kawade), Phil, Raava the Un-Skrulled;
temporarily Fin Fang Foom, Goom, Klagg, Orrgo, Rommbu, Tim Boo Ba, Vandoom's Monster

Enemies: Death's Head, Leviathon Mother, Spyder;
formerly Absorbing Man (Carl Creel), Black Bolt, Metal Master, Raava; the people of Earth (when mistaken for an attacker)

Known Relatives:  His parents

Aliases: Monsteroso (as dubbed by Phil)

Base of Operations: An unidentified planet;
   formerly a prison on the far edge of the galaxy;
   formerly the jungle outside the Kawa village in Africa;
   formerly the Museum of Natural History, Manhattan, New York

First Appearance: Amazing Adventures I#5/1 (October, 1961)

Powers/Abilities: Monsteroso possesses superhuman strength (perhaps Class 100) and durability. His skin is bulletproof, although he was stung by the impacts. He can breathe well in Earth's atmosphere, and not quite as well in tear gas, although it did not prove able to incapacitate him. His metabolism is similar enough to a human's in that he could be knocked unconscious by a giant dose of sedative. He was limited primarily by his child-like mind, and he rampaged through the city when he became confused. It would appear that if he is injured, he may enter a virtually comatose state, to allow himself to recover.
He has likely grown considerably in size and power, and in mental capacity since his visit to Earth (...He actually didn't, as seen in Black Bolt I#3).

Height: 40' (by approximation) (see comments)
Weight: 30 tons. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Black

History:
(Amazing Adventures I#5/1 (fb) - BTS) - As a gigantic alien spaceship passed through Earth's solar system, a youthful passenger accidentally pushed the lifeboat button and was ejected from the vessel. The lifeboat crashed to Earth, outside the Kawa village in Africa; the youthful alien was thrown clear of the lifeboat and knocked unconscious.

(Amazing Adventures I#5/1) - The comatose alien was found by Phil, a man investigating the crash; mistakenly believing the giant alien was deceased, Phil named it "Monsteroso," and had its body transported to America.

   Three weeks later, Monsteroso was put on display in New York's Museum of Natural History. However, Monsteroso was not dead, and he suddenly revived before the terrified museum patrons. Startled by his surroundings and the ensuing panic he caused, Monsteroso broke out of the museum and rampaged through the city. As he passed through Central Park and the rest of the city, the police repeatedly tried to stop him with bullets and tear gas, but all attempts were in vain.

   Phil, however, had seen Monsteroso curiously pick up a lion and an elephant from the zoo and then put them down without harming them, so he realized that the alien was not evil--after several attempts to convince others likewise, Phil persuaded a scientist at a nearby army base to create a harpoon filled with a giant dose of sedative.

   As Monsteroso climbed atop the United Nations Building, a helicopter flew by and shot him with the harpoon--the shaft struck the giant creature with enough force to penetrate his hide. Monsteroso fell harmlessly into the East River, where he floated, uninjured but too sleepy to move. The crowd of people congratulated themselves on America's military might, and bragged that if they could stop a giant like Monsteroso, they could lick any enemy.

   Just then, an immense spaceship, the size of a small city, landed in the Atlantic Ocean. Enormous aliens who dwarfed Monsteroso appeared at its portal, and then guided the ship west until they sighted the floating Monsteroso. After retrieving Monsteroso, the giants revealed themselves to be the parents of the infant alien, and they explained how their child had come to be in his predicament. As they took their son back aboard their spaceship, the gigantic extraterrestrials left the onlookers with these parting words: "It is fortunate that he is unharmed!...Fortunate for YOU!!...Farewell tiny beings!"

SECRET WARS III HAPPENED

(Monsters Unleashed II#5 (fb) - BTS) - Kid Kaiju summoned Monsteroso to fight the Leviathon Mother.

(Monsters Unleashed II#5) - After the Leviathon Mother was defeated by Kid Kaiju's own monsters, Monsteroso was among the last monsters to teleport back to where they came from.

(Black Bolt I#3 (fb) - BTS) - Death's Head caught Monsteroso and delivered the creature to a prison on the far edge of the galaxy.

(Black Bolt I#3) - Drones escorted Monsteroso to containment while Death's Head was paid by Spyder. During an attempted prison break, Metal Master ripped open the door to Monsteroso's containment unit. The scared Monsteroso attacked Metal Master and his allies Black Bolt, Absorbing Man, the Skrull Raava and Blinky, until the latter telepathically calmed down Monsteroso--Blinky learned that the creature was just a scared child, who was only called Monsteroso by others, and he didn't want to be hit anymore. Blinky promised Monsteroso they would not allow anyone else to hurt him, and asked Monsteroso to stay where he was until they returned. Monsteroso stayed behind, cowering in fear in his cell. Raava asked Blinky to force Monsteroso to help them, but Blinky wouldn't do so.

(Black Bolt I#6 - BTS) - Monsteroso cowered in a cave while Black Bolt and the others fought the Jailer.

(Black Bolt I#7) - On their way to Monsteroso's homeworld, Blinky calmed him down when he became scared and threatened to punch a hole in the ship's hull.

   Arriving on Monsteroso's homeworld, Black Bolt was attacked by the child's parents, until Monsteroso explained to them that Black Bolt and the others had saved him from evil men.

Comments: Presumably by Stan "The Man" Lee (writer) and Jack "King" Kirby (artist).

Monsteroso was preceded by "The Howler" (Tales of Suspense I#6, November, 1959). The stories of "The Howler" and Monsteroso almost certainly served as the precursors to the Infant Terrible (Fantastic Four I#24, March, 1964). I vaguely remember Monsteroso being used in the Fantastic Four cartoon version of the story, sometime in the 1970s.
Gog, of the Tsiln, is another child-like giant extraterrestrial (@ Amazing Spider-Man I#103).

The witch-doctor of the Kawa tribe looked similar to Katu from the Moomba story.
--Gammatotem

The story of Monsteroso fits in with many of the other pre-Marvel monster/alien/horror stories. There's nothing that would exclude it from being continuity, but it has not been established as definitely being canon, as yet. I like to think that these stories may have been spread out in the pre-Modern era, anywhere between the mid-1950s to the start of the modern era, @ 10-12 years ago.

A more realistic version of this story would have had Monsteroso's parents return to attack Earth after their son picked up Hepatitis or some other nasty disease from floating in the East River. Have you ever seen that water? Ewwwwwwww!

You can get a somewhat cheaper version of the story in Monsters on the Prowl#28 (June, 1974) (...wherein Monsteroso and his parents were colored green).

Monsteroso's height was a bit exaggerated on the cover and splash-page (see Main Image) of Amazing Adventures I#5, where he appeared to be larger than the United Nations Building. When Phil first discovered the comatose alien child, he exclaimed: "He must have stood forty feet tall!"--Ron Fredricks

Updated by Markus Raymond (Monsters Unleashed & Black Bolt).

Profile by Snood. Expanded by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Monsteroso should not be confused with:

Monsteroso's parents

(Amazing Adventures I#5) - Adult members of an unidentified alien race, they were perhaps one-hundred feet tall; they flew a huge spaceship.

These mountainous extraterrestrials came to Earth in search of their infant son, who had accidentally launched himself in their spaceship's lifeboat, and mankind was quite lucky that they found him unharmed!

(Black Bolt I#7) - When Black Bolt returned Monsteroso to his parents, they attacked Black Bolt until their son explained to them that Black Bolt and the others had saved him from evil men.

--Amazing Adventures I#5/1 (Amazing Adventures I#5/1, Black Bolt I#7

Monsteroso's family spaceship

(Amazing Adventures I#5) - A huge extraterrestrial spacecraft, it was the size of a small Earth city; it contained at least one emergency lifeboat.

While the spacecraft transported an alien child (Monsteroso) and his parents through Earth's solar system, the child accidentally launched himself in the lifeboat and crashed in an African jungle.

The mountainous extraterrestrials came to Earth in search of their infant son; after flying their huge spaceship over the Atlantic Ocean, they eventually found him floating in New York City's East River. The parents disembarked from the craft and retrieved their child, then returned to their spaceship and left Earth.

--Amazing Adventures I#5/1

Phil and Ethel

Phil was the owner of a circus, and Ethel was his wife who nagged, nagged, nagged all the time. The married couple couldn't agree on anything: If Phil said red was red, Ethel would say it was green.

Phil wanted to find a new attraction for his circus, then he saw a television news report about an alien spaceship crashing in the jungles of Africa. Despite Ethel's heckling, Phil went to Africa to investigate the crash-site, hoping to get rich off of what he might find; he discovered the body of the seemingly lifeless alien, misdiagnosed it as being dead, named it Monsteroso, and had it transported back to New York.

When Monsteroso came back to life in Manhattan and went on a rampage, Ethel was quick to remind Phil that it was all his fault; Phil suspected that Monsteroso was not evil, and Ethel mocked him as he kept trying to convince others of his assumption.

However, Monsteroso's parents eventually arrived, revealed that he was their infant son, and that his "rampage" was only motivated by his child-like curiosity. The aliens retrieved their son and left Earth.

Impressed that Phil was the lone voice in favor of Monsteroso, Ethel admitted Phil was right, and she swore to him: "Forgive me, darling! I'll never argue with you again!" (I'll buy that for a dollar!)

--Amazing Adventures I#5/1

Kawa tribe

The inhabitants of a village deep in the African jungle, they included an unidentified tribal chief, and an unidentified witch-doctor (see comments). One day, they saw an alien spacecraft crash in the jungle--the spacecraft was actually a gigantic spaceship's lifeboat, in which an extraterrestrial infant (Monsteroso) had accidentally launched himself.

The Kawa informed the authorities of their sighting, but their claim was disregarded as likely being just a guided missile that went astray; the natives' claim was reported as a mocking "puff-piece" on a televised news report.

Phil was seeking a new attraction for his circus, and after he saw the news report about the spacecraft, he flew to Africa and made his way to the Kawa village. But the chief and the witch-doctor refused to take him to the crash-site, for they considered it to be taboo and feared evil spirits; however, they did give Phil directions on how to get there himself.

After he found the lifeboat's sole colossal occupant, and (mistakenly) determined that the alien was dead, Phil returned to the Kawa village and convinced the natives that the spacecraft was not inhabited by evil spirits. Phil then hired the Kawa to load the creature aboard a giant cart and transport the alien to the nearest city, where the alien was loaded aboard a freighter and carried to America.

--Amazing Adventures I#5/1

images: (without ads)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p1, pan1 (Main Image - Monsteroso)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p7, pan1 (Headshot - Headshot)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p5, pan2 (Monsteroso revives in museum)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p11, pan3 (Monsteroso atop UN Building, struck by harpoon)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p12, pan5 (Monsteroso's parents emerge from spaceship)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p13, pan2 (Monsteroso's parents, holding Monsteroso)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p13, pan3 (Monsteroso's parents)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p13, pan1 (spaceship hovering over New York City, Monsteroso floating in river)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p12, pan3 (spaceship hovering over ocean)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p2, pan2 (Ethel nags Phil)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p9, pan6 (Phil and nagging Ethel)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p3, pan2 (Phil in Kawa village, speaking to chief and witch-doctor)
Amazing Adventures I#5/1, p4, pan3 (Kawa natives loading Monsteroso on giant cart; Phil (left))

Appearances:
Amazing Adventures I#5/1 (October, 1961) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks), Stan Goldberg (colors), Art Simek (letters)
Monsters Unleashed II#5 (May, 2017) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Adam Kubert (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Black Bolt I#3 (September, 2017) - Saladin Ahmed (writer), Christian Ward (artist), Wil Moss (editor)
Black Bolt I#6 (December, 2017) - Saladin Ahmed (writer), Christian Ward (artist), Wil Moss (editor)
Black Bolt I#7 (January, 2018) - Saladin Ahmed (writer), Frazer Irving (artist), Wil Moss (editor)

First Posted: 09/22/2002
Last updated: 07/24/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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