ZZUTAK
ZZUTAK
Real Name: Zzutak
Identity/Class: Painting brought to life through magic
Occupation: Servant of the Aztecs
Group Membership: Monster Island's monsters (Abominable Snowman, Blip, Brute that Walks, Gog, Goom, Gorgolla, It the Living Colossus, a Lizard Man of Tok, Moomba, Rorgg, Two-Headed Thing, Xemnu and one of the Flora colossus (like Groot), among others)
Affiliations: Kid Kaiju (Kei Kawade);
temporarily
Bruttu,
Crawling Creature,
Creature from Krogarr,
Creature from the Black Bog,
Fin Fan Foom,
Googam,
Green Thing,
Insect Man, Klagg,
Kraa,
Metallo,
Monsteroso,
Monstro,
Monstrom,
Oog,
Orrgo,
Pildorr the Plunderer,
Quogg,
Rommbu,
Rorgg,
Sporr,
Thing that Crawled by Night,
Tim Boo Ba,
Two-Headed Thing,
Ulvar,
Vandoom's Monster,
Yucoya-Tzin,
Zetora, the Zutecs
Enemies: Elsa Bloodstone, Deadpool ("Wade Wilson"), Elektra, Hulk (Bruce Banner), Frank Johnson, the Fantastic Four, Leviathon Tide, Red Hulk (Thaddeus Ross), X-Men (Magik/Illyana Rasputin, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde), Xxirys;
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Thing That Shouldn't Exist
Base of Operations: Monster Island, sea of Okhotsk;
formerly the Sierra Madre Mountains, Mexico (You might say that to the Aztecs, he's a
veritable "treasure")
First Appearance: Strange Tales I#88/1 (September, 1961)
Powers: Zzutak is of superhuman size, and bears superhuman strength, but has no mind of its own, and must obey whatever Yucoya-Tzin commands it to do
History: (Strange Tales I#88) - In his
plan for world conquest, Yuoya-Tzin, elder priest of the last of
the Aztecs, garbed himself in normal clothing and approached
Frank Johnson, a comic book illustrator whom he knew was
descended from the Aztecs. He presented Frank with magical
paints, which would bring to life whatever he painted, simply by
concentrating upon them. As he painted with them more and more,
Frank felt himself summoned to Mexico, to paint the picture of
his life. 
Deep within a remote valley in the Sierra Madre mountains, Frank found an ancient Aztec temple with a canvas already set out for him. He began to paint, creating a fearsome creature, Zzutak, which sprang to life from the canvas!
Now revealing himself as an Aztec, Yucoya-Tzin informed Frank of his intention to conquer the world with thousands of Zzutaks, all painted by him. As Zzutak set about sealing the valley with boulders, Frank was sent to paint another monster -- but this one obeyed his orders, not Yucoya-Tzin's! The two monsters' clash was so fierce that the temple collapsed about them, burying them beneath the earth. Yucoya-Tzin was struck amnesiac by debris, and the Aztecs scattered, while Frank destroyed the paint.
Upon returning to America, Frank sold his story
to his employers, Marvel Comics, though his boss commented it was
"too ridiculous". 
(Fantastic Four Unlimited#7 (fb)- BTS) - In the years that followed, Yucoya-Tzin regained his memory, and Frank somehow attained more of the magical paint. He also got married, although his wife divorced him, and moved to Oregon with their son, Cal.
(Fantastic Four Unlimited#7) - At an exhibit in New York, where he was displaying the bodies of deceased monsters (Grottu, Fizzle the Blip, Rorgg, and the Two-Headed Thing), Frank was captured by Yucoya-Tzin's Aztecs, who had his son Cal as a hostage. Yucoya-Tzin brought the monsters back to life to hold off the Fantastic Four, and brought Frank and Cal back to Mexico, to revive Zzutak.
Frank did indeed revive Zzutak, but also revived the second creature, and placed it under the control of the Fantastic Four. By concentrating upon it, the Fantastic Four were able to direct the creature in defeating Zzutak, and the two were once more buried. In the aftermath, Yucoya-Tzin and his Aztecs were arrested.
(Ghost Rider VI#33 - BTS) - Deacon and Blackout considered him as a possible agent in their fight against Ghost Rider (Blaze).
(Hulk III#30) - Xemnu the Titan summoned a gigantic Martian, a Venusian, Zzutak, a Creature from Krogarr, a Blip, a Makluan and Taboo (or a member of his race) to kill the Hulk. When the Impossible Man witnessed how outmatched the Hulk was he merged him with the Red Hulk and they defeated Xemnu's monsters.
(Thunderbolts Annual II#1 (fb) - BTS) - Zzutak was captured by Elsa Bloodstone and held captive at Bloodstone Manor along with other monsters.
(Thunderbolts Annual II#1) - Zzutak got injured by Deadpool and Elektra when they were thrown into the same prison as him by Elsa's allies Living Mummy and the Frankenstein Monster.
(Uncanny X-Men III#33 - BTS) - At some point, Zzutak relocated to Monster Island, sea of Okhotsk.
(Uncanny X-Men III#33) - Zzutak was one of the many monsters who witnessed the arrival of X-Men Magik and Shadowcat and got into a fight with them. They had come to Monster Island to save a little mutant girl called Bo. After they found her Magik teleported herself, Kitty and Bo back to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Monsters Unleashed II#1) - Fin Fan Foom, Gorgilla, Green Thing and Zzutak were drawn, and therefore summoned, by the Inhuman Kei Kawade (later known as Kid Kaiju). Kawade encountered them outside his house in the wood where Foom warned him that he was playing a dangerous game by summoning them.
(Monsters Unleashed II#2) - The Inhuman Kid Kaiju summoned Zzutak along with numerous other monsters to an area outside San Diego, California in defense against the Leviathons.
(Monsters Unleashed II#3 - BTS) - Zzutak joined the fight against the Leviathons. Earth's heroes watched the monsters summoned by Kid Kaiju defeat the Leviathons. After the battle Zzutak and the other monsters were teleported back from where they came.
Comments: Created by Stan "The Man" Lee, Jack "The King" Kirby, and Steve "Didn't have a nickname" Ditko. Talk about a royal lineage!
In Conspiracy #1, it was hinted that the organization CONTROL had cleaned up after Zzutak so that the public at large remained unaware of the incident -- not that many people outside of Johnson and the Aztecs ever saw it anyway.
When this story was reprinted in Monster Menace#3, Ditko drew a new cover, that proclaimed, "My Fevered Brain Created Zzutak!" which would lead one to believe that the monster on the cover is Zzutak in the flesh. But it isn't. It's some sort of ghostly-green thing, not at all like our fat orange monstery friend.
I've got to say, the Aztecs don't work so well in an urban setting, such as they find themselves in in Fantastic Four Unlimited#7. The whole time, I kept having flashbacks to The Tick. "Over there, Itlan! I have him, Itlan! Zzutak shall rise again, Itlan!"
In Warlock and the Infinity Watch#7, Zzutak appears along with Van Doom's Monster (TTA#17), Gigantus (JIM#63), X (TTA#20), Kraa (TOS#18), the Monster from "Fear in the Night" (JIM#65), the Brute That Walks (also JIM#65), the Glop (JIM#72), a Martian (ST#78), the Creature from Krogarr (TTA#25), and Googam (TOS#17) as one of the Mole Man's monsters on Monster Island. Now, it would be wonderful if all of these monsters who (aside from Zzutak, Gigantus, and X) are not part of the Marvel Universe as of yet were brought into the fold through these cameos, but sadly, such is not the case.
See, Tom Raney didn't choose these monsters with the intent of making them "canon" -- he was just homaging the Marvel Monsterworks trade paperback, which is where he got all of the images. There are all sort of incongruities in these appearances -- Kraa, Googam and the Creatures From Krogarr are way too tall, Kraa is dead, the Brute That Walks is human again, the "Fear in the Night" monster is from another world, Van Doom's Monster was rendered inert, etc. They don't fit the mould of a Mole Man monster, which are typically Deviant Mutates. Zzutak in particular, was buried in Mexico at the time of this story, so that's not him -- that's some mutate that's his splitting image.
Omar Karindu had high hopes that Zzutak would be the last name in an OHOTMU, but I'm afraid Zzzax will beat him every time. He might be the last one in Snood's Appendix though! Woo-hoo!
Zzzax beats Zzutak again. Bzzzzzzzhahahahazzzz!
--Markus Raymond
Doctor Worm says: "In the 1999 JLA Annual#3, there are some very familiar names being screamed. Here's the breakdown: the 1999 annuals from DC were a very nice homage to the Silver Age, utilizing two mainstays of that olden time: gorillas and weird transformations. There is a scene in the U.N. where the delegates are all turned into gorillas and start tearing the place up. What got me was the things they were yelling. They were all yelling the names of classic Kirby monsters! The monsters references include Groot, Mombu, Zzutak, Klaggu, Moomba, Goom and Krobaa."
I wonder if those Aztecs' magic paints have some connection to The Painter of 1000 Perils.
--John Kaminski
Real names for Yucoya-Tzin and Frank Johnson were revealed in Yucoya-Tzin's profile in Fantastic Four Fifty Fantastic Years#1 (November, 2011).
Profile by Prime Eternal.
Updated by MarvellousLuke (Uncanny X-Men) & Markus Raymond (T-Bolts, Hulk & Monsters Unleashed).
Clarifications: Zzutak has no known connections to:
Frank Johnson has no known connection to:
Xxirys was created by Frank
Johnson to serve him, and its first command was to defeat Zzutak,
burying both of them alive. When Zzutak returned, so did the
second creature, now with the minds of the Fantastic Four
directing it to victory once more.
--Strange Tales I#88 (Strange Tales I#88, Fantastic
Four Unlimited#7
images: (without ads)
Strange Tales I#88, p1 (main)
Strange Tales I#88, p6, pan5 (jumps Frank Johnson)
Strange Tales I#88, p6, pan4 (head shot)
Strange Tales I#88, p10, pan7 (Xxirys)
Appearances:
Strange Tales I#88 (September, 1961) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks)
Fantastic Four Unlimited#7 (September, 1994) - Roy Thomas (writer),
Herb Trimpe (pencils), Carmen Infantino (insk), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Ghost Rider VI#33 (2009) - Jason Aaron (writer), Tony Moore (artist), Axel Alonso (editor)
Hulk III#30 (April, 2011) - Jeff Parker (writer), Ed McGuinness (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Thunderbolts Annual II#1 (February, 2014) - Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
(writers), Matteo Lolli (artist), Jordan D. White (editor)
Uncanny X-Men III#33 (April, 2015) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer),
Kris Anka (pencils, inks), Mike Marts, Xander Jarowey (editors)
Monsters Unleashed II#1 (March, 2017) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Steve
McNiven (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Monsters Unleashed II#2 (April, 2017) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Greg Land (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
First Posted: 02/18/2002
Last updated: 10/30/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
All characters mentioned or pictured are
™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real
thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
