Real Name: Unrevealed, possibly not applicable
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (race unrevealed) sentient gas (Pre-Modern era)
Occupation: None
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Ulysses Bloodstone, Hans Grubnik, humanity in general
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "The Living Demon"
Base of Operations: Unidentified small coastal town near Krakow, Poland (see comments)
First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#12/1 (November, 1960)
Powers/Abilities: In its natural state, Gor-Kill was a gaseous mass that could survive in space. When bonded with water, it could create a fluid body of immense size (depending on the amount of water it bonded with).
While in its watery form, it had the strength to destroy man-made structures with the force of a tidal wave.
Height: 50', variable
Weight: Variable
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Inapplicable
History:
(Tales of Suspense I#12/1) - A sentient
cloud of gas floated through space before coming into Earth's orbit.
Sensing the vast amount of water on the planet, the cloud descended by a
small coastal town in Poland, where it entered the waters held by Krakow
Dam. It dissolved and permeated into the water, bonding with it and
forming itself into a fifty foot water monster.
The towering mass of living liquid flowed into the town, devouring much of the livestock (see comments) and destroying houses along the way before it returned to the dam. Wrongly believing the monster to be a water-covered giant, the villagers dubbed it "Gor-Kill," after a local legendary water demon (see comments). But when the townspeople went to Krakow Dam to search for a solid being, they found nothing in the water.
The creature raided the town several more times, and on each occasion the villagers followed it back to the dam; however, the results were always the same, and every time they searched, they could find nothing within the waters.
But a drifter named Hans Grubnik witnessed Gor-Kill forming from the waters held by the dam, and realized that the monster was the water itself! As Gor-Kill flowed to the village to conduct another raid, Grubnik raced after it; by the time Grubnik reached the village, the raid was over, but there was something infinitely more important to worry about--after revealing the true nature of Gor-Kill, Grubnik begged the townspeople not to let the creature make it to the ocean, where it could merge with the limitless gallons of water and drown the entire world; unfortunately, the villagers didn't believe him.
Two days later, Gor-Kill conducted another raid, then headed toward the ocean--the townspeople were just relieved to see Gor-Kill leaving their village, because then it would find other towns to plunder and they would be spared. But Grubnik was determined to destroy the watery monster before it could threaten the world, so he stole some dynamite and planted it in a valley Gor-Kill was passing through. Grubnik detonated the explosives just as Gor-Kill stepped over it--as a result of the blast, Gor-Kill was dispersed into droplets of water, which were absorbed by the soil and soon evaporated.
(Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone and the Monster Hunters#1 [Grottu profile] (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Gor-Kill apparently reformed and battled Ulysses Bloodstone -- the details and outcome of this conflict are unrevealed (see comments).
Comments: Created by an unidentified writer (most likely Stan Lee), Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.
Marvel Atlas#1 confirmed that this story took place in Poland.
A villager mentioned that Gor-Kill
"devoured" four of his pigs, although it wasn't depicted--since it
had no teeth or internal digestive organs, my guess is that Gor-Kill
absorbed all the moisture from the hogs and expelled the dried
husks.
--Ron Fredricks
Nothing would really stop Gor-Kill's gaseous form from reforming after his destruction, nor would anything stop the water droplets eventually evaporating back into potential rain.
Gor-Kill was named so after a legendary water demon in the area of the village--I seriously doubt there's an actual myth to coincide with this.
In Marvel Monsters' Grottu
profile, Ulysses Bloodstone mentioned his encounter with "the
water demon Gor-Kill" -- rather than this character,
could he possibly have meant the "real" Gor-Kill of legend? And
maybe the villagers'
legendary "Gor-Kill" was just a corrupted pronunciation of the
name Grendell,
a giant monster known to arise from the waters of a swamp.
--Ron
Fredricks
A sentient cloud of gas almost becomes a tidal wave of living water, while another such cloud takes over a steam shovel in Africa? One has to wonder if they were extraterrestrial spies doing a pre-invasion recon. ---Carycomic
Gor-Kill could be from the same planet as Makka
(a gaseous alien who tried to warn Earth of its race's plan to invade)
in Strange Tales I#68 (April, 1959).
--Gammatotem
Profile by Madison Carter. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Gor-Kill has no known connections to:
Hans Grubnik has no known connections to:
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In a small coastal Polish village, Grubnik was a drifter; he had the reputation of being a "loafer" and a "shiftless lout," and all of the townspeople despised his residence. After the monster Gor-Kill raided their town, the townspeople worked to repair the damage; they were disgusted to find Grubnik sleeping while they all labored, so they ordered him to leave their village. As Grubnik walked away from town, he witnessed Gor-Kill forming from the water of Krakow Dam, and he realized the true nature of the monster: Gor-Kill was actually composed of the water. Grubnik tried to convince the townspeople of what he saw, but no one believed him. Concerned that Gor-Kill could wreak worldwide destruction if it merged itself with the ocean, Grubnik stole some dynamite and blew up the monster. Afterward, Grubnik received his "reward" for saving the world--the villagers, believing that Gor-Kill had merely left the area, threw the sobbing Hans in jail for a few months for the theft of the dynamite, and after his sentence was served, he was ordered to leave the town forever. -- Tales of Suspense I#12/1 |
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images: (without ads)
Tales of Suspense I#12/1, p3, pan3 (main image - Gor-Kill attacks village)
Tales of Suspense I#12/1, p3, pan2 (Gor-Kill in gaseous form, floating through space to Earth)
Tales of Suspense I#12/1, p6, pan2 (Gor-Kill forms from waters of dam; Hans Grubnik)
Tales of Suspense I#12/1, p6, pan5 (Gor-Kill leaves village)
Tales of Suspense I#12/1, p3, pan2 (Hans Grubnik)
Tales of Suspense I#12/1, p7, pan3 (Hans Grubnik prepares to set off dynamite)
Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#12/1 (November, 1960) - unidentified
writer, Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks), Stan Goldberg
(colors), Artie Simek (letters), Stan Lee (editor)
Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone and the
Monster-Hunters#1: Grottu profile (January, 2006) [mentioned only]
First posted: 10/05/2005
Last updated: 01/21/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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