KUSOOM
Real Name: Kusoom
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial; pre-modern era
Occupation: Conqueror; Soviet leader (??)
Group Membership: His alien race
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Leonid Brezhnev, Stephen Dwane
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Nikita Khruschev; the Pretender; Rusoom (see comments)
Base of Operations: Unnamed
alien planet;
Moscow, USSR; pre-modern
era
First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#31/4 (May, 1961)
Powers/Abilities: Kusoom is the only member of his race that possessed "the Great Power; "the ability to use a machine to transform his body into that of any other living being.
History: (Tales
to Astonish I#31/4 (fb)) -
When his race felt it was time to conquer Earth, they sent Kusoom to
start the process of undermining humanity in order to make it ripe for
conquest. Kusoom arrived on Earth and took up hiding in an abandoned
house, where he studied the humans. Once he learned their ways, he used
a machine to transform himself into a duplicate of Soviet Premier
Nikita Khruschev. He then left the old house.
(Tales to Astonish I#31/4) - An author named Stephen Dwane bought the house, and while going through it, found a secret passage. In it, he found Kusoom's notes, and when he saw that the alien had apparently taken on Khruschev's form, he grieved for the world's future.
(OHotMU Teams 2005 - BTS) - Kusoom impersonated Khrushchev from 1962 and was two years later deposed by Leonid Brezhnev.
Comments: Created by Paul Reinman and ???.
This one is definitely set in its originally-published time period.
Kusoom is accidentally referred to as "Rusoom" in one panel. The name "the Pretender" was only used in the title of the story.
Thanks to Ronald Byrd who pointed out that Kusoom's story became official in OHotMU Teams 2005.
Reprinted in Where Monsters Dwell#12
Clarifications:
Kusoom has no known connections to
Dwane was an author who bought the old house Kusoom
once used as his base. He came across the alien's notes.
--Tales to Astonish I#31
images:
Tales to Astonish I#31, story 4, page 1 (main
image)
page 5, panel 8 (human form)
page 5, panel 4 (Dwane)
Where Monsters Dwell#12 (November, 1971)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Teams 2005
09/23/07
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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