UNDERSEA GIANTS

Classification: Terrestrial aquatic humanoids (possibly a sub-species of humanity; see comments)

Location/Base of Operations: Their hidden cavern base, somewhere beneath the Atlantic Ocean

Known Members: The king and at least ten warriors (none identified)

Affiliations: None

Enemies:The Statue of Liberty (see comments)

First Appearance: Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5 (June, 1962)

Powers/Abilities: The Undersea Giants were amphibious ocean-dwelling creatures--having gills that allowed them to extract oxygen from water, they also had lungs which allowed them to breathe air. Because of their great size, they presumably had superhuman strength.

They carried some type of holstered handguns (apparently waterproof) at their waists, which presumably fired a destructive energy blast.

Traits: They had webbing between their fingers and toes, which aided them in swimming.

Type: Bilaterally symmetric semi-humanoid bipeds
Eyes: Two (on head; color not clearly seen)
Fingers: Four (including opposing thumb)
Toes: Three
Skin color: Green
Average height: Approximately 30'

History:
(Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5) - The past of the Undersea Giants is unrevealed, as they kept their presence hidden from humanity and their fellow undersea civilizations.

   But their isolationist behavior was broken when one of their scouts noticed a human scuba-diving near their domain. The scout reported this incident to their king, who then decided to conduct a preemptive strike against humans before the humans struck at them. The king led his warriors as they swam to the surface on a mission of conquest, confident of a victory because they were much bigger and stronger than mere humans.

   Meanwhile in New York City, the entire metropolis was in the middle of a nighttime civil defense drill, leaving the streets deserted because all the citizens were in shelters.

   In the darkness of night (see comments), the Undersea Giants swam to the docks of New York, where they noticed no guards or sentries on duty. Thinking the element of surprise was on their side, the king and two of his warriors climbed from the water and walked around the waterfront buildings--finding no one in sight, the three Giants figured the humans knew they were coming and had fled in terror.

   But just then, at the stroke of midnight, the trio of Undersea Giants looked up and saw a huge hand reach down for them; they fired their sidearms, but found their weapons to be useless. The gargantuan hand scooped up the three Giants and threw them back into the sea, where the remaining Giants saw their advance force scattered like toys. Thinking that they were mistaken about the relatively small size of surface-men they had previously seen ("It must have been an optical illusion!"), all the Undersea Giants swam back to the safety of the deep and vowed never to attack humans again, because humans seemed to be a race of invulnerable giants.

   As dawn broke over the city, the civil defense drill came to an end, and life in the city returned to normal; but two repairmen had to be dispatched to the Statue of Liberty for some repair work...apparently the Statue now had skinned knuckles.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

This 5-page story--"At the Stroke of Midnight!"--never officially identified their race--one caption referred to them as "UNDERSEA GIANTS",  and two captions called them "UNDERSEA MONSTERS". Since they lived in the ocean's depths, their eyes were probably sensitive to light, which would explain why they chose to attack the surface at night.--Ron Fredricks

Since they look so similar, I wonder if the Undersea Giants are somehow connected with the Aquaticans (see Clarifications) -- although the Aquaticans were only about the same size as humans, perhaps the Undersea Giants were members of that race who altered their size with genetic engineering, Pym Particles, etc.

...and no explanation was ever given as to how the Statue of Liberty came to life and fought off the Giants -- myself, I'd like to think that maybe it was Dr. Stephen Strange (who was active in those pre-Marvel years) working behind-the-scenes and casting a spell to somehow animate the Statue, but your theory is as good as mine...

The Undersea Giants story wasn't the only time the Statue of Liberty behaved as an animated entity. See also [Journey Into Mystery I#46 (May, 1957) 5th story] and [Astonishing#24 (April, 1953) 5th story]. In Sub-Mariner Comics#35 (August, 1954) Human Torch story (on the last page the Statue of Liberty burnt 2 Communist spies using its torch). The Statue of Liberty isn't the only U.S. symbol to behave as an animated entity, see the Giants of Mount Rushmore and even U.S. factory machines [Journey Into Mystery I#88 (January, 1963) 2nd story]. Perhaps this is the power of Marvel's Uncle Sam [Captain America I#383 (March, 1991) 1st story] & [All-Winners Comics#6 (Fall 1942) Human Torch story] to animate inanimate objects?
--Gammatotem

New and improved images by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by John Kaminski.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Undersea Giants have no known connections to:

The Statue of Liberty

Given as a gift to the United States by France in 1886, the 110-foot-tall Statue stands on Ellis Island in the harbor outside New York City.

When the Undersea Giants attacked the surface world, the Statue somehow came to life and threw all the Giants back into the sea, but it sustained minor damage to its right hand.

The next day, two repairmen went to fix the damage, but wondered how the huge statue could have "skinned" its knuckles.

--Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5

(Comment: The damage may have been inflicted when the Undersea Giants fired their handguns at it [see fourth image of main profile].)

images: (without ads)
Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5, p2, pan4 (scout speaks to king on throne; other giants [background])
Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5, p2, pan5 (king [left] gives order to attack surface world)
Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5, p3, pan6 (Undersea Giants on surface)
Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5, p4, pan2 (Undersea Giants fire their handguns)
Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5, p4, pan1 (Statue of Liberty's hand reaches for Undersea Giants)
Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5, p5, pan7 (repairmen find damage to Statue of Liberty's knuckles)

Appearances:
Amazing Adult Fantasy#13/5 (June, 1962) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Steve Ditko (artist), Artie Simek (letters)

First Posted: 06/09/2006
Last updated: 01/27/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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