It! The Living Colossus

It! The Living Colossus debuted in the 18-page science fiction story "I Created the Colossus" in the anthology series Tales of Suspense #14 (Feb. 1961), published by Marvel Comics' 1950s and early 1960s forerunner, Atlas Comics. Penciled by industry legend Jack Kirby and inked by Dick Ayers, and scripted by an uncredited writer, this "Marvel pre-superhero" monster returned for a 13-page sequel story, "Colossus Lives Again", by the same artistic team, in the by-now Marvel comic Tales of Suspense #20 (Aug. 1961).[2] The two stories were reprinted in, respectively, Monsters on the Prowl #17 (June 1972) and 25 (Sept. 1973).

The character was revived in Astonishing Tales #21 (Dec. 1973) by writer Tony Isabella and artist Dick Ayers, who both drew and lettered the stories. The feature ran four issues, through #24 (June 1974).[3]

Isabella said in 2001 that after the Theodore Sturgeon story "It!" in Supernatural Thrillers #1 (Dec. 1972) had sold well, "Came the word from on high that Marvel should do a regular 'It!' series". Marvel already had an It-like swamp monster in the Man-Thing, so, "looking over the sales figures for recent issues of Marvel's giant monster reprint books, we discovered the issues which reprinted the 'Colossus' stories by Jack Kirby [Monsters on the Prowl #17 and 25] sold much better than the other issues which had been published around the same time".[4]

In 2009, Isabella elaborated, saying editor-in-chief Roy Thomas:

...wanted to give me a series to write and knew I was a monster-movie fan. He asked for my input on our new 'It', and that's when I learned [the "Colossus" sales information]. I pitched him on the new 'It' being a continuation of those stories, though in my original pitch, the special effects-man hero of the second Colossus story had married his actress sweetheart and already started a family with her. Any member of the family would have been able to activate and control the Colossus. Roy steered me to the more dramatic premise of the hero being paralyzed.[5]

Assessing the series, Isabella said, "It was an honor working with Dick Ayers, one of the original 'Big Four' artists of the Marvel Universe. However, I don't think Dick was at his best here. He wasn't being treated very well by Marvel and it was showing in his work".[4]

In an unusual storytelling technique for the time, Isabella made longer stories than the budgeted 15-page tales by inserting reprint panels or pages from 1959-61 pre-superhero monster stories. "I could expand the page count of the 'It!' stories while including backstory which would have otherwise eaten up some of those new pages".[4]

Had the series continued, Isabella said in 2009, "subsequent stories would have featured Goom and Googam ... and a team-up with [the superhero] Thor to stop an invasion of Earth by the Storm Giants of Norse legend".[6]

The character perished in The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #244 (Feb. 1980), a fill-in issue, though it was rebuilt in another story the following decade. Writer Steven Grant recalled:

[Editor] Al Milgrom suggested It, mainly because he’d already enlisted Carmine [Infantino] to draw the story, and we both very fondly remembered all the superhero and sci-fi stories Carmine drew at DC in the ’50s and ’60s featuring giants, with an emphasis on giant feet. ... So Al suggested using It, Marvel’s most expendable giant character of the day. No longer sure which of us decided it was time to grind him into dust-Dust-DUST, but I do remember that was an intentional friendly rib at Jim Shooter's Korvac storyline in Avengers.[7]

It! the Living Colossus was a 100-foot-tall stone humanoid statue constructed by Moscow sculptor Boris Petrovski to protest the oppressive Soviet Union government.[8] It became animated initially by the mind transferal of a stranded alien from the Kigor race, and rampaged through Moscow. When the alien's rescue party arrived, the Kigors abandoned the Colossus and returned to their homeworld, leaving the statue inanimate.[9] The statue was later transported to Los Angeles, California and reanimated by the Kigors, who used it to attack the U.S. Army. The Kigors were defeated by Hollywood special effects designer Bob O'Bryan and the statue was again rendered inanimate.[10]

An accident later robbed O'Bryan of the use of his legs, compelling him to use a wheelchair. The statue was stolen by the evil Doctor Vault, who reduced its size from 100 feet (30 m) to 30 feet (9.1 m). Animated by the mind transferal of O'Bryan, It! battled Vault's minions and escaped.[11] It! went on to battle other monster foes.[12] O'Bryan later was cured and married Diane Cummings. The statue became controlled by Doctor Vault and was destroyed in battle with the Hulk. Doctor Vault appeared to die when he was unable to complete the transference of his mind from the statue back into his body.[13] it was rebuilt as a robot for use by O'Bryan in his films.[14] Later, the original It! was reconstituted by O'Bryan under the control of Lotus Newmark.[15]

After a battle with Doctor Doom, It! was lost in the Pacific Ocean near the Galápagos Islands. O'Bryan lost his connection to both his normal body and It! and his body was left in a vegetative state. Five years later, Deadpool assisted O'Bryan's niece in retrieving the Colossus from the ocean floor and restoring O'Bryan's mind.[16]

O'Bryan and It! were being considered as a "potential recruit" for the Initiative program.[17]

It! later appeared on Monster Isle when Shadowcat and Magik appeared to look for a mutant girl named Bo.[18]

Bob O'Bryan becomes It! through mind transferal into an animated stone statue and its composition had been altered by the Kigors. It has tremendous strength, stamina, and durability, as well as the ability to fly via gravity manipulation. As a statue, It! can survive underwater without air. However, it is vulnerable to nerve or knockout gas, which forces the command intelligence back into its original body.[19]

"Special psychokinetic nerve endings" implanted by the Kigors allow It! to be animated, either directly (as with those aliens) or by psychic transference (as with O'Bryan).[20]

There have been other characters in the Marvel Universe known as "It". These include:

• Roger Kirk, was known as "It, the Thing that Couldn't Die" in Supernatural Thrillers #1. Kirk had died in 1929 and became a swamp monster created from his reanimated skeleton and vegetation which accumulated around his skeleton. It murdered those around it until it fell into a stream, which washed the skeleton clean.
• An operation of Roxxon was known as "I.T." and was run by Albert DeVoor. I.T. went under different alias on each world in an effort to ignite a nuclear war between mainstream Marvel Earth (as Inter-Looking Technologies), Earth-A (as Inter-Related Technocracies) and the Fifth Dimension (as Inter-Politan Thermodynamics) in order to generate power for Polemachus (see Arkon). This occurred in Fantastic Four #160-163.
• In House of M: Fantastic Four #1, Ben Grimm, the only survivor of the ill-fated space shuttle flight of Reed Richards and his crew, was captured and named "the It" by Victor von Doom and was a member of the Fearsome Foursome.
• In Tales to Astonish #92-93, a robot of unknown origins was called "It the Silent One". It was activated on the ocean floor and battled Namor the Sub-Mariner. It was destroyed after a collision with a submarine.

It! The Living Colossus was ranked #27 on a listing of Marvel Comics' monster characters in 2015.[23]

• It the Living Colossus at Marvel.com