Unleash the Beasts: Rorgg

With so many classic creatures on the loose in Monsters Unleashed, we turn to their earlier adventures thanks to Marvel Unlimited.

Do you remember when the Spider Man debuted in 1961 and tried taking over the Earth? Probably not, because JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #64 didn’t quite get as many eyeballs as the next year’s AMAZING FANTASY #15. And yet, the issue introduced the world to Rorgg, King of the Spider Men. The Stan Lee-Jack Kirby story revolved around a race of Spider Men who could travel through the cosmos on their webbing.

Those strands eventually lead Rorgg and his posse to Earth where they decided to take over. A young man and comic fan named Tim discovered the first strands in his New Mexico town. Soon enough everyone around tried chopping up the webs to no avail. Rorgg revealed himself along with his intentions before long, but that didn’t stop Tim from trying his best to stop the menace. He ran into a hardware store, grabbed some DDT and blasted the baddie, killing him in the process.

The issue ended with Tim’s dad extolling the virtues of comics: “Those science-fiction stories stimulate their imagination, their desire to know, to understand!” he said. “And in a universe filled with countless unknown dangers, we need inquiring, imaginative minds! We may someday need them for our very survival!” It seems a safe bet that at least a few comic fans memorized that very speech and tried it on their parents!

Rorgg actually returned along with a few other famous monsters in the pages of books like FANTASTIC FOUR UNLIMITED #7, HULK MONSTER-SIZE SPECIAL, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #649 and even UNCANNY X-MEN #33.