Gargantus

In the Marvel comics, Gargantus is the first supervillain Iron Man has fought. The character first appeared in Tales of Suspense #40 (April, 1963). He was created by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, and Jack Kirby.

Fictional character biography

Gargantus was an android sent by an extraterrestrial invasion force to take over the small town of Granville. In order to hide their presence, the aliens decided to disguise the robot as a giant Neanderthal man. Fortunately, Iron Man was in the vicinity and discerned that Gargantus was a robot (it had light bulbs in its eyes, which gave it away).

Iron Man challenged Gargantus to a fight and led Gargantus into a trap where it was pulled apart by three magnets controlled by Iron Man. Iron Man then exposed an alien space ship, hiding nearby in a cloud that he noticed was not moving, that had been controlling Gargantus by remote control. The aliens fled from the scene.

Much later, Gargantus returned in Tony Stark's nightmares, which were induced by Count Nefaria. In these dreams Gargantus was with all of Iron Man's other enemies in a great battle against Iron Man. He had a more human appearance by then, and was capable of speech.

Powers and abilities

Gargantus is a giant robot that looks like a Neanderthal man, with the exception of its glowing artificial eyes. It has superhuman strength and the ability to hypnotize people. Gargantus also carries a giant wooden club, which was ineffective against Iron Man.

The reason for its design as a Neanderthal was that the aliens had not been to Earth since 80,000 years ago and thought our planet was still occupied by cavemen. The aliens postulated that if they made a large caveman, everyone on Earth would acknowledge it as their leader and surrender the planet without a fight.

Other Gargantus

Gargantus was also the name of a giant blue aquatic humanoid monster that appeared in Strange Tales #80 and #85.