Fin Fang Foom

**Fin Fang Foom** appeared in 1961 Marvel Comics called *Strange Tales*.

Fin Fang Foom is a Makluan, a shape-shifting alien being from the world of Kakaranthara (also known as Maklu IV) in the Maklu system of the Greater Magellanic Cloud. He resembles a somewhat anthropomorphic Chinese dragon. Foom and several other like-minded members of his race departed their peaceful homeworld centuries ago with the intention of conquering other planets. Landing on Earth in ancient China, the crew used their natural shape-shifting powers to mimic human form, intending to enter human society and bide their time before beginning their conquest. The navigator of the craft, Foom instead elected to serve as a "back-up" in case something went wrong, and was placed in a tomb and given a herb that would send him into a deep slumber, so that he might sleep while his crew entered man's world.

Fin Fang Foom was somehow briefly awakened in the 8th Century, and returned to sleep through a second application of the herb. He consequently entered into Chinese legend -- whose name, roughly translated, means "He Whose Limbs Shatter Mountains and Whose Back Scrapes the Sun". A group of humans were placed as guards outside his tomb, passing the job on to their descendants. The surrounding region became known as the Valley of the Sleeping Dragon.

At one time, Thor claimed that the door to the Hall of Bones at Ymir-Krul in Nidavellir was crafted from the skeleton of Fin Fang Foom after Thor slew him. Fin Fang Foom revealed that in his battle with Thor, he had "eluded his killing stroke" and escaped to Antarctica to hibernate, encased in ice.

During the Qing Dynasty, he attacked the Tianjin Prefecture, but was stopped by Zheng Zu and the Five Weapons Society.

Foom slept until the year 1961, when he was deliberately awakened by teenager Chen Liuchow, whose homeland was under threat from the Communist Chinese. Liuchow taunted Foom with the threat of the herb, goading the dragon into chasing him, and led him straight into the Communist camp, which Foom decimated. Liuchow subsequently led him back into his tomb, where the herb returned Foom to his sleep.

At some point early in Hulk's adventures, but after his identity as Bruce Banner was publicly known, Fin Fang Foom was released from his frozen state in Antarctica, and he shape-shifted into a humanoid form. They encountered each other at a nearby base. Foom believed Hulk could become and ally. However after returning to his true dragon form the two creatures exchanged blows. During the fight the Hulk threw Foom out of the atmosphere where Foom ended up on the moon.

It is not explained how Fin Fang Foom was back in the ice from centuries before, why he didn't remember his intermediate adventures from the Valley of the Sleeping Dragon, or how he left the moon.

At some point, the sleeping Fin Fang Foom was captured by the Elder of the Universe known as the Collector and imprisoned in his subterranean collection of monsters. Foom and the other monsters were liberated when the Mole Man attacked the facility. They were later rounded up by the recently-formed Fantastic Four and deposited on Monster Isle. The island had no real security measures, however, and Foom, being more intelligent than his fellow monsters, simply departed the island and returned to his hibernation. Outside forces again acted upon him as the madman called Doctor Vault took mental control of Foom and had him attack It the Living Colossus. Resisting control, Foom instead helped It fend off an invasion of Earth by the alien race called the Stonians, thus saving the planet for his own race to later conquer. Vault's mind control again briefly forced Foom to battle It, and Foom overpowered his opponent with martial arts before freeing his mind and returning to his tomb yet again.

Years later, Fin Fang Foom was again roused from his slumber when his body was possessed by the demon Aan Taanu. Combating the group of occult adventurers known as the Legion of the Night in New York, Taanu was exorcised from Foom's body by his opponents, and the confused Foom once again escaped to his resting place.

At some point the villainous Mandarin was directed to the Valley of the Sleeping Dragon by the starship captain Axonn-Karr, in the human guise of Chen Hsuin. There the Mandarin ransacked the starship for artifacts, including his now-signature rings of power. He also awoke Fin Fang Foom, using him to threaten the Chinese government. Iron Man quickly confronted the villains and was defeated, but when the remaining dozen other Makluans shed their human forms to begin their conquest, Iron Man and the Mandarin combined forces to combat the threat. Ultimately the Mandarin combined the power of his rings with Iron Man's armor, yielding a small nuclear blast that wiped the aliens out.

This was not, however, the end of Fin Fang Foom. Though his body was destroyed, his spirit endured by bonding itself to a small dragon statue. This statue was later stolen from a curio shop by teenager Billy Yuan at Foom's mental urging. Using Yuan's body as a conduit for his power, Foom summoned thousands of lizards from the sewers beneath New York, merging them with Billy's body to recreate his own form. Iron Man was able to defeat him, however, with some help from the last remnants of Billy's mind within Foom's own, and he was taken into the custody of Sunset Bain.

Legal complications resulted in Foom being exiled to Monster Isle once again, where he and several other monsters briefly battled the dimensionally displaced Justice League of America.

Jormungand the Midgard Serpent took the form of Fin Fang Foom to trick Thor into battle, but then revealed his true form to Thor.

Having spent some time rethinking his role in the world, Foom had become a follower of Buddhism, and, with the rest of his crew gone, he decided to reform. He willfully entered into a rehabilitation program spearheaded by Reed Richards, in which he and three other monsters -- the robot Elektro, the giant ape Gorgilla, and the alien Googam -- were shrunk down to human size, hypnotically stripped of their powers, and allowed to enter human society. Foom took up a job as head chef in a Chinese restaurant within the Baxter Building.

Foom later teamed up with the other monsters to defeat the Microverse's size-changing warlord, Tim Boo Baa. For a time the four were celebrated as minor heroes.

During Christmas time in New York City, Wong, manservant to Doctor Strange walked down the street past many bitter New Yorkers, one of whom knocked him into Fin Fang Foom. Since he loved reading stories about him as a child, Wong decided to follow him down the street. Soon, they ended up in Times Square, where a big rig with a giant robotic Santa was causing a traffic jam. Hydra was hidden on the truck, and the robotic Santa came to life. Wong looked to Foom for help in stopping them, but Foom hated humans and refused to help. Crushed, Wong battled Hydra alone. Unfortunately, Wong was no match for them alone, so Foom helped him. Next, Wong, under Foom's orders, drove the truck into the rampaging Santa, which knocked it onto the truck. Then, Foom sneezed fire into the robot's gas tank, blowing it up. The Hydra agents surround Wong and Foom. Luckily, a neighborhood faction of Hydra appeared and started arguing with the other Hydra agents. Foom took the opportunity to incite a fight between them. Afterwards, Wong asked Foom why he saved him. Foom said, despite his hatred for humanity, he disliked seeing others fight alone. Wong offered to make him dinner with his master, but Foom turned him down. As Foom walked away, Wong wondered what it would be like to be the last of his kind like Foom.

Fin Fang Foom later battled Squirrel Girl and lost, like many before him. This fight led her to leave the Great Lakes Avengers.

The Roxxon Energy Corporation had psychic mutant Mentallo mind-control Fin Fang Foom and other giant monsters in a plot to take over an island and drill for oil.

Tyrannus' wishing well summoned Fin Fang Foom to Las Vegas alongside Arm'Cheddon, Bi-Beast, Umar, and a Wendigo to fight Hulk. After Umar imprisoned Arm'Cheddon, Bi-Beast, and Wendigo in the Dark Dimension, Fin Fang Foom accompanied Tyrannus in raiding it.

When Kei Kawade was vacationing with his family in Oahu, Hawaii, he drew a picture of Fin Fang Foom fighting Hulk. This causes Fin Fang Foom and Hulk to appear outside where Kei Kawade is vacationing.

At the time when Leviathons have been appearing around the world, Fin Fang Foom confronted Kei Kawade alongside Gorgilla, Green Thing, and Zzutak. Fin Fang Foom was the one who told Kei about the recklessness of his monster summoning through drawing. Fin Fang Foom was later seen falling out of the sky alongside the other monsters. Fin Fang Foom rallied the other monsters to help fight the Leviathon Tide where Tim Boo Ba told him that they are not fighting on their own volition. Fin Fang Foom and the other monsters teleported away following their victory against the Leviathons. Kei Kawade teleported Fin Fang Foom to help the Heroes for Hire against the Leviathons in Hell's Kitchen. When the Leviathon Mother defeats most of the heroes and Goliathons, Fin Fang Foom engages the Leviathon Mother and is swallowed until Kei Kawade arrives with his own monsters. Following the Leviathon Mother's death and the retreating of the other Leviathons, Fin Fang Foom and the other Goliathons confronted Kei. Though Kei thanks them for their help, Fin Fang Foom warns Kei about summoning them again. Fin Fang Foom and the Goliathons are teleported away.

Fin Fang Foom eventually resurfaced on Earth, briefly turned into a pawn of the Controller through the villain's Slave Discs. The Controller set the dragon loose in collision course with Manhattan as a distraction for Iron Man. After initially deploying a bespoke Fin Fang Foombuster Armor, the hero used his Nano-Armor to infiltrate Foom's body, discovering the Slave Disc and destroying it. Once freed from the Controller's influence, Foom instantly ceased hostilities and prompty left.

Afterward, Foom decided to get rid of his inner demons and cleanse himself. This worked, but he was reduced to much smaller scale, while his negative emotions he had just purged became full on living Makluans on their own and deemed Foom a coward and traitor, forcing him to flee to the Avengers Mountain for help. However, instead of finding the Avengers, he found the Agents of Wakanda who began fighting the other Makluans. Foom decided to hide while the ordeal was going on, until he was discovered by Broo, who convinced him to face his dark side and do the right thing. Foom confronted his living dark emotions and merged with them, becoming whole once more, but with his dark emotions having returned, he himself began laying waste to the heroes. Thankfully, Broo managed to convince him to not attack them, so Foom formed a truce with the heroes and left.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Makluan Physiology:** Foom possesses various superhuman attributes common among his race. It isn't known, however, if the level of Foom's various powers is average or above average for a Kakarantharaian.
	+ **Superhuman Strength:** Foom possesses vast superhuman strength, the full limits of which aren't known. At his peak, however, it is known that he is able to lift well in excess of 100 tons.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina:** Foom's advanced musculature is far more efficient than the musculature of a human being. As a result, his muscles produce considerably less fatigue toxins than the muscles of a human. At his peak, he can exert himself physically for up to 24 hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him.
	+ **Superhuman Durability:** Foom's scaly body is highly resistant to all forms of conventional physical injury. He has been shown to withstand high caliber bullets, anti-tank weaponry, falls from tremendous heights, temperature extremes of both hot and cold, great impact forces and powerful energy blasts without sustaining injury. Foom can also survive in a vacuum environment, such as outer space, for an undefined period of time. As a result, he either has no need to breathe or can hold his breath for much longer than a human.
	+ **Superhuman Longevity:** Foom, like all members of his race, has an extraordinarily long lifespan. He has existed on Earth for thousands of years, though he remains as physically able now as when he first arrived. However, this doesn't mean that he is fully immune to ageing.
	+ **Shape-shifting:** Foom possesses the ability to alter both his physical appearance and size to a considerable degree. Foom can temporarily make himself look like a human being and has demonstrated the ability to increase his overall height from between 32 and 255 feet in the past.
	+ **Regenerative Healing Factor:** In spite of his high resistance, it is possible to cause Foom injury. If injured, his body's superior metabolism enables him to rapidly regenerate damaged or destroyed tissues much faster and more extensively than a human being. It is possible for Foom's healing capabilities to regrow severed limbs, though he may have to enter a state of hibernation to do so.
	+ **Spiritual Possession:** If Foom's body were to sustain injury beyond his natural ability to heal, his body will die but his spirit will remain as viable as ever and doesn't cross over into some form of afterlife. Foom's spirit can then possess the bodies of other beings, including humans. Foom can use these other bodies as hosts for a while before his energies wind up burning them out and killing them. However, what he typically does is somehow transform the body he inhabits into a copy of his original body possessing all of his various natural attributes. This ultimately explains Foom's reappearances despite having been witnessed being destroyed on multiple occasions.
	+ **Transmogrification (Potentially)**: Foom can project a transformative power beam from his eyes in order to physically morph anything he lays his eyes upon. This can range from transforming people into animals and rewriting brain function to mimic their states or animating lifeless matter and control their movements and actions.
	+ **Flight:** Foom's large, leathery wings are able to propel him through the air at great speeds for extended periods of time. While the upper limit of his flight speed isn't exactly known, it is believed to be well under the speed of sound.
	+ **Energy Assimilation:** Fin Fang Foom, while under the control of Tyrannus has shown that he can physically metabolize on raw energy and then bend it too his wishes. Able to scarf down a cluster of gamma nukes while growing in power, before regurgitating them as lethal projectiles akin to a fire breath attack.
	+ **Telepathy:** Foom has demonstrated that he possesses some degree of telepathic abilities, the full limits of which aren't known. Foom uses his telepathy to communicate with others and it's also known that he can control the minds of other reptilian life. Through some unknown means, possibly due to other psionic abilities, Foom once merged a number of reptiles together, creating a new body for himself.
	+ **Acid Mist:** Foom is able to expel a combustible mist from his mouth that has a highly acidic corrosive effect, though the mist actually resembles fire rather than mist itself. Foom's mist is able to quickly burn through most known substances or he can purposely channel the mist in the form of powerful concussive blasts.
	+ **Asexual Reproduction:** As a Makluan, Foom has the preternatural ability to self reproduce dozens to hundreds of Makluan eggs at a time by his lonesome.
	+ **Aspect Expulsion:** Fin Fang Foom was able to split his negative emotions from himself resulting in being reduced to a small scale, while his emotions manifested into their own beings.
	+ Foom is highly experienced with and in the use of the advanced technology of his home planet. He is an accomplished and proven spacecraft navigator and has proven himself to be an excellent hand to hand combatant. He has mastered the fighting style of his people, which happens to be identical to a number of Asian martial arts.

### Weakness

* Foom is extremely vulnerable to an unidentified herbal leaf found only in China. This herb is capable of quickly putting Foom to sleep for extremely long periods of time, perhaps indefinitely, as long as it remains in his general vicinity.