Sometimes, your favorite characters aren’t anyone else’s favorite characters. There is, after all, no accounting for taste. Behold the power of… THE LIVING COLOSSUS!

Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Tales of Suspense #14 awaits!

TALES OF SUSPENSE #14

Writer:  Stan Lee/Larry Lieber
Penciler: Jack Kirby
Inker: Dick Ayers
Colorist: Stan Goldberg
Letterer: Artie Simek
Editor: Stan Lee
Publisher: Vista Publishing Company (Marvel Comics)
Cover Price: 10 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $800.00
Release Date: September 28, 1960

Previously in Tales of Suspense: Launching in the pre-Fantastic Four era of Marvel Comics, Tales of Suspense and its sister publication, Tales to Astonish, were among many books that seemed designed to cash in on Cold War paranoia, the kind that drove the success of The Twilight Zone on TV. Though later issues would become the home of Captain America and Iron Man, the first 38 issues are anthologies that feature science fiction and suspense. A few characters popped up later in the Mighty Marvel Age (like Defenders foe Chondu The Mystic or alien monster Googam, Son of Goom), but most of them didn’t get into a kung-fu fight with a dragon later on. We begin behind the Iron Curtain, near Moscow, near the height of Soviet power, with an artist named Boris Petrovski.

Having long been suspected of harboring anti-government tendencies, Boris is given an ultimatum by the head of the secret police… his own brother! A sculptor by trade, Boris is allowed to live, so long as he creates a statue to celebrate the state. A statue so big that everyone will see its shadow as representing the reach of Soviet efforts. The 100-foot-tall colossus he creates fits the bill, getting not only the attention of his evil dictator, but of forces beyond Earth itself.

In short, a flying saucer!

The insectoid alien possesses the Colossus, smashing free of the studio as the horrified secret police and their overlord watch in horror. Their guns prove useless, as do walls, electric fences, and even cannons, as the Colossus rampages through their totalitarian “utopia.” I’ve always liked the duo of Kirby and Dick Ayers, as Ayers softened some of the harder edges of Silver Age Kirby, while giving the Kirby’s pencils even more detail.

Witness what happens when The Living Colossus is faced with a fusillade of heavy artillery.

Honestly, if it weren’t for the strange bright yellow color blocking in that final panel, this page would be absolutely flawless, combining the incredible power of Kirby with the sleekness of Ayers. The alien destroys the regiment, then wanders into the sea, smashing Soviet nuclear subs with its massive stone hands. The terrifying display convinces the government to respond with a little excessive force of their own, dispatching a plane carrying a hydrogen bomb.

Of course, powered by the strange abilities of the alien Kigor, The Living Colossus is a threat not just on land or in the sea.

Having witnessed the rampage of his creation, Boris breaks free of his bonds just in time to see ANOTHER flying saucer arriving to save the alien. Was his battle just a cry for help all along?

As the only living witness to the aliens, Boris vows to go to his grave with the secret (which, as we find out in issue #20, may or may not have happened). Instead, he chooses to make the point that The Living Colossus came to life to battle his nation’s evil leadership, in the hopes that it will restore “freedon.”

I usually wouldn’t make fun of a misspelling like that, but you have to admit, a story about championing freedom that misspells freedom is pretty funny.

The upshot of Tales of Suspense #14 is a giant stone statue, ripe for the animatin’, leading to a brief, memorable run in Astonishing Tales circa 1973, but more than that, a character created by Lee and Kirby whose motivations run deeper than the average sci-fi horror comic villain, earning 4 out of 5 stars overall. If you’ve never encountered It, The Living Colossus, I recommend tracking down those back issues, if only to see a giant stone statue having a karate duel with a fifty-foot alien dragon.

(Why? Because 1973, that’s why!)

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