Fin Fang Foom
No place on Earth will give you safety, mortal, when Fin Fang Foom strikes!
Fin Fang Foom is a member of the Makluan species, extraterrestrial creatures that resemble dragons from the Far East. They have lone, elongated bodies and necks with green scales, wings, antennae, clawed hands and feet, and a frilled-finned tail. The Makluans are generally a peaceful species and their homeworld of Kakaranthara is known to be a utopia. Fin Fang Foom is an exception to the norm and this deviant is an agent of pure chaos. Compared to the native inhabitants of Terra, Fin Fang Foom is generally enormous at 414 feet tall and 146,000 lbs. but he can grow and shrink well, and take other forms. When Fin Fang Foom has been severely injured or tired, he can assume the form of another person to hide himself until he finds a safe place to hibernate and recover. He has extended his life for centuries by hibernating for extremely long periods.
History
A group of deviant Makluans that were bored of the peaceful civilization of their homeworld, Kakaranthara, also known as Maklu IV in the Maklu system of the Large Magellanic Cloud. They sought conquest and riches. They acquired a ship, and the ship's navigator found a planet that he felt was perfect for the greedy dragons' needs - Terra in the nearby Milky Way. The navigator plotted their course for the blue-green marble in the Sol system, and then all of the Makluans entered hibernation.
Medieval Times
The enormous Makluan ship landed in the Valley of Spirits, soon known as the Valley of Sleeping Dragons, near the beginning of the Tand Dynasty. This was considered a high point of Chinese culture and citizens were delighted to see the ship streak across the sky, believing it to be a shooting star. Once the Makluans landed, the navigator proposed that he stay behind in hibernation while the conquerors merged into the human population to begin their conquest. The other space dragons agreed and the navigator was left behind as they changed their shape to match local visitors before they scattered across the Xinjiang countryside.
Near the end of the 8th Century, the Makluan navigator was awakened from hibernation for reasons even he seems unable to remember. Whatever it was caused the sky dragon to enter a 2-decade rampage across the Middle Kingdom, reigning terror and destruction with his toxic and combustible breath attacks, massive claws, and powerful swipes of his tails. During this time, the dragon was titled "he whose limbs shatter mountains and whose back scrapes the sun," or Fin Fang Foom. As officials in the Tang Dynasty tried to figure out what to do about Fin Fang Foom's rampage, they were presented with a specific herb as a solution. An herb that they had never encountered before. They made a tranquilizer with this herb and used arrows to get it into Foom's bloodstream. As the sky dragon felt drowsiness set in, he flew back to the Makluan ship to enter hibernation. Buddhist monks and Chinese soldiers built a tomb around the caverns where the Makluan ship hid and guards were kept to keep it safe, whose duty was passed down to their children.
The Renaissance
The Mandarin was visiting his summer home in Tianjin Prefecture in the early years of the Qing dynasty. Several centuries earlier, he had stolen his 10 rings of power from the Makluan ship and used them to give himself eternal life and to build his criminal syndicate. The Mandarin then met the one responsible for bringing the rings to him. The colossal Fin Fang Foom sacked the prefecture for an unknown reason but the Mandarin would later assume it was to reclaim the rings. The crimelord and his guards, members of the Five Weapons Society, engaged Foom and eventually forced him to retreat to the ruins of the tomb built around his sleeping body.
Cold War Era
Fin Fang Foom slept through the Industrial Revolution and World War II until a teenager in 1961 discovered him and conceived a desperate plan. The Chinese teen had discovered that Communist forces were marching toward his home and threatening his family and his neighbors. So he stole Foom's supply of the herb that kept him sleeping and took it to the Communist camp where he was then captured. Fin Fang Foom followed him back to the camp and decimated it and all of the soldiers inside. The teen then ran to the space dragon's tomb with Fin Fang Foom hot on his trail and returned the herb. When Foom once again entered his chamber, he returned to hibernation before he could kill the teen. The suicidal plan to save his village had worked.
Bruce Banner had fled the American military after they discovered he was the host of the Hulk but was pushed into the ocean and washed to Antarctica. The Hulk took over to save both of their lives and traversed the frozen lands until even the extreme climate overtook him. Scientists headquartered at Polar Station 1 found Banner’s body and brought him back to the Antarctic research station to render medical aid. Fin Fang Foom had battled Cable and Deadpool, chasing them across the globe until Odin stepped in and rescued the mutants. Foom was left badly injured and unconscious in Antarctica where he was buried in the ice and snow, but scientists from Polar Station 1 happened to discover him as they were nursing Banner back to health. Fin Fang Foom awakened when 1 of the scientists whistled at him and he broke free from the ice. Foom attacked the scientists and the research station but the Hulk took back over and engaged the giant space dragon. The two battled through the frozen wastes, exchanging blows and Hulk turning Fin Fang Foom's head away before it could hit him with its corrosive and combustible breath. Fin Fang Foom recognized the Hulk’s power and saw that humans feared the green monster just as they did him. So, he tried to convince Hulk to join forces. Hulk responds by grappling the giant monster and tossing him with enough force that he ends up crashing into the lunar surface. Then Hulk bounds away before the military can find him at Polar Station 1.
The Elder of the Universe known as the Collector had assembled a museum of the giant monsters that had plagued the Earth throughout history. The collection had been completed by acquiring Fin Fang Foom from the moon where the Hulk had unceremoniously deposited him to the museum under the Canadian wilderness. The Collector left for one of his other facilities, leaving the giant monster museum largely unattended when the Mole Man attacked. His forces overwhelmed the remaining guards and released the captive giants stored there. The Thing received the alert before anyone else when the monsters started attacking cities on their way toward New York but the rest of the Fantastic 4 were busy. The Thing had recently allowed Bruce Banner into the Baxter Building to shelter him from the American government, so he taunted Banner until he became the Hulk. The Thing convinced his green rival that it would be more fun to fight giant monsters than it would be to fight each other. Hulk agreed and the 2 left to engage them, later joined by Giant Man and Beast followed by Mr. Fantastic. When the fighting was done and the giant monsters were beaten, all of them including Fin Fang Foom were transported to Monster Island. But the space dragon decided he wasn't happy on the island and returned to his tomb to hibernate in peace.
It wasn't long before a madman called Doctor Vault took over Fin Fang Foom's mind and had him attack the Russian anti-Communist hero, It the Living Colossus. Amid the battle, an alien invasion came down and the pressure broke Foom free of Vault's control. Fin Fang Foom joined forces with It and fought off the invading aliens, thereby saving the Earth together. Foom justified it by saying he saved the Earth for his people to conquer it. Then Vault regained control of Fin Fang Foom and forced him to renew the attack on It. After the space dragon overpowered the living colossus, Foom broke free and returned to his tomb again.
The Mandarin used the rings of power to wake Fin Fang Foom to threaten the Communist regime in the People's Republic of China. Iron Man rushed to intervene but the Mandarin and Foom worked together to bring him to heel before he could stop Fin Fang Foom's plan. But Fin Fang Foom's plan was not the Mandarin's plan and it was at this moment Foom called to the other Makluans who shed their human forms to begin their conquest of Earth. The Mandarin freed Iron Man when he saw no other options after his plot backfired. They combined forces to combat the Makluan threat. Iron Man used his engineering genius to integrate the power of the 10 Rings into his armor creating a blast equal to a small atomic weapon that wiped the Makluans out, yet Fin Fang Foom survived.
Superhuman Registration Era
The Avengers and the Justice League detected troubling phenomena in deep space that suggested the destruction of entire worlds. At that time, both teams engaged powerful supervillains, and a shadowy being of cosmic power called Krona appeared to the Grandmaster of Sakaar and demanded to know the universe’s origin. Somehow the Grandmaster prevented Krona from destroying Sakaar but didn't prevent it from going to Terra where it rallied giant monsters of all forms including Starro, who attacked New York, and Fin Fang Foom who attacked San Fransokyo after he met with Krona on Monster Island. Amid the battle, Foom realized that he wasn't on board with the direction Krona was taking and turned on him to fight with the Justice League. After Foom lost the other Makluan conquerors, the space dragon truly lost any sense of direction but something told him Krona was leading everyone to annihilation. When the Justice League and Avengers stopped the attack and pushed all the monsters back to where they came from, Fin Fang Foom returned to his tomb with little to say. Although this opening salvo by Krona started a fight between the members of the world's mightiest superteams.
Once Foom recovered from his injuries after the Krona incident, Fin Fang Foom assumed human form and decided to reconsider his place in the world. He joined a Buddhist monastery for some time and became a practitioner. Then he discovered that Reed Richards started a program to rehabilitate any metahuman or enhanced individual following the Superhuman Civil War. Fin Fang Foom reported to the Baxter Building to request to be part of this program. He was accepted and went through rehabilitation with superior marks. Once finished, Foom took a day job as the head chef at the Chinese Restaurant that operated out of the lobby of the Baxter Building.
Dr. Strange's manservant, Wong was walking the streets of New York City on Christmas, 2006 when he bumped into Fin Fang Foom in his human form. Wong followed Foom until they ended up in Times Square staring at a big rig with a giant robotic Santa causing a traffic jam. Foom seemed uninterested in talking with Wong as he watched the commotion on the street. The NYPD tried to get the robot Santa out of the way and other drivers were fighting with police and the drivers of the truck carrying Santa. Then the robotic Santa came to life and attacked Times Square as Hydra agents began swarming the streets and indiscriminately firing into the crowds. Wong asked Fin Fang Foom for help but the space dragon declined because he didn't like humans. So, Wong went it alone but he couldn't handle the swarm of Hydra agents and their giant robot. Seemingly beaten, the master of the mystic arts was surrounded by Hydra Claus and its agent handlers until Foom took his natural form and sneezed his deadly breath onto the Santa's fuel tank causing it to explode. After that, Wong and Fin Fang Foom made short work of the Hydra goons. The sorcerer asked the dragon why he decided to help and Foom answered that he didn't like watching anyone fight alone. Wong invited the space dragon for dinner but he declined and walked away alone. And that is how Fin Fang Foom saved Christmas.
Fin Fang Foom found himself battling Hulk outside a resort in Oahu, Hawaii. In the middle of the battle, Foom suddenly realized he wasn't sure how he got there or why he and the Hulk were fighting. When Foom posed that question to his green adversary, Hulk didn't know either and they stopped fighting before they left to avoid the authorities and find drinks. Fin Fang Foom and Hulk didn't know that a teenage boy named Kei Kawade had summoned them by drawing their battle while vacationing with his family at the resort.
Creatures from Outer Space that had come to be known as Leviathons began attacking the Earth, Fin Fang Foom and other giant monsters found themselves summoned to the attacks and suddenly engaged with the beasts. It took a few encounters before Fin Fang Foom discovered that Kei Kawade's drawings were creating the Leviathons and summoning Foom and the other monsters. The space dragon confronted the teenage boy about his ability and how he was using it. Foom demanded that he stop but the worst-case scenario had already been done. The final invasion had already begun and the heroes and giant monsters couldn’t beat the monsters back. Fin Fang Foom made a desperate effort to save the Earth by engaging the Leviathon Mother directly but she swallowed him whole. Defeat seemed certain until Kei Kawade arrived with his new set of original monsters that defeated the Leviathon Mother and freed Fin Fang Foom. The space dragon assisted the other monsters and Earth’s heroes to defeat the rest of the invading Leviathons before returning to a mundane life.
Aliases:
- Black Dragon
- Fin Fang Fool
- Fin Fang Foom*
- He Whose Limbs Shatter Mountains and Whose Back Scrapes the Sun
- Serpent
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