Gargantus
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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 Robert Bernstein and the immortal Jack Kirby.
[edit] 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. Obviously, this was a brilliant idea. Fortunately, Iron Man was in the vicinity and through his keen powers of observation 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 lead Gargantus into a trap where it was pulled apart by magnets controlled by Iron Man. Iron Man then exposed the alien space ship that was hiding nearby in a cloud. The aliens had been controlling Gargantus by remote control. The aliens were angered by this development and fled from the scene.
But all is not well, as Tony Stark (Iron Man) was late for his date and annoyed his girlfriend, Marion. So the aliens did prove that they were truly evil and had their revenge.
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.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Gargantus is a giant robot that looks like a Neanderthal man, with the exception of its glowing artificial eyes (a minor oversight of human biology on the part of the aliens). It has superhuman strength and the ability to hypnotize people. Gargantus also carries a giant wooden club. For some reason, this weapon proved to be rather 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 ingeniously postulated that if they made a large caveman, everyone on Earth would acknowledge it as their leader and surrender the planet without a fight.
[edit] Other Gargantus
Gargantus was also the name of a giant blue aquatic humanoid monster that appeared in Strange Tales #80 and #85.
