Publication History
Stan Lee's inspiration for the character's name was the title of the 1934 movie version of the long-running British stage musical Chu Chin Chow. As Lee described in 2005,
When I was a kid, I loved going to the movies. When I say a kid, I mean 10, 11, 12 years old. And there was one movie I'd seen. I remembrer nothing about it except the name. It took place in China, I believe, and the name of the movie was Chu Chin Chow. Now I have no idea what it meant — I don't know if it was somebody's name or a country or a city, but I never forgot that name. Those three words just stuck in my memory: Chu Chin Chow. So when I was looking for the name of a monster, I remember Chu Chin Chow ... and that particular meter, that beat, somehow led to Fin Fang Foom.The character first appeared in a one-shot story "Fin Fang Foom" in Strange Tales #89 (Oct. 1961) and reappeared in Astonishing Tales #23 - 24 (April & June 1974). He was impersonated by the Midgard Serpent in Thor #379 (May 1987). His first story was reprinted in Fantasy Masterpieces #2 (April 1966), Where Monsters Dwell #21 (May 1973) and Marvel Monsterworks (1990). Foom eventually reappeared in Marvel continuity in Legion of Night #1 - 2 (Oct. 1991), and then made multiple appearances in Iron Man #261 - 264 (Oct. 1991 - Jan. 1992); 267 (April 1991) & 270 - 275 (July - Dec. 1992), and returned in Iron Man vol. 3, #15 - 18 (April - July 1999).
An alternate version appears in Mutant X Annual 2001. Foom briefly appeared in the intercompany crossover JLA/Avengers #1 (Sept. 2003). The villain Nightmare changed a creature called a Mindless One into a copy of Foom to battle the Hulk in Hulk vol. 3, #79 (May 2005).
The character's origins and early days are developed in Marvel Monsters: Monsters On The Prowl #1 (Dec. 2005) and Fin Fang Four #1 (Dec. 2005). Foom also appeared in Nextwave #1 - 2 (March - April 2006), Marvel Holiday Special 2006 (Jan. 2007), in a dream in Howard the Duck Vol. 3 #1 (Nov. 2007), in Iron Man: Las Vegas (May - June 2008); and appeared briefly in the limited series Age of the Sentry #1-6 (Sept. 2008 - May 2009); one-shot titles Monster-Size Hulk #1 (Dec. 2008) and Dark Reign Files #1 (April 2009) and featured in another monster one-shot, Fin Fang Four Return! (July 2009) as well as another version in Hulk: Broken Worlds #2 (July 2009).
Read more about this topic: Fin Fang Foom
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