Friday, November 14, 2014

"Orrgo or Go Home" might've been a better title...


I went back and added "Marvel Adventures" as a tag, because until I saw classic Marvel monster Orrgo and Ben Grimm judging a beauty contest that gets crashed by A.I.M., I didn't realize I wanted that in a comic. From 2008, Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #35, "Go One Way Orrgo Another" Written by Paul Tobin, pencils by David Nakayama, inks by Cory Hamscher. Reprinted in digest form as New York's Finest, although sadly without the Chris Giarusso Mini Marvels strips!

The Thing is able to single-handedly stop the alien invasion of Orrgo, but Ben's feelings are a little hurt when Johnny says he caught the tailend of that fight: it was a big, hideous orange rock monster, not unlike Ben. Still, back at the Baxter Building, the guys are distracted when they get an invite to judge a beauty contest, but Orrgo turns out to be another guest judge! Orrgo suggests Ben chalk up trying to enslave earth as his "reckless youth," but Ben points out that was last week. A.I.M. is there since they used the contest as cover to sneak in some (apparently super-hot) scientists, but they don't realize model Chili Storm already has their number. "Guys talk around pretty girls, and I'm the prettiest." The ruckus starts when A.I.M. decides to try and steal Orrgo's technology, not realizing all his powers were mental, not tech. Johnny is responsible for maybe 60% of that ruckus...

Marvel ran with these low-continuity, ostensibly for kids books for some time; starting with vaguely manga-influenced re-tellings of classic tales before branching into more original stories. And the more offbeat they got, generally the better they were: go back through the tag for classics like "Doom, Where's My Car?" or "A Not-So-Beautiful Mind" or "Would You Like Living Darkness with That?"

3 comments:

SallyP said...

Marvel does seem to come up with some bizarre stuff...which in my book is a good thing.

I loved that Fin Fang Foom series from a few years back, where Foom and a bunch of Kirby Monsters were just trying to make a living and Reed Richards was more or less a complete idiot.

Fabulous!

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Which one was that Sally?

I'm sold Goo! Ben and Orrgo playing Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell? Nice.

Also sounds like old potential What THE!? stories as well.

SallyP said...

Darn it Dale, I can't remember the name of the mini-series, but it had Fin Fang Foom and Goom and it was utterly hilarious...with a whole bunch of Kirby monsters.