Since my post on Elf With A Gun got super-popular, here’s some more bizarre Marvel trivia for the folks who only know Marvel through the cinematic universe; or perhaps just don’t know much about comics:
Howard The Duck’s most prominent supervillain is known as Doctor Bong, with a speciality in making humanoid animals. He gets his name from the giant bell he wears on his head, which he can hit to give off strange and deadly vibrations.
Captain American was once a werewolf for a short time in the 90s
For a while, The Punisher worked for heaven as a literal angel of vengeance. And during another; more recent era; he was also a Frankenstein’s monster.
There is a superhero in the Marvel universe who is the son of Fu Manchu. His name is Shang Chi.
There was actually a Hostess Fruit Pies-ad-exclusive villain known as Chairman who had a gun that turned people into chairs. This is notable because, given how Marvel very recently introduced a different villain from those ads to mainline continuity, Marvel also probably owns the rights to him as well.
There was a supervillain called Turner D. Century, whose gimmick was that he was obsessed with the 1890s/1900s, and he had a flying tandem bicycle and an umbrella that shot fire and tried to kill everyone under the age of 65,
At one time, Godzilla was around in the Marvel universe, and his existence is still canon. The robot built to fight him, Red Ronin, still makes appearances now and then
An atheist horse-alien named Beta Ray Bill once yoinked Mjolnir from Thor and was worthy enough to wield it, and was so good at it that the gods of Asgard actually made him his own hammer.
God in the Marvel universe looks pretty much exactly Jack Kirby
There was a superhero called NFL Superpro who got his powers from the fumes of a burning mountain of football memorabilia and experimental chemicals. His writer created him to get free NFL tickets.
There is a superhero known as 3D Man whose gimmick is that he has the strength; durability and speed of THREE whole men!
Captain America once fought a conspiracy whose head was strongly implied to be Richard Nixon, who shot himself after Cap found him out.
Squirrel Girl, a woman with the power to control squirrels, is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe, who has beaten Doctor Doom, Galactus and even Thanos in combat.
Squirrel Girl is also on a team called The Great Lakes Avengers, whose members powers include the ability to teleport over to the next room, the power to grow grotesquely fat (But also super-strong) and the ability of immortality (But no other superpowers at all)
There was once a whole storyline in the Thor comics where Thor was transformed into a frog. It is considered one of the character’s most iconic stories and one of his best.
There is a female version of MODOK called MODAM
There was once a team of supervillains called The Headmen, with the theme of having fucked-up heads, most notably Ruby Thursday; who replaced her own head with a spherical; morphing red supercomputer. They were created by the same guy as Howard The Duck.
Thanos once rode his own helicopter. Not a super-awesome cosmic space helicopter mind you, just an ordinary yellow helicopter with his name on it.
Ghost Rider once teamed up with a character known only as “The Friend,” who was strongly implied to be Jesus Christ.
There is a company who specializes in cleaning up superhero battles known as Damage Control, created by the late; great Dwayne McDuffie.
There are canonical characters known as The Bushmaster and The Whizzer.
The Marvel Comics version of the Mandarin (Who is wildly different from the film version) got his supertechnology from a race of alien space-dragons, the most prominent representative of which is named Fin Fang Foom and wears tiny purple shorts.
For a while Marvel published an actual comic called Giant Sized Man-Thing. It was also written by the guy who created Howard the Duck, and indeed was where Howard got his first ongoing series.
The name of the man who created Howard the Duck was Steve Gerber. God bless Steve Gerber.
