Deviant Deviations - The Gortokians!

In X-Men #41 we meet the Gortokians. This is yet another subterranean race which eventually will be yet another variation of Deviant genetic technology. They were specifically bred as slaves who were used to erect the sprawling underground cities occupied by the Deviant race. The race was almost completely destroyed by underground nuclear testing. 
 

The one exception was a particularly nasty chap named "Grotesk" who sought vengeance for his slaughtered people and tried to achieve by killing Professor Xavier, the leader of the X-Men. At that time the X-Men thought Professor X was indeed slain and the team eventually broke up for a brief time. But soon they learned that another mutant named "Changeling" had substituted himself for Xavier while the latter prepared for a massive alien invasion. 

It is suggested in some sources that the "Golden People" first and only seen in Marvel Super-Heroes #19 in a Ka-Zar story are a remnant of the Gortokians. 

Next time it's the ultimate Deviant deviation when we head into deepest space with the Skrulls. 

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Deviant Deviations - The Lava Men!

The Lava Men were first revealed to the Marvel Universe readers in the pages of Journey Into Mystery #97 when he battles a lone Lava Man. I love the way that Jack Kirby and Don Heck rendered the Lava Man in this story, he's very distinctive and menacing. (I notice on the cover that Kirby has borrowed the old Alex Schomburg trick of having the hero and the villain presented much larger than the fleeing folks below.) This was of course at a time when Marvel was only just beginning to get a sense of each book participating in a larger universe, so the Lava Man was created without regard to any other subterranean race. 

The Lave Men show up as a race when they battle the Avengers in the fifth issue of that venerable run. Like the Moloids and the Tyrannoids the Lava Men were a variation of life created by the Deviants during their never ending experimentation with the genetic code imparted to them by the Celestials.  Spectacular stuff! 

More to come when we meet more disparate Deviants on Monday when the Gortokians show up. 

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Deviant Deviations - The Mole People!

As it turns out, thanks to the magic of Retro-Continuity the Deviants have been an important  part of the Marvel Universe fabric from the very beginning. In Fantastic Four #1 the Fab 4 confront the weird menace of the Mole Man and track the villain to his lair on "Monster Island". 

It turns out at least some of the denizens of Monster Island were Deviant Mutates and that Monster Island was in fact a portal of sorts to the underworld Deviant empire below the surface of the Earth. Of course Stan and Jack were not cognizant of this fact at the time, but later continuity mavens at the "House of Ideas" found this a nifty solution to explain the origin of these weird creatures. 

And then later when the Hulk battles the imperious Tyrannus in his underworld kingdom he is assisted by his own peculiar henchmen. It's in the fifth issue of the Hulk's short-lived original series. 

 

Eventually these little folk were dubbed the "Tyrannoids" to distinguish them from a similar population of small pale folk. All of these creatures were as turned out the product of Deviant genetic experimentation. 

The Mole Man gets his own little mob of little people in his return in Fantastic Four #22. His folk are commonly called "Moloids" to distinguish them from their counterparts in thrall to Tyrannus. 

More Deviants to come -- The Lava Men. 

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