Taboo

History: The living mountain of mud known as Taboo crashed in the Amazon jungle ages ago. Discovered by adventurer Lewis Conrad, Taboo convinced Conrad that he was peaceful and needed all earthly scientific knowledge to rebuild his spaceship. Conrad went to the United Nations and told them of Taboo, and later he and a team returned with a device they said contained all information. Taboo grabbed the device and revealed his true intentions: to use the information for an invasion. Taboo levitated into space where there was an explosion; the device was actually a disquised H-bomb in case Taboo proved hostile.

The scattered, living fragments of Taboo drifted back to Earth until they gathered into one huge mass in New York's Central Park and reformed into Taboo, who then threatened the city. A spaceship carrying mud-men arrived; they were from Taboo's home planet and were peaceful. They took the mentally disturbed Taboo back home for treatment.

Taboo was later seen among a group of monsters being held in the Collector's subterranean museum beneath the surface of Canada. The monsters escaped captivity during the Collector's battle with the Mole Man, and some of the monsters (including Taboo) attacked New York City, but were fought off by an alliance of the Thing, the Hulk, Giant-Man, and the Beast. The defeated monsters were later dispatched into the Negative Zone.

In modern times, Xemnu The Living Titan/Hulk created duplicates of five monsters, one of which was Taboo, to battle The Incredible Hulk. The Incredible Hulk destroyed the Taboo duplicate.

Height: Variable

Demonstrated Powers: Taboo was a sentient mud-like creature that appeared in a roughly humanoid form. He could alter his shape and size. Bullets would pass through the loose mud of his body. Taboo could reform his body if it was scattered by an explosion. He could hurl portions of his body as throwing weapons, and was strong enough to smash builldings. Taboo communicated by mental telepathy, and could levitate the mass of his body.

Comment: Taboo's race may be related to the same race as The Sandman, in that both were beings whose bodies were composed of animated earth elements, the main difference being The Sandman would become immoble when in a mud-like state.

Comment: Taboo should not be confused with the sorcerer Taboo introduced in Werewolf By Night # 13.

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Is it just me, or does Taboo look like he might be the big brother of Mr. Hanky, the talking poo from “South Park”?

There is a Taboo-prototype in Uncanny Tales#53(3/57)”the mud walks”-a Sandman size creature seen on the cover(www.comics.org/details.lasso).

A far earlier prototype for Taboo was in SPELLBOUND#22;''The Thing In the Mud'',I read on Scott Shaw's ODDBALL COMICS site that that issue of UNCANNY TALES was actually about the Golem of Semetic folklore,so That story may or may not be the first Golem in a Marvel comic,I remember This really crappy STRANGE TALESseries using him,and of course the character from THE INVADERS,so a no-prize to you! PS:I'll admit He was kind of a racist,thinking the natives were scared by an alligator because they were so stupid,and that MONSTER HUNTERS:FROM THE FILES OF ULLYSEES BLOODSTONE,made it clear He was a different,seperate person;but doesnt Lewis Conrad look like Ben Grimm with blond hair?

Namor The Sub-Mariner#6-7 has what I like to call a “Super-Man-thing” named Sluj (a toxic waste creature,created by Carolyn Sheridan and Dr.Jerry Baker).

Stories Of Suspense#13(2/57) has a swamp creature on the cover possibly called Tachzillo The Terrible who lives in Danger Swamp.It's Man-Thing or Swamp-Thing in size.

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