Real Name: Moomba

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (race unknown)

Occupation: Would-be conqueror of Earth

Group Membership: Monster Island's monsters (Abominable Snowman, Blip, Brute that Walks, Gog, Goom, Gorgolla, It the Living Colossus, a Lizard Man of Tok, Rorgg, Two-Headed Thing, Xemnu, Zzutak and one of the Flora colossus (like Groot), among others)

Affiliations: Kid Kaiju (Kei Kawade), tiny wooden statues;
temporarily Bruttu, Crawling Creature, Creature from Krogarr, Creature from the Black Bog, Fin Fan Foom, Googam, Green Thing, Insect Man, Klagg, Kraa, Metallo, Monsteroso, Monstro, Monstrom, Oog, Orrgo, Pildorr the Plunderer, Quogg, Rommbu, Sporr, Thing that Crawled by Night, Tim Boo Ba, Ulvar, Vandoom's Monster, Zetora

Enemies: Elsa Bloodstone, Citizens of Earth, Deadpool ("Wade Wilson"), Elektra, Frank, Katu, Leviathon Tide, X-Men (Magik/Illyana Rasputin, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde)

Known Relatives: Possibly every single tree on the planet

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Monster Island, sea of Okhotsk;
   formerly outer space;
   formerly Africa

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#23/1 (September, 1961)

Powers/Abilities: Moomba is made out of super-hard wood that not even bullets can penetrate.  Moomba can generate "ultra-frequency" energy around the world that brings to life tiny wooden statues and can also erase people's memories.  Moomba is capable of interstellar flight and is strong enough to rip iron apart.

History: (Tales to Astonish I#23 (fb) - BTS) - Moomba was the ruler of a world where the inhabitants were made of wood, and he came to Earth many months earlier to prepare an invasion against the unsuspecting planet, placing his soldiers, in the guise of tiny collectible wooden statues, into people's home all the while.

(Tales to Astonish I#23) - Big game hunter Frank was searching for tiny wooden statues in Africa because many people in the civilized world started to fanatically collect them.  

While searching for the statues, Frank came upon Moomba in the jungles of Africa, attacked it, but could not stop Moomba from signaling all the wooden statues to begin the invasion of the world.  

Within minutes, the whole world was taken over by Moomba and the wooden statues, but as Moomba was bathing in glory, Katu (a shaman from a tribe Frank had encountered) said he was mightier than Moomba.  Maddened by this statement, Moomba prepared to attack, but Katu created a potion that emitted fumes, forcing Moomba and its wooden statues to flee Earth.  

When Moomba left, it erased what had happened from the minds of everyone on Earth, but Frank remembered because he recorded the encounter in his diary.

(Thunderbolts Annual II#1 (fb) - BTS) - Moomba was captured by Elsa Bloodstone and held captive at Bloodstone Manor along with other monsters.

(Thunderbolts Annual II#1) - Moomba got injured by Deadpool and Elektra when they were thrown into the same prison as him by Elsa's allies Living Mummy and the Frankenstein Monster.

(Uncanny X-Men III#33 - BTS) - At some point, Moomba relocated to Monster Island, sea of Okhotsk.

(Uncanny X-Men III#33) - Moomba was one of the many monsters who witnessed the arrival of X-Men Magik and Shadowcat and got into a fight with them. They had come to Monster Island to save a little mutant girl called Bo. After they found her Magik teleported herself, Kitty and Bo back to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

SECRET WARS III HAPPENED

(Monsters Unleashed II#3 (fb) - BTS) - The Inhuman Kid Kaiju summoned Moomba along with numerous other monsters to an area outside San Diego, California in defense against the Leviathons.

(Monsters Unleashed II#3) - Moomba joined the fight against the Leviathons. Earth's heroes watched the monsters summoned by Kid Kaiju defeat the Leviathons. After the battle Moomba and the other monsters were teleported back from where they came.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee (presumably) and Jack Kirby.

I think it would really cool if some cosmic space character like the Silver Surfer ran into Moomba and its statues while exploring space.

Moomba's tale is reprinted in Creatures on the Loose#11 (May, 1971).

Doctor Worm says: "In the 1999 JLA Annual#3, there are some very familiar names being screamed. Here's the breakdown: the 1999 annuals from DC were a very nice homage to the Silver Age, utilizing two mainstays of that olden time: gorillas and weird transformations. There is a scene in the U.N. where the delegates are all turned into gorillas and start tearing the place up. What got me was the things they were yelling. They were all yelling the names of classic Kirby monsters! The monsters references include Groot, Mombu, Zzutak, Klaggu, Moomba, Goom and Krobaa."

Maybe Moomba and the statues were all of the same race as Groot -- here on Earth, we've got people who "modify" their bodies (plastic surgery, tattoos, body piercings, etc.)...maybe some members of Groot's race did the same thing as well...
--John Kaminski

A member of Moomba's race was slain by Angela in Age of Ultron#10 when she crossed over to the Marvel Universe.
--Markus Raymond

Profile by Sammy7D.

Updated by MarvellousLuke (Uncanny X-Men) & Markus Raymond (Thunderbolts & Monsters Unleashed).

CLARIFICATIONS:
Moomba has no known connections to:

Katu has no known connection to:


Frank was a big game hunter that was forced to find wooden statues to make money.  He was the first person to see Moomba when he began his conquest of Earth.  After Moomba left, Frank was the only person who knew about Moomba since he wrote about him in his diary.

--Tales to Astonish I#23

 Comments: Methinks this is the same...Frank (a.k.a. Ulysses Bloodstone) who first encountered Grottu.--Carycomix 


Katu was an African shaman that knew about Moomba before it began its plan for world domination.  After Moomba took over the world, Katu made a potion that created fumes that made Moomba leave Earth.  When Moomba left, presumably Katu forgot about it like the rest of the world did.

--Tales to Astonish I#23


Comments: Perhaps Katu the witch doctor is the father (or, at least, older brother) of Zawadi, the Xena of Wakanda.--Carycomix 


images: (without ads)
Tales to Astonish I#23, Cover (main)
Tales to Astonish I#23, p1, pan1 (walking)
Creatures on the Loose#11, p13, pan6 (Frank)
Creatures on the Loose#11, p3, pan5 (Katu)


Appearances:
Tales to Astonish I#23 (September, 1961) - Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Thunderbolts Annual II#1 (February, 2014) - Ben Acker & Ben Blacker (writers), Matteo Lolli (artist), Jordan D. White (editor)
Uncanny X-Men III#33 (April, 2015) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Kris Anka (pencils, inks), Mike Marts, Xander Jarowey (editors)
Monsters Unleashed II#3 (April, 2017) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Leinil Francis Yu (pencils), Gerry Alanguilan & Michael Jason Paz (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)


First Posted: 08/19/2002
Last updated 03/29/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

All characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at:
http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters