Three years after the character’s MCU debut, Marvel confirms one of its scariest villains has a new name. There are countless evil entities across the vast Marvel multiverse. Most of them are anthropomorphic, a few others are difficult to comprehend to human eyes, and others personify their destructive nature quite accurately.
Creatures like the dark god of chaos magic Chthon, the demonic N’Garai, and the fear-feeding Dweller-in-Darkness often lurk beyond human reach. Others, like the Elder Gods, exist beyond comprehension. Remarkably, one Marvel monster in particular stands out as unspeakable in an unexpected way.
Sometimes, comic book publishers run into tricky copyright issues, leading to odd situations where they can’t use a character’s full story or even their original name. Such is the case with Marvel’s Shuma-Gorath.
Marvel Doubles Down On Shuma-Gorath’s “Gargantos” Renaming
The Vision & The Scarlet Witch #5; Written by Steve Orlando; Art by Jacopo Camagni & Ruth Redmond
Following a confrontation with the Grim Reaper, Wanda and Vision face a cosmic monster in the Graverealm. Scarlet Witch, Vision, the Grim Reaper, and the monster itself address the one-eyed behemoth as “Gargantos.” However, this is the same creature Marvel originally introduced as Shuma-Gorath in 1973’s Marvel Premiere #10.
Shuma-Gorath was first renamed “Gargantos” in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Despite resembling Shuma-Gorath quite closely, and even though it’s also a multiversal creature, the MCU’s Gargantos doesn’t speak, is killed off quickly, and doesn’t seem to have an extensive backstory. Now, Marvel proves Shuma-Gorath continues to exist in the comics, only with an updated name.
Shuma-Gorath’s small MCU appearance is fleeting and likely underwhelming for those acquainted with the Marvel Comics character. To add insult to injury, Marvel appears to be renaming the villain for good. While suitable due to its “big monster” connotation, “Gargantos” is too simple a name for a character whose previous name, “Shuma-Gorath”, evokes the very cosmic horror and mystery that defines its existence.
Shuma-Gorath’s “Gargantos” Rebrand, Explained
Marvel Doesn’t Fully Own The Rights To The Shuma-Gorath Name
Marvel’s original Gargantos is a one-off Namor villain controlled by Atlantis’ opposing underwated kingdom, Lemuria. Although the original Gargantos also resembles a giant one-eyed octopus, there’s no in-universe link between it and Shuma-Gorath. Since it only appeared once in 1969, it’s safe to say that the Lemurian Gargantos has been retconned out of existence in order to avoid further confusion.
Shuma-Gorath’s name originated in the Conan the Barbarian mythos, owned by Heroic Signatures. Despite collaborating on Conan titles, Marvel chose not to request the rights to the Shuma-Gorath name for the creature’s MCU adaptation. Now, Marvel Comics has aligned with the MCU by sticking to the Gargantos name, possibly both due to practicality and for brand synergy.
Other Marvel characters face similar complications due to external copyrights. For example, Shang-Chi’s original father Fu Manchu was a pulp villain owned by the estate of Sax Rohmer. Because Marvel eventually lost the rights, they replaced Fu Manchu with a new character, Zheng Zu. Likewise, Marvel lost the license to the Microverse, which led Marvel Studios to rename its subatomic universe the “Quantum Realm”, and the comics have since followed suit.
The Vision & The Scarlet Witch #5 is available from Marvel Comics.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
