Context
During the early 1960s, Marvel Comics was pioneering their own take on the Silver Age of ComicsSuper-hero comics from the late 1950s to the early 1970s with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, etc..
But it was also a transitional period where they still published 1950s-style suspense short stories. These often came in the back of the books, after a Marvel Universe feature.
Such tales aren’t considered to have taken place within the Marvel Universe. *Unless* a later writer explicitly references them.
So they’re kinda like a junkyard of old things you can rummage through – and maybe bring home as salvage.
Tibo appears in one such story (Strange Tales Vol. 1 #112). It was a Stan Lee/Steve Ditko short story.
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Powers & Abilities
Tibo seems to be about 8 metres tall. He’s a four-armed humanoid. Normally, he’s entirely immobile, and easily mistaken for a strange statue.
Tibo could remotely, mentally manipulate huge masses of rock.
It seems possible that he moved via levitation, while remaining in a seated position. In any case, Tibo had little trouble catching up with a speeding Jeep.
History
Karl King was a ruthless, wealthy dealer in gems. He was obsessed with owning all the notable gems on Earth. King did not hesitate to resort to crime and blackmail.
In 1963, he learned of a giant ruby adorning a statue in Tibet. Determined to have it, he rushed to Tibet, and drove to the Temple of Tibo.
To his amazement, there wasn’t any security protecting the enormous gemstone. It was simply held by a giant statue of Tibo.
King stole the gem at gunpoint, without encountering any resistance from the monks. However, as he quickly drove away, his path through a mountain pass was blocked by the fall of a huge boulder.
When he looked behind him, King realised why there was no security. Tibo the “statue” was now closing in to recover the ruby…
Marvel Universe History
Making up a link between Tibo and the Marvel Universe is of course the point. A few ideas off the top of me head :
- He’s a giant Deviant who hibernates as a statue. Like we once hypothesised for “Diana the Huntress”.
- He has ties to ancient Peruvian wizard Tiboro. Perhaps he’s vaguely similar to the Screaming Idol of Tiboro.
- He could have been an artefact or servant with ties to one of the Vedic Gods, such as Vishnu.
- More exotically, he could have ties with Maya divinity Kukulcán. Who has been known to do some weird stuff, and could easily have visited Tibet.
- He may have been a relic/robot from Kalahia. The gate in Tibet leading to Kalahia was chiefly used by the Thin Man (Bruce Dickinson).
- It could have been a Quist robot that accompanied Lucifer, but rebelled before Lucifer fought Charles Xavier.
- It could of course be a space alien. But Tibo doesn’t resemble any established Marvel outer space species.
- He’s the Tibetan version of a golem. The priest noticed the ruby had been stolen and fed Tibo the magic word to set him after the thief.
- There could easily be a link to K’un-Lun.
- Etc..
DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Tibo the idol
| Dex: 05 | Str: 12 | Bod: 12 |
| Int: 05 | Wil: 03 | Min: 05 |
| Inf: 06 | Aur: 06 | Spi: 07 |
| Init: 016 | HP: 025 |
Powers:
Air walking: 02, Earth control: 12, Running: 07, Suspension: 08
Motivation:
Sing J-Pop ?
Occupation:
Statue.
Wealth:
N.A..
Design notes
These stats are entirely arbitrary, of course.
We can’t even tell how Tibo moved the boulder, or caught up with the Jeep. Nothing is demonstrated.
So you should adjust everything based on the story you made up to connect Tibo with the Marvel Universe.
Source of Character: Strange Tales #112.
Helper(s): Darci.
Writeup completed on the 25th of January, 2020.