The first issue of MONSTERS UNLEASHED drops next week on January 18, and if his gig as writer on the series didn’t tip his hate, Cullen Bunn loves Marvel monsters. We thought now would be the best time to check in on him and get an idea of which creatures he thinks of as his favorites.

“Asking me to narrow down my favorite Marvel monsters to any kind of finite list is an exercise in futility and frustration,” crows Cullen. “It’s a certainty that the moment I send this I will remember some awesome monster that I’ve missed. Thanks, Marvel.com! You’re the most insidious monster of all! But I’ll give it a go…”

FIN FANG FOOM
“Everybody loves Fin Fang Foom, right? A giant space dragon with plans for world domination! His name is fun to say! He’s a pretty versatile character. He’s been menacing and terrifying. He’s been played for laughs. Heck. In DRAX, [co-writer] CM Punk and I put him in overalls and had him farming with Terrax on some distant world.”

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT
“It surprises me that I’ve never really pushed to write a Werewolf by Night comic, because he has always been one of my favorite Marvel critters. I loved the idea of a pretty traditional werewolf going on adventures in a world full of super-powered folks. In a lot of ways, his story was like the Hulk’s, only exploring the supernatural and creepy side of Marvel.”

MAN-THING
“I’m not sure if it was MICRONAUTS #7 or the first issue of the 1979 MAN-THING series that introduced me to the big green muck monster, but it was his namesake [comic] that really made me a fan. That issue haunted me, because it was such a tragic story. Man-Thing comes so close to regaining his humanity. He finds someone who cares about him. And he loses both. The last lines of that issue are certainly melodramatic. ‘Are those tears trickling down your face, monster? Tears for Dr. Oheimer, that good man who lies dead in your arms? Are they tears for the life that might have been, now vanished in the smoke of a raging inferno? No, monsters don’t cry. It must be the moisture of the swamp.’ But I love them!”

GOOM AND GOOGAM
“A father and son team of would-be world conquering monsters. They’ve become a favorite duo of mine since I started writing MONSTERS UNLEASHED. I love the dynamic between the two.”

KARKAS
“Does he qualify as a monster or a hero? He’s one of the Eternals, and I’ve always loved his design, ever since I first saw him whooping up on Thor on the cover of THOR #285.”

MONSTROM
“Before I ever read this cyclopean dude’s story, I dug him. The design of the creature was just great. It’s weird and creepy and scary.  He wasn’t a bad guy at all. He was stranded on our world and he was terribly, terribly frightened by how awful humankind was. We all feel that way sometimes.”

DEVIL DINOSAUR
“No list of monsters would be complete without Devil Dinosaur. He may be my favorite [Jack] Kirby-created beast of all time. In his short-lived original series, he went on some unbelievable adventures. Giant spiders! Giants wearing dinosaur skulls! Cosmic entities! Aliens! It was pure imagination on the page.”

IT CRAWLS BY NIGHT
“Here’s a creature I wasn’t too familiar with, but he would have made this list based solely on his design. He looks like a creepy root system taking human shape. I have this weird fear of old, gnarly trees, and ‘It’ plays right into that.” 

THE HAND OF FIVE
“This guy doesn’t show up any more, but back in the day I thought he was awesome. I got an issue of SHOGUN WARRIORS in a three-pack of comics, and he showed up in the issue. He was a giant hand… with dragon head fingers… and the fingers could breathe fire… and they could detach and fly around on their own! That guy was great.”

Witness Cullen’s passion in action on January 18 with MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1, followed closely by issue #2 on February 1!