The second comic in the Marvel Universe was not at first intended for the Marvel Universe. Fin Fang Foom was only brought into the 616 later, making this book canon only retroactively.
Also: He’s not wearing the famous purple underwear.
Fin Fang Foom was probably Jack Kirby’s most famous “monster”–and Jack created a lot of them. In the creature’s origin story, a Chinese teen rouses the ancient dragon Fin Fang Foom to fight the Chinese Communist Army and then, after Foom destroys them, he puts the dragon back to sleep. But not until after he destroys the Great Wall.
Foom didn’t appear again until 1974, but he became so popular that, in retrospect, this done-in-one horror comic really needs to be thought of as the second issue in what we now know to be the Marvel Universe.
Here’s how Jack Kirby tells the origin tale:
A quick correction:
It was Stan Lee who linked Fin Fang Foom’s name with the film Chu Chin Chow. The movie came out in 1934, when Stan was 11. (Jack Kirby was a few years older: he turned 17 in the summer of 1934.)
Cool fact! Thanks!