Man-Thing

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Template:Superherobox The Man-Thing is a fictional comic-book creature created by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, and featured in various Marvel Comics titles, the most prominent written by Steve Gerber.

Man-Thing is a large, vaguely humanoid, slow-moving muck-monster living in the Florida Everglades near the Seminole reservation. Unlike the intelligent and plant-based Swamp Thing of DC Comics, the Man-Thing is a nearly mindless mass of slime with no particular affinity to any living thing, but who nevertheless often becomes an accidental hero as it stumbles upon various crime and horror scenarios. It is able to sense human emotions, and is enraged by fear and automatically secretes a strong chemical corrosive; anyone clutched by the Man-Thing is prone to be chemically acid-burned, hence the series' tag-line, "Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch." Though fear is understandably most people's response to the creature, typically only villains end up meeting an acidic death at its hands.

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Origin

The Man-Thing first appeared in Savage Tales #1 (1971), written by Thomas and Conway and illustrated by Grey Morrow. This story explained the creature's origin, which was roughly similar to Swamp Thing's: A biochemist, Ted Sallis, while fleeing from evil agents who wanted his formula for a miracle drug (later defined as the "super-soldier serum" used by Captain America), drowned in the swamp and was transformed into the Man-Thing by a combination of his own formula and magical forces extant in the area. Sallis's mind was apparently extinguished, although it was later shown that he could briefly return to consciousness within his monstrous form.

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Man-Thing in comics

The character next appeared in a story by Conway and Morrow in Adventure into Fear #10 (1972) and continued in that series for nine more issues, with Steve Gerber taking over as writer starting in #11. Gerber expanded on the notion of the swamp having mystical properties and made it the "nexus of all realities", thus supplying numerous demons, ghosts, time-travelling warriors, etc., to serve as the Man-Thing's antagonists—though he continued to encounter non-supernatural villains as well, including land developers, fascist vigilantes, and common criminals. The Fear stories introduced a large supporting cast, including the demon Thog, the benevolent sorcerer Dakimh, and several humans who became allies of Dakimh and the Man-Thing, thus circumventing the difficulty of having a protagonist with no mind and no goals.

Beginning in January 1974, Gerber wrote his own Man-Thing series, illustrated most often by Val Mayerik at first and later Mike Ploog. The series became Marvel's chief non-superhero fantasy title, and — again like DC's Swamp Thing — was flexible enough to accommodate horror, fantasy, science fiction, crime, and occasional crossovers with superhero characters. Gerber also wrote five longer issues of a parallel series, Giant-Size Man-Thing, whose apparently unintentional double-entendre title became a common joke among comics readers (a "giant-size" comic is one with more pages than a standard comic book).

Man-Thing #22 was the last of the series, and justified its end with an unusual device: Gerber appeared as a character in the story, and admitted that he had not been inventing the Man-Thing's adventures but simply reporting on them. After witnessing the near-end of the universe—in which the minds of literally everyone except Gerber, Dakimh, and Thog were destroyed but then restored—Gerber decided he had to move on to other things. He continued to write cameos appearances for the Man-Thing in other Marvel titles, as well as a Marvel Comics Presents serial, through 1989.

A second Man-Thing series began in November 1979, written by Michael Fleisher and Chris Claremont and illustrated by Jim Mooney and Don Perlin; the series lasted through issue #11, in which Claremont not only introduced himself as a character as Gerber had, but temporarily became the Man-Thing. The character was revived in a third series in 1997, written by J. M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Lian Roger Sharp, for eight issues.

In his first Ultimate Marvel appearance, Man-Thing teamed with Spider-Man in Ultimate Marvel Team Up #10, unwittingly saving the superhero from the Lizard.

Man-Thing appeared as a cameo in the short lived Martial Art comic Shang-Chi in issue #04 "Swamp Monster", Man-Thing was accompanied with a man called Lu Sun who look after it. The Man-Thing saved Shang-Chi and Lu Sun life from Fu Manchu's assassins at the end just when Shang-Chi fell into a sandpit trap. The assassins died from being burned by Man-Thing when they attacked it while in fear.

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Superhuman abilities

The Man-Thing possesses a variety of superhuman powers that are derived from the interaction of the scientific formula created by Ted Sallis and the mystical energies of the Nexus of Realities.

He possesses some degree of superhuman strength that has varied considerably during his comic book appearances. Initially, the Man-Thing was only slightly stronger than Captain America, who can lift approximately 800 pounds. During later appearances, the Man-Thing possessed sufficient superhuman strength to stand toe to toe with villains who were able to lift in excess of 100 tons.

The Man-Thing's body is practically invulnerable to harm. Because his body isn't entirely solid, but composed of the muck and vegetative matter of the swamp, fists, bullets, knives, energy blasts, etc. will either pass entirely through him or will harmlessly be lodged within his body. Even if a vast portion of the Man-Thing's body were to be ripped away or incinerated, he would be able to reorganize himself by drawing the necessary material from the surrounding vegetation.

The Man-Thing is also able to ooze his body through openings or around barriers that would seem too small for him to pass. The smaller the opening, the longer it will take for him to reorganize his mass upon reaching the other side.

Unusual psychic and mystical forces react in what passes as the "brain" cells located through out his body. These unique forces render the Man-Thing extremely sensitive to emotions. Emotions that are mild and generally considered positive arouse curiosity and the Man-Thing will sometimes observe from a distance. However, emotions that are often viewed as negative, such as violent emotions, rage, anger, hatred, fear, cause the Man-Thing great discomfort and might provoke him into an attack. Once provoked into violent actions, his body secretes highly concentrated sulfuric acid that can burn human beings to ashes within a matter of seconds. Even individuals that have high levels of superhuman durability have proven unable to withstand this potent acid. While the Man-Thing is absent of violent emotions, his body produces a type of foamy, soapy mucus that neutralizes the acid.

The Man-Thing is dependent upon the swamp he inhabits for his continued survival. He is able to leave the swamp, and has done so on many occasions, for a considerable length of time. However, his body will slowly weaken and eventually lapse into dormancy if not returned to the swamp or exposed to clean water.

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Comic spin-offs

Gerber introduced Howard the Duck in a Man-Thing story in Adventures into Fear #19. Howard, who was displaced from an all-duck planet via the swamp's nexus of realities, later acquired his own series.

The Foolkiller, a vigilante who used a ray-gun to disintegrate not only criminals but anyone he considered foolish, was introduced in this series as well, and was succeeded by another Foolkiller who became an occasional villain in other Marvel comics. A third version of the character starred in Gerber's 1990 Foolkiller miniseries. Image:Manthing.jpg

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Film

A Man-Thing telefilm, directed by Brett Leonard and based loosely on a Gerber storyline involving the unscrupulous land developer F.A. Schist, appeared on the Sci Fi Channel in 2005 under the Sci Fi Pictures label. It starred Matthew Le Nevez, Rachel Taylor, and Jack Thompson.

The movie's plot took many liberties with the source material (most of which seem to have been intended to conform the character more closely to the more popular Swamp Thing). Among these are: moving the setting from the Florida Everglades to Louisiana (though the film was actually made in Australia), and changing the creature's powers from burning those who "know fear" to being able to manipulate the swamp's vegetation. The movie character is also represented in a significantly more antagonistic light than the comic-book version. Man-Thing's former identity remained Ted Sallis, though in the film he is portrayed as a Native American shaman instead of a scientist. Consequently, the Man-Thing's origin is somewhat different, though the Nexus of All Realities is still involved. Additionally, in a nice tip-of-the-hat to the original comics series, a major character is named Mike Ploog.

The film was originally intended for a 2004 video release, then upgraded to a theatrical release for Halloween, then back to video and later to the Sci Fi Channel television release it received in 2005.

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Similar characters

Image:BugsBunny Hair-Raising lobbycard.jpg The Man-Thing has often been erroneously described as Marvel's attempt to imitate the similar and more famous DC Comics character Swamp Thing, but this is unlikely given that both debuted within a few months of one another. Gerry Conway and Len Wein were good friends and roommates at the time that they created both Man-Thing and Swamp-Thing. They merely took their ideas to different comics.

A predecessor of both was Hillman Publications' the Heap, who debuted in what was intended as a one-time appearance in the feature "Skywolf" in 'Air Fighters #3 (Dec. 1942). Created by writer Harry Stein and artist Mort Leav, the Heap later became a popular character in return appearances and later an ongoing solo feature. Early depictions of the Heap look highly similar to the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies character Gossamer, a completely orange-furred, practically featureless monster in sneakers who menaced Bugs Bunny in the 1946 animated short "Hair-Raising Hare" before going on to other appearances (named "Rudolph" in one).

A literary predecessor was the title creature of "It", a Theodore Sturgeon short story that first appeared in the pulp magazine "Unknown" in 1940.

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Bibliography

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Original stories

  • Savage Tales #1 (May 1971)
  • Adventure into Fear #10-19 (Oct. 1972 - Dec. 1973)
  • Man-Thing Vol. 1, #1-22 (Jan. 1974 - Oct. 1975)
  • Monsters Unleashed #5 (April 1974)
  • Giant-Size Man-Thing #1-5 (Aug. 1974 - Aug. 1975)
  • Marvel Premiere #28 (Feb. 1976) As part of Legion of Monsters
  • Rampaging Hulk #7 (Feb. 1978)
  • What If? #26 (April 1981)
  • Man-Thing Vol. 2, #1-11 (Nov. 1979 - July 1981)
  • Marvel Comics Presents #1-12 (Sept. 1988 - Feb. 1989) "Elements of Terror" - 12 parts
  • Marvel Comics Presents #164-167 (early Oct. - early Nov. 1994) "Behold The Man-Thing" - 4 parts
  • Man-Thing Vol. 3, #1-8 (Dec. 1997 - July 1998)
  • Strange Tales #1-2 (Sept.-Oct. 1998)
  • Man-Thing (movie prequel) #1-3 (Sept.-Nov. 2004)
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Guest appearances

This list is complete through July 1981

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Reprints

  • Monsters Unleashed #3 (Nov. 1973)
Reprints Savage Tales #1 story
  • Monsters Unleashed Annual #1 (1975)
Reprints Monsters Unleashed #5 story
  • Book of the Dead #1 (Dec. 1993)
Reprints Savage Tales #1 story
Reprints Man-Thing movie prequel #1-3, Savage Tales #1 & Adventure into Fear #16 stories
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References

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