Man-Thing
The Man-Thing is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow, the character first appeared in Savage Tales #1, and went on to be featured in various titles and in his own series, including Adventure into Fear. Steve Gerber's 39-issue run on the series is considered to be a cult classic.
The Man-Thing is a large, slow-moving, empathic, humanoid swamp monster living in the Florida Everglades near a Seminole reservation and the fictional town of Citrusville in Cypress County, Florida.
The character made its live-action debut in the film Man-Thing, played by Conan Stevens. He later appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television special Werewolf by Night, motion-captured by Carey Jones and with Jeffrey Ford providing additional vocalizations.
Publication history
As described in the text featurette "The Story Behind the Scenes" in Savage Tales #1, the black-and-white adventure fantasy magazine in which the character debuted in an 11-page origin story, the Man-Thing was conceived in discussions between Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee and writer Roy Thomas. Together they created five possible origins for the character. Lee provided the name, which had previously been used for unrelated creatures in Marvel's early science-fiction/fantasy anthology Tales of Suspense #7 and #81, as well as the concept of the man losing sentience.As Thomas recalled in 2002:
Thomas worked out a detailed plot and gave it to Gerry Conway to script. Thomas and Conway are credited as writers, with Gray Morrow as artist. A second story, written by Len Wein and drawn by Neal Adams, was prepared at that time, but, upon Savage Tales
The Wein-written Man-Thing story appeared in between Wein's first and second version of his DC Comics character the Swamp Thing. Wein was Conway's roommate at the time and as Thomas recalled in 2008,
The Man-Thing received his own 10-page feature, again by Conway, in Adventure into Fear #10, sharing that anthology title with reprinted 1950s horror/fantasy stories. Steve Gerber, who would become the Man-Thing's signature writer, succeeded Conway the following issue, with art by Rich Buckler. The feature expanded to 15 pages with #12, became 16 pages two issues later and reached the then-standard 19-page length of Marvel superhero comics with issue #15, at which point the series also went from bi-monthly to monthly. In Fear #11, p. 11, Gerber created the series' narrative tagline, used in captions: "Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!"
After issue #19, the Man-Thing received a solo title The Man-Thing, which ran 22 issues. Following Morrow, the main series' primary pencillers were, successively, Val Mayerik, Mike Ploog, John Buscema, and Jim Mooney. A letter of comment about Fear #17 by future Swamp Thing writer Nancy A. Collins appeared in the second issue.
A sister publication was the larger, quarterly Giant-Size Man-Thing #1-5, which featured 1950s horror-fantasy and 1960s science fiction/monster reprints as back-up stories, with a two-part Howard the Duck co-feature added in the final two issues. The unintentional double entendre in this sister series' title has become a recurring joke among comics readers.
In the final issue, writer Gerber appeared as a character in the story, claiming that he had not been inventing the Man-Thing's adventures but simply reporting on them and that he had decided to move on. Gerber continued to write Man-Thing guest appearances in other Marvel titles, as well as the serialized, eight-page Man-Thing feature in the omnibus series Marvel Comics Presents #1-12, and a supporting role in The Evolutionary War, coming to the aid of Spider-Man. Gerber also wrote a graphic novel that Kevin Nowlan spent many years illustrating, but he did not live to see it published.
A second Man-Thing series ran 11 issues. Writer Michael Fleisher and penciller Mooney teamed for the first three issues, with the letters page of #3 noting that Fleisher's work had received a great deal of negative criticism and that he had been taken off the book. He was succeeded by, primarily, writer Chris Claremont and illustrators Don Perlin and Bob Wiacek. Claremont's stories introduced the Man-Thing and Jennifer Kale to Doctor Strange, after which his material focused on two new supporting characters: John Daltry, Citrusville's new sheriff, and Bobbie Bannister, a formerly wealthy girl who is the only survivor when her parents' yacht is attacked. These characters' stories he resolved by tying them to a resolution for his own War is Hell series.
Black and white Man-Thing stories, and some color covers, also appeared in the Marvel magazine Monsters Unleashed as well.
Chris Claremont provided the story for the Uncanny X-Men #144 where Man-Thing appeared as a guest star battling it out with D'Spayre. Simon Jowett provided a Man-Thing story in Marvel Comics Presents #164–168. The story was set soon after Sallis' transformation, yet depicted Sallis using a standard personal computer with up-to-date graphics rather than hard-copy files, an example of the floating timeline effect.
J.M. DeMatteis began writing the character in a backup story in Man-Thing vol. 2 #9, which opened with a fill-in by Dickie McKenzie. DeMatteis would go on to write Man-Thing stories in Marvel Team-Up, The Defenders, Marvel Fanfare, and the miniseries Daydreamers, as well as Man-Thing vol. 3 #1-8, illustrated by Liam Sharp. The two would re-team for the Man-Thing feature in Strange Tales vol. 4 #1-2. Four issues were written, but #3 and 4 were never published. Their stories were summarized briefly in Peter Parker: Spider-Man Annual '99, also by DeMatteis, with art by Sharp and others.
In the 2000s, the Man-Thing has starred in a handful of stories appearing in one-shots and miniseries, including Marvel Knights Double Shot #2 by Ted McKeever, and Legion of Monsters: Man-Thing #1 by Charlie Huston and Klaus Janson.
In 2008, writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa retold Man-Thing's origin in Dead of Night featuring the Man-Thing #1-4, from the Marvel MAX imprint. This was followed by an eight-page story in Marvel Comics Presents #12, by writer Jai Nitz and artist Ben Stenbeck.
The Man-Thing appeared regularly during The Punisher's Franken-Castle story arc and became a regular member of Thunderbolts with issue #144. The series was retitled Dark Avengers with #175, and the Man-Thing continued to appear as a regular character until issue #183. Steve Gerber's posthumous Man-Thing story "The Screenplay of the Living Dead Man", with art by Kevin Nowlan, originally planned as a 1980s graphic novel before being left uncompleted by the artist, was revived in the 2010s and appeared as a three-issue miniseries cover-titled The Infernal Man-Thing. The story was a sequel to Gerber's "Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man" in Man-Thing #12.
Author R.L. Stine made his comics debut with a five-issue Man-Thing miniseries in 2017.
Fictional character biography
Young biochemist Dr. Theodore "Ted" Sallis, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, is working in the Everglades as part of Wilma Calvin's Project: Gladiator team, which includes Barbara Morse and her fiancé Paul Allen, and an assistant named Jim. A Dr. Wendell is later cited as being on the staff after Calvin is shot. The group is attempting to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum that had created Captain America. Web of Spider-Man vol. 2 #6 revealed that Sallis at one point treated and worked alongside Curt Connors shortly after Connors' arm was amputated, driving the research that would eventually transform Connors into the Lizard.Though warned that the technological terrorist group Advanced Idea Mechanics has been operating in the area, Sallis breaches security by bringing with him his lover, Ellen Brandt. He destroys his notes to his formula, which he has memorized. Later, he is ambushed by two thugs and learns that Brandt has betrayed him. Fleeing with the only sample of his serum, he injects himself with it in hopes of saving himself. However, he crashes his car into the swamp, where scientific and magical forces combine to transform him into a plant-matter creature. Unable to speak, and with dim memories, he attacks the ambushers and Brandt, burning and scarring part of her face with an acid that he now secretes in the presence of negative emotions. The Man-Thing then wanders away into the swamp.
Sallis' mind was extinguished, although on rare occasions he could briefly return to consciousness within his monstrous form, as in Doctor Strange vol. 2 #41, The Defenders #98, and Peter Parker: Spider-Man Annual '99, and even to his human form, as in Adventure into Fear #13, Marvel Two-in-One #1, Marvel Comics Presents #164, and Man-Thing vol. 3 #5 and 7-8.
Under writer Steve Gerber, the Man-Thing encounters the sorceress Jennifer Kale, with whom he briefly shared a psychic link and who knew his true identity, in a story arc in Fear #11-13 – the final issue of which established that the swamp had mystical properties as the Nexus of Realities. Through an interdimensional portal in Fear #19, he meets Howard the Duck, who becomes stranded in this reality. The Man-Thing became the guardian of the Nexus, and found himself facing demons, ghosts and time-traveling warriors, while continuing to encounter such non-supernatural antagonists as rapacious land developers, fascist vigilantes and common criminals. He formed a bond with young radio DJ Richard Rory and nurse Ruth Hart. Issue #12's "Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man", about a crazed writer named Brian Lazarus, spawned Gerber's posthumously published 2012 sequel, "The Screenplay of the Living Dead Man", in the three-issue miniseries The Infernal Man-Thing.
In Man-Thing vol. 2 #1-11, writer Chris Claremont introduced himself as a character in the final issue, as Gerber had in the finale of the first series. Additionally, Claremont temporarily became the Man-Thing after being killed. His and other characters' deaths were later resolved with the intervention of the War Is Hell series lead, John Kowalski, now an aspect of Marvel Comics' manifestation of Death. In Man-Thing vol. 3 #1-8, Ellen Brandt Sallis returns to the Citrusville area and encounters a little boy, Job Burke, who is actually the Sallises' son, who had been put up for adoption. Following this series, the story continued in Strange Tales vol. 4 #1-2, and was projected to continue in the unpublished issues #3-4. Summaries based on DeMatteis' unillustrated scripts appear on the K'Ad-mon and Ellen Brandt pages in Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
During the "Civil War" storyline, two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents unsuccessfully attempt to register the Man-Thing under the Superhuman Registration Act.
The Man-Thing later appears as a member of the Legion of Monsters alongside Morbius, Werewolf by Night, Manphibian, and N'Kantu, the Living Mummy. He later gains the ability to speak comprehensibly through the use of the "Universal Language". Phil Coulson subsequently recruits the Man-Thing into the Howling Commandos.
As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, the Man-Thing appears as a member of S.T.A.K.E.'s Howling Commandos.
During the "Empyre" storyline, Man-Thing falls under the control of the Cotati. Doctor Voodoo takes control of Man-Thing to free Matthew and Black Knight. As Matthew and Black Knight fight the Cotati, a Doctor Voodoo-controlled Man-Thing fights the Cotati's control and defeats Ventri. As Doctor Voodoo exits Man-Thing to assist Scarlet Witch after Ka-Zar was stabbed by a Cotati using Black Knight's Ebony Blade, Man-Thing continued the fight against the Cotati. When the Cotati were defeated, Man-Thing takes his leave after being thanked by Black Knight. Ventri claims that what they learned from Man-Thing's energy has been sent to Quoi to fuel the Cotati's invasion.
Harriet Brome, an agent of the self-proclaimed eco-warriors the Hordeculture, adopts the name "Harrower" and attempts to use Man-Thing to perform a mass culling of humanity, intending to purge the human race and let another species take over. To this end, she attacks and skins the Man-Thing and uses his corpse to produce seedling spores that will emerge in all major cities across the world and burn their victims. When the Avengers respond, Captain America is briefly absorbed by one of the spores, where he meets the remnants of Ted Sallis, who explains that he never truly cracked the super-soldier serum. He attempts to get Cap to contact Connors for help, but when Connors affirms that he can't help, Spider-Man convinces Sallis to take responsibility for his past. After Sallis's essence creates a new body for Man-Thing, Man-Thing returns to Sallis's old office, where it is revealed that Sallis made a deal with the demon Belasco to crack the formula. When he performs the ritual again, he summons Magik, the new ruler of Limbo, who offers to release Sallis from his current state. Understanding that his freedom would leave Man-Thing an uncontrolled creature of instinct, Sallis agrees to remain and joins Magik's strike team in attacking Harrower. After banishing Harrower to another dimension and destroying her spore-plants, Magik summons Belasco so that Sallis can properly punish the demon for his role in Sallis's fate.
Man-Thing later appears as a teacher at Strange Academy, where he teaches Care for Magical Plants.