Man-Thing (Adventures into Fear #10-19)
Written by Gerry Conway (10), Steve Gerber (11-19)
Drawn by Harry Chaykin (10), Rich Buckler (11), Jim Starlin (12), Val Mayerik (13-19)
Published by Marvel
Released 1972
Man-Thing is a character I wasn't too familiar with. Sure I knew that which knows fear burns at the touch of the Man-Thing, but beyond that I wasn't too familiar with the big slimy oaf. First appearing in Adventures into Fear, which started out as just Fear for the first nine issues (which look to be just reprints of older stories), the book started focusing on Man-Thing with issue ten. There were still a couple back up stories, mostly fairly lame horror stories, but wound up phasing them out completely by issue fifteen. For ten issues Man-Thing carried the book, setting up the character rather effectively. The real main character though has to be the narration, Man-Thing doesn't think in a traditional manner of speaking, and these narrations boxes drive that point home really well.
These ten issues are mostly broken up into one-shot stories, though a couple of story threads weave throughout them. Issue ten introduces Man-Thing spectacularly. A baby is thrown over a bridge by his father, Man-Thing just so happens to catch it. Looking into the babe's face he momentarily flashes back to his life before as Ted Sallis. A scientist who made some kind of a super serum is betrayed, he escapes, injects himself with this serum so as to dispose of it, then crashes into the swamp, transforming into Man-Thing. These memories quickly fade though, and driven by instinct he takes the baby to a nearby doctor's house. There he over hears who this baby belongs to, and why he threw him out. Man-Thing cannot understand words, usually, but he does understand emotions, hatred and fear especially. Driven by this he seeks out the father and nearly burns the frightened man to death. Only his girlfriend's pleas ward off the swamp beast.
The next issue introduces some recurring characters, Jennifer and Andy Kale (cousins to the Ghost Rider's no less!). Man-Thing stumbles upon these teens acting out strange rituals from a book they found that their grandpa warns them against using. It seemingly does nothing and they leave. Unbeknownst to them they've opened a demonic portal, and of course, a demon jumps out and chases them down. Man-Thing follows without real reason. It finds them at a theater, but before it can hurt them Man-Thing destroys it. Feeling weakened due to his distance from the swamp he tries to retreat, as the demon reforms. At the swamp their fight continues, the demon thinking he's bested his foe, but Man-Thing is nigh immortal in his swamp, reforming he beats on the demon, as Andy burns the book that summoned him, whisking the demon away. The teen's thank him, but Man-Thing does not understand and stomps off. This is the beginning of the biggest story throughout the book.
The following issue deals with race in a pretty simple way. A black criminal is chased into the swamp by a white cop. The criminal is shot, falling into the swamp he barely manages to swim away before passing out. The cop decides to make sure he's dead. Man-Thing finds the criminal and helps bandage his shot arm. Man-Thing catches him off guard for a minute upon waking up, but then explains he didn't commit a crime, other than liking a white woman that cop also liked, so he was framed. The cop catches up to them, and explains that the criminal actually murdered the cop who framed him. Angry, the criminal starts shouting about injustice, etc. Man-Thing can't tell which one is the truly evil one, the cop is clearly a racist and driven by that hatred, but the criminal is a liar and a murderer. So he leaves. The cop kills the criminal, and then goes on a tirade about killing the whole race. Man-Thing, feeling this immense hatred turns back and destroys the cop. The characters are both just too stereotypical to be a great read, but the idea and execution isn't the worst I've seen.
Issues thirteen through fifteen continue the Kale plot line. The Kale family is revealed to be part of a larger cult, one dedicated to keeping the swamp, and Man-Thing, safe as it is a nexus of all realities. They can't very well do so though without a certain book that wound up getting burnt to ash though. The cult blames grandpappy Kale, but doesn't really do much. Jennifer's boyfriend is hanging out in the swamp for no real reason, and upon finding this out grandpa claims they have to get him out of there. Her boyfriend is too busy being attacked by a demon, who turns to dust and forcibly takes over his body by entering through everyone of his pores, though. They almost run him over, but he bends reality and sends them into a hellish dimension. Man-Thing follows. There he meets a demon who tells him he can make him human again if he kills the other three humans. Refusing, he attacks the demon. The Kale's realize this place to be an illusion, but as Man-Thing is the focal point this unthinking beast will have to somehow realize it's an illusion for any of them to escape. Luckily, when a fearful monster is in his grasp and refuses to burn he understands. As the illusion dissipates around them he burns the demon out of the boy, and returns to his swampy home.
The world begins to descend into chaos across the globe as revealed in issue fourteen. The Kale's catch wind of this, and their grandpa gets his cult together to find a way to stop this demonic possession of the world, the very thing his cult was brought together to prevent. Their ritual winds up transporting his granddaughter Jennifer and Man-Thing to a distant world where they are imprisoned by a wizard named Dakimh. He claims the only way they can escape is if this Man-Object wins in the arena. He's forced to fight Mondu the gladiator, and after his axe has no effect on the fen beast he grows fearful, leading to Man-Thing to burn him, melting axe to flesh. Dakimh accepts this as victory and sends them back to Earth. Issue fifteen opens with Man-Thing in town trying to stop the madness, but he seemingly gets killed by the mob, and is dragged back to the swamp. While Jennifer mourns his death, her grandfather and his cultists are experiencing the history of their cult. Back in Atlantis before it sinks their cult's namesake, Zhered-Na, is exiled for blaspheming that Atlantis will one day sink. On her journey she has visions of the entire future, and spreads the word on the mainland upon arrival. When Atlantis sinks, they believe it is her doing, and send the surviving members of their race after her. She dies, but some of her students live on through the ages, leading to the cult of today (well, the today of the 70's). The wizard who kidnapped Man-Thing and Jennifer appears before her, explaining that he is the last surviving disciple of Zhered-Na, and that he can lead them to the book that will save the day. He takes her and a revived Man-Thing back through time, to acquire the book. Man-Thing winds up fighting a lava beast, and though he's losing at first, Jennifer grabbing the book brings them back to the swamp, turning the tides, resulting in Man-Thing extinguishing the lava monster.
A plot to destroy the swamp is revealed in issue sixteen. A group of Native Americans are discussing how some white men are trying to destroy their ancestral territory, and how they plan to stop it. Man-Thing follows a young member of the tribe as he sneaks away in the night. He finds that the boy, and some of his friends, are preparing for some old school sabotage, destroying the construction crew's bulldozer before work can start. They end up shooting the young kid in charge, but Man-Thing manages to steal him away and bring him to that doctor from before. The next day a rally to save the swamp goes awry as the construction crew comes and starts beating up the "hippie's" demanding nature not be destroyed. In the end, the guy in charge gets permission from the police to continue with his plans, and to move the Native Americans out of his way. When he attempts to do so, the Native Americans attack with bows and threaten him. Construction is set to begin anyway, but Man-Thing appears at the site. The foreman goes crazy and runs him down with the bulldozer, but nothing will keep the titular monster down. As he reforms the foreman attacks with a pickaxe, when this doesn't work fear consumes him as he hides his eyes with his hands Man-Thing grabs him, melting them to his face. The bulldozer, which he had switched the brakes off of as he jumped off, then crushes him. The rest of the crew abandons the site for the day.
The most irrelevant chapter of the original Man-Thing saga is to be found in issue seventeen. Man-Thing discovers a crashed spaceship, and upon tossing it at a tree causing an explosion a man appears. His origin story is then told, which is a blatant rip off of the Superman origin. His planet is in danger, his father knows, the people ignore him, he builds a rocket for his baby boy, he and his wife die as they send their child off. Except in this one he ages alone in the rocket, there is even a Kent family stand in, but they fear the possibility of the rocket and refuse to check on it. Back in the present the boy, now a man, named Wundarr believes Man-Thing to be his mother. With super strength and nearly all of Superman's powers he jumps around fucking shit up in the swamp, the construction crew, an alligator, and even Man-Thing. They wind up fighting due to not understanding each other, but as Man-Thing turns to leave Wundarr grows scared and confused. After being burnt by Man-Thing's touch he leaves, to find a place to fit in. Seriously. What the fuck does this story have to do with Man-Thing?
Instead of another spectacular two-parter, issue eighteen focuses again on a small group of people. A drunk winds up running a bus off the road, right into the swamp, killing most the passengers. A woman, a veteran, a hippie punk and a boy survived. Though the boy is gravely wounded, they decide to get him medical attention. Before they depart the drunkard emerges unscathed as well and joins them. During their journey they bicker nonstop, the hippie punk telling them life is meaningless nowadays as all that seems to matter is money and material goods, the veteran doesn't take kindly to this and keeps getting in his face. They come across a snake, and Man-Thing, who's sensed evil amongst the group and has thus been trailing them, saves them from it. As they continue on the veteran winds up pummeling the punk for insulting him for his military service. The other's pull him off, and they come across a house in the swamp. The drunk suddenly pulls a gun, claiming if he comes back with the other's they will turn him in so he has to kill them. He kills the punk first, after which the vet jumps him, but gets shot. He turns the gun on the lady but Man-Thing shows up and saves her. Crewman come to save the lady as Man-Thing stumbles away from the group, they tell her to be wary of the creature as he killed their foreman. She just tells them the foreman must have been an evil man.
The final issue of the Man-Thing story line (at least in this book) doesn't have much closer at all. It opens with Man-Thing in a strange realm, with current day military soldiers fighting barbarians of old, while planes and rockets from the past and future fly overhead. Jennifer is there, and tries to pull Man-Thing away, but barbarians attack her. Before they can kill her she wakes up. In the last couple of issues Jennifer has shown up for a couple panels, each time she's screaming from a dream or a vision. Turns out, a planet of constant war was what she saw. Her grandfather comforts her and she goes back to sleep, but the barbarian who attacked her appears in this world, transforming from peanut butter, and his sword from a butter knife. Really silly. Regardless, he attacks, but when he see's her family he assumes they're more witches and jumped out the window. Dakimh appears again, and offers to teach her magic, her family has no real protest and they vanish together. Ironically her brother wishes he could save the day sometime, but to my knowledge he only ever endangers it later on. Back in that realm of war the wizard explains that the dimensional barriers are weakening, thus why the barbarian bleed into her reality, and why she's been appearing in this dimension in her dreams. They're attacked though, the wizard disappears like a coward, and Jennifer if kidnapped. Back on Earth, Man-Thing stumbles upon the barbarian in a state of defeat. He tries to beast the creature of the swamp, but gives up in short order. Out of nowhere Howard the Duck (in his first appearance!) walks out of the brush and tells him to stop whining. They band together to figure out what's happening and how to set things right. Eventually they come across the construction site, which is being overtaken by demons. The comic ends with them turning on Man-Thing
From here the story continues in the self-titled Man-Thing comic, while Adventures into Fear began to star Morbius the Living Vampire. I haven't read either, and probably won't read the latter, but this was a really good introduction to Man-Thing. I have a soft spot for old school monsters, and Man-Thing is surprisingly compelling. Although he can't understand much, and doesn't have much of a memory, his empathetic skills make him interesting. He doesn't know what the right thing is, hell, he can't comprehend good and bad. But he can sense evil, and he can sense fear. These drive his every action, the mass of swamp hurdles forward towards whatever random thing catches his "attention". The Kale's are mostly good characters too. Jennifer can be a little annoying, but only in character appropriate ways, same with her brother, who eventually just starts churning out quips and one-liners. The idea of their cult being a remnant of Atlantis bound together to protect Man-Thing long before he existed was neat too. Man-Thing might be a little overpowered, but it makes sense as he is a protector of all realities, without even realizing it. The end of this story is a little odd though, not how I expected Howard the Duck to show up at least.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading through these stories though, the art holds up, the ideas are fine and, honestly, the narration really makes this for me. It does a great job of portraying how Man-Thing functions, driven by a sort of curiosity, outside even its own understanding, is a tough concept to handle well, but they did so. The one shot stories are kind of generic, especially nowadays, and all of the characters are stereotypes. But seeing how Man-Thing handles the situations was always interesting. He has no emotional reasoning behind his actions, going purely off what he perceives as evil. There wasn't a lot of happy endings for those who crossed Man-Thing.
It's kind of difficult for a 1970's comic about a swamp monster to be truly scary, but there are plenty of aspects of horror here anyway. Whether you're in it for a playfully spooky atmosphere, or just for a strange character to read about these stories about Man-Thing are worth reading. I can't wait to delve into some of his later stories.
The next issue introduces some recurring characters, Jennifer and Andy Kale (cousins to the Ghost Rider's no less!). Man-Thing stumbles upon these teens acting out strange rituals from a book they found that their grandpa warns them against using. It seemingly does nothing and they leave. Unbeknownst to them they've opened a demonic portal, and of course, a demon jumps out and chases them down. Man-Thing follows without real reason. It finds them at a theater, but before it can hurt them Man-Thing destroys it. Feeling weakened due to his distance from the swamp he tries to retreat, as the demon reforms. At the swamp their fight continues, the demon thinking he's bested his foe, but Man-Thing is nigh immortal in his swamp, reforming he beats on the demon, as Andy burns the book that summoned him, whisking the demon away. The teen's thank him, but Man-Thing does not understand and stomps off. This is the beginning of the biggest story throughout the book.
The following issue deals with race in a pretty simple way. A black criminal is chased into the swamp by a white cop. The criminal is shot, falling into the swamp he barely manages to swim away before passing out. The cop decides to make sure he's dead. Man-Thing finds the criminal and helps bandage his shot arm. Man-Thing catches him off guard for a minute upon waking up, but then explains he didn't commit a crime, other than liking a white woman that cop also liked, so he was framed. The cop catches up to them, and explains that the criminal actually murdered the cop who framed him. Angry, the criminal starts shouting about injustice, etc. Man-Thing can't tell which one is the truly evil one, the cop is clearly a racist and driven by that hatred, but the criminal is a liar and a murderer. So he leaves. The cop kills the criminal, and then goes on a tirade about killing the whole race. Man-Thing, feeling this immense hatred turns back and destroys the cop. The characters are both just too stereotypical to be a great read, but the idea and execution isn't the worst I've seen.
Issues thirteen through fifteen continue the Kale plot line. The Kale family is revealed to be part of a larger cult, one dedicated to keeping the swamp, and Man-Thing, safe as it is a nexus of all realities. They can't very well do so though without a certain book that wound up getting burnt to ash though. The cult blames grandpappy Kale, but doesn't really do much. Jennifer's boyfriend is hanging out in the swamp for no real reason, and upon finding this out grandpa claims they have to get him out of there. Her boyfriend is too busy being attacked by a demon, who turns to dust and forcibly takes over his body by entering through everyone of his pores, though. They almost run him over, but he bends reality and sends them into a hellish dimension. Man-Thing follows. There he meets a demon who tells him he can make him human again if he kills the other three humans. Refusing, he attacks the demon. The Kale's realize this place to be an illusion, but as Man-Thing is the focal point this unthinking beast will have to somehow realize it's an illusion for any of them to escape. Luckily, when a fearful monster is in his grasp and refuses to burn he understands. As the illusion dissipates around them he burns the demon out of the boy, and returns to his swampy home.
The world begins to descend into chaos across the globe as revealed in issue fourteen. The Kale's catch wind of this, and their grandpa gets his cult together to find a way to stop this demonic possession of the world, the very thing his cult was brought together to prevent. Their ritual winds up transporting his granddaughter Jennifer and Man-Thing to a distant world where they are imprisoned by a wizard named Dakimh. He claims the only way they can escape is if this Man-Object wins in the arena. He's forced to fight Mondu the gladiator, and after his axe has no effect on the fen beast he grows fearful, leading to Man-Thing to burn him, melting axe to flesh. Dakimh accepts this as victory and sends them back to Earth. Issue fifteen opens with Man-Thing in town trying to stop the madness, but he seemingly gets killed by the mob, and is dragged back to the swamp. While Jennifer mourns his death, her grandfather and his cultists are experiencing the history of their cult. Back in Atlantis before it sinks their cult's namesake, Zhered-Na, is exiled for blaspheming that Atlantis will one day sink. On her journey she has visions of the entire future, and spreads the word on the mainland upon arrival. When Atlantis sinks, they believe it is her doing, and send the surviving members of their race after her. She dies, but some of her students live on through the ages, leading to the cult of today (well, the today of the 70's). The wizard who kidnapped Man-Thing and Jennifer appears before her, explaining that he is the last surviving disciple of Zhered-Na, and that he can lead them to the book that will save the day. He takes her and a revived Man-Thing back through time, to acquire the book. Man-Thing winds up fighting a lava beast, and though he's losing at first, Jennifer grabbing the book brings them back to the swamp, turning the tides, resulting in Man-Thing extinguishing the lava monster.
A plot to destroy the swamp is revealed in issue sixteen. A group of Native Americans are discussing how some white men are trying to destroy their ancestral territory, and how they plan to stop it. Man-Thing follows a young member of the tribe as he sneaks away in the night. He finds that the boy, and some of his friends, are preparing for some old school sabotage, destroying the construction crew's bulldozer before work can start. They end up shooting the young kid in charge, but Man-Thing manages to steal him away and bring him to that doctor from before. The next day a rally to save the swamp goes awry as the construction crew comes and starts beating up the "hippie's" demanding nature not be destroyed. In the end, the guy in charge gets permission from the police to continue with his plans, and to move the Native Americans out of his way. When he attempts to do so, the Native Americans attack with bows and threaten him. Construction is set to begin anyway, but Man-Thing appears at the site. The foreman goes crazy and runs him down with the bulldozer, but nothing will keep the titular monster down. As he reforms the foreman attacks with a pickaxe, when this doesn't work fear consumes him as he hides his eyes with his hands Man-Thing grabs him, melting them to his face. The bulldozer, which he had switched the brakes off of as he jumped off, then crushes him. The rest of the crew abandons the site for the day.
The most irrelevant chapter of the original Man-Thing saga is to be found in issue seventeen. Man-Thing discovers a crashed spaceship, and upon tossing it at a tree causing an explosion a man appears. His origin story is then told, which is a blatant rip off of the Superman origin. His planet is in danger, his father knows, the people ignore him, he builds a rocket for his baby boy, he and his wife die as they send their child off. Except in this one he ages alone in the rocket, there is even a Kent family stand in, but they fear the possibility of the rocket and refuse to check on it. Back in the present the boy, now a man, named Wundarr believes Man-Thing to be his mother. With super strength and nearly all of Superman's powers he jumps around fucking shit up in the swamp, the construction crew, an alligator, and even Man-Thing. They wind up fighting due to not understanding each other, but as Man-Thing turns to leave Wundarr grows scared and confused. After being burnt by Man-Thing's touch he leaves, to find a place to fit in. Seriously. What the fuck does this story have to do with Man-Thing?
Instead of another spectacular two-parter, issue eighteen focuses again on a small group of people. A drunk winds up running a bus off the road, right into the swamp, killing most the passengers. A woman, a veteran, a hippie punk and a boy survived. Though the boy is gravely wounded, they decide to get him medical attention. Before they depart the drunkard emerges unscathed as well and joins them. During their journey they bicker nonstop, the hippie punk telling them life is meaningless nowadays as all that seems to matter is money and material goods, the veteran doesn't take kindly to this and keeps getting in his face. They come across a snake, and Man-Thing, who's sensed evil amongst the group and has thus been trailing them, saves them from it. As they continue on the veteran winds up pummeling the punk for insulting him for his military service. The other's pull him off, and they come across a house in the swamp. The drunk suddenly pulls a gun, claiming if he comes back with the other's they will turn him in so he has to kill them. He kills the punk first, after which the vet jumps him, but gets shot. He turns the gun on the lady but Man-Thing shows up and saves her. Crewman come to save the lady as Man-Thing stumbles away from the group, they tell her to be wary of the creature as he killed their foreman. She just tells them the foreman must have been an evil man.
The final issue of the Man-Thing story line (at least in this book) doesn't have much closer at all. It opens with Man-Thing in a strange realm, with current day military soldiers fighting barbarians of old, while planes and rockets from the past and future fly overhead. Jennifer is there, and tries to pull Man-Thing away, but barbarians attack her. Before they can kill her she wakes up. In the last couple of issues Jennifer has shown up for a couple panels, each time she's screaming from a dream or a vision. Turns out, a planet of constant war was what she saw. Her grandfather comforts her and she goes back to sleep, but the barbarian who attacked her appears in this world, transforming from peanut butter, and his sword from a butter knife. Really silly. Regardless, he attacks, but when he see's her family he assumes they're more witches and jumped out the window. Dakimh appears again, and offers to teach her magic, her family has no real protest and they vanish together. Ironically her brother wishes he could save the day sometime, but to my knowledge he only ever endangers it later on. Back in that realm of war the wizard explains that the dimensional barriers are weakening, thus why the barbarian bleed into her reality, and why she's been appearing in this dimension in her dreams. They're attacked though, the wizard disappears like a coward, and Jennifer if kidnapped. Back on Earth, Man-Thing stumbles upon the barbarian in a state of defeat. He tries to beast the creature of the swamp, but gives up in short order. Out of nowhere Howard the Duck (in his first appearance!) walks out of the brush and tells him to stop whining. They band together to figure out what's happening and how to set things right. Eventually they come across the construction site, which is being overtaken by demons. The comic ends with them turning on Man-Thing
From here the story continues in the self-titled Man-Thing comic, while Adventures into Fear began to star Morbius the Living Vampire. I haven't read either, and probably won't read the latter, but this was a really good introduction to Man-Thing. I have a soft spot for old school monsters, and Man-Thing is surprisingly compelling. Although he can't understand much, and doesn't have much of a memory, his empathetic skills make him interesting. He doesn't know what the right thing is, hell, he can't comprehend good and bad. But he can sense evil, and he can sense fear. These drive his every action, the mass of swamp hurdles forward towards whatever random thing catches his "attention". The Kale's are mostly good characters too. Jennifer can be a little annoying, but only in character appropriate ways, same with her brother, who eventually just starts churning out quips and one-liners. The idea of their cult being a remnant of Atlantis bound together to protect Man-Thing long before he existed was neat too. Man-Thing might be a little overpowered, but it makes sense as he is a protector of all realities, without even realizing it. The end of this story is a little odd though, not how I expected Howard the Duck to show up at least.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading through these stories though, the art holds up, the ideas are fine and, honestly, the narration really makes this for me. It does a great job of portraying how Man-Thing functions, driven by a sort of curiosity, outside even its own understanding, is a tough concept to handle well, but they did so. The one shot stories are kind of generic, especially nowadays, and all of the characters are stereotypes. But seeing how Man-Thing handles the situations was always interesting. He has no emotional reasoning behind his actions, going purely off what he perceives as evil. There wasn't a lot of happy endings for those who crossed Man-Thing.
It's kind of difficult for a 1970's comic about a swamp monster to be truly scary, but there are plenty of aspects of horror here anyway. Whether you're in it for a playfully spooky atmosphere, or just for a strange character to read about these stories about Man-Thing are worth reading. I can't wait to delve into some of his later stories.
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