Marvel's mighty Man-Thing has become one of the myriad monsters which made an impression on Marvel devotees of superheroes in the early Bronze Age of Comics. The murky swamps were the setting for morality tales in which the somber and always silent Man-Thing participated or in some instances witnessed. The creation of Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow owes much to the classic Hilmman character The Heap. This connection comes by way of Roy Thomas, a fan of The Heap who had a hand in creating the Man-Thing.
Marvel's Man-Thing shambled onto the newstands in 1971 as part of Savage Tales, a package of stories geared toward the "Mature Reader", which usually meant more overt violence and a little nudity. The comic featured headliners like Conan and Ka-zar as well as other new features. But it was Man-Thing among the newbies which found a place in the imagination. We meet a scientist named Ted Sallis who has developed a serum which will amplify humanity, but when his girlfriend betrays him to enemy agents Sallis ends up in the swamp injected with his own chemicals and that weird fusion of elements transforms him into the weird and darksome Man-Thing.
The second issue of Savage Tales never materializes and the comic pages showcasing the second Man-Thing appearance by Len Wein and Neal Adams become part of a larger story in Ka-zar story in Astonishing Tales. We learn more about the project that the hapless scientist Ted Sallis worked for and it fuses the Man-Thing well inside the Marvel Universe.
Eventually Steve Gerber arrives to take control of the character and in tandem with regular artist Val Mayerik, the duo create a new mythology behind the Man-Thing as he becomes the center of cult which worships the things which exist at the nexus of many worlds.
This opens the storytelling up quite a bit and the swamp becomes a primary setting, but not the only one as the enchanter Dakimh appears as well as the lovely up and coming sorceress Jennifer Kale.
Also very important is the industrialist F.A. Schist (get it?) who tries time and again to develop the swamp and so undermine the ecology of the region.
Eventually the story comes to head introducing characters galore like barbarians and even animal aliens named Howard.
Eventually Man-Thing gets his own comic and takes his place among the pantheon of monsters Marvel was developing at the time.
Mike Ploog steps in to take over the art chores and Steve Gerber introduces the hapless Richard Rory to Citrusville, a character clearly intended to be Gerber in the world of the Man-Thing.
One highlight is when the Man-Thing battles his precursor the deadly Glob in the pages of the fantastically titled Giant-Sized Man-Thing #1.
One artist who has an enormous effect on the Man-Thing (which I didn't quite realize until this most recent reading) was John Buscema. Buscema's rendition of the murky Man-Thing might well be my favorite and he drew the character quite a bit.
Man-Thing fought all sorts of menaces, including even bizarre pirates trapped in the afterlife marauding in a flying frigate.
In addition to his own comic, the Man-Thing took up a black and white home in the aptly named Monsters Unleashed. One issue reprints the origin story from Savage Tales and it was the first time I actually was able to read it. It still impresses me. This cover by Neal Adams might be my single favorite image of the muck monster.
The Man-Thing became a steady if not stellar seller for Marvel and a platform for Gerber to wind out some really offbeat stories. More on that when the Man-Thing returns next week.
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