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Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection
Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1
Collects Astonishing Tales (1970) #12-13, Fear #11-19, Marvel Two-in-One #1, Man-Thing (1974) #1-8; material from Savage Tales (1971) #1, Fear #10, Monsters Unleashed #5.
Marvel's melancholy muck-monster, by the man who knows him best! With the Nexus of All Realities as the ultimate staging post, prepare for the wildest journeys of your life in this first volume of a complete collection of Steve Gerber's Man-Thing tales! Join the most startling swamp-creature of all in encounters with the Thing, sorcerers Dakimh and Jennifer Kale, and the most far-out fowl ever created, Howard the Duck! Plus: existential angst, clashes with the encroaching modern world, and the death of a clown! You won't be able to put this one down, but don't get scared — because whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!
Marvel's melancholy muck-monster, by the man who knows him best! With the Nexus of All Realities as the ultimate staging post, prepare for the wildest journeys of your life in this first volume of a complete collection of Steve Gerber's Man-Thing tales! Join the most startling swamp-creature of all in encounters with the Thing, sorcerers Dakimh and Jennifer Kale, and the most far-out fowl ever created, Howard the Duck! Plus: existential angst, clashes with the encroaching modern world, and the death of a clown! You won't be able to put this one down, but don't get scared — because whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!
434 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 27, 2015
33 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Steve Gerber
637 books66 followersSteve Gerber graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in communications and took a job in advertising. To keep himself sane, he wrote bizarre short stories such as "Elves Against Hitler," "Conversion in a Terminal Subway," and "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!" He noticed acquaintance Roy Thomas working at Marvel, and Thomas sent him Marvel's standard writing test, dialoguing Daredevil art. He was soon made a regular on Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and the newly created Man-Thing, the latter of which pegged him as having a strong personal style--intellectual, introspective, and literary. In one issue, he introduced an anthropomorphic duck into a horror fantasy, because he wanted something weird and incongruous, and Thomas made the character, named for Gerber's childhood friend Howard, fall to his apparent death in the following issue. Fans were outraged, and the character was revived in a new and deeply personal series. Gerber said in interview that the joke of Howard the Duck is that "there is no joke." The series was existential and dealt with the necessities of life, such as finding employment to pay the rent. Such unusual fare for comicbooks also informed his writing on The Defenders. Other works included Morbius, the Lving Vampire, The Son of Satan, Tales of the Zombie, The Living Mummy, Marvel Two-in-One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shanna the She-Devil, and Crazy Magazine for Marvel, and Mister Miracle, Metal Men,
The Phantom Zone
, and The Immortal Doctor Fate for DC. Gerber eventually lost a lawsuit for control of Howard the Duck when he was defending artist Gene Colan's claim of delayed paychecks for the series, which was less important to him personally because he had a staff job and Colan did not.
He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.
In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.
In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'
He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.
In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.
In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
June 28, 2016
This book is weird. Like really weird. The main character, Man-Thing (if he could even really be considered the man character) can not even talk. Not a single word. So you get alot of other people talking instead, trying to guess at the Man-Things motivation. It was a bit weird to read a comic, which is usually relaying on dialogue to help further the story, where a character can't talk.
There's some pretty heavy handed stories in here to. In an early one, Man-Thing chases down a man who threw his infant child off a bridge into the swamp. In another, Man-Thing defends an escaped prisoner from being killed by a racist cop. But, when Man-Thing sees that the prisoner is just as hate filled and evil, he just walks away so they can kill each other!
Man-Thing also mixes it up with a lot of bizarre villains. There's no shortage of demons in the swamp, and Man-Thing has to punch everyone of them. He also mixes it up with one of the weirdest Marvel villains I've seen: The Foolkiller. He is a guy who, get this, kills fools! But it gets better! He only kills them once "God" tells him they are a fool! Crazy!
This book is way on the fringes of Superhero comics. I don't really know if someone who likes the more straight forward style of hero fights villain would get much out of this. It's definitely a book for people who like things a little more out there.
I see that a volume 2 is coming out and I will definitely put it on my want list, though it won't be a must buy for me.
There's some pretty heavy handed stories in here to. In an early one, Man-Thing chases down a man who threw his infant child off a bridge into the swamp. In another, Man-Thing defends an escaped prisoner from being killed by a racist cop. But, when Man-Thing sees that the prisoner is just as hate filled and evil, he just walks away so they can kill each other!
Man-Thing also mixes it up with a lot of bizarre villains. There's no shortage of demons in the swamp, and Man-Thing has to punch everyone of them. He also mixes it up with one of the weirdest Marvel villains I've seen: The Foolkiller. He is a guy who, get this, kills fools! But it gets better! He only kills them once "God" tells him they are a fool! Crazy!
This book is way on the fringes of Superhero comics. I don't really know if someone who likes the more straight forward style of hero fights villain would get much out of this. It's definitely a book for people who like things a little more out there.
I see that a volume 2 is coming out and I will definitely put it on my want list, though it won't be a must buy for me.
April 21, 2024
While created virtually simultaneously as Swamp Thing over at DC, Man-Thing is nothing like that particular swamp monster. The Marvel version of this concept is definitely more thing than man. The personality and identity of Ted Sallis slowly disappears, dissolving into the muck from which the Man-Thing arose.
Savage Tales #1 - Created by Gerry Conway, Gary Morrow, and Roy Thomas, Man-Thing first appeared as an additional feature in the premier issue of Savage Tales (with other stories including Conan the Barbarian, Ka-Zar, and the Femizons). Even with Morrow delivering some nice art, there isn’t too much to this story, but every Marvel monster has to begin with tragedy and this is no exception (4/5).
Astonishing Tales #12-13 - This 2-part story from Thomas officially brings the Man-Thing into the Marvel Universe as Ka-Zar, Zabu and the woman who will one day become Mockingbird arrive in the Everglades and encounter the muck monster. This story also elaborates on the origin of the Man-Thing, offering some additional details. Fun, but it’s really just a glorified guest-star appearance for the Man-Thing (both 3/5).
(Adventure Into) Fear #10-17 - The first issue here gives the reader, again, the retelling of the Man-Thing’s conception and then the writing chores are handed over to Steve Gerber and in no time at all we are introduced to the concept of the Everglades as the Nexus of All Realities. This is, quite honestly, a game changer. Just as the artistic evolution we see in these initial few issues: Morrow and Howard Chaykin offer the initial reworked and detailed origin and the next pair of issues are graced with work from Rich Buckler and Jim Starlin before we get the arrival of Val Mayerik, who really delivers some art which finally defines the look of the early Man-Thing depictions. The story of Wundarr also begins in these issues, but that is eventually picked up in the later issues of Marvel Two-In-One. These stories vary somewhat, but there is definite progress and development toward more interesting tales to come (3/5, 3/5, 3/5, 4/5, 3/5, 3/5, 4/5, 4/5).
Marvel Two-In-One #1 - Features art from the one and only Gil Kane and while the story does little to advance Man-Thing’s larger journey, it is a fun and fast-paced read. But I also feel this is placed to early in this volume, I feel that it should follow the first issue of Man-Thing (3/5).
(Adventure Into) Fear #18-19 - These two issues both bring the first series of Man-Thing tales to a close and set up the beginning of the Man-Thing’s first official series. They also delve deeply into the concept of the Nexus of All Realities and introduction a character which would completely eclipse the star of this series with a cameo in #19 and a guest-appearance Man-Thing #1, none other Howard the Duck (3/5 & 4/5).
Man-Thing #1-4 - The first issue wraps up the big Nexus of All Realities begun in Fear #19, guest appearance byHoward the Duck, although his character seems barely developed. He’s basically a throw-away character as depicted here, but he clearly left a huge impact on readers at the time (4/5). Then we move on, and we get the introduction of one of Marvel’s most foolish characters: Foolkiller. While the irony of this character isn’t lost on me, I’ve never found the concept to all that interesting. Certainly another zany, bizarre character from the mind of Steve Gerber (2/5, 3/5, 3/5).
Monsters Unleashed #5 - This one is another b&w story from Marvel’s Monsters Unleashed magazine, which (like Savage Tales) was aimed at a slightly older market. In many ways, the b&w style works better for the Man-Thing, and the art here by Vincente Alcazar does wonders for the fairly straightforward story from Tony Isabella that really just a quick sequel (epilogue?) to the events of Man-Thing’s origin (3/5).
Man-Thing #5-8 - And bring us to the closing chapters of this volume, and where I originally came in and started reading the series as a kid. The art by new regular artist Mike Ploog is gorgeous. It may have taken me some time, as a kid, to grow and really appreciate his art, but Ploog is really a one-of-a-kind artist and he’s well suited for Man-Thing. First is a powerful story about loss of purpose and becoming disillusioned with life. This was a very memorable 2-part story that stayed with me for years and years after I’d read it (both 5/5). Then a 2-part story that gives the reader the fabled Fountain of Youth and delves into some other aspects of the Nexus of All Realities (both 5/5). And the Ploog version of the Man-Thing gives the reader the final and more iconic look to the character that most people think off when conjuring the mossy mass of the macabre to mind.
For the overall volume I’m going to nudge it up just a bit and give it a 4/5. While a 3.5 would be more accurate, that’s not allowed, but a 3-star rating doesn’t really adequately describe the quality of art and story.
Savage Tales #1 - Created by Gerry Conway, Gary Morrow, and Roy Thomas, Man-Thing first appeared as an additional feature in the premier issue of Savage Tales (with other stories including Conan the Barbarian, Ka-Zar, and the Femizons). Even with Morrow delivering some nice art, there isn’t too much to this story, but every Marvel monster has to begin with tragedy and this is no exception (4/5).
Astonishing Tales #12-13 - This 2-part story from Thomas officially brings the Man-Thing into the Marvel Universe as Ka-Zar, Zabu and the woman who will one day become Mockingbird arrive in the Everglades and encounter the muck monster. This story also elaborates on the origin of the Man-Thing, offering some additional details. Fun, but it’s really just a glorified guest-star appearance for the Man-Thing (both 3/5).
(Adventure Into) Fear #10-17 - The first issue here gives the reader, again, the retelling of the Man-Thing’s conception and then the writing chores are handed over to Steve Gerber and in no time at all we are introduced to the concept of the Everglades as the Nexus of All Realities. This is, quite honestly, a game changer. Just as the artistic evolution we see in these initial few issues: Morrow and Howard Chaykin offer the initial reworked and detailed origin and the next pair of issues are graced with work from Rich Buckler and Jim Starlin before we get the arrival of Val Mayerik, who really delivers some art which finally defines the look of the early Man-Thing depictions. The story of Wundarr also begins in these issues, but that is eventually picked up in the later issues of Marvel Two-In-One. These stories vary somewhat, but there is definite progress and development toward more interesting tales to come (3/5, 3/5, 3/5, 4/5, 3/5, 3/5, 4/5, 4/5).
Marvel Two-In-One #1 - Features art from the one and only Gil Kane and while the story does little to advance Man-Thing’s larger journey, it is a fun and fast-paced read. But I also feel this is placed to early in this volume, I feel that it should follow the first issue of Man-Thing (3/5).
(Adventure Into) Fear #18-19 - These two issues both bring the first series of Man-Thing tales to a close and set up the beginning of the Man-Thing’s first official series. They also delve deeply into the concept of the Nexus of All Realities and introduction a character which would completely eclipse the star of this series with a cameo in #19 and a guest-appearance Man-Thing #1, none other Howard the Duck (3/5 & 4/5).
Man-Thing #1-4 - The first issue wraps up the big Nexus of All Realities begun in Fear #19, guest appearance byHoward the Duck, although his character seems barely developed. He’s basically a throw-away character as depicted here, but he clearly left a huge impact on readers at the time (4/5). Then we move on, and we get the introduction of one of Marvel’s most foolish characters: Foolkiller. While the irony of this character isn’t lost on me, I’ve never found the concept to all that interesting. Certainly another zany, bizarre character from the mind of Steve Gerber (2/5, 3/5, 3/5).
Monsters Unleashed #5 - This one is another b&w story from Marvel’s Monsters Unleashed magazine, which (like Savage Tales) was aimed at a slightly older market. In many ways, the b&w style works better for the Man-Thing, and the art here by Vincente Alcazar does wonders for the fairly straightforward story from Tony Isabella that really just a quick sequel (epilogue?) to the events of Man-Thing’s origin (3/5).
Man-Thing #5-8 - And bring us to the closing chapters of this volume, and where I originally came in and started reading the series as a kid. The art by new regular artist Mike Ploog is gorgeous. It may have taken me some time, as a kid, to grow and really appreciate his art, but Ploog is really a one-of-a-kind artist and he’s well suited for Man-Thing. First is a powerful story about loss of purpose and becoming disillusioned with life. This was a very memorable 2-part story that stayed with me for years and years after I’d read it (both 5/5). Then a 2-part story that gives the reader the fabled Fountain of Youth and delves into some other aspects of the Nexus of All Realities (both 5/5). And the Ploog version of the Man-Thing gives the reader the final and more iconic look to the character that most people think off when conjuring the mossy mass of the macabre to mind.
For the overall volume I’m going to nudge it up just a bit and give it a 4/5. While a 3.5 would be more accurate, that’s not allowed, but a 3-star rating doesn’t really adequately describe the quality of art and story.
December 26, 2025
Damn, an alligator hates to see this MF coming.
Really cool art and a truly wackadoo storyline keep this collection engaging. But, a decade later Alan Moore sharpened and perfected this balance of horror, titillation, and stoner psychedelia. Unfortunately, this rounds off the edges of what I’m sure was a pretty cool comic in the early 70s. Just, for me, I’d say you can skip this and read Saga of the Swamp Thing. Having read that first, this doesn’t really reach the same highs or satiate the craving for that type of story.
Read in a collected library paperback.
Really cool art and a truly wackadoo storyline keep this collection engaging. But, a decade later Alan Moore sharpened and perfected this balance of horror, titillation, and stoner psychedelia. Unfortunately, this rounds off the edges of what I’m sure was a pretty cool comic in the early 70s. Just, for me, I’d say you can skip this and read Saga of the Swamp Thing. Having read that first, this doesn’t really reach the same highs or satiate the craving for that type of story.
Read in a collected library paperback.
April 9, 2021
Steve Gerber and Mike Ploog!?! and color? Man-Thing doesn't get better. (Alfredo Alcala shows up in the next volume for pirates, though) Not quite sure why they thought they needed to re-color Howard the Duck.
March 29, 2016
Origin (Savage Tales). Thomas and Conway introduce Man-Thing, and his story is almost identical to Swamp Thing. But it's a good story and beautifully illustrated [7/10].
Ka-Zar. It's cool how Thomas picks up the Man-Thing origin just moments later but simultaneously pushes it straight into the Marvel universe, with Ka-Zar and AIM. However, once you get past that interesting premise, the story is more of a dud [5/10].
Conway's End (Fear 10). Conway's return story certainly shows how little you can do with the concept of Man-Thing in a story that goes nowhere [3/10].
Demonic Invasion! (Fear 11, 13-15). These stories are really all over the place, with new author Gerber seeming to revise his ideas from issue to issue. Nonetheless, he's creating a great world of magic and fantasy for the Man-Thing, with the introduction of Jennifer Kale, the swamp as a magical nexus, and of course an invasion of demons. (The demons themselves, one of which is named THOG, aren't that interesting, but their part as an element of a fantasy universe is.) [6+/10].
No Choice of Colors (Fear 12). However, Gerber's best early story is actually this one about race and hatred. It touches upon deeper issues in keeping with the real-world focus of the previous Man-Thing, but does it in a more focused and thoughtful way [7/10].
More Shorts (Fear 16-17,MTIO 1, Fear 18). The story of Indians and unions has a bit too many ideas to form a coherent storyline [5/10]. Meanwhile, the introduction of Wundarr is a wonderfully bizarre mix of Man-Thing, Superman, and science-fiction [7/10]. The team-up with Ben Grimm is pretty funny because it's based on their names, and it's interesting to see a variant Molecule Man, but otherwise is forgettable [5+/10]. Back in his own comic, Man-Thing haunts the edges of a tale of swamp survival, which is an amazingly intense character piece [7/10].
The Enchanter's Apprentice (Fear 19, M-T 1). This is Gerber's Man-Thing at its best as we return to fantasy realms, demon invasions, and weird, wacky travels through other places. Howard the Duck debuts too, but his appearance is minor and relatively poorly characterized, and so not important. But, it's part of the strangeness that makes this arc great. And what a weird world of publishing, where a story could start in the 19th issue of an anthology title, and continue directly into the first issue of a new series [8/10].
Nowhere To Go But Down (M-T 2). Another very '70s tale of humanity in the swamps. The story is complex and the characters are interesting [7/10].
Fool-Killer (M-T 3-4). To make Man-Thing work, Gerber had to bring new weirdness and conflict to the swamp every week, and this is a good one: a crazed, incompetent killer. It's a rather delightful funny read (and no wonder other writers brought the Fool-Killer back at Marvel) [7+/10].
All the Faces of Fear (MU5). A nice call-back to the title's origins as a black & white comic. Though the story is pretty minor, it's also a nice reminder of Man-Thing's origin story, with the return of a character who I'd like to see more of [6/10].
Man-Clown (M-T 5-6). A nice combination of the supernatural and the human, melding together the two elements that Gerber has built his comic upon [7/10].
Fountain of Youth (M-T 7-8). This finale does a good job of taking the largely unsuccessful construction-in-the-swamp plotline and dovetailing it into a search for the Fountain of Youth. Man-Thing is always at its best when it moves toward the mystical side of the world, and that's what we get here [7/10].
Man-Thing is a tough series, because the protagonist isn't really a character. He's a plot device. Because of his bestial insanity, he can't change and we can't have character arcs about him. So everything has to move around him. Unfortunately, this also proves to be a problem for the series. Without an actual character to focus on, we get an ever-changing kaleidoscope of characters, all of whom are individually interesting, but which don't combine together to form a coherent story. This is made worse by the fact that the series constantly moves back and forth — from fantasy to science-fiction to social commentary. It's all individually intriguing, but when read as a whole (even over the course of two months), it get monotonous because of the lack of an ongoing plot.
So, I loved many of the individual stories in this volume (at least after Gerber took over), but I was quite tired of it by the end.
Ka-Zar. It's cool how Thomas picks up the Man-Thing origin just moments later but simultaneously pushes it straight into the Marvel universe, with Ka-Zar and AIM. However, once you get past that interesting premise, the story is more of a dud [5/10].
Conway's End (Fear 10). Conway's return story certainly shows how little you can do with the concept of Man-Thing in a story that goes nowhere [3/10].
Demonic Invasion! (Fear 11, 13-15). These stories are really all over the place, with new author Gerber seeming to revise his ideas from issue to issue. Nonetheless, he's creating a great world of magic and fantasy for the Man-Thing, with the introduction of Jennifer Kale, the swamp as a magical nexus, and of course an invasion of demons. (The demons themselves, one of which is named THOG, aren't that interesting, but their part as an element of a fantasy universe is.) [6+/10].
No Choice of Colors (Fear 12). However, Gerber's best early story is actually this one about race and hatred. It touches upon deeper issues in keeping with the real-world focus of the previous Man-Thing, but does it in a more focused and thoughtful way [7/10].
More Shorts (Fear 16-17,MTIO 1, Fear 18). The story of Indians and unions has a bit too many ideas to form a coherent storyline [5/10]. Meanwhile, the introduction of Wundarr is a wonderfully bizarre mix of Man-Thing, Superman, and science-fiction [7/10]. The team-up with Ben Grimm is pretty funny because it's based on their names, and it's interesting to see a variant Molecule Man, but otherwise is forgettable [5+/10]. Back in his own comic, Man-Thing haunts the edges of a tale of swamp survival, which is an amazingly intense character piece [7/10].
The Enchanter's Apprentice (Fear 19, M-T 1). This is Gerber's Man-Thing at its best as we return to fantasy realms, demon invasions, and weird, wacky travels through other places. Howard the Duck debuts too, but his appearance is minor and relatively poorly characterized, and so not important. But, it's part of the strangeness that makes this arc great. And what a weird world of publishing, where a story could start in the 19th issue of an anthology title, and continue directly into the first issue of a new series [8/10].
Nowhere To Go But Down (M-T 2). Another very '70s tale of humanity in the swamps. The story is complex and the characters are interesting [7/10].
Fool-Killer (M-T 3-4). To make Man-Thing work, Gerber had to bring new weirdness and conflict to the swamp every week, and this is a good one: a crazed, incompetent killer. It's a rather delightful funny read (and no wonder other writers brought the Fool-Killer back at Marvel) [7+/10].
All the Faces of Fear (MU5). A nice call-back to the title's origins as a black & white comic. Though the story is pretty minor, it's also a nice reminder of Man-Thing's origin story, with the return of a character who I'd like to see more of [6/10].
Man-Clown (M-T 5-6). A nice combination of the supernatural and the human, melding together the two elements that Gerber has built his comic upon [7/10].
Fountain of Youth (M-T 7-8). This finale does a good job of taking the largely unsuccessful construction-in-the-swamp plotline and dovetailing it into a search for the Fountain of Youth. Man-Thing is always at its best when it moves toward the mystical side of the world, and that's what we get here [7/10].
Man-Thing is a tough series, because the protagonist isn't really a character. He's a plot device. Because of his bestial insanity, he can't change and we can't have character arcs about him. So everything has to move around him. Unfortunately, this also proves to be a problem for the series. Without an actual character to focus on, we get an ever-changing kaleidoscope of characters, all of whom are individually interesting, but which don't combine together to form a coherent story. This is made worse by the fact that the series constantly moves back and forth — from fantasy to science-fiction to social commentary. It's all individually intriguing, but when read as a whole (even over the course of two months), it get monotonous because of the lack of an ongoing plot.
So, I loved many of the individual stories in this volume (at least after Gerber took over), but I was quite tired of it by the end.
May 23, 2017
"Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!" The specificity of that strange super power has intrigued me for years, so when it came up again when I was reading Master of Kung Fu, I decided I needed to finally read some Man-Thing and figure out what that's all about.
I've been thinking a lot about fear as a motivation lately, especially during the last election, in which both major candidates used it as the basis of their campaigns. I wondered if Man-Thing had anything interesting to add. Why is this mindless swamp creature so opposed to fear? Is Man-Thing symbolic of something else that battles fear? If so, what? And what does burning have to do with it?
Sadly, if there's deeper meaning in these comics, I'm missing it. Like most serialized adventures that are passed from writer to writer (and that's the case here, even though Steve Gerber's name is in the title and he wrote most of the stories in the collection), ideas get introduced then dropped or changed as the story evolves.
Man-Thing started in a standalone story in Marvel's black-and-white anthology magazine, Strange Tales, where writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas gave the monster the ability to burn people with his touch. It's not explicitly connected to fear, though. Thomas kept the story going in a two-part adventure in Astonishing Tales, where Ka-Zar connects the Man-Thing's burning power with the emotion of fear, but it's still not explained why.
When the character got his own, ongoing feature in Adventure into Fear, Conway was back writing and added to the fear/burning connection the explanation that fear is an emotion that Man-Thing hates. When Gerber took over in the next issue, he just continued what Conway and Thomas had started, eventually adding the famous catch-phrase.
So I was disappointed in the lack of any deeper meaning to the connection between fear, burning, and this awesome-looking swamp creature. As far as I can tell, it wasn't the result of a creator's philosophy, but just random connections that developed over time.
And I was also disappointed at the willy-nilly plots that Gerber ended up laying over the character. It reads like Gerber was never sure what to do with Man-Thing. There are stories with social commentary about race and environmentalism and capitalism, but they're interspersed with goofy high fantasy and Tales from the Crypt-style horror. Some of these work really well, but some - especially the fantasy stuff - really don't.
The art is pretty great throughout the collection, though. Gray Morrow, John Buscema, and Mike Ploog are special favorites of mine, but there's also good stuff by Rich Buckler, Val Mayerik, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin, and Vicente Alcazar.
I've been thinking a lot about fear as a motivation lately, especially during the last election, in which both major candidates used it as the basis of their campaigns. I wondered if Man-Thing had anything interesting to add. Why is this mindless swamp creature so opposed to fear? Is Man-Thing symbolic of something else that battles fear? If so, what? And what does burning have to do with it?
Sadly, if there's deeper meaning in these comics, I'm missing it. Like most serialized adventures that are passed from writer to writer (and that's the case here, even though Steve Gerber's name is in the title and he wrote most of the stories in the collection), ideas get introduced then dropped or changed as the story evolves.
Man-Thing started in a standalone story in Marvel's black-and-white anthology magazine, Strange Tales, where writers Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas gave the monster the ability to burn people with his touch. It's not explicitly connected to fear, though. Thomas kept the story going in a two-part adventure in Astonishing Tales, where Ka-Zar connects the Man-Thing's burning power with the emotion of fear, but it's still not explained why.
When the character got his own, ongoing feature in Adventure into Fear, Conway was back writing and added to the fear/burning connection the explanation that fear is an emotion that Man-Thing hates. When Gerber took over in the next issue, he just continued what Conway and Thomas had started, eventually adding the famous catch-phrase.
So I was disappointed in the lack of any deeper meaning to the connection between fear, burning, and this awesome-looking swamp creature. As far as I can tell, it wasn't the result of a creator's philosophy, but just random connections that developed over time.
And I was also disappointed at the willy-nilly plots that Gerber ended up laying over the character. It reads like Gerber was never sure what to do with Man-Thing. There are stories with social commentary about race and environmentalism and capitalism, but they're interspersed with goofy high fantasy and Tales from the Crypt-style horror. Some of these work really well, but some - especially the fantasy stuff - really don't.
The art is pretty great throughout the collection, though. Gray Morrow, John Buscema, and Mike Ploog are special favorites of mine, but there's also good stuff by Rich Buckler, Val Mayerik, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin, and Vicente Alcazar.
August 23, 2023
Gerber's Man-Thing has a considerable reputation - it didn't land for me however. Perhaps that's because many creators learned from Gerber's work. Perhaps the time has simply passed in a way I cannot relate to. Whatever it is, the other dimensional sci-fi fantasy tropes are a slog. The counter culture motifs are better, but not truly memorable. The art is largely good, particularly Morrow and Mayerick.
February 20, 2025
You may have heard a story like this before. A biochemist working for a secret agency develops a chemical that evil people want to steal. They come to his place in the swamp, and he winds up with the serum inside him, and burning, he plunges into the murky slime. Remarkably he does not die, but some combination of the chemicals, the matter of the swamp and mystic forces causes him to become a being more plant than man, a Man-Thing!
In this case, the scientist is Theodore “Ted” Sallis, the swamp is the Florida Everglades, the chemical was meant to create super-soldiers that could breathe polluted air, the government agency was S.H.I.E.L.D., the criminals were A.I.M., and Ted’s lover Ellen was the one who had betrayed him.
This swamp creature’s origin/first adventure first appeared in Savage Tales as a backup to Conan the Barbarian. Per Wikipedia, the very basic idea came from Stan Lee, Len Wein did the detailed plot, and Gerry Conway did the final script. The art and Man-Thing’s distinctive appearance were created by Gray Morrow. A second story was mostly completed, but the magazine was cancelled before it could be published.
Instead, it was incorporated into Astonishing Tales #12 as a flashback within a Ka-Zar story. Ka-Zar, basically Marvel’s answer to Tarzan, was called in by SHIELD scientist Bobbi Morse (later code-named Mockingbird) to investigate the disappearance of Ted Sallis. He and Man-Thing initially clash, but Ka-Zar quickly realizes that AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) are the real villains here, and they end up destroying the baddies’ secret base together. Ka-Zar strongly suspects Man-Thing and Ted Sallis are connected somehow, but never finds out how.
Man-Thing then moved into a solo series in Adventure Into Fear #10. But it was #11 when he was first written by Steve Gerber, who would become the writer most associated with Man-Thing. Mr. Gerber had a distinctive authorial voice even in this first work for Marvel. This issue introduced Jennifer Kale, a teenage girl who wanted to dabble in magic, and accidentally summoned the Nether-Spawn called Thog. (Basically a demon.)
This kicks off a longer arc about the swamp near Citrusville, Florida being the Nexus of Realities, a place where it’s easier to get from one dimension to another, but due to disturbances in the flow, those realities are getting jumbled, converging and colliding.
But Steve Gerber was also interested in the social issues of the 1970s. #12 is a standalone about a black fugitive being pursued by a racist sheriff. Man-Thing’s empathetic abilities draw him to the fugitive’s side, but the situation is more complex than first presented and there’s no good guy here. It’s also the issue that debuts the classic line “for whatever knows fear…BURNS at the Man-Thing’s touch!”
#14 introduces Dakihm the Enchanter, a slippery mage who is on the good side. Probably. It’s interesting how he always disappears when things get rough. He eventually becomes Jennifer’s teacher in the mystic arts.
#16 starts another long plot thread involving the construction company of F.A. Schist which has been hired to drain the swamp and build an airport. Despite their boss’ bad guy name, only some of the construction workers are outright evil. Many of them are just working stiffs who need the money to feed their families, and callous towards the damage they might be doing to the ecosphere.
#17 introduces Wundarr, Steve Gerber’s Superman homage. Wundarr’s father was a scientist who discovered that the planet Dakkam’s sun was about to go nova. The authorities rejected his findings, so he built a rocket ship to carry his infant son to Earth. During the launch, Wundarr’s parents were killed by government troops to avoid society being disturbed. (It would later be discovered that the calculations were incorrect and Dakkam’s sun failed to go nova. But too late now.)
Upon arriving on Earth, two elderly Floridians see the rocket landing, but fearing alien attack, chose to ignore it. So Wundarr grew to physical adulthood, nourished by the ship’s systems, but without any education. So when Man-Thing wrecks the rocket and releases Wundarr, it’s a superpowered young man with the mind of a toddler that is unleashed on the world.
A quick side trip to Marvel Two-In-One #1, in which Ben Grimm and Ted Sallis (temporarily returned to humanity) fight the Molecule Master’s son. This is where someone actually learns that Ted Sallis and the Man-Thing are the same person for the first time.
Adventure Into Fear #18 is another one-shot about five survivors of a car-bus collision trying to make it across the swamp with the partial assistance of Man-Thing. Politics and personal flaws doom several of them.
#19 starts the climax of the Nexus of Realities story, introducing Korrek the Barbarian and fan favorite Howard the Duck, who is a “funny animal” from a world where talking ducks are normal. Howard doesn’t stick around long, but popped back up later to be another Steve Gerber classic. This arc wraps up in The Man-Thing #1 as the much monster got his own title.
#2 introduces perpetual loser and radio personality Richard Rory, who gets stranded in the swamp when he runs out of gas, then gets involved with the troubles of Ruth, a “biker babe” fleeing her old gang and especially abusive ex Snake who framed her for stealing the gang’s money. The Man-Thing naturally gets mixed up in this. Meanwhile, F.A. Schist hires Hargood Wickham, known as Professor Slaughter, to come up with a way to kill the Man-Thing.
Dr. Wickham is…a little too enthusiastic about the horrific murder method he’s invented, which was rejected by the military as too inhumane even for them. He’s even found a way to cause enough pain to force Man-Thing to enter the deathtrap–Professor Slaughter relishes the thought of inflicting pain.
The plotlines collide, Snake inadvertently giving the Man-Thing a way to escape the trap, which also results in his own death after Rory proves Snake’s treachery.
#3 introduces Foolkiller, a religious fanatic who has appointed himself judge, jury and executioner of all “fools”, and has a grudge against Richard Rory, F.A. Schist and Ted Sallis, the last of whom he has independently realized is now the Man-Thing. This version of the character dies in this story, but several imitators would pop up.
Side trip to Monsters Unleashed #5, where Ted Sallis’ traitorous lover Ellen returns. At the end of the origin, she had her face horribly burned by the Man-Thing’s touch, and has since undergone extensive plastic surgery. Now she needs to confront her past before she can move on, even if that means facing the muck monster she helped create. This story was written by Jenny Blake Isabella, writing as Tony Isabella.
Man-Thing #5 & 6 have the “Night of the Laughing Dead” story in which the swamp creature, Rory and Ruth have to assist circus folk in a bizarre psychodrama to determine if a clown who committed suicide will be allowed into the afterlife. This story is very trippy, kind of profound, and had a massive impact on me as a teen.
#7 & 8 have the end of the F.A. Schist plotline. The 1973 Oil Crisis has put plans for a new airport on hold, so the draining of the swamp is no longer necessary. Schist confides to Wickham that he had another motive for being so fanatical about the project. He’s narrowed down rumors of the Fountain of Youth to this area, and had hoped to find it. The two bad men decide to do one last search before leaving.
As it happens, the inhabitants of La Hacienda have been looking for the Man-Thing for…reasons. And this leads Schist to their hideout. Turns out the Fountain of Youth is very real. But there is, as you might expect, a catch or two. Man-Thing must give up its chance of being returned to humanity to defeat Schist once and for all.
Which is as good a place as any for this volume to end.
The Man-Thing, unlike DC Comics’ Swamp Thing created about the same time (both drawing heavily from earlier comics character The Heap) did not possess human intelligence, only vague half-memories and instinct. and could sense emotions and the general “vibe” of an area or person. Thus most of its stories aren’t really about the Man-Thing as such, but the characters around the Man-Thing, acting as a catalyst or force of nature to advance their plotlines and character development.
There’s some excellent art here, most commonly by Mike Ploog.
Some of the “issues” writing is dated, and the purple prose can get a little turgid.
Content note: Murder, suicide, violence in general. Man-Thing frequently kills alligators and snakes. Body horror. Threats of sexual assault, some characters clearly are having extramarital sex (usually consensual.) Racism, sexism. Children in peril. Bullying. Most teens should be able to handle this.
This volume is a must have for Steve Gerber fans or folks who really are into Man-Thing. The more casual fan might want to check it out at the library before deciding to spend money on it.
In this case, the scientist is Theodore “Ted” Sallis, the swamp is the Florida Everglades, the chemical was meant to create super-soldiers that could breathe polluted air, the government agency was S.H.I.E.L.D., the criminals were A.I.M., and Ted’s lover Ellen was the one who had betrayed him.
This swamp creature’s origin/first adventure first appeared in Savage Tales as a backup to Conan the Barbarian. Per Wikipedia, the very basic idea came from Stan Lee, Len Wein did the detailed plot, and Gerry Conway did the final script. The art and Man-Thing’s distinctive appearance were created by Gray Morrow. A second story was mostly completed, but the magazine was cancelled before it could be published.
Instead, it was incorporated into Astonishing Tales #12 as a flashback within a Ka-Zar story. Ka-Zar, basically Marvel’s answer to Tarzan, was called in by SHIELD scientist Bobbi Morse (later code-named Mockingbird) to investigate the disappearance of Ted Sallis. He and Man-Thing initially clash, but Ka-Zar quickly realizes that AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) are the real villains here, and they end up destroying the baddies’ secret base together. Ka-Zar strongly suspects Man-Thing and Ted Sallis are connected somehow, but never finds out how.
Man-Thing then moved into a solo series in Adventure Into Fear #10. But it was #11 when he was first written by Steve Gerber, who would become the writer most associated with Man-Thing. Mr. Gerber had a distinctive authorial voice even in this first work for Marvel. This issue introduced Jennifer Kale, a teenage girl who wanted to dabble in magic, and accidentally summoned the Nether-Spawn called Thog. (Basically a demon.)
This kicks off a longer arc about the swamp near Citrusville, Florida being the Nexus of Realities, a place where it’s easier to get from one dimension to another, but due to disturbances in the flow, those realities are getting jumbled, converging and colliding.
But Steve Gerber was also interested in the social issues of the 1970s. #12 is a standalone about a black fugitive being pursued by a racist sheriff. Man-Thing’s empathetic abilities draw him to the fugitive’s side, but the situation is more complex than first presented and there’s no good guy here. It’s also the issue that debuts the classic line “for whatever knows fear…BURNS at the Man-Thing’s touch!”
#14 introduces Dakihm the Enchanter, a slippery mage who is on the good side. Probably. It’s interesting how he always disappears when things get rough. He eventually becomes Jennifer’s teacher in the mystic arts.
#16 starts another long plot thread involving the construction company of F.A. Schist which has been hired to drain the swamp and build an airport. Despite their boss’ bad guy name, only some of the construction workers are outright evil. Many of them are just working stiffs who need the money to feed their families, and callous towards the damage they might be doing to the ecosphere.
#17 introduces Wundarr, Steve Gerber’s Superman homage. Wundarr’s father was a scientist who discovered that the planet Dakkam’s sun was about to go nova. The authorities rejected his findings, so he built a rocket ship to carry his infant son to Earth. During the launch, Wundarr’s parents were killed by government troops to avoid society being disturbed. (It would later be discovered that the calculations were incorrect and Dakkam’s sun failed to go nova. But too late now.)
Upon arriving on Earth, two elderly Floridians see the rocket landing, but fearing alien attack, chose to ignore it. So Wundarr grew to physical adulthood, nourished by the ship’s systems, but without any education. So when Man-Thing wrecks the rocket and releases Wundarr, it’s a superpowered young man with the mind of a toddler that is unleashed on the world.
A quick side trip to Marvel Two-In-One #1, in which Ben Grimm and Ted Sallis (temporarily returned to humanity) fight the Molecule Master’s son. This is where someone actually learns that Ted Sallis and the Man-Thing are the same person for the first time.
Adventure Into Fear #18 is another one-shot about five survivors of a car-bus collision trying to make it across the swamp with the partial assistance of Man-Thing. Politics and personal flaws doom several of them.
#19 starts the climax of the Nexus of Realities story, introducing Korrek the Barbarian and fan favorite Howard the Duck, who is a “funny animal” from a world where talking ducks are normal. Howard doesn’t stick around long, but popped back up later to be another Steve Gerber classic. This arc wraps up in The Man-Thing #1 as the much monster got his own title.
#2 introduces perpetual loser and radio personality Richard Rory, who gets stranded in the swamp when he runs out of gas, then gets involved with the troubles of Ruth, a “biker babe” fleeing her old gang and especially abusive ex Snake who framed her for stealing the gang’s money. The Man-Thing naturally gets mixed up in this. Meanwhile, F.A. Schist hires Hargood Wickham, known as Professor Slaughter, to come up with a way to kill the Man-Thing.
Dr. Wickham is…a little too enthusiastic about the horrific murder method he’s invented, which was rejected by the military as too inhumane even for them. He’s even found a way to cause enough pain to force Man-Thing to enter the deathtrap–Professor Slaughter relishes the thought of inflicting pain.
The plotlines collide, Snake inadvertently giving the Man-Thing a way to escape the trap, which also results in his own death after Rory proves Snake’s treachery.
#3 introduces Foolkiller, a religious fanatic who has appointed himself judge, jury and executioner of all “fools”, and has a grudge against Richard Rory, F.A. Schist and Ted Sallis, the last of whom he has independently realized is now the Man-Thing. This version of the character dies in this story, but several imitators would pop up.
Side trip to Monsters Unleashed #5, where Ted Sallis’ traitorous lover Ellen returns. At the end of the origin, she had her face horribly burned by the Man-Thing’s touch, and has since undergone extensive plastic surgery. Now she needs to confront her past before she can move on, even if that means facing the muck monster she helped create. This story was written by Jenny Blake Isabella, writing as Tony Isabella.
Man-Thing #5 & 6 have the “Night of the Laughing Dead” story in which the swamp creature, Rory and Ruth have to assist circus folk in a bizarre psychodrama to determine if a clown who committed suicide will be allowed into the afterlife. This story is very trippy, kind of profound, and had a massive impact on me as a teen.
#7 & 8 have the end of the F.A. Schist plotline. The 1973 Oil Crisis has put plans for a new airport on hold, so the draining of the swamp is no longer necessary. Schist confides to Wickham that he had another motive for being so fanatical about the project. He’s narrowed down rumors of the Fountain of Youth to this area, and had hoped to find it. The two bad men decide to do one last search before leaving.
As it happens, the inhabitants of La Hacienda have been looking for the Man-Thing for…reasons. And this leads Schist to their hideout. Turns out the Fountain of Youth is very real. But there is, as you might expect, a catch or two. Man-Thing must give up its chance of being returned to humanity to defeat Schist once and for all.
Which is as good a place as any for this volume to end.
The Man-Thing, unlike DC Comics’ Swamp Thing created about the same time (both drawing heavily from earlier comics character The Heap) did not possess human intelligence, only vague half-memories and instinct. and could sense emotions and the general “vibe” of an area or person. Thus most of its stories aren’t really about the Man-Thing as such, but the characters around the Man-Thing, acting as a catalyst or force of nature to advance their plotlines and character development.
There’s some excellent art here, most commonly by Mike Ploog.
Some of the “issues” writing is dated, and the purple prose can get a little turgid.
Content note: Murder, suicide, violence in general. Man-Thing frequently kills alligators and snakes. Body horror. Threats of sexual assault, some characters clearly are having extramarital sex (usually consensual.) Racism, sexism. Children in peril. Bullying. Most teens should be able to handle this.
This volume is a must have for Steve Gerber fans or folks who really are into Man-Thing. The more casual fan might want to check it out at the library before deciding to spend money on it.
January 5, 2018
Man-Thing was unleashed from the foggy depths of Marvel Comics Louisiana delta in May of 1971 just two months before Alec Holland crept from DC Comics Louisiana delta as the Swamp Thing.
The origin of both characters are very similar. But where Marvel's muck monster has it over Swampy is the various connections to others in the Marvel universe.
Q: What do Man-Thing and Captain America, the X-Men, the Master of Quack-Fu and S. H. I. E. L. D. have in common?
A: Read Man-Thing.
Sadly mighty Marvel comics pulled the old shuck and jive...
Q: How did they do that?
A: Quite simply by creating a black and white magazine for the untapped young adult market and then canceling the idea after only one issue.
The magazine was called Savage Tales and the cast of characters included Conan the Barbarian, Ka-zar and the Man-Thing. The cancellation of Savage Tales led to the creation of three new titles for mighty Marvel... Adventures into Fear, Astonishing Tales and the Savage Sword of Conan.
The Man-Thing story arc continued into the pages of Astonishing Tales with Ka-Zar (of the hidden pre-historic jungle beneath the frozen wastes of Antarctica) helping S. H. I. E. L. D. find a missing scientist attempting to create a super-soldier serum. The story arc leapt into the pages of Adventures into Fear teaming Man-Thing with the Marvel comics version of Dave Sims' Cerebus the Aardvark (Earth Pig born). And finally giving the Man-Thing his own comic before canceling said comic book and eventually tying everything up in the pages of Howard the Duck before canceling that comic leaving both characters on the ash heap of comics-dom.
https://youtu.be/RTUL1GWbrRw
The origin of both characters are very similar. But where Marvel's muck monster has it over Swampy is the various connections to others in the Marvel universe.
Q: What do Man-Thing and Captain America, the X-Men, the Master of Quack-Fu and S. H. I. E. L. D. have in common?
A: Read Man-Thing.
Sadly mighty Marvel comics pulled the old shuck and jive...
Q: How did they do that?
A: Quite simply by creating a black and white magazine for the untapped young adult market and then canceling the idea after only one issue.
The magazine was called Savage Tales and the cast of characters included Conan the Barbarian, Ka-zar and the Man-Thing. The cancellation of Savage Tales led to the creation of three new titles for mighty Marvel... Adventures into Fear, Astonishing Tales and the Savage Sword of Conan.
The Man-Thing story arc continued into the pages of Astonishing Tales with Ka-Zar (of the hidden pre-historic jungle beneath the frozen wastes of Antarctica) helping S. H. I. E. L. D. find a missing scientist attempting to create a super-soldier serum. The story arc leapt into the pages of Adventures into Fear teaming Man-Thing with the Marvel comics version of Dave Sims' Cerebus the Aardvark (Earth Pig born). And finally giving the Man-Thing his own comic before canceling said comic book and eventually tying everything up in the pages of Howard the Duck before canceling that comic leaving both characters on the ash heap of comics-dom.
https://youtu.be/RTUL1GWbrRw
July 19, 2016
“Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch” is a phrase that etched itself in the back of my mind since I was a child in the early 1970s and the stories associated are just as bonkers and just as much products of the time as I remembered. Hippies and bikers and corporate criminals as well as cultists and rednecks and scary carnivals are all well represented. Some of the stories are just as hokey as would be expected, but sometimes, when we get the second person imperative narration of what compels the Macabre Man-Thing, the story transcend its limitations. Whether as an artifact of its time or an interesting and trippy take on the super-soldier-serum-gone-bad trope, this collection is a great deal of fun.
February 26, 2025
Steve Gerber's legacy. Wonderfully weird and beautiful art by Val Mayerik, Mike Ploog, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Tom Sutton, etc.
Pretty good but not as good as :
https://youtu.be/4BLVPLiksb4
September 28, 2016
Steve Gerber shows us his, very impressive, Man-Thing.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, here's a link to an article that explains the significance of these stories better than I ever could.
http://www.popmatters.com/feature/129...
Okay, now that that's out of the way, here's a link to an article that explains the significance of these stories better than I ever could.
http://www.popmatters.com/feature/129...
March 11, 2023
Alright, a few caveats before the big review….
Caveat 1: I read these comics on the Marvel Unlimited app and not in paper form. Unfortunately, that means I haven’t read a few issues that are unavailable in that format (mainly the Marvel Comics Presents material and some issues of Monsters Unleashed). But I did read all of the Fear issues with Man-Thing, all of the Man-Thing, Giant Size Man-Thing, and Infernal Man-Thing issues along with a good bit of the crossover material. Also, I am posting the same review to all three volumes of the Steve Gerber Man-Thing Collection instead of breaking down the material by the volume it appears.
Caveat 2: I adore the Steve Gerber Defenders run, and I’m quite a fan of his Howard the Duck stuff, both of which I read when it came out. But I read almost none of Gerber’s Man-Thing when it was published (the big exception being the creature’s appearance in two issues of Howard the Duck). So, I have no nostalgia for these works, and I am reading these early 70’s comic books with a pretty critical eye.
So, what works? Squint and you can see an early version of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run; there’s a muck creature with identity issues surrounded by stories of social importance, with a big focus (as usual for Gerber) on the danger of mob mentalities. Squint even harder and you can see hints of Grant Morrison’s Animal Man run; the final issue of the Man-Thing title has Gerber as the main character, explaining how he gets all the stories from a side character called Dakimh the Enchanter and having a cosmic adventure all his own. In short, there’s a ton of inventiveness mixed in with the typical Gerber insanity.
Compared to Defenders and Howard the Duck, this is the series that focuses most on human beings and their travails. (And there’s a good reason why a few paragraphs down.) There are issues on race relations, the evils of consumer culture, the impact of fact-shaming and bullying, and much more. And the very large cast of non-powered people who move in and out of the book make it, in some ways, one of the more grounded Gerber titles.
It’s also a (usually) dark series, with much more death than I would expect from a 70’s Marvel comic. If you read anything from these collections, I would recommend Man-Thing #16-18, which centers around a book-burning crusade in Citrusville, the small Florida town that is the setting for most of the stories. Unlike a lot of Marvel stories with “social importance”, there is no happy ending here. A young girl dies, unable to stop her crazed grandfather on his mission of enforcing an outdated version of masculinity. The book burners win, with our protagonists leaving town to escape the mob. It is a remarkably sobering story.
So, what doesn’t work? Sadly, so so much…. See, the thing with Gerber is that the inventiveness is often mixed with an undisciplined approach, or --- to put it more bluntly --- Gerber is going to go too far too often. It’s not a surprise that a human antagonist for the early issues is called F. A. Schist. It’s not a surprise that an advertising executive will describe his frustration with trying to sell crap by writing a cringe-filled tone poem shown as a text page in the comic. It’s not a surprise that there’s an emotional vampire zooming around in a purple and yellow costume, devouring women down to their bones. It’s not a surprise that the main researcher of a Bermuda Triangle project is also the reincarnation of a pirate queen trying to escape a satyr. It’s just barely a surprise that a storyline addresses the consequences of one side character (Richard Rory, a possible Gerber stand-in) helping an underage teenage girl escape Citrusville with them both realizing that he can be charged with kidnapping.
And look, sometimes the absurdity of Gerber’s material works; it’s how we got Howard the Duck after all. But when it doesn’t, it sometimes falls hard. And given the craziness of what happens in this book (which in my mind outdoes the Defenders by a long shot), I have to wonder what editors at Marvel were thinking in the early 70’s.
And then there’s Man-Thing…. Unlike DC’s Swamp Thing, Man-Thing is barely conscious. He has no internal or external dialogue; he just reacts to others’ emotions or by instinct (and goodness knows the narration will tell you that over and over again.) In short, Man-Thing has no agency. He is never the protagonist but either the catalyst for the story or an agent of inadvertent justice at the conclusion. All of which means that the comic needs to keep on bringing in protagonist after protagonist for stories, most of whom have short shelf lives.
Since Man-Thing doesn’t speak or think, what we get instead is text box after text box of narration. Now, I love the catch phrase “whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch”, but aside from that, Gerber’s prose can get awfully boring. Add to that the relative lack of humor in this title, and many pages can become tough going.
Finally (and if you have gotten this far, congrats for realizing how petty this complaint is), there are too many fights with alligators. Sometimes a snake is thrown in for variety, but usually it’s alligators. It’s as if Marvel editorial was fine with Gerber getting crazy conceptually, but there still had to be the mandated fight scene per issue, so Gerber and his artists showed the Man-Thing/alligator fracas one more time.
I’m glad I read these issues, if only to experience more Gerber imagination and understand more of Marvel’s 70’s history. But I don’t see myself rereading these, and I’m not sure there’s much for anyone who isn’t already nostalgic for this run.
Caveat 1: I read these comics on the Marvel Unlimited app and not in paper form. Unfortunately, that means I haven’t read a few issues that are unavailable in that format (mainly the Marvel Comics Presents material and some issues of Monsters Unleashed). But I did read all of the Fear issues with Man-Thing, all of the Man-Thing, Giant Size Man-Thing, and Infernal Man-Thing issues along with a good bit of the crossover material. Also, I am posting the same review to all three volumes of the Steve Gerber Man-Thing Collection instead of breaking down the material by the volume it appears.
Caveat 2: I adore the Steve Gerber Defenders run, and I’m quite a fan of his Howard the Duck stuff, both of which I read when it came out. But I read almost none of Gerber’s Man-Thing when it was published (the big exception being the creature’s appearance in two issues of Howard the Duck). So, I have no nostalgia for these works, and I am reading these early 70’s comic books with a pretty critical eye.
So, what works? Squint and you can see an early version of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run; there’s a muck creature with identity issues surrounded by stories of social importance, with a big focus (as usual for Gerber) on the danger of mob mentalities. Squint even harder and you can see hints of Grant Morrison’s Animal Man run; the final issue of the Man-Thing title has Gerber as the main character, explaining how he gets all the stories from a side character called Dakimh the Enchanter and having a cosmic adventure all his own. In short, there’s a ton of inventiveness mixed in with the typical Gerber insanity.
Compared to Defenders and Howard the Duck, this is the series that focuses most on human beings and their travails. (And there’s a good reason why a few paragraphs down.) There are issues on race relations, the evils of consumer culture, the impact of fact-shaming and bullying, and much more. And the very large cast of non-powered people who move in and out of the book make it, in some ways, one of the more grounded Gerber titles.
It’s also a (usually) dark series, with much more death than I would expect from a 70’s Marvel comic. If you read anything from these collections, I would recommend Man-Thing #16-18, which centers around a book-burning crusade in Citrusville, the small Florida town that is the setting for most of the stories. Unlike a lot of Marvel stories with “social importance”, there is no happy ending here. A young girl dies, unable to stop her crazed grandfather on his mission of enforcing an outdated version of masculinity. The book burners win, with our protagonists leaving town to escape the mob. It is a remarkably sobering story.
So, what doesn’t work? Sadly, so so much…. See, the thing with Gerber is that the inventiveness is often mixed with an undisciplined approach, or --- to put it more bluntly --- Gerber is going to go too far too often. It’s not a surprise that a human antagonist for the early issues is called F. A. Schist. It’s not a surprise that an advertising executive will describe his frustration with trying to sell crap by writing a cringe-filled tone poem shown as a text page in the comic. It’s not a surprise that there’s an emotional vampire zooming around in a purple and yellow costume, devouring women down to their bones. It’s not a surprise that the main researcher of a Bermuda Triangle project is also the reincarnation of a pirate queen trying to escape a satyr. It’s just barely a surprise that a storyline addresses the consequences of one side character (Richard Rory, a possible Gerber stand-in) helping an underage teenage girl escape Citrusville with them both realizing that he can be charged with kidnapping.
And look, sometimes the absurdity of Gerber’s material works; it’s how we got Howard the Duck after all. But when it doesn’t, it sometimes falls hard. And given the craziness of what happens in this book (which in my mind outdoes the Defenders by a long shot), I have to wonder what editors at Marvel were thinking in the early 70’s.
And then there’s Man-Thing…. Unlike DC’s Swamp Thing, Man-Thing is barely conscious. He has no internal or external dialogue; he just reacts to others’ emotions or by instinct (and goodness knows the narration will tell you that over and over again.) In short, Man-Thing has no agency. He is never the protagonist but either the catalyst for the story or an agent of inadvertent justice at the conclusion. All of which means that the comic needs to keep on bringing in protagonist after protagonist for stories, most of whom have short shelf lives.
Since Man-Thing doesn’t speak or think, what we get instead is text box after text box of narration. Now, I love the catch phrase “whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch”, but aside from that, Gerber’s prose can get awfully boring. Add to that the relative lack of humor in this title, and many pages can become tough going.
Finally (and if you have gotten this far, congrats for realizing how petty this complaint is), there are too many fights with alligators. Sometimes a snake is thrown in for variety, but usually it’s alligators. It’s as if Marvel editorial was fine with Gerber getting crazy conceptually, but there still had to be the mandated fight scene per issue, so Gerber and his artists showed the Man-Thing/alligator fracas one more time.
I’m glad I read these issues, if only to experience more Gerber imagination and understand more of Marvel’s 70’s history. But I don’t see myself rereading these, and I’m not sure there’s much for anyone who isn’t already nostalgic for this run.
November 7, 2017
This book collects all of Man-Thing's earliest appearances including his initial 9 issues run in the series called 'Fear' and the first 8 issues of his first stand-alone series. The majority of these stories were written by Steve Gerber with the exceptions being the character's first appearance in Savage Tales and, later, Fear, the two issues of Astonishing Tales he appeared in, and the short comics from Monsters Unleashed featuring him.
Man-Thing got his start in the first issue of Savage Tales back in 1971. He was a scientist who was working on the super-solider serum for AIM that, while fleeing certain death, crashes his car into a swamp shortly after injecting the serum. He is then transformed in the swamp creature who can't talk or understand what's going on around him, but can understand emotions and those who fear him will burn at his touch. If the concept seems dangerously close to DC's Swamp Thing, just remember these two characters debuted at almost the exact same time. Also Swamp Thing is a lot more powerful and less sentient than Man-Thing.
Outside of Steve Gerber's run, the comics about Man-Thing seem to follow a standard formula of 'people encounter Man-Thing (usually trying to find the scientist he once was or to do something nefarious in/or to the swamp) and he scares them until he destroys them or saves them from people trying to destroy them'. He also fights a lot of alligators whenever the comics center around the swamp location. In the Astonishing Tales issues included here he teams up with Ka-Zar in a forgettable two-parter. In fact, outside of Gerber's work, almost all the Man-Thing stories are completely forgettable and repetitive stand Marvel horror fare. I say this because Steve Gerber's run on Man-Thing is absolutely insane and if you don't think so, keep in mind that Howard the Duck first appeared in one of his issues of Man-Thing.
So starting with issue #11 of Fear, Steve starting writing for Man-Thing and after issue #19, Manny got his own self-titled series that ran for 22 regular issues and 5 giant-sized issues (of which Gerber wrote every issue). This particular book focuses on all those issues of Fear he wrote as well as issues #1-8 of Man-Things.
In the Fear issues the overall storyline focuses on an amateur witch named Jennifer and her encounters with Man-Thing as well as this plot about a company attempting to build an airport in the swamp. Once he gets into his own series the plot about the company trying build an airport is still ongoing, but now instead of Jennifer we have this hapless guy named Richard Rory who has a bunch of run-ins with Man-Thing. The Jennifer stories go to some very intense, bizarre lengths that include cults and inter-dimensional traveling with Howard the Duck and a Wizard while the airport story seems to be a catalyst for a lot of political messages. The main thing I took away from these excellent, weird comics was that I think Steve Gerber seemed aware of how boring a character Man-Thing could be, so he basically used him to tell these very experimental wild stories in the pages of a Marvel comic as well as brought to light a lot of social issues of the day.
All in all, this collection is very good, even the throw away stories provide a nice context for the main chunk of the collection. Absolutely shouldn't be missed, very fun reading!
Man-Thing got his start in the first issue of Savage Tales back in 1971. He was a scientist who was working on the super-solider serum for AIM that, while fleeing certain death, crashes his car into a swamp shortly after injecting the serum. He is then transformed in the swamp creature who can't talk or understand what's going on around him, but can understand emotions and those who fear him will burn at his touch. If the concept seems dangerously close to DC's Swamp Thing, just remember these two characters debuted at almost the exact same time. Also Swamp Thing is a lot more powerful and less sentient than Man-Thing.
Outside of Steve Gerber's run, the comics about Man-Thing seem to follow a standard formula of 'people encounter Man-Thing (usually trying to find the scientist he once was or to do something nefarious in/or to the swamp) and he scares them until he destroys them or saves them from people trying to destroy them'. He also fights a lot of alligators whenever the comics center around the swamp location. In the Astonishing Tales issues included here he teams up with Ka-Zar in a forgettable two-parter. In fact, outside of Gerber's work, almost all the Man-Thing stories are completely forgettable and repetitive stand Marvel horror fare. I say this because Steve Gerber's run on Man-Thing is absolutely insane and if you don't think so, keep in mind that Howard the Duck first appeared in one of his issues of Man-Thing.
So starting with issue #11 of Fear, Steve starting writing for Man-Thing and after issue #19, Manny got his own self-titled series that ran for 22 regular issues and 5 giant-sized issues (of which Gerber wrote every issue). This particular book focuses on all those issues of Fear he wrote as well as issues #1-8 of Man-Things.
In the Fear issues the overall storyline focuses on an amateur witch named Jennifer and her encounters with Man-Thing as well as this plot about a company attempting to build an airport in the swamp. Once he gets into his own series the plot about the company trying build an airport is still ongoing, but now instead of Jennifer we have this hapless guy named Richard Rory who has a bunch of run-ins with Man-Thing. The Jennifer stories go to some very intense, bizarre lengths that include cults and inter-dimensional traveling with Howard the Duck and a Wizard while the airport story seems to be a catalyst for a lot of political messages. The main thing I took away from these excellent, weird comics was that I think Steve Gerber seemed aware of how boring a character Man-Thing could be, so he basically used him to tell these very experimental wild stories in the pages of a Marvel comic as well as brought to light a lot of social issues of the day.
All in all, this collection is very good, even the throw away stories provide a nice context for the main chunk of the collection. Absolutely shouldn't be missed, very fun reading!
March 16, 2017
Os comics não são conhecidos por ser um género de elevada criatividade. Para cada personagem de sucesso de uma editora, há outras noutras editoras que são estranhamente similares. Man-Thing é a variante Marvel do lendário Swamp Thing da DC, mas sem ter tido a sorte de ter uma época com Alan Moore no argumento. Troque-se os pântanos da Louisiana pelos da Florida, meta-se uma história de origem muito similar mas com algum contorno de protesto - Man-Thing torna-se assim porque o cientista de um projeto militar de criar um super-ser humano, capaz de viver em ambientes poluídos, e morre, ao fugir de uma mulher traiçoeira que lhe quer roubar a fórmula secreta. Uma curiosa inversão da história de como Alec Holland se tornou o monstro do pântano.
O que realmente distingue Man-Thing de Swamp Thing é a sua inconsciência. Esta criatura, que já foi um homem, não retém mais do que leves vislumbres do que é ser humano. Como tal, é atraído, sem saber como nem porquê, para as mais estranhas situações.
Steve Gerber, argumentista clássico da Marvel e criador de Howard The Duck, escreveu este Man-Thing com misto de terror e fantasia, mas também como comic social e politicamente interventivo. Uma das linhas narrativas envolve os esforços de um construtor civil para drenar o pântano e construir um aeroporto, e se soubermos que o magnata se chama F.A. Schist, está tudo dito. Mas nem só de lutas contra plutocratas desrespeitadores da natureza viveu esta série. Também temos rituais secretos, grupos obscuros, ameaças de feitiçaria interdimensional onde hordes de guerreiros de todos os universos ameaçam o lar dos deuses, que se revela uma pradaria bucólica onde seres humanóides tomam conta daqueles que são os verdadeiros deuses - cães, num delírio especialmente psicadélico de Steve Gerber. Coisas que só parecem possíveis nos idos dos anos 70 do século XX.
Entre o psicadélico, o radical underground e o simplista, Man-Thing marca um estranho cruzamento entre comics mainstream, terror e intervenção social. Os seus argumentos não aguentam bem o teste do tempo, mas os pormenores bizarros mostram que, de certa forma, marcou uma época. Note-se que à altura o seu clone da DC não estava a seguir estes caminhos, e só nos anos 80 se transformou no marco que é. Apesar disto, Man-Thing nunca se tornou um personagem de primeira linha, aparecendo como personagem secundário em séries ou continuidades de outros heróis, com algumas raras mini-séries.
O que realmente distingue Man-Thing de Swamp Thing é a sua inconsciência. Esta criatura, que já foi um homem, não retém mais do que leves vislumbres do que é ser humano. Como tal, é atraído, sem saber como nem porquê, para as mais estranhas situações.
Steve Gerber, argumentista clássico da Marvel e criador de Howard The Duck, escreveu este Man-Thing com misto de terror e fantasia, mas também como comic social e politicamente interventivo. Uma das linhas narrativas envolve os esforços de um construtor civil para drenar o pântano e construir um aeroporto, e se soubermos que o magnata se chama F.A. Schist, está tudo dito. Mas nem só de lutas contra plutocratas desrespeitadores da natureza viveu esta série. Também temos rituais secretos, grupos obscuros, ameaças de feitiçaria interdimensional onde hordes de guerreiros de todos os universos ameaçam o lar dos deuses, que se revela uma pradaria bucólica onde seres humanóides tomam conta daqueles que são os verdadeiros deuses - cães, num delírio especialmente psicadélico de Steve Gerber. Coisas que só parecem possíveis nos idos dos anos 70 do século XX.
Entre o psicadélico, o radical underground e o simplista, Man-Thing marca um estranho cruzamento entre comics mainstream, terror e intervenção social. Os seus argumentos não aguentam bem o teste do tempo, mas os pormenores bizarros mostram que, de certa forma, marcou uma época. Note-se que à altura o seu clone da DC não estava a seguir estes caminhos, e só nos anos 80 se transformou no marco que é. Apesar disto, Man-Thing nunca se tornou um personagem de primeira linha, aparecendo como personagem secundário em séries ou continuidades de outros heróis, com algumas raras mini-séries.
September 10, 2019
I feel like I've always landed on the Swamp Thing side of this nerd fight and never spent much time with this Marvel character and after trying and quitting R.L. Stine's dreadful take on Man-Thing I'm surprised I ever picked this up. I'm glad I did. Man-Thing is a silent, lurching creature that was once a scientist and lady's man named Ted Sallis who injects himself with a modified version of the super soldier formula right before crashing his car into the Everglades and is transformed into this weird, mindless beast. Man-Thing is a straight horror comic from the jump with some over the top political grandstanding (the main bad guy in the series is a land developer named F.A. Schist) thrown in. The stories are self contained and almost never have guest stars other than the odd Ka-Zar or Thing crossover plus a mystifying Howard the Duck story line. The magazine stories are really good and dark and when the stories stay in the swamp Steve Gerber tells some very good stories.
November 23, 2023
Steve Gerber wrote the height of Marvel Comics 1970s weirdness with Man-Thing being the weirdest of them all, delightfully weird! Howard the Duck, another Gerber creation, being the second weirdest Marvel character Marvel produced in the 1970s. This collection offers the rare origin of Man-Thing in Savage Tales #1 AND the first appearance of Howard the Duck in Adventure into Fear with the Man-Thing #19. Also included are Man-Thing (vol. 1) issues 5 and 6, which spin the bizarre tale of a suicidal carnival clown, which was adapted into a Power Records record! Many of Marvel's legendary talent like writers Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and Tony Isabella grace the pages of this collection. Of course, the art of comics masters like John Buscema, Gil Kane, and Mike Ploog are a large part of what makes this collection so awesome. This is the best way readers can start reading about one of Marvel Comics' most brilliant characters!
October 19, 2019
This is a cool piece of history and there a lot of ideas—even if the subtext is overwhelmingly expressed in the text.
The problem is that the Man-Thing is not really much of a device to hang the stories around. At most, he's a kind of device. Like a spooky ghost that captures villains. But the book keeps trying to put him front and center.
And you get the same story over and over again. Conflicts among men, they encounter the Man-Thing, they try to kill it, they burn, and the book hopes that the sense of sadness and mystery covers up its unwillingness to to tell a new story.
And when it doesn't focus on the Man-Thing, it seems to wander awfully far away and not really keep it together. The Kale story and the story of the construction firm just seem to drift along.
The problem is that the Man-Thing is not really much of a device to hang the stories around. At most, he's a kind of device. Like a spooky ghost that captures villains. But the book keeps trying to put him front and center.
And you get the same story over and over again. Conflicts among men, they encounter the Man-Thing, they try to kill it, they burn, and the book hopes that the sense of sadness and mystery covers up its unwillingness to to tell a new story.
And when it doesn't focus on the Man-Thing, it seems to wander awfully far away and not really keep it together. The Kale story and the story of the construction firm just seem to drift along.
December 13, 2020
The art alone really deserves four stars but the stories are not great so I couldn’t give it four stars. Man-Thing is an odd hero/protagonist. He never speaks and we only get basic thoughts relayed to us by the narrator. He is just constantly reacting to events throughout the story. Granted there’s some pretty good stories but you can only read like two issues a day before you start getting bored and your mind wanders. I wish the Man-thing could have at least had his scientific mind trapped in a man’s body to build character conflict and a sense of an inner prison.
I recommend you to read it but I don’t see it as something I would reread.
I recommend you to read it but I don’t see it as something I would reread.
May 14, 2024
Bronze Age Marvel goodness. The malaise and quagmire of the 70s personified by this Man-Thing. I just love it. Here is a link to a writer, Oliver Ho, who expresses it better than I ever could, and a sample of the writing: "Gerber’s work on Man-Thing exemplifies the collision of mainstream and underground comics in the marketplace. With its heady combination of surrealism, stoner-freakiness, social relevance, existential musing and mysticism, Man-Thing represents risk-taking at its trippiest in the 1970s."
https://www.popmatters.com/129849-swa...
https://www.popmatters.com/129849-swa...
January 28, 2023
This was one of the most original series I’ve read. Man-Thing’s adventures takes us through a multitude of genres across action and social commentary filled issues. It’s a lot of fun and the art is always great.
Man-Thing came out in ‘71 when its co-creator Gerry Conway rented a flat with Len Wein, Wein would copy the idea and have Swamp Thing #1 out three months after Man-Thing’s first appearance. Man-Thing isn’t all that original either, he’s based on the old Airboy swampy antagonist the Heap.
Man-Thing came out in ‘71 when its co-creator Gerry Conway rented a flat with Len Wein, Wein would copy the idea and have Swamp Thing #1 out three months after Man-Thing’s first appearance. Man-Thing isn’t all that original either, he’s based on the old Airboy swampy antagonist the Heap.
January 8, 2024
Steve Gerber is an amazing writer and thinker, and Man-Thing is the perfect vehicle for his creativity. I mean he's got this creature who can't think but can feel the emotions of others; he lives in a swamp that is the "Nexus of all realities" that demons tend to wander through; Howard the Duck wanders through this Nexus; and the story about the circus clown who commits suicide, returns as a spirit, then forces others to perform the trauma points of his life to be judged by eternal ones to see if his soul is worth saving? Damn, Gerber!
"Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!"
"Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!"
July 30, 2017
To say Man-Thing is just a Marvel rip off of Swamp Thing is really a disservice to the character and Marvel's continuing tradition of subversion of super heroes as a concept.
Once again the idea of a man gaining otherworldly powers at a terrible cost gives us a unique and sympathetic character. Furthermore, Gerber gives us delightfully weird stories and creatures that feel like a more light hearted venture into EC Horror comics.
Once again the idea of a man gaining otherworldly powers at a terrible cost gives us a unique and sympathetic character. Furthermore, Gerber gives us delightfully weird stories and creatures that feel like a more light hearted venture into EC Horror comics.
December 11, 2018
Man-thing starts off as a pretty average B-movie monster story ... and then the acid kicks in. The apex of this collection is when Man-Thing has to team up with a wizard, a warrior made out of peanut butter and Howard the Duck (in his first appearance) to prevent Marvel's multiple universes from converging on each other (where have I heard of that plot before...).
March 31, 2022
My review for all three volumes of The Man-Thing: The Complete Collection read identically: when Man-Thing is heavily integrated into the larger Marvel 616 universe of comics, Gerber’s work is phenomenal. However, when the series becomes too self-contained in horror plots, Gerber’s writing frequently becomes heavy-handed or underwhelming in comparison to his highest caliber work.
September 29, 2025
Collection of stories from different comics that attempt to create a timeline of early stories featuring Man-Thing. Most of these range from average to above average, however you can see the glimmer of brilliant ideas to come. Worth checking out to see the gradual evolution of Steve Gerber's writing.
November 20, 2019
The basic idea works, as we can see from Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing, but it isn’t used here to do or say much interesting about humanity, the environment, or really anything. It’s pretty standard street level superhero stories but with a main character who lacks any personality.
May 27, 2021
Steve Gerber and Steve Engleheart are often the writers I considered the precursors to Alan Moore and the like.
And Man-Thing premiered BEFORE Swamp Thing. so this is kind of a prologue to that character. He's a cultier version. An indie swamp thing.
It pairs well with Howard the Duck.
And Man-Thing premiered BEFORE Swamp Thing. so this is kind of a prologue to that character. He's a cultier version. An indie swamp thing.
It pairs well with Howard the Duck.
June 8, 2019
Being a Man-Thing is no fun.
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