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Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection
Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection, Vol. 3
Collects Man-Thing (1974) #19-22, Iron Man Annual (1970) #3, Howard the Duck (1976) #22-23, Infernal Man-Thing (2012) #1-3; material from Rampaging Hulk (1977) #7, Web of Spider-Man Annual (1985) #4, Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #1-12. Steve Gerber takes the macabre Man-Thing out of his swamp and across the Marvel Universe! First, the muck-monster heads to Atlanta, where women are under attack by the life-stealing Scavenger! But that's nothing compared to the demonic Thog the Nether-Spawn! The uncanny return of the Molecule Man brings Man-Thing and Iron Man together, old pal Howard the Duck reluctantly joins in on a far-out fantasy adventure, Spider-Man swings by for a team-up, and the Man-Thing shambles into a satanic Super-Soldier scheme! Gerber's infernal final Man-Thing story revisits a beloved classic. What is the mystery behind the ""Screenplay of the Living Dead Man""?
408 pages, Paperback
Published April 20, 2021
About the author
Steve Gerber
659 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 21, 2022
Man-Thing #19-22 - These 4 issues basically attempt to close off the entire run of the Man-Thing from his own series and those issues from Fear featuring the Man-Thing title began as well. Tall order, and it takes the entrance of the author himself into the story to try and resolve this tangled mass of muck and roots (3/5).
Iron Man Annual #3 - Inexplicably, the Man-Thing has left Atlanta, we he was left at the end of the previous story) and returns to the Florida Everglades. Well, it’s certainly more appropriate than Atlanta, but there’s definitely something missing. I remember liking this story as a kid, but now it does nothing for me (2/5).
Rampaging Hulk #7 - Another pretentious pseudo-intellectual bit of drama (2/5).
Howard the Duck #22-23 (& a couple pages from #24) - It’s the Howard the Duck Parody of Star Wars. So May the Farce Be With You and all that rot (3/5).
Web of Spider-Man Annual #4 - First off this is part of the Evolutionary War crossover event that ran through all of Marvel’s annuals in 1988. A sprawling event that worked in some ways and didn’t in others. Here? It feels like there’s a lot of story that isn’t covered and lot of questions left unanswered, so it’s just kind of frustrating (3/5).
Marvel Comics Present #1-12 - Twelve 8-page chapters were published weekly in Marvel’s latest anthology series. This holds together better as a complete story, reading it as originally published in those 8-page chapters once a week did not really do the narrative any justice what so ever (3/5).
Infernal Man-Thing #1-3 - This is a sequel to a story from the 1970s era of the Man-Thing (included in Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection, Vol. 2) and it illustrates all the weird and surreal stuff that filled the mind of Steve Gerber. Crazy man, ya know, trippy. It doesn’t get anymore Gerber-esque than this, although I’m not huge fan of Kevin Nowlan’s rendering of the Man-Thing (3/5).
Iron Man Annual #3 - Inexplicably, the Man-Thing has left Atlanta, we he was left at the end of the previous story) and returns to the Florida Everglades. Well, it’s certainly more appropriate than Atlanta, but there’s definitely something missing. I remember liking this story as a kid, but now it does nothing for me (2/5).
Rampaging Hulk #7 - Another pretentious pseudo-intellectual bit of drama (2/5).
Howard the Duck #22-23 (& a couple pages from #24) - It’s the Howard the Duck Parody of Star Wars. So May the Farce Be With You and all that rot (3/5).
Web of Spider-Man Annual #4 - First off this is part of the Evolutionary War crossover event that ran through all of Marvel’s annuals in 1988. A sprawling event that worked in some ways and didn’t in others. Here? It feels like there’s a lot of story that isn’t covered and lot of questions left unanswered, so it’s just kind of frustrating (3/5).
Marvel Comics Present #1-12 - Twelve 8-page chapters were published weekly in Marvel’s latest anthology series. This holds together better as a complete story, reading it as originally published in those 8-page chapters once a week did not really do the narrative any justice what so ever (3/5).
Infernal Man-Thing #1-3 - This is a sequel to a story from the 1970s era of the Man-Thing (included in Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection, Vol. 2) and it illustrates all the weird and surreal stuff that filled the mind of Steve Gerber. Crazy man, ya know, trippy. It doesn’t get anymore Gerber-esque than this, although I’m not huge fan of Kevin Nowlan’s rendering of the Man-Thing (3/5).
March 1, 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.
September 3, 2021
This volume contains a number of Man-Thing stories that Steve Gerber wrote after his original run on the series.I enjoyed most everything S.G. wrote and these are certainly interesting additions to the character’s legacy.
August 21, 2021
Like the third volume of Swamp Thing this collection seemed like a slog through a swamp in itself.
There were certainly good ideas for Man-Thing stories in this but they were littered with such annoying characters, aside from the Howard the Duck issues in this, that I didn’t really want to read them.
So I’m glad I read it, just to say I’ve read all of Stephen Gerber’s Man-Thing stories. Or at least all the ones I’m aware of anyway.
There were certainly good ideas for Man-Thing stories in this but they were littered with such annoying characters, aside from the Howard the Duck issues in this, that I didn’t really want to read them.
So I’m glad I read it, just to say I’ve read all of Stephen Gerber’s Man-Thing stories. Or at least all the ones I’m aware of anyway.
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.
May 23, 2021
The Man-Thing as written by Steve Gerber is a combination of horror/sci-fi and absurdist black-humor.
I have always enjoyed Man-Thing (as well as Howard the Duck) for giving a bizzare main character who cannot speak or think, and have him be a vehicle for moving along the plot.
I have always enjoyed Man-Thing (as well as Howard the Duck) for giving a bizzare main character who cannot speak or think, and have him be a vehicle for moving along the plot.
July 31, 2021
What with volumes 1 & 2 being great bronze age horror stories, vol 3 Is terrible from the marvel comics presents stories onwards
August 14, 2022
The Lost Chapters of Steve Gerber's Man-Thing
After going through the Man-Thing omnibus, I thought Gerber walked away from the Murk Dweller. But as this shows, he shared a connection with it. It's almost like he was trying to make sense of life's absurdity. This really feels like being absorbed into life's madness while a reacting agent takes it all in. But it's agonizing and immersive, sad too. The final chapters are practically about coming to terms with this attachment. Even more tragic is how these were completed after Gerber's death. It's like he's tied himself to a character he identified with and as at the same time.
After going through the Man-Thing omnibus, I thought Gerber walked away from the Murk Dweller. But as this shows, he shared a connection with it. It's almost like he was trying to make sense of life's absurdity. This really feels like being absorbed into life's madness while a reacting agent takes it all in. But it's agonizing and immersive, sad too. The final chapters are practically about coming to terms with this attachment. Even more tragic is how these were completed after Gerber's death. It's like he's tied himself to a character he identified with and as at the same time.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews