Those Who Know Fear: Man-Thing (Dr. Theodore Sallis) Appreciation

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Man-Thing #4 Mar 1998
"Silent Night!" Guest-starring Devil-Slayer.
Eric Simon Payne, former hero turned mental patient, is now literally wrestling with his own internal demons.
A horde of monstrous figures erupts all around him and begins wreaking chaos at the Rosewell Sanitarium.

Standing in the room observing the carnage is Mister Termineus who is dressed in a ragged Santa Claus outfit.
Sorrow goes to Simon's side and tries to use her empathic abilities to calm him down.

Suddenly, the Man-Thing and Ellen Brandt appear inside the Sanitarium.
Ellen is holding the staff given to her by Termineus and knows that she must somehow use it to repair the broken Nexus of All Realities.
The Man-Thing takes up the staff and the power of the mystic relic speaks through him.

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, the Burke family decorate the tree for Christmas morning. Proud father Jack is ready to give his son Job the best Christmas possible.
While looking at a Christmas tree ornament, he sees the reflection of Mister Termineus staring back at him.
He drops the ornament and just as quickly, the memory what he had seen fades away. In the other room, the dream-essence of the mental patient Sorrow visits young Job.
Using her strange abilities, she gives Job a shimmering snowfall of hopes and dreams: devotion, joy and mercy.

Back at Rosewell, Mister Termineus perceives that Sorrow was somehow "visiting" Job. He warns he to stay clear of him.
Eric Payne tries to attack Termineus, but he is too lost within his own mindscape to have any affect. Turning, he sees the Man-Thing and believes that he is an agent of Termineus.
He reaches into his Shadow Cloak and withdraws an astral spear. Using this mystic weapon, he cleaves the Man-Thing in two.

Eric's anger, combined with his telepathic abilities and the fragment of the Nexus lodged within him yields catastrophic consequences.
The crater of unreality surrounding the hospital begins to spread throughout the town of Charles, Massachusetts.
The Man-Thing's body partially reconstitutes itself and Eric Payne and he fight again.

When the two combatants collide with one another, they create a massive explosion of fire.

Written by J.M. DeMatteis. Art by Liam Sharp.

[Captain Craig]

I'm waiting to read the current Dr. Strange event, DAMNATION, once it's all collected later this summer. Its already been solicited so an easy trade wait. However, I flip through it on the stand and yes our majestic Man-Thing is a player in this event. I found a quality scan of the panels that I found relevant. Why? Because ever since Thunderbolts ended, that had Ted/Man-Thing able to talk again, his subsequent appearances were inconsistent. He didn't talk in Howling Commandoes of SHIELD, where he was sorely underused, and was certainly "in continuity". Then in the for R.L. Stein mini he had cognizant thoughts, but couldn't speak and that was for sure not in continuity and most likely a full stand alone series.

I've been wanting to explore a talking Man-Thing more. Hell, I'd settle for the Stein version of coherent thought even.
So, in Damnation #2 we find out that Ted/Man-Thing is once more back to his original lumbering, not direct communicative self.
I dislike this because I feel it's an opportunity lost, or put on hold till someone decides to bring this development back, for the character.
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Marvel Team-Up #68 Apr 1978
"The Measure of a Man!" Guest-starring Spider-Man and the Man-Thing.
Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are visiting the circus, when they notice a sad-looking creature imprisoned in a glass cage.

It's the Man-Thing! What is he doing in New York? After nightfall, a sympathetic Spider-Man returns to the circus and frees his friend.
The trip back to the Everglades is going smoothly until the plane crashes in the Florida swamp!

One thing leads to another...and the web-slinger, Man-Thing, and Jennifer Kale wage a savage battle for survival against a new evil villain...D'Spayre!

First appearance of D'Spayre.
Notes: The letters page includes a letter from comics writer Michael Higgins. The back inside cover contains a Star Wars ad with Neal Adams art.

Script by Chris Claremont. Pencils by John Byrne. Inks by Bob Wiacek.

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Man-Thing #5 Apr 1998
"The Empty House!" Guest-starring Devil-Slayer.
Payne's destiny is revealed!


Plus, what secret lies within an empty house?

Written by J.M. DeMatteis. Art by Liam Sharp.

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On the topic of "name drops" it seems some have been combing over the new Thor Ragnarok trailer. In a screen grab a totem pole shows former arena champions of which Man-Thing is at the top.

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I saw this in the trailer because it actually buffered on that scene. And OMFG it got me all kinds of excited! What if Man-Thing is in the gladiator matches? This is probably just a neat Easter Egg, but still, a man can dream! That being said, a nexus of all realities (in Florida of all places) could be REALLY useful in Infinity War... so you never know what they might be sewing the seeds for in Thor: Ragnarok. We know Manny is on somebody's mind over at Marvel, since they've name-dropped him in AOS. Fingers crossed!!

Could be REALLY useful in Avengers 4!!!

[Silvermoth]

I didn’t know R.L Stine’s first run on man thing was out already? Anyway I found a copy and I’m really loving it.

Did anyone else like it? What are the chances of the series coming back for volume 2?

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Man-Thing #6 May 1998
"The Duck and the Muck!" Guest-starring Howard the Duck.
Mister Termineus, having just abducted young Job Burke, takes him out for ice cream.

Job wants to know what the strange man has planned for him, but Termineus isn't forthright with his objectives just yet.

In the Florida Everglades, Ellen Brandt and the Man-Thing encounter the Cult of Entropy.
They have in their possession, a bound and slightly ill Howard the Duck.
Ellen takes off running, and the Man-Thing advances towards the cult.
One of the cult members dices him with a pair of electro-coils and the Man-Thing collapses into a pile of bifurcated lumps of vegetation.
He soon reconstitutes his form and finds that the leader of the cult, the diseased and malformed Mahapralaya,
plans on eviscerating Howard in order to retrieve a fragment of the Nexus of All Realities.
Howard is surprised to learn that he possesses such a thing and had previously attributed his illness to a bad case of gas.
Mahapralaya, in his nihilistic quest to destroy all reality, believes that by destroying even a single piece of the Nexus, the Nexus as a whole cannot be repaired.
The Man-Thing, chosen guardian of the Nexus, instinctively moves towards Howard.

He concentrates his physical form and enters Howard's body through his mouth.

Meanwhile in Brooklyn, New York, Mr. and Mrs. Burke talk to the police about their missing son.
They cannot explain his disappearance and Gwyneth fears that the authorities may blame them for some sort of wrongdoing.

Back in the Everglades, Howard the Duck regurgitates the Man-Thing's biological matter.
When the Man-Thing reforms, he is twice his normal size and is now in possession of the Nexus fragment that was previously lodged inside of Howard's being.
The Man-Thing attacks Mahapralaya and burns him with his corrosive touch.
However, the Man-Thing's powers, working in concert with the Nexus shard, produce an expected result.
Rather than burning Mahapralaya's face, it actually heals his disease-ridden body, turning him into a normal person.

Mahapralaya staggers off into the swamp.

Written by J.M. DeMatteis. Art by Liam Sharp.

[Johnny Peril]

Man-Thing takes on Weapon H

[Mantis Dad]

That was a good comic. It looks like they will team up now. On a side note; I had no idea that corporation was controlling or had anything to do with Man-Thing.

[Johnny Peril]

That was a good comic. It looks like they will team up now. On a side note; I had no idea that corporation was controlling or had anything to do with Man-Thing.

The editors don't seem to know what to do with Manny. With no explanation he went from Legion of Monsters to Howling Commandos to Thunderbolts back to Howling Commandos to Roxxon. From mindless to intelligent to talking back to mindless.

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Man-Thing #7 Jun 1998
"In the Waters of Eternity " Guest-starring Sub-Mariner.
An antediluvian god named Evenor has transformed Ellen Brandt into a water-breather and brought her to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Evenor has something vital for her to learn.

In the Florida swamps, Howard the Duck tries to move the desiccated mass of vegetation that was, until a short time before, the Man-Thing.
He is confronted by Namor the Sub-Mariner, who has come to seek out the Man-Thing in response to a call by Neptune.
While Namor was meditating, the sea god told him the survival of Atlantis, as well as all the worlds, depends on the aid of the swamp creature.
As Howard explains how the Man-Thing 'died', the beast unexpectedly revives, thanks to the fragment from
the shattered Nexus of All Realities retrieved from the Duck. Howard decides to get going while the getting is good.

The staff of K'ad Mon, lying nearby, rises and calls to the Man-Thing, who grasps it, allowing the voices of the spirits within it to speak through the creature.

Elsewhere, Mr. Termineus and Job Burke discuss the music of the spheres and Job's place in the cosmos.
Termineus tells him the town of Serling where Job's biological parents Ellen and Ted Sallis (the human side of the Man-Thing)
found themselves recently, was a dream created by Job. He goes on to say that Job is the latest in a lineage of such cosmic dreamers.
While Job cries that he wants to go home, his adoptive parents, Jack and Gwyneth, come to believe clues to their abducted son's whereabouts
lie in the Everglades where, a few weeks earlier, they had run into the Man-Thing. They soon take their leave of Brooklyn and head for Florida.

In the swamp, the staff, acting through the Man-Thing, opens a portal, through which the muck-monster and Namor pass.
The staff transforms Man-Thing into a more seaworthy form and soon the pair arrive, to the Sub-Mariner's astonishment,
at the City of the Golden Gate, a legendary part of ancient Atlantis, heretofore thought to be lost forever.
They are greeted by the amphibious Ellen, who tells them Evenor has brought her here to persuade them not to retrieve the Nexus fragment within the city.

She leads them into a temple, where they view the fragment mounted upon the Cloak of Cleito, the mother goddess of Atlantis.
Namor wonders how the jewel which, according to legend, has always been attached to the cloak, could possibly be a piece of the recently shattered Nexus.
Evenor appears and explains that the nature of the fragment is to exist outside time and space. He goes on to say the shrine must not be desecrated.
The voice of the staff, however, reminds Namor that the fate of the multiverse depends on the fragments being returned to repair the Nexus.
Namor makes his decision: the jewel will remain on the shrine of Cleito.

In response, the staff compels the Man-Thing to release its mystic forces, but Evenor counters the ploy by transforming the swamp creature back into a very shocked and confused Ted Sallis!

Written by J.M. DeMatteis. Art by Liam Sharp.