From
the back cover
“With
Captain America, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and the Thing around, it’s hard to
stand out in a crowd─but somehow, the Man-Thing manages it! Citrusville,
Florida, faces censorship, prejudice, psychosis and ghost pirates in stories as
relevant today as they were more than twenty years ago! Sorcery, snowmen and
super-soldier serums! Demons, dementia and D’Spayre await─but have no fear,
because, well, if you do. . .”
Overall
review
As with Man-Thing, Vol. 1,
the second volume is a great comic book collection, with impressive artwork,
surprisingly nuanced lead characters as well as solid, moralistic and
ecology-friendly storytelling. This is especially impressive because of how
willing the creators of this comic series are willing to indulge in wild and
mostly effective break-the-Man-Thing-mold writing.
A few of the issues feel like
single-shot filler tales, but they are still entertaining and the artwork
visually exciting. There are also the inevitable 1970s sexist, hippie and
corporate greed stereotypes, along with some heavy-handed thematic overreaches
(which further the egregiousness of the stereotypes), but these issues are
relatively few, given how many issues are contained in this anthology.
Despite the above caveats, this
graphic novel is worth owning.
Issues
/ story arcs
Caveat:
possible spoilers in this review.
“Giant-Size
Man-Thing – ‘The Blood of Kings!’” [#3]: Man-Thing, Korrek of
Katharta (last seen in Man-Thing issue 1), Dakimh the
Enchanter and Jennifer Kale─now a fledgling sorceress─battle the evil magic and
brute power of Mortak the Usurper, Klonus
(a wizard) and their forces in an alternate world and Citrusville,
Florida.
“Man-Thing
– ‘A Candle for Sainte-Cloud’” [#15]: A stalker (Chuck) uses candle magick
to get close to Sainte-Cloud, Ted Sallis’s hippie-poet ex-girlfriend, her first
appearance in Man-Thing. Caught up in the illusory trap is
Jeremy, Cloud’s blind neighbor and close friend─and, maybe, Man-Thing as well.
What is real and what is not?
“Man-Thing
– ‘Decay Meets the Mad Viking!’” [#16]: In the mucklands, Man-Thing is
caught up in the random, chaotic struggle between a loopy, cult-leader rock
star (Eugene “The Star” Spangler) and The Mad Viking (a weird-as-hunh??,
axe-swinging ex-dock worker with delusions of being an American-tinged
warrior). Also caught between them is the Viking’s granddaughter, Astrid
Josefsen. The people who worked on this issue were clearly having a
throw-in-everything-strange moment when they put this together.
“Giant-Size
Man-Thing – ‘The Kid’s Night Out!’” [#4]: An unpopular teenager’s death
sparks a surge of unlikely and hyperbolic violence in Citrusville. Alice Rimes,
savaged friend of the lonely deceased boy, becomes a target of the maddened
crowd, along with Man-Thing.
“Man-Thing
– ‘A Book Burns in Citrusville!’” [#17]: The body of Eugene ‘The Star’
Spangler─killed by the Mad Viking in Man-Thing issue 16─is found by a
Citrusville delivery boy. Fervor about Man-Thing rises anew, resulting in the
murk dweller getting caught and placed in a vat of acid. Meanwhile, Richard
Rory─WNRV disc jockey, previously seen in Man-Thing, Vol. 1
issues─tries, in vain, to head off a renewed burst of secular book burnings by
a religiously inclined, hyperviolent and one-note Citrusville crowd, led by
Olivia Selby. Cliffhanger finish to this one.
“Man-Thing
– ‘School’s Out!’” [#18]: The events of issue 17 spill over into this
issue. Led by the increasingly violent Mad Viking, the overzealous-religionist book
burners storm the local high school and build a library bonfire. Man-Thing, now
a creature of muck and chemical foam, confronts the Viking again. Richard Rory,
trying to save lives and books, is fired by the manager of WNRV, the radio
station he works for. The crazed Viking kills his granddaughter, Alice Rimes, before
his fear does him in.
“Giant-Size
Man-Thing – ‘Fear Times Three!’” [#5]: A trilogy of microtales makes up
this issue, its wraparound story taking place before the events that turn Ted
Sallis into Man-Thing─in this wraparound, Sallis and his later-traitorous girlfriend
(Ellen Brandt) visit a psychic, who tells them about his Man-Thing-related
future.
Her
first microtale: In “There’s a Party in 6G!,” a coven of Satanists steal
a baby, so that they might sacrifice a child (Allen) to Ehrthold, a powerful
demon. Their plan goes sideways when Man-Thing, drawn by the hate and fear of
the situation, shows up.
Her
second microtale: In “The Sins of the Fathers. . .,” a swamp-trash Romeo
and Juliet scenario plays out.
Her
third microtale: In “Lifeline!,” Jackson Hunter, wheelchair-trapped and face-burned
former foe of Man-Thing, sends a highly trained military force against the
titular creature, who dismantles them with initial difficulty. There is a
mini-twist character, in the form of one of the soldiers, at the end, before the
microtale segues into the wraparound story.
“Man-Thing
– ‘The Scavenger of Atlanta’” [#19]: Richard Rory drives a chemically
altered Man-Thing─a result of the previous issue’s acidic foam conjoining─and
Carol Selby (who reveals herself to be seventeen, a minor, to Rory’s horror) to
Atlanta, Georgia. There, Man-Thing battles the quirky-insane, spandex-wearing
Scavenger, who attacks women (including Colleen Sanders, a local) and absorbs
their essence, physical and otherwise. Cliffhanger finish to this one.
“Man-Thing
– ‘The Nightmare Box’” [#20]: Richard Rory is arrested and returned to
Citrusville for arraignment, to be charged with kidnapping Carol Selby (who insisted
on going to Atlanta with him, and whom he didn’t know was seventeen). Man-Thing
carries a strange box containing a destructive, supernatural element (somehow
linked to a woman named Dani Nicolle), while an Atlanta-based portrait painter
(Paul Jennings) tries to figure out the mystery of Dani’s bizarre eye beams. Shapeshifting
demonic creatures stalk and clash with Man-Thing, seeking to take the
mysterious box from him. Another cliffhanger ending.
“Man-Thing
– ‘A Lunatic on Every Corner’” [#21]: The events of issue 20 spill over
into this issue. Demons, compelled by an absent Thog─who first fought Man-Thing
in Fear issue 11─run wild in the streets of Atlanta, attacking Man-Thing
and people alike. Scavenger, that lust-and-energy-suck-obssessed spandex freak,
kiss-feeds on another victim (Elsbeth Duhl), wife of Roland Duhl─a
numbers-focused accountant in thrall to Thog. Seems the indestructible
Scavenger, brother of Dani Nicolle, can only feel anything when he feeds on his
victims.
The
wizard Klonus and the barbarian Mortak, last seen in Giant-Size Man-Thing issue
3, return to attack the titular character. While they battle him, Thog appears
in a blaze of hellish light, ending the issue.
“Man-Thing
– ‘Pop Goes the Cosmos!’” [#22]: The final issue of the first volume/run of
Man-Thing goes meta. Comic book writer Steve Gerber recounts how Dakimh
the wizard told him about Thog’s escape from the world called Therea, where
Thog was imprisoned brought about by Dakimh’s physical death. Later, Thog traps
Dani Nicolle─who must vomit her excess, destructive head energy into a box─and
her brother, Robert (a.k.a. Scavenger), who is an energy vampire, in
trick-deal, resulting in the violence of issues 19-21. Furthermore, Thog’s
increasing power source, a pyramid built with Dani’s energy-vomit boxes,
becomes the source of the battle involving Man-Thing and the aforementioned
characters before Thog is burned by Man-Thing, ending─as I wrote
before─Man-Thing’s first titular comic book run.
“The
Rampaging Hulk – ‘Among the Great Divide’” [#7]: Man-Thing gets a
one-shot/side story about fighting the mostly vicious personalities of a schizophrenic
woman (Andrea).
“Marvel
Team-Up [featuring Spider-Man and the Man-Thing] – ‘The Measure of a Man’”
[#68]: Man-Thing and Spider-Man, on an impromptu multidimensional rescue
mission of Jennifer Kale and Dakimh the Wizard, quell the mad power of D’Spayre,
a villain whose touch can shatter one’s sanity, reduce one to the mental state
of a cowering, weeping child.
“Marvel
Two-in-One Presents:The Thing and the Man-Thing – ‘The Day the World
Winds Down’” [#43]: The Thing, Captain America and Man-Thing face off
against Victorius, a former scientist of A.I.M.─Advanced Idea Mechanics, a
“renegade arm of Hydra”─who drank a variation of the super-soldier serum that
gave Steve Rogers (Captain America) his super powers.
Victorius
is the new leader of the reborn Entropy cult (“left leaderless” by Man-Thing in
“Giant-Size Man-Thing” #1). Victorius has also resurrected Jude the Entropic
Man, a logic-leaning supernatural being whose personality will make or break
the heroes.
“The
Man-Thing – ‘Regeneration and Rebirth’” [#1]: The second volume of the
“Man-Thing” kicks off with this issue. At the behest of what he thinks is the
CIA, scientist (Dr. Karl Oheimer) discovers a formula that returns to
Man-Thing’s mental state to that of Ted Sallis, all the while maintaining the
morass-dweller’s physical, plant-based form.
“The
Man-Thing – ‘Himalayan Nightmare!’” [#2]: Man-Thing is instantly transported
from his familiar morass to the Himalyas, when two scientists (Dr. Schechtman
and his assistant, Frederick) accidentally zap him with an experimental raygun.
In the freezing Himalayas, he battles a wolf pack and rescues another scientist
(Russell Simpson) who has fallen off a cliff. Man-Thing travels with Russell as
he returns to his fellow expeditioners (Elaine, his wife, and Roger Grafton, a
supposed friend). Roger, a greedy letch who’s been trying to get with an
offended Elaine, shoots and kills Russell, causing an avalanche to fall on
Man-Thing and Elaine. Cliffhanger finish to this one─this is the beginning of a
four-issue story arc.
“Man-Thing
– ‘The Gong of Doom!’” [#3]: After surviving the avalanche, Man-Thing and
Elaine Simpson are set upon by wild, bearded cave-dwellers with wooden
cudgels─“abominable snowmen,” as their leader, Hiram Swenson, a mad
anthropologist, calls them. Swenson’s intention to burn them at a stake is
interrupted by Roger Grafton, who has returned with a small, machine-toting
group of men to hunt Man-Thing, whom has Grafton has mistaken for a yeti,
a.k.a. an abominable snowman. Grafton’s men slaughter Swenson and his yeti. Another
avalanche follows, burying the Man-Thing-incinerated Grafton and dead
combatants. Man-Thing, holding Elaine, grips the undercarriage of an airplane
that two of Grafton’s men have taken, and they fly away.
“Man-Thing
– ‘Death-Knell’” [#4]: The plane, taken by Grafton’s ex-employees, Conrad
Shürz and Billy Ellenshaw, cannot maintain its necessary altitude with 600
additional pounds clinging to its undercarriage─that additional weight being
Man-Thing and Elaine Simpson, who fall from the aircraft right before it crashes.
Meanwhile,
in Paris, France, master of the mystic arts Stephen Strange (a.k.a. Doctor Strange)
is losing a fight against Azrael, a supernatural villain. Azrael, an ancient
being, was reborn in Lord Julian Phyffe’s body when Baron Mordo─another Strange
foe─subjugated and possessed Phyffe, Strange’s “supposed ally.” This battle is
a continuation of a crossover conflict last seen in issue 40 of Dr. Strange.
Using desperate magick, Strange manages to defeat Azrael and transport himself
and his ex-lover Madeleine de St. Germain to Citrusville, Florida, where Mordo
intends to open another Chaos Gate via blood sacrifices. The sheriff tells
Strange and St. Germain that eighteen people have disappeared or been
slaughtered. Mordo’s targets: Joshua, Jennifer and Andy Kale, friends of
Man-Thing whose bloodline and history rife with supernatural and
alternate-worldl experience, some of it with our titular hero.
When Jaxon,
a friend of the Kales, takes Strange and St. Germain to the Kale house, they
are greeted by a shocking sight: a woman (Elaine Simpson) wearing a parka
fleeing their house, screaming for them to get away. It seems Mordo has
transported Simpson and Man-Thing to Citrusville, and taken over Man-Thing’s
will, in order to destroy Strange. After a brief flurry of physical and
mystical blows with the murk creature, Strange plays possum by letting
Man-Thing “drown” him in swamp water, while Mordo mocks him and Germain.
“Dr.
Strange – ‘Weep for the Soul of Man. . .’” [#41]: The crossover event that
began with Dr. Strange issue 40 and Man-Thing issues 3 and 4 concludes in this
issue. Mordo’s quest to become the most powerful being in the universe
continues as Doctor Strange and Man-Thing battle him. Like Strange’s ex-lover,
Madeleine de St. Germain, Jennifer Kale, her friend Jaxon and others, Man-Thing
is held in partially held in thrall by Mordo and sacrificial, mystical victims,
numbering thirteen. Mordo is barely defeated.
“Man-Thing
– ‘Who Knows Fear’” [#5]: Man-Thing helps rescue a quag-trapped young
woman, Barbra Bannister, being pursued by modern day pirates, led by the
duplicitious Ian McGuire.
“Man-Thing
– ‘Fraternity Rites!’” [#6]: John Daltrey, sheriff of Citrusville and ally
of Man-Thing, helps the titular quag-monster stop a murderous group of collegiate
thugs, its sadistic leader (J. Elliot Osbourne, a.k.a “Jacko”) enamored with
Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange.
“Man-Thing
– ‘Whatever Happened to Captain Fate?’” [#7]: A commercial airplane crashes
in the Everglades near Citrusville after Captain Jebediah Fate, pirate ghost-captain
of the Serpent Crown, returns with his crew and attacks it, killing all its
passengers. Fate was last seen in issue 14 of the original run of Man-Thing,
thought to be laid to rest with his undead followers.
John
Daltrey, sheriff of Citrusville, and romantic interest Barbra Bannister are
kidnapped by the ghost floating-ship ghost crew, and of course Man-Thing is
thrown back into conflict with them. Cliffhanger finish to this.
“Man-Thing
– ‘Red Sails Burning!’” [#8]: Continued from previous issue. . . Maura
Spinner, ex-oceangrapher, and Khourdes, the last of the sartyrs, appear on a
mystical British frigate (H.M.S. Athena) to help Man-Thing defeat Jebediah Fate
and his scurvy-ridden shipmates, as they did in the original run of Man-Thing,
issues 13 and 14. They, along with Barbra Bannister and John Daltrey, are successful─but
it is pyrrhic victory. Fate’s curse is passed on to the hapless Daltrey, who is
now bound to Fate’s ghost ship, the Serpent Crown.
“Man-Thing
– ‘The Echo of Pain!’” [#9]: A baby and his young parents, David and
Elizabeth Connelly, are caught between their class warfare-obsessed parents, a
more mature, darker take on Romeo and Juliet.
“Man-Thing
– ‘Came the Dark Man Walkin’, Walkin’’” [#10]: A stranger with odd powers,
John Kowalski, observes a biker gang’s attack on Andy Kale (brother of
sorceress Jennifer Kale). When Man-Thing tangles with the vicious bikers,
things of course get hetted up.
Meanwhile,
Jennifer Kale and Barbra Bannister enact a ritual to try and save Bannister’s
boyfriend, John Daltrey, from the curse that binds him to the pirate ghost ship
(Serpent Crown)─last seen in issue 8. The two storylines come together and Kowalski
reveals himself to be Death.
“Man-Thing
– ‘Hell’s Gate’” [#11 – final issue]: Real-life comic book author Chris
Claremont tells his friends (also fellow Marvel/Man-Thing employees) why
he can’t write Man-Thing anymore. Seems that Man-Thing is based
on real-life, mystical events: Barbra Bannister, transformed into a fellow
Death-agent by the cynical John Kowalski, rights a cosmic injustice by also
enlisting Man-Thing to fight Thog (a recurrent, demonic foe in the original Man-Thing
run) in Thog’s dominion, “Sominus, the land of eternal shadow.” There, Doctor
Strange, his lover/disciple Clea, and others are held prisoner by John Daltrey
(turned evil by a cursed “magus sword”) and his master, Thog.
Wild,
everything-but-the-bathroom-faucet elements make this a slam-bang-boom finish
to the dark, ecologically themed and morality-play series that is Man-Thing.
My one major nitpick with this issue is that one that plagues many comic books:
the women are unnecessarily sexualized in their behavior and outfits─in this
case, when Barbra Bannister is transformed into a fellow Death agent, her
spandex suit is especially tight, whereas Kowalski (who transformed her) is
dressed like a regular guy, button-up shirt and slacks. I understand that this
was a trend, then and now, but sometimes it’s egregious in its male-gaze
imbalance.
Still,
a mostly fun finish that recalls the final issue of Man-Thing’s original
run.
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