You’ve Never Read Man-Thing #1 by DeMatteis and Sharp?!

Part I: Buckle up because this is one wild ride

I know what you’re thinking. Haven’t I done enough posts on J.M. DeMatteis and Liam Sharp comics? No. I most certainly have not. There can never be enough. I will never stop. I’m like the Terminator except instead of traveling back in time to murder Sarah Connor, I’m writing posts on comics you need to read. Wait, what was I talking about again? Oh! Comic books by DeMatteis and Sharp. Specifically, I’m talking about the Man-Thing series that began at the end of 1997. It ran for eight issues before being rolled into a new Strange Tales horror anthology series in 1998 that lasted for exactly two issues before cancellation. There is a lot to cover in this series, so I’m going to be taking it one issue per Substack post at a time. That’s right. I’m giving you all of the Man-Thing you can handle!

Before diving into this series, I should probably establish who Man-Thing is. He is not exactly Marvel’s most well known character (although he did get a direct to video solo movie in 2005 that society as a whole has decided to purge from the public consciousness). Man-Thing is Dr. Ted Sallis who was turned into a horrible plant-like swamp monster while trying to replicate the Captain America super soldier serum while working in the Everglades. I know that sounds awfully similar to Swamp Thing’s origin from DC, but Man-Thing actually debuted two months prior to the introduction of Swamp Thing. That’s where the comparisons end. Man-Thing is completely mute as a result of his transformation, and his primary ability is that he is empathic. He can sense human emotions and is drawn to them, but fear in particular triggers a strong reaction from him. If he touches someone in a fearful state, they will literally burst into flames. Seriously. The tagline for his early ongoing series was, "Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!" To further melt your brains, Man-Thing is also a nexus being who stands guard over the Nexus of All Realities. The Nexus of All Realities is kind of a transit hub where all realities in the multiverse intersect. What does that mean for Man-Thing? It means he can traverse different planes of reality throughout the multiverse and help others to do the same while also defending against attacks on our reality. Very normal stuff for swamp monsters.

Now that we’ve established who Man-Thing is, let’s jump into the first issue of this series. Right off the bat you get a taste for what kind of comic this will be. The first page is a sixteen panel grid zooming into one of Man-Thing’s eyes with an ominous “WELCOME…” written in the sixth panel. This leads into a psychedelic nightmare of a double page spread that needs to be seen in order to be properly appreciated.

My god.

One thing I really appreciate is that the credits from that double page spread do not differentiate between writer and artist. It merely says the story is “by J.M. DeMatteis and Liam Sharp” which implies a truly collaborative approach to how this comic was made. The other creators on the issue are Jon Babcock (letterer) and Christie Scheele (colorist). Both also do an outstanding job on this book.

Back to the pages themselves, what we are told in the text boxes on the page is that we are seeing a psychic premonition of a future moment where the multiverse is annihilated. Not great! We are further informed that most people have so many thoughts racing through their minds that we wouldn’t be able to process such a signal if we received it. Only someone “devoid of the clutter of self-awareness” would be able to receive and process it. Fortunately (or is it unfortunately?), Man-Thing fits that description. The following page sees Man-Thing alone in his swamp (drawn with a tragic loneliness in his eyes by Sharp) as the text from DeMatteis explains that our protagonist has no true wants or desires. He simply is. These opening pages tell the reader everything we need to know about the nature of this series. It’s a story of inescapable cosmic magnitude told through a protagonist who lacks self-consciousness. It’s complexity filtered through simplicity.

There’s something so impressive about Liam Sharp’s ability to bring such tenderness to something monstrous.

Man-Thing proceeds to leave his swamp prompted by this premonition where he is quickly obliterated by a car as he crosses the road. He quickly reforms himself as though nothing has happened, but it’s an amusing moment if only for the horrified reaction of the driver. This also serves as a transition to seeing another character who will feature prominently in this series: Ellen Brandt, Ted Sallis’s wife before becoming the Man-Thing. She’s having a nightmare about…well…Man-Thing. Pretty understandable I’d say. When she awakens we see that half of her face is badly scarred from being burned. I’ll let you guess how the former partner of the scary monster who burns people experiencing fear got a scar like that.

Poor Ellen.

After Ellen’s introduction to the story, we get one last major character brought into the fold: Doctor Strange. Who better to bring in to deal with some multiversal madness than the Sorcerer Supreme, right? Once again we get the perfect pairing of J.M.D.’s prose with Sharp’s knack for depicting the surreal as Strange weaves through the mystical landscape of the world around us while attempting to locate something to prevent the coming destruction of the cosmos. A particularly beautiful piece of text is as follows, “But he learned, long ago, that he cannot oppose those forces if he does not first respect and honor them—if he does not see God reflected—in even the Devil’s eyes.” Whatever spell he was casting apparently works as it puts him on a path to find Man-Thing.

Doctor Strange doing Doctor Strange things.

Meanwhile, our mossy boy has wandered into town drawn by the overwhelming shame emanating from one of its residents. While it is never explicitly stated as to exactly what he has done, the implication is this man has a history of abusing his young daughter. Man-Thing walks into his home and lays his hand on the man’s face. You know how this ends. Man-Thing continues to wander through the town as local police officers try impotently to stop him. Bullets have little effect on swamp monsters.

Good effort.

As Man-Thing continues shambling into town, we realize he’s headed towards a bar that Ellen is currently frequenting. While there she’s accosted by a man looking for “company” as he describes it. Ellen rebuffs him only for him to reach out and put a hand on her as he gets a good look at her scars. This makes him get indignant, so Ellen grabs a knife to protect herself. The knife turns out not to be necessary as Man-Thing bursts in through the window and grabs the man by the throat. His flesh begins to sizzle when Man-Thing stops upon noticing Ellen. Before the two can have a reunion, police officers show up. One opens fire with no regard for Ellen’s safety as she stands between them. Fortunately, the bullets turn into butterflies just as they’re about to strike her (isn’t that a Smashing Pumpkins song?), and we see that Doctor Strange has arrived on the scene in the issue’s final page.

“The world is a vampire…”

When I first started writing this “You’ve Never Read…?!” series of retrospective pieces, this was the comic I had in mind. I’ve held off on covering it up until now because I knew there would be a lot to cover, and Man-Thing is not a comic that can be succinctly boiled down to just a few paragraphs. It’s a comic with big ideas that takes big swings with jaw-dropping art to match. It’s also a comic that Marvel seems to have forgotten as it is not currently collected in trade or available digitally. If you want to read it, you have to track down the individual issues. That is unacceptable in my eyes. I hope to give this comic the attention it deserves, and hopefully enough people will push Marvel to collect it and make it readily accessible. Until then, I’ll continue to look back on it and share my thoughts with you. Come back next week to see what Doctor Strange has to offer in Man-Thing #2!