"UNNN UNH"

§ October 2nd, 2008 § Filed under giant-size man-thing § 1 Comment

More comics badassery – Ka-Zar’s pal Zabu beats the tar out of a bunch of AIM agents:


HOLY CRAP. The blood-red (well, more or less) backgrounds certainly add to the holy-crapness.

Okay, that wasn’t the reason I pulled out this particular comic (Astonishing Tales #13 from 1972)…what I wanted to say was that the comic contains a very early appearance of Man-Thing, where some of Man-Thing’s attributes are a bit different from the currently accepted version of the character.

Man-Thing is, as the character is used now, mindless and voiceless, a shambling heap of plantlife and muck with no semblance to humanity. So, this panel is pretty much impossible today, given the character’s established interpretation:


There are plenty of panels in this comic of Man-Thing grunting and growling and otherwise making sub-vocal noises, like above, which, as we Fans o’Manny know, more or less contradicts nearly every other appearance of the character. And, also contradictory is the idea that Man-Thing has it together enough to point other characters toward an exit, which requires more reasoning power than Man-Thing is supposed to have.

Also in the story the captions make reference to Man-Thing having a brain, and when Ka-Zar checks an apparently-dead Man-Thing for life, he hears Manny’s beating heart. Needless to say, the Manny we know and love has neither of these things.

Now, I’m not listing all this to be a jerk (for once). I simply find this comic to be an interesting example of trying to nail down attributes for a brand new character…attributes that may have been altered or discarded over the years since. It still seems a little strange to be reading a story where Man-Thing actually growls and shows more brain-power than normal.

Speaking of Man-Thing, he gets a swell cover on this week’s new issue of Alter Ego (#81), as well as an article about the character’s creation. Apparently a lawsuit was, at least, briefly considered against DC for their Swamp Thing character. I didn’t know that. Anyway, the article contains lots of information of interest to the swamp creature enthusiast.

Also, having seen the preview copies for next week, Man-Thing puts in an appearance in a Marvel book coming this Wednesday. Which one will it be…which one? (Oh, okay, it’s Marvel Zombies 3.)

Anyway, that’s enough Man-Thing for now…here, have another helping of Zabu:

images from Astonishing Tales #13 (Aug. 1972) by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, and Dan Adkins

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