“At hand.” Get it?
Reader Googum left a comment the other day about remembering a bit in a Man-Thing story where Manny was on the verge of becoming human, but didn’t have the intelligence to realize that his cure was at hand. I believe this may be the sequence in question, from the end of Marvel Two-in-One #43 (September 1978) by Ralph Macchio, John Byrne, “and friends,” it says in the credits:
Frankly, that’s kind of a creepy image, Man-Thing with a human hand at the end of his swampy arm, right?
Also, and I just spent a few minutes down in the Vast Mikester Comic Archives looking for this, I have my own vague memory that the next time we see Man-Thing, he still has that human hand. I’m probably just remembering incorrectly, but I can swear I recall some story opening with Man-Thing lumbering through the swamp, and the surprise reveal is that he still has a normal hand (though it eventually reverts, as indicated in the final caption above). The next chronological appearance of the character is in Micronauts #7, and it’s not there, so I suspect I’m just imagining it. But darned if I don’t feel like it’s something I’ve read! Maybe one of you folks out there can help out your pal Mike, who’s clearly reached the “mind’s the next to go” part of the aging process.
EDIT: Okay, disregard that, as I finally did the smart thing and did a little Googling (“man-thing with a human hand” if you must know) which turned up this article, and apparently what I’m remembering is from Man-Thing #7-#8 (July-August 1974) by Steve Gerber and Mike Ploog:
…in which, at the end of #7, Man-Thing is exposed to the waters of the Fountain of Youth, and one of his hands reverts to human form. And of course, the next issue picks up with more exciting one-human-hand Man-Thing action, which is why I’m recalling that particular plot twist continuing over multiple issues. ANOTHER IMPORTANT MYSTERY SOLVED.
By the way, all this Man-Thing talk has finally got me wanting to pick up this short-run 1990s series by J.M. DeMatteis and Liam Sharp…and wouldn’t you know it, we’re missing the last issue at the shop. Ah, well…that’s why God gave us the eBay, so I’ll get the missing ish that way. And besides, this series contains, if I recall correctly, the only in-universe “Giant-Size Man-Thing” gag (made by Howard the Duck, no less), and surely no Man-Thing collection is complete without that.
“the only in-universe “Giant-Size Man-Thing” gag”
In a recent issue of Franken-Castle, where the Legion of Monsters appear, there was someone making a joke about that (I want to say Jack Russell, but I’m not sure)
A hand and a Man-Thing? Sounds like some people’s idea of a fun Saturday night … ;)
What about that issue of PAD’s Captain Marvel where Rick Jones hides his shame behind a copy of Giant-Size Man-Thing?
I stand corrected: let me amend my statement to “the only Giant-Size Man-Thing gag within the Man-Thing series.”
So his left hand turns human at the crystal thingy and then we see him with a human right hand and a Man-Thing left hand. Maybe in the next issue one of his feet is human?
I know they’re from different runs, it was just their placement in this entry that made me think of that.
“I finally did the smart thing and did a little Googling (“man-thing with a human hand” if you must know)”
I love reading things on the Internet which would never have been said in the history of the English language prior to the last 10-15 years.
Bryan – I suspect that is one of my specialties.
Sadly, I’m pretty sure that’s the crystal corpse of Jude the Entropic Man. *sigh* why couldn’t I use my brain for storing important things.
Thanks Mike! And duhr, I have that issue, that’s why it looked familiar! It’s a big plot point in Earth X or Universe X or something. (Yeah, it wasn’t the most accessible comic ever.)
Mikester,
If you’re going to pick up the JM DeMatteis series, you’d best know before reading them that the series ended abruptly and continued in a new STRANGE TALES v3 anthology (shared with Werewolf) until that ended after 2 issues and then manny’s tale continued in a Peter Parker: Spider-Man annual (1999).
A lot of weird stuff in there.
Good weird though.
~P~