Considering Manny has no mind, this scene is hilarious.
__________________ "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."-Abraham Lincoln
"We thought that by making your world more violent, we would make it more 'realistic,' more 'adult.' God help us if that's what it means."-Grant Morrison to Animal Man, Animal Man
If you want, I can give you some recommendations or hook you up with some issues, but if you are looking, anything from Adventure into Fear or v1 are the best, in terms of story and why I personally love the character. v2 he is more of a hero, having adventures with Dr. Strange and what not, and v3 is a crazy telling of his mystical/cosmic mythology, neither are as good as v1, but there are some decent stories (the art in v3 is also really interesting, sort of on the border between "abstract" and "crappy").
I'll just add this, while the respect thread is, from how I interpret it, more about his physical and heroic feats or who he could beat in the vs forum, Man-Thing the character always works better when he isn't doing that type of stuff, but rather when he is dealing with human problems. When I was doing the intro, I kept wanting to go on and on about how cool the perspective of the character was (I had several other examples besides "racism") but ultimately that would have been a "Respect Steve Gerber" thread, which I'm sort of kicking around in the noggin.
but yes, thank you!
for sure
A good Man-Thing story plays on his empathic nature, and how he understands the world, just in a way that seems nonsensical to beings such as you or I. Most of the time, it ends up being some tragic statement about alienation and loneliness, or some statement about human frailty, so it can be philosophically heavy, but it also allows for more humorous moments like this one.
lol, and yes, I think about this type of stuff WAY too much. Though, I don't think I'm reading too much into it. imho, Man-Thing is one of those rare characters that can let a comic writer sort of transcend their medium and make statements not normally associated with comics. People talk about comics as "literature" all the time, and I would without hesitation submit (at the very least, stories from) AitF and v1 for consideration in that category. tbh, there is little else I have read that comes near it in that regard specifically.
First off, I'm a HUGE fan of these, aptly named, 'creatures of the Green'. That being said, you did an excellent job with this thread, inimalist. Well done.
Despite having most of M-T's appearances 'on file', I've really never read anything beyond the first few volumes of his self-titled series, along with some miscellaneous stuff here and there -- so this thread definitely helped fill in some of those gaps.
__________________
"I am tired of Earth. These people.
I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
Last edited by Galan007 on Mar 17th, 2011 at 11:32 PM
If I stop being lazy I'll put up scans later, but in the newest Thunderbolts. Our dear Man-Thing effortlessly bypassed a multitude of magical wards meant to keep out Stephen Strange in his prime.
So, first update, I'm going to just repost whole sections with the new parts in bold, this helps keep stuff together for posting in vs threads and the like
*****
Ooze
To begin, I want to show an editor's note here. Spider-Man had just done a two-foot kick into Man-Thing, and the editor (and rightly so, might I add) clearly points out that Spidey should have gone right into Man-Thing, rather than hitting him [Giant Sized Spider-Man 5]:
If Man-Thing is made to feel fear, he will consume himself with flame, but even then he is resilient, as seen here against D'Spayre [Uncanny X-Men 144]:
Man-Thing is one of the typical go-to guys when writers want to show something major has happened in the Marvel Universe. This indicates that he is one of the most important mystical entities on Earth:
As explained here, his mystical connection to the Nexus allows him to travel between dimensions and to locations within those dimensions [Thunderbolts 144]:
He is able to activate this power himself [Thunderbolts 154]:
http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/...olts1540020.jpg
In fact, Man-Thing is able to reach across dimensions to help people, indicating that he is not only able to travel between dimensions, but has some awareness of what is occurring within them [X-Men First Class v2 8]:
Man-Thing's ability to teleport through his connection to the Nexus of All Realities is so powerful that is easily breaks through Satana's magic defences, a feat Doctor Strange had failed at [Thunderbolts 155]:
I loved him as Franklin Richards protector after all the heroes died after the Onslaught Saga in...DayDreamers. Beautiful series. (please log in to view the image)
ya, it was enjoyable. I should probably find those scans, but iirc, the daydreamers were more a figment of Franklin's imagination weren't they? I don't think they count as cannon. again, iirc, but Manny starts talking by the end, doesn't he?
but ya, wicked series they should have done more with him as Franklin's protector
Alright, I wanted to get this updated with some new stuff before Frightful Four comes out, and hopefully it is amazing
Anyways, the first of a couple upcoming updates here will be:
Daydreamers
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[Daydreamers 2]
A lot of the stuff that happened in Daydreamers may be questionable as to whether it is in continuity or not. As is explained below, Franklin Richards was using his powers through Man-Thing to alter the Nexus of All Realities, causing considerable harm to Man-Thing, but also creating a universe which essentially was his own mind. Thus, the only real feats I'm going to post are those which are not out of character, and in fact, this update is small anyways (Daydreamers was only 3 issues).
Franklin's connection to Man-Thing and the Nexus explained [Daydreamers 3]:
Man-Thing is able to sense and rescue Howard the Duck from another dimension (Man-Thing saves Howard from a different dimension, bringing Howard to him) [Daydreamers 1]:
We see that Man-Thing's plant-like composition makes him essentially immune to physical damage, stopping a charging man on horseback in his tracks [Daydreamers 1]:
Like I said, just a short update here, but I figured the fact that Franklin is interfering with Manny gives enough of a reason to separate these feats from the rest, even though it is well within what Man-Thing has been shown to be capable of.
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K'ad-Mon
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[Peter Parker Spider-Man Annual 1999]
So, this is the much more confusing part of the Man-Thing mythology. K'ad-Mon was introduced in Man-Thing v3, which was quickly canceled due to poor sales. The story continued in Strange Tales, only to be cut after 2 issues. In fact, the story was only ever finished in a Marvel Handbook. I will be honest, while there are parts of the v3/Strange Tales story I enjoyed, I don't think it adds a lot to the character as a whole, and it does seem like they are moving away from this interpretation of Manny. That being said, there are interesting parts, and it is a High Herald (at least) Man-Thing incarnation !
The Mythos
It essentially breaks down like this, the creator of the universe wanted to “know” itself, so created parts of its consciousness as beings known as “fallen stars”. K'ad-mon was the “male” ideal, Adam if you will, and was tasked with guarding this reality, and “burdened with the truth” of knowing it is only an illusion of the creator. However, as time past within the illusion, K'ad-Mon's male heir, called the “Man of Lineage”, became more and more lost in the dream, until we get to Ted Sallis, who not only was lost in dream reality, he was so lost he was a scientist, dedicated to studying the dream. Because this Man of Lineage was no longer defending the Nexus, destiny took its course, and caused Sallis to become the Man-Thing in a terrible way, as a form of penance.
Like I said, some interesting stuff there, some stuff I don't think adds much at all. Here is a quick explanation of what I just said from the series [Strange Tales v4 2]:
Sallis is able to draw the power of the Nexus into Man-Thing using the Staff of the Creator, an item that allows him to tap into K'ad-Mon's powers [Peter Parker Spider-Man Annual 1999]:
It could be interpreted as a win for K'ad-Mon, but at worst it is a stalemate, against a full out Silver Surfer. However, if you read the text, it seems like K'ad-Mon was really just distracting him.
However, Sallis is able to locate the Staff of the Creator and teleport himself and his allies to Atlantis before it was destroyed. Not a win by any means, but it does show the power of the Staff and K'ad-Mon.
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[Man-Thing v3 4]
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So, I'm still hoping to get another update done before Frightful Four, but there are some issues I need to look up and all that jazz.