It didn’t occur to me how much I really liked Marvel Comics' Man-Thing until I found myself advance ordering the long overdue reprint of The
Man-Thing Omnibus. Its not cheap. I’m sure it will be massive and gorgeous when
it gets here but it’s way more than I’ve paid for any book before
I circled around the idea for a week or two before finally committing the accumulation of birthday and Christmas money to better use than just sitting
on the shelf waiting for the shops to open again.
It’s done now though, so it seems I am committed to the cause!
Of course, there were clues before this; There were comics, smaller
graphic collections, action figures and even my one and only Funko Pop purchase
is of the marvelous Man-Thing… and I bloody hate those bobble-headed
collectibles as a rule.
There are other comic characters that were and have remained equally important to me and most of them are monstrous in form as well. Deathlok, Ghost Rider and Morbius to name but three. I’m not sure what that says about my tastes as a kid. I obviously also read Hulk, Avengers, Spider-Man etc as well but I have little desire to go back to any of those titles now in quite the same way that I find myself drawn back to the monstrous and morally ambiguous antiheroes that colonised my head-space back then. And the proof of that point being the imminent hefty purchase mentioned above
Interestingly and not entirely unconnected is the fact that
it is the 50th anniversary of the Man-Thing’s creation this year. So it turns out we are of a similar age and I
don’t exactly know how I feel about that.
Its odd to now discover that when we first met in the mid 70’s (74/75?) possibly
guest starring in a Hulk or Spider-Man comic, but more probably as a solo back
up strip in Planet of the Apes Weekly, he was younger than me! He looked so grown up. So dark and brooding
and perfectly formed that I had assumed he had been around for decades like all
the cool comic characters.
And now he has been. 5 of them, and I still think he’s cool and I still haven't quite got to the bottom of my fascination with him. So
when those tendrils and vines crept into my young mind, they never really let go. I’m very OK with that as I think there is still more to discover. Happy Birthday big fella, here’s to 50 more
Steve
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