Comparing Notes: Man-Thing vs Swamp-Thing

[Miyamoto Musashi]

I first saw the "Swamp-Thing" movie as a kid and really enjoyed it, I later saw in a book titled "Marvel Universe" by "Peter Sanderson" a Man-Thing. The first impression I had was that Man-Thing had heavy edits to make his film, only much later I learned otherwise.

Man-Thing:
*Produced by "Stan Lee", "Gerry Conway" and co. for Marvel Comics.
Ted Sallis created a simulation to Captain America's super serum, betrayed by his loved lady in the service of (A.I.M), Ted escaped after injecting himself with his serum which later turned him to some sort of giant vegetated monster alongside magic surrounding a swamp.

Swamp-Thing:
*By Len Wein and co. for DC Comics.
An explosion in his lab caused by his partner who betrayed hi turned him into a vegetable like humanoid. Couldn't tell his wife who he really is.

Any more differences? Comments?

[Ed Liu]

Don Markstein's Toonopedia covers both Man-Thing (http://www.toonopedia.com/manthing.htm) and Swamp Thing (http://www.toonopedia.com/swamp_th.htm), as well as their 1940's ancestor the Heap (http://www.toonopedia.com/heap.htm). To be completely accurate, Swamp Thing couldn't tell his wife who he was because his wife was killed in the explosion.

Despite the similarities in concept, these two characters were apparently unrelated. They did turn out some surprisingly excellent comics, though, that stretched way beyond the simplistic principles of the characters. The original Len Wein/Bernie Wrightson Swamp Thing stories (collected in this trade paperback (http://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Thing-Genesis-Len-Wein/dp/1563890445/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212595327&sr=1-7)) are terrifically creepy comics that I think should be essential reading for any comic book fan. Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing in the 80's (starts here (http://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Thing-Vol-Saga/dp/0930289226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212595327&sr=1-1) and goes on, and will soon be in a nice HC edition, apparently (http://www.amazon.com/Saga-Swamp-Thing-Book-One/dp/1401220827/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212595327&sr=1-9)) is the proper way to do an "everything you thought you knew is wrong" story, which takes all the earlier stories, thinks really hard about all the parts that don't make sense, and then uses those to build something entirely new and exciting. I tout these comics all the time because they are spectacular, and set the stage for all kinds of things that would follow (such as The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and DC's Vertigo line of comics). Some day, I will write up my grand essay that explains why Swamp Thing's real central theme is "What would you do for love?"

On the other side of the fence, Man-Thing was soon taken over by the late, great Steve Gerber, who took the concept and decided to use the shambling, unintelligent Man-Thing as a platform to do some seriously strange, dimension-hopping storytelling where Man-Thing seems to be the least interesting thing about it. He pulled in swords-and-sorcery, dimensional gateways, alternate realities, occult creatures, and Howard the Duck, and lots of creators cite it as some of his best work next to Howard the Duck. It's on my list to read Soon-ish -- Gerber's Man-Thing run is currently available only in 2 black-and-white Essentials (http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Man-Thing-Vol-Marvel-Essentials/dp/0785121358/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212595756&sr=1-1) volumes (http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Man-Thing-2-TPB/dp/0785130667/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212595756&sr=1-2).

And yes, Giant Size Man-Thing (http://www.comics.org/series.lasso?SeriesID=2170) is a funny double entendre ha ha ha :p.

Don't know what it is about swamp monsters, really. Maybe the incredibly limited number of stories you can tell with them drives creators to work overtime to make them interesting. Doesn't explain the crap-tacular Swamp Thing and Man-Thing movies, though.

-- Ed

[Miyamoto Musashi]

For the one's who haven't seen the Man-Thing movie yet and have the intention to watch it, these R spoilers if you care to see them.
Yesterday I saw a trailer of the Man-Thing movie, they made it an original complete monster with no human originality at all, it kills any human it sees.

I read a review on the movie from someone who saw it:
Ted Sallis is someone who bought Bywater so it wouldn't be corrupted, but he later sold it and left, he didn't become the Man-Thing, he isn't a scientist as well.