Here’s the deal:
For some reason, there’s an entire subgenre of science fiction concerning “muck monsters.” As if sci-fi didn’t have enough issues with “little green men,” Star Trek V and Prometheus harming its legitimacy, the genre’s forced to contend with an onslaught of man/plant hybrids.
Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not anti-muck monster. A nice mass of walking eyeballs and ivy and lily pads is good for a lark, but since this particular monstrosity is so specific, it’s strange that so many variations have emerged.
The most famous, of course, is Swamp Thing, though there are numerous others including Muckman and Bog Swamp Demon from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, Sludge, The Heap, and the granddaddy of them all, It!, which appeared in a seminal story by famed sci-fi writer Theodore Sturgeon. While you’re probably thinking they covered about every possible name and any new creature would have to just be called “Larry” or something, there is one other notable muck monster out there.
Behold the Man-Thing.
The Man-Thing is a character that predated Swamp Thing (though it followed It! and The Heap) and shares a pretty close origin to our favorite moss-covered hero. In fact, the creators of Man-Thing and Swamp Thing were roommates during the creation of each, leading some to wonder if the latter should have been called Plagiarism Thing.
Where it gets fun is that in the ’70s Marvel had a series of comics they referred to as “giant-size” due to them being double the length of usual issues. This marketing tool was great for selling things like Spider-Man and the X-Men, though no one thought it through when it came time to use it for Man-Thing.
This gave birth to one of comics’ best unintentional double entendres: Giant-Size Man-Thing.
Several issues in this format were published, some with Man-Thing looming over a comely female…
and others featuring Man-Thing’s prominent snout…
though by far the best cover featured this text layout: Giant-Size Man-Thing: The Monster Runs Wild!
Truly it was a simpler time. I am proud to say I recently purchased this same comic for myself because I love ridiculous things. And if you would like to know where you can acquire your own Giant-Size Man-Thing, just — hey, where are you going?
But seriously, that’s still not as bad as this:
