Man-Thing

Dir: Brett Leonard

2005

***

I've always considered Man-Thing to be one of Marvel's worst-used characters. I believe the character is full of potential, a potential that Marvel have largely wasted. DC on the other hand have not, their version, Swamp-Thing, is essentially the same character and has enjoyed a spectacular run in the comic world (although with a different origin). Those that think DC's Man-Thing and Swamp-Thing were a coincidence should know that Gerry Conway (Man-Thing creator) and Len Wein (Swamp-Thing creator) shared a room together in the early 70s. Wein also wrote a Man-Thing story but when Savage Tales got cancelled, he left Marvel. As far as movie adaptations went, Swamp-Thing got there first, first in 1982 and then again in 1989. After the popularity of X-Men and Spider-Man, Marvel were keen to see who else they could bring the big screen. 1982's Swamp-Thing stuck with the original origin story, even though Alan Moore's version had been far more popular. This kind of left Man-Thing with a bit of a problem. In the end, Marvel decided that it should be more of a horror and changed Dr. Ted Sallis/Man-Thing into a Native Indian chief who comes back as more of a ghost than a scientific experiment gone wrong. It's a shame really, as the original Man-Thing was a lot more fun. Originally, Dr. Ted Sallis was trying to recreate the superhuman serum that created Captain America, so he could have been included in one of the subsequent phases, after all, his one-time nemesis Howard the Duck managed it, why not him? So I didn't like the change in story at all, it's handled badly and Man-Thing didn't feel like the comic at all which is silly really considering the only thing rubbish about the original character was the name. However, for all its poor attempts at comedy and romance, it is a fairly good horror. The gore was pretty cool, with many horror fans giving it their approval and the final sequence where we really get to see Man-Thing in all his glory did feel like a good pay off. Much like Ang Lee's Hulk, it wasn't quite right, time for a rethink and a reboot and let’s get Man-Thing back into the franchise.