The Man-Thing made his debut in the pages of Savage Tales 50 years ago. A scientist, Ted Sallis, had been working on a modified version of the same super soldier formula that created Captain America some 30 years earlier, but, pursued by enemy agents, crashes into the swamps of the Florida everglades, and mutates into a mute monster, powered by emotional empathy, whose touch burns its fearful victims.
Veteran writer Steve Orlando, making his Marvel debut, was tasked with creating an all-new story for the character's 50th anniversary. Marvel, sensing big bucks, decided that instead of a miniseries, there would be a trio of 1-shot specials in which Man-Thing would co-star with the company's big guns, Spider-Man, the Avengers, & the X-Men.
Unfortunately, that strategy backfired. The last two chapters were released a week apart, and it didn't help that Orlando had created a less than appealing villain in the Harrower, an arrogant woman who wants the Man-Thing's powers for herself. By the time the X-Men chapter came out, I'd already decided this was a lost cause. Shoot, RL Stine did a better job with Man-Thing a few years ago.
Rating: C-.
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Speaking of the black & white era at Marvel, which we really weren't, ye scribe caught a lucky break, and acquired a pair of issues of Marvel Preview, a quarterly anthology series that would adapt novels, such as Philip Wylie's Gladiator, or creator-owned characters, like Gil Kane's Blackmark. The series gave way to Bizarre Adventures around 1980 or so, so that Marvel could do more black & white uncensored stories of popular characters like the X-Men.
Roy Thomas, who adapted Gladiator into Man-God in 1976, revisited the concept at DC a few years later when he created the character of Iron Munro for his Young All-Stars series. I don't really remember if Marvel let him finish Man-God----he might've, but I'm not sure----, but bringing the concept back now in the 21st century would be nice right about now.
Rating for Marvel Preview: A-. Hey, they actually adapted Sherlock Holmes before DC did. That accounts for something.
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We talked up the current Suicide Squad series a couple of months back. This was an outgrowth of a Future State miniseries during the winter, and in the probable future as now, Amanda Waller is more ruthless than ever. I honestly don't know if that would be the politically correct thing to do with Waller, treating her like just another power-drunk politico, which is what she really is.
However, I have serious doubts about whether or not DC will stick with any of the Future State concepts, even though the most hyped, Wonder Girl, debuts this week. Readers are desperate to get out of the grim-dark era that we've been stuck in since the mid-80's, but grim-dark-lovin' fanboys are like, well, do I really need to tell you?
The mistake DC made was piggybacking a Black Adam two-parter that belonged in the back of Future State: Shazam! on the back of this mini, and that was equally dull in repackaging Adam into a tragic hero yet again.
Rating: B--.
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American Mythology, the license holders to the Three Stooges, decided to adapt Hanna-Barbera's 1977 bionic parody, The Robonic Stooges. The writers, including SA Check, who writes most of the Stooge adaptations for American Mythology, did their level best to retain the spirit of those shorts, most of which, if memory serves, were written by Norm Maurer, Moe Howard's son-in-law, who also had a hand with a certain pair of Super Friends characters ye scribe is so fond of, while adding the eye-pokes and slapstick antics of the real Stooges, which were left out of the cartoons due to anti-violence restrictions.
Rating: A-.
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The Hellfire Club used to be enemies of the X-Men back in the day, but times have changed, and on the living island of Krakoa, a mutant itself, it seems the groups will come together for what is being billed as the Hellfire Gala. So Marvel decides to go all Glamour with a preview guide that shows off some formal mutant fashions for 2021. So not digging Professor X's new helmet, which he's had the last couple of years. The weekly event is a cash grab, nothing more.
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