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mschlat's review
2.0
Alright, a few caveats before the big review….
Caveat 1: I read these comics on the Marvel Unlimited app and not in paper form. Unfortunately, that means I haven’t read a few issues that are unavailable in that format (mainly the Marvel Comics Presents material and some issues of Monsters Unleashed). But I did read all of the Fear issues with Man-Thing, all of the Man-Thing, Giant Size Man-Thing, and Infernal Man-Thing issues along with a good bit of the crossover material. Also, I am posting the same review to all three volumes of the Steve Gerber Man-Thing Collection instead of breaking down the material by the volume it appears.
Caveat 2: I adore the Steve Gerber Defenders run, and I’m quite a fan of his Howard the Duck stuff, both of which I read when it came out. But I read almost none of Gerber’s Man-Thing when it was published (the big exception being the creature’s appearance in two issues of Howard the Duck). So, I have no nostalgia for these works, and I am reading these early 70’s comic books with a pretty critical eye.
So, what works? Squint and you can see an early version of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run; there’s a muck creature with identity issues surrounded by stories of social importance, with a big focus (as usual for Gerber) on the danger of mob mentalities. Squint even harder and you can see hints of Grant Morrison’s Animal Man run; the final issue of the Man-Thing title has Gerber as the main character, explaining how he gets all the stories from a side character called Dakimh the Enchanter and having a cosmic adventure all his own. In short, there’s a ton of inventiveness mixed in with the typical Gerber insanity.
Compared to Defenders and Howard the Duck, this is the series that focuses most on human beings and their travails. (And there’s a good reason why a few paragraphs down.) There are issues on race relations, the evils of consumer culture, the impact of fat-shaming and bullying, and much more. And the very large cast of non-powered people who move in and out of the book make it, in some ways, one of the more grounded Gerber titles.
It’s also a (usually) dark series, with much more death than I would expect from a 70’s Marvel comic. If you read anything from these collections, I would recommend Man-Thing #16-18, which centers around a book-burning crusade in Citrusville, the small Florida town that is the setting for most of the stories. Unlike a lot of Marvel stories with “social importance”, there is no happy ending here. A young girl dies, unable to stop her crazed grandfather on his mission of enforcing an outdated version of masculinity. The book burners win, with our protagonists leaving town to escape the mob. It is a remarkably sobering story.
So, what doesn’t work? Sadly, so so much…. See, the thing with Gerber is that the inventiveness is often mixed with an undisciplined approach, or --- to put it more bluntly --- Gerber is going to go too far too often. It’s not a surprise that a human antagonist for the early issues is called F. A. Schist. It’s not a surprise that an advertising executive will describe his frustration with trying to sell crap by writing a cringe-filled tone poem shown as a text page in the comic. It’s not a surprise that there’s an emotional vampire zooming around in a purple and yellow costume, devouring women down to their bones. It’s not a surprise that the main researcher of a Bermuda Triangle project is also the reincarnation of a pirate queen trying to escape a satyr. It’s just barely a surprise that a storyline addresses the consequences of one side character (Richard Rory, a possible Gerber stand-in) helping an underage teenage girl escape Citrusville with them both realizing that he can be charged with kidnapping.
And look, sometimes the absurdity of Gerber’s material works; it’s how we got Howard the Duck after all. But when it doesn’t, it sometimes falls hard. And given the craziness of what happens in this book (which in my mind outdoes the Defenders by a long shot), I have to wonder what editors at Marvel were thinking in the early 70’s.
And then there’s Man-Thing…. Unlike DC’s Swamp Thing, Man-Thing is barely conscious. He has no internal or external dialogue; he just reacts to others’ emotions or by instinct (and goodness knows the narration will tell you that over and over again.) In short, Man-Thing has no agency. He is never the protagonist but either the catalyst for the story or an agent of inadvertent justice at the conclusion. All of which means that the comic needs to keep on bringing in protagonist after protagonist for stories, most of whom have short shelf lives.
Since Man-Thing doesn’t speak or think, what we get instead is text box after text box of narration. Now, I love the catch phrase “whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch”, but aside from that, Gerber’s prose can get awfully boring. Add to that the relative lack of humor in this title, and many pages can become tough going.
Finally (and if you have gotten this far, congrats for realizing how petty this complaint is), there are too many fights with alligators. Sometimes a snake is thrown in for variety, but usually it’s alligators. It’s as if Marvel editorial was fine with Gerber getting crazy conceptually, but there still had to be the mandated fight scene per issue, so Gerber and his artists showed the Man-Thing/alligator fracas one more time.
I’m glad I read these issues, if only to experience more Gerber imagination and understand more of Marvel’s 70’s history. But I don’t see myself rereading these, and I’m not sure there’s much for anyone who isn’t already nostalgic for this run.
Caveat 1: I read these comics on the Marvel Unlimited app and not in paper form. Unfortunately, that means I haven’t read a few issues that are unavailable in that format (mainly the Marvel Comics Presents material and some issues of Monsters Unleashed). But I did read all of the Fear issues with Man-Thing, all of the Man-Thing, Giant Size Man-Thing, and Infernal Man-Thing issues along with a good bit of the crossover material. Also, I am posting the same review to all three volumes of the Steve Gerber Man-Thing Collection instead of breaking down the material by the volume it appears.
Caveat 2: I adore the Steve Gerber Defenders run, and I’m quite a fan of his Howard the Duck stuff, both of which I read when it came out. But I read almost none of Gerber’s Man-Thing when it was published (the big exception being the creature’s appearance in two issues of Howard the Duck). So, I have no nostalgia for these works, and I am reading these early 70’s comic books with a pretty critical eye.
So, what works? Squint and you can see an early version of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run; there’s a muck creature with identity issues surrounded by stories of social importance, with a big focus (as usual for Gerber) on the danger of mob mentalities. Squint even harder and you can see hints of Grant Morrison’s Animal Man run; the final issue of the Man-Thing title has Gerber as the main character, explaining how he gets all the stories from a side character called Dakimh the Enchanter and having a cosmic adventure all his own. In short, there’s a ton of inventiveness mixed in with the typical Gerber insanity.
Compared to Defenders and Howard the Duck, this is the series that focuses most on human beings and their travails. (And there’s a good reason why a few paragraphs down.) There are issues on race relations, the evils of consumer culture, the impact of fat-shaming and bullying, and much more. And the very large cast of non-powered people who move in and out of the book make it, in some ways, one of the more grounded Gerber titles.
It’s also a (usually) dark series, with much more death than I would expect from a 70’s Marvel comic. If you read anything from these collections, I would recommend Man-Thing #16-18, which centers around a book-burning crusade in Citrusville, the small Florida town that is the setting for most of the stories. Unlike a lot of Marvel stories with “social importance”, there is no happy ending here. A young girl dies, unable to stop her crazed grandfather on his mission of enforcing an outdated version of masculinity. The book burners win, with our protagonists leaving town to escape the mob. It is a remarkably sobering story.
So, what doesn’t work? Sadly, so so much…. See, the thing with Gerber is that the inventiveness is often mixed with an undisciplined approach, or --- to put it more bluntly --- Gerber is going to go too far too often. It’s not a surprise that a human antagonist for the early issues is called F. A. Schist. It’s not a surprise that an advertising executive will describe his frustration with trying to sell crap by writing a cringe-filled tone poem shown as a text page in the comic. It’s not a surprise that there’s an emotional vampire zooming around in a purple and yellow costume, devouring women down to their bones. It’s not a surprise that the main researcher of a Bermuda Triangle project is also the reincarnation of a pirate queen trying to escape a satyr. It’s just barely a surprise that a storyline addresses the consequences of one side character (Richard Rory, a possible Gerber stand-in) helping an underage teenage girl escape Citrusville with them both realizing that he can be charged with kidnapping.
And look, sometimes the absurdity of Gerber’s material works; it’s how we got Howard the Duck after all. But when it doesn’t, it sometimes falls hard. And given the craziness of what happens in this book (which in my mind outdoes the Defenders by a long shot), I have to wonder what editors at Marvel were thinking in the early 70’s.
And then there’s Man-Thing…. Unlike DC’s Swamp Thing, Man-Thing is barely conscious. He has no internal or external dialogue; he just reacts to others’ emotions or by instinct (and goodness knows the narration will tell you that over and over again.) In short, Man-Thing has no agency. He is never the protagonist but either the catalyst for the story or an agent of inadvertent justice at the conclusion. All of which means that the comic needs to keep on bringing in protagonist after protagonist for stories, most of whom have short shelf lives.
Since Man-Thing doesn’t speak or think, what we get instead is text box after text box of narration. Now, I love the catch phrase “whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch”, but aside from that, Gerber’s prose can get awfully boring. Add to that the relative lack of humor in this title, and many pages can become tough going.
Finally (and if you have gotten this far, congrats for realizing how petty this complaint is), there are too many fights with alligators. Sometimes a snake is thrown in for variety, but usually it’s alligators. It’s as if Marvel editorial was fine with Gerber getting crazy conceptually, but there still had to be the mandated fight scene per issue, so Gerber and his artists showed the Man-Thing/alligator fracas one more time.
I’m glad I read these issues, if only to experience more Gerber imagination and understand more of Marvel’s 70’s history. But I don’t see myself rereading these, and I’m not sure there’s much for anyone who isn’t already nostalgic for this run.
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