Cover to MAN-THING #1.
© Marvel Comics

Mania Grade: A
Issue: 1 (of 3)
Authors: Hans Rodionoff, Kyle Hotz
Publisher: Marvel Knights
Price: $2.99

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MAN-THING #1

"Startling" is just the word to describe this miniseries, which serves as a prequel for the upcoming movie of the same name written by Rodionoff himself. If he's as good as film scripts as he is at comics, we're in for a wild ride. People who are expecting the same old Man-Thing they knew and...well, loved is probably too strong a word, may be disappointed. If this first issue is anything to go by, this is not the Man-Thing who used to shamble around the swamps until he ran into some unfortunate human (and the occasional superhero visiting the bayou for some ridiculous reason) and burned them, in ways that seemed almost more accidental than malevolent. The new Man-Thing doesn't appear to be quite so passive, shall we say.

Since Man-Thing was never really a "superhero" in the true sense of the word, the decision to make this a horror film was an excellent one, especially since it allows Marvel to produce one of the best horror comics they've done in years. That's exactly what Rodionoff has written here: a horror comic, in the true EC tradition sorry, but even the best Marvel monster comics never got to the level that EC achieved. This book would not be out of place alongside an issue of TALES FROM THE CRYPT - except that it's better written.

It's also far better illustrated, though Kyle Hotz's work also would not look out of place in an EC book. This isn't the sort of extreme violent artwork that made his Top Cow series THE AGENCY such a difficult book to look at, nor is it the unusually diverse work that made the MAX series THE HOOD such a joy to read. The imagery takes on every adjective you'd expect from a horror work set in the Louisiana swamps: dark, moody, atmospheric. Hotz has reined in a good bit of the quirky angles and odd contortions that distorted his characters in past works until the "awakening" of the comatose guard at the very end, of course, and at that point "contortion" is the name of the game. Ick! While I can't say I'm waiting to see those effects on screen, I have to wonder if they'll live in my head nearly as long as the extreme close-up shot of the "awakened" guard croaking the word "mantokwe". Talk about difficult to look at. Still, it wouldn't be horror if you could stare at it for hours but the strength of MAN-THING is that, between the writing and the art, you find yourself wanting to bask in that horror. I have a feeling that a two-hour movie and a three-issue prequel miniseries just isn't going to be enough.