October 8, 2022

Werewolf by Night’s Swamp Thing is actually Man-Thing, a different thing

marvel halloween special, Werewolf at night, brings new flavors to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s the banging horror of it all and the stark black and white colors and of course the titular werewolf.

But there is another monster making its debut Werewolf at night, featuring one of the most notorious names in Marvel Comics history: Man-Thing. And the hour-long special doesn’t even do him the courtesy of calling him by his name!

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Werewolf by Night on Disney Plus.]

Werewolf at night summons a cadre of elite monster hunters in a competitive hunt to decide who will pick up the coveted Bloodstone, which has a type of power that forces monsters to reveal themselves. The story gets trickier than there, but suffice it to say that the mysterious monster at the heart of the challenge is a large, rugged swamp creature named Ted, who has the power to burn at his touch.

But in Marvel Comics, Ted goes by a different name.

This is Man Thing, not Swamp Thing

Founded in 1971 by writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow, Man-Thing was formerly Dr. Ted Sallis, a scientist who – like every other scientist in the Marvel Comics Universe – attempted to re-engineer Steve Rogers’ Super Soldier Serum. Fleeing less ruthless mad scientists with the only evidence of his serum, Sallis injected himself with the chemical just before crashing his car into a magical swamp. There he combined his powers with the organic matter and transformed into the large, green, mud-faced swamp monster he is today.

Wait a minute, you’re wondering, isn’t that the exact same thing as Swamp Thing, the DC Comics character? The answer is yes. At the time author Len Wein was developing Swamp Thing, his roommate Gerry Conway had put Man-Thing aside over a year ago. There have never been any allegations of plagiarism – despite sharing a common origin and appearance, the two characters diverged fairly precipitously from there. Swamp Thing eventually reverted to being an elemental force of nature that only Thought It had once been a human scientist, and Man-Thing has always been more of a cult favorite than a bestseller at Marvel. Legal steps never took place.

Another pretty big difference between Man-Thing and Swamp Thing is the former’s signature superpower: setting people on fire with damn fire. As the catchphrase of later Man-Thing stories would put it, “Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch!” Man-Thing may not be able to speak, but he’s still a very sensitive monster, the strong one can feel emotions. He is stirred up by negative ones and burns his opponents with chemical-mystical fire.

And yes, everyone only knows him as Man-Thing! Not Teddy!