Marvel’s Best Heroes Just Teamed Up With It’s Best Monster

Uncanny X-Men #13 continues the stellar run of Gail Simone and David Marquez. Uncanny X-Men has been raising the bar, and the it has been fire since day one. The book introduced the Outliers, a group of young new mutants — Calico and her horse Ember, Deathdream, Jitter, and Ransom — who joined Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Jubilee as the X-Men. The Outliers are an interesting team of mutants, and readers knew they were going to be special when the X-Men learned the prophecy of the Endling. One of the Outliers is prophesied to bring doom to the mutant race, and the book has done a great job of building them as characters, while also building the horror vibe that Simone promised for the series.

Issue #13 brings that to the fore. While Gambit learns a terrible truth about the Left Eye of Agamotto, a magical object that Gambit got from the dragon Sadurang, the Outliers are awakened by Deathdream, whose mutant powers connect him to the dead and the worlds beyond this one. He leads the kids to a massive black X, which he calls the Dark Artery, taking them down into it. While there, the Outliers meet a most unexpected friend — Man-Thing. Man-Thing doesn’t really fit with the X-Men’s central metaphor of civil rights, but he definitely fits the horror vibe of this story and where it could take the X-Men. Man-Thing is one of Marvel’s more interesting characters, and his appearance calls many things to question.

Man-Thing Is More Than a Swamp Monster

Man-Thing has always been comics’ second best swamp monster. While his debut in the beloved MCU horror special Werewolf by Night made him more popular than ever, Man-Thing quickly fell behind Swamp Thing, whose comics became groundbreaking and have boasted some of the greatest creators in the history of the medium. However, the two characters have similar beginnings. The two characters were being created at basically the same time, made by a group of creators who all knew and worked together. Man-Thing did get into the comics first in 1971, but Man-Thing creator Gerry Conway was friends with Swamp Thing creators Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson — Conway even wrote a story in Swamp Thing’s first appearance in House of Secrets (Vol. 1) #92, and none of them really knew who came up with what character first. The origins of both characters have some differences, but are also remarkably similar.

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Man-Thing was once Ted Sallis, a biochemist who was working on a new version of Captain America’s supersoldier serum. AIM found out and eventually was able to hunt him down as he finished the first dose of the formula. He would have died, but the magical energies of the swamp combined with the serum to transform him into Man-Thing. Man-Thing was no normal muck-encrusted mockery of a man, though, and he became the guardian of the Nexus of All Realities, which was located within the swamp where he died. Man-Thing was given to the power to burn all who feel fear, as well as super strength, chlorokinesis, flight, teleportation and other powers related to the Nexus of All Realities. Man-Thing mostly stayed in his swamp, but has also been a member of the Thunderbolts. Him showing up in Uncanny X-Men #13 is a big deal because of his status with the Nexus.

Man-Thing Showing Up Could Take to the Outliers to a Whole New Dimension

Uncanny X-Men #13 dips into a deep vein of gothic horror through the Outlier plot and the flashback plot, which introduces Henrietta Benjamin, a black school teacher in the early 1900s. There’s more to Henrietta than that — she’s a mutant who’s part of a mysterious group on her way to Haven, Louisiana, the same town as the X-Men are now in. This is all somehow related to the Dark Artery, the dark structure that the Outliers followed into the Earth. Henrietta also may be related to the family the X-Men are staying with, who Gambit knows very well. Is all of this related to the Thieves and Assassin Guilds?

Man-Thing being in the Dark Artery is a big deal, as well. Man-Thing’s place as the guardian of the Nexus of All Realities means he gets pulled in for things like this. Where does the Dark Artery lead if Man-Thing’s within it? It has to be related to the Nexus itself, which opens up a lot of options for Uncanny X-Men in the future, especially with all of the other little things the book has built up. It remains to be seen what Man-Thing will mean for this story, but it is definitely going to be exciting.

Uncanny X-Men #13 is on sale now.