Man-Thing Issue#18 1974

Description

MAN-THING: A biochemistry professor at Empire State University, the sheltered Sallis had no knowledge of his destiny and preferred books to people. The United States Army recruited him into “Project Sulfur,” which sought a means to survive bio-chemical warfare. Sallis developed “Serum SO-2,” which granted immunity to all known toxic biochemicals, but its mutagenic effects would have transformed people into monsters. Ted’s friend, the free-spirited girl Sainte-Cloud, convinced him to denounce the Project, shutting it down before any serum was produced. Returning to teaching, Sallis fell in love with one of his students, Ellen Brandt, a naive and impassioned girl of nineteen; the two eloped following a secret affair. Upon completing his new serum, Ted committed its formula to memory and burnt his records. When Ellen led Ted into an A.I.M. ambush, he fled and injected the only existing sample of the serum into himself just before his car crashed into the swamp. He should have died, but the magical energies of the swamp (containing the Nexus of Reality) combined with the serum to transform him into the hideous creature later known as the Man-Thing.