Ultimate Man-Thing idea

ourchair

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Just to show that we're a bunch of sick puppies, the idea we drew inspiration from for Ultimate Man-Thing was the recent cassava poisoning that happened here in the Philippines:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/03/09/mass.poisoning/

Somewhere in the city of Des Moines, 30 children are found suffering from a mysterious ailment after eating potato salad from the school cafeteria. Then children have swollen stomachs and are in a strangely comatose state.

Meanwhile, far off beyond the city and into the rural areas of Iowa, lies the strangest mystery of all: Swamps are melding into savannahs, grasslands melding into jungles --- a plurality of incongruous ecospheres coexisting with each other, and an ecological impossibility.

When Susan Storm catches wind of this discovery, she manages to convince her father to send her and her boyfriend Reed Richards to investigate. Perhaps its a remnant of one of Arthur Molekevic's living plant experiments, Sue reasons. Either way, it's a biological puzzle that no one but the most gifted minds in America can figure out.

When Sue and Johnny examine the young children, a sample of their bodily fluids turns up an even bigger puzzle. All readings show that they are pregnant. Whatever was in those potatoes is radically altering their biology to the point that they have become living plant-things, and pretty soon they'll be flowering.

Ben and Reed investigate the Multi-Sphere territory and discover at the center of it, a mysterious man-thing who speaks in half-formed sentences. They discover that he was Ted Sallis, a former temp payroll janitor who was also changed by the N-Zone accident.

Deeply empathic, Sallis responds to Reed's scientific curiosity with a bemused sense of wonder. As their communications with each other improves, Reed realizes that Sallis was not just a janitor, but an undiscovered genius. The irony of a genius janitor cleaning up around whiz kids is not lost on Reed. Or Ben for that matter, "You mean this muckity-muck, used to clean up the muckity-muck you whiz kids make everyday?"

Since the accident, Sallis moved out to the edge of Iowa to live out the rest of his miserable existence, and when he took root, the biodiversity of the area around him was changed by his presence. Plant life around him was adapting to his own chaotic N-Zone altered genetics.

Reed, Ben and Sallis meet up with Sue using the Fantasticar, and when Sallis discovers what he has inadvertently and indirectly done to these children is plagued with unbearable angst and existential guilt. Together, Sallis, Reed and Sue try to work on a cure for these children.


What you guys think?
 
I think it's definately a good marvel comic line. j/k. Aside from that... it souds like a feasible way to bring in the man-thing character.
 
Nurhachi said:
I especially like the thought of him being a janitor caught in the N-Zone accident
Thanks. I was actually thinking of making him a research physicist like the 616 Ted Sallis, but there was no good excuse as to why the superiors at Baxter Building would forget to look for him after his disappearance in the N-Zone accident.

Making him a temp janitor allows them to overlook his absence and making him an "undiscovered genius" allows him to understand science enough to look for a cure. Oh, and it's another way to make a nod to Matt Damon's character from Good Will Hunting. Yup, first Ultimate Namor = Yul Brynner and now Ultimate Ted Sallis = Matt Damon.
 
Nurhachi said:
I especially like the thought of him being a janitor caught in the N-Zone accident

As ourchair reminded me (in person), this proposal is not inconsistent with the actual events of the series. Look at this page from UFF#7 again: http://milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/ultff/page04.html

The flashback clearly shows *somebody* at the accident site taking on a Man-Thing-like form. His (or her?) identity has yet to be properly disclosed. A WOMAN-Thing, perhaps?

In any case, the idea of marshy swamp-being, created during the N-Zone accident, fits in quite neatly with the elemental character themes, which have been discussed elsewhere on this board. Our muck-creature would represent the Chinese element of Wood (rather appropriate for a guy named 'Man-Thing', hehe).
 
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The Captain said:
i thought there already was an ultimate man thing that was featured in ultimate marvel team up...
There was but it was a tiny appearance in the sewers and nothing was explained.
 
There was but I don't think he appeared for very long. Just came and healed Lizard or Spider-Man.
 
All sounds good apart from him not being missed after the accident. Surely after such a thing everyone would need to be accounted for, they're in the middle of a desert testing ground, and inventory would be taken of absolutely everything.

Maybe he was originally some tumbleweed :)
 
Guijllons said:
All sounds good apart from him not being missed after the accident. Surely after such a thing everyone would need to be accounted for, they're in the middle of a desert testing ground, and inventory would be taken of absolutely everything.

Maybe he was originally some tumbleweed :)
Well, like I mentioned above, trying to justify Man-Thing's existence as a N-Zone victim was something we tried to address. Since Ultimate Fantastic Four # 7 shows him as presumably Baxter affiliated individual caught in the teleportation wave, then continuity keeps us from making him plant life gone sentient (which would have been an easier and preferable idea, honestly.)

But if he was a Baxter affiliate, why would they not look for him? They went out of their way to find Reed, Sue, Johnny and even some back-packing bum named Ben Grimm, so why not this Ted Sallis gone AWOL? Making him a temp janitor was my way of an excuse. His disappearance would be easily overlooked, and Ben Grimm would be considered a civilian "guest" of Reed's.

As for his appearance in Ultimate Team-Up, well yeah, I knew he appeared there but I assumed that not much was told about him that was probably ignored by Ellis when he and Immonen made the visual suggestion of his existence. See also: General Ross.
 
Continuity-wise, we have no idea how the FF really fit in yet. Fury referenced them in the first Ultimates series before they had the accident. So this current series much be some time ago, right?

And yeah, it's something of a quandary the possible disappearance of a person that no-one thought to search for or mention. But by throwing the image of Man-thing up in UFF they must have a plan. Either side stepping his disappearance completely, or having a "the janitor is missing too" flashback.

But this does put a whole new slant on the elements theory. Earth, Air, Water and Fire, and Metal, and Vegetable. Animal mineral vegetable somehow?
 
I believe this was mentioned somewhere else. The Elements consist of: Air, Water, Fire and Earth.
The Chinese Elements consist of: Air, Water, Earth, Wood and Metal.
Combine these together and you get:
Air: Sue Storm
Water: Reed Richards
Fire: Johnny Storm
Earth: Ben Grimm
Wood: Ted Sallis
Metal: Victor Von Damme
 
ProjectX2 said:
I believe this was mentioned somewhere else. The Elements consist of: Air, Water, Fire and Earth.
The Chinese Elements consist of: Air, Water, Earth, Wood and Metal.
Combine these together and you get:
Air: Sue Storm
Water: Reed Richards
Fire: Johnny Storm
Earth: Ben Grimm
Wood: Ted Sallis
Metal: Victor Von Damme
As far as I know, Fire IS a Chinese element, as it is incorporated into Feng Shui and Chinese astrology... So there's no real need to combine the two sets to make the connection fit.

And Guij, I wanted to incorporate a missing janitor flashback or at least a 2-4 page sequence featuring Ted Sallis pre-N-Zone, but I couldn't figure out a way to write about it without spoiling the suspense of discovering what that ecosphere and man-thing is all about.

But like I said, Ultimate Sallis should be developed so that its EASY for Baxter administration to overlook his absence. Writing a "janitor is missing too" flashback seems too artificial and borders on retcon.
 
Yeah, that was the point I was making.
Obviously they couldn't have a whole big deal about victor going missing and another guy missing too without exploring the other guy's story there and then. But Man-Thing needs to pop up at some point now that we've been given the taster, and he needs to be linked to the accident. Probably Reed going through the figures again, realising that it all doesn't add up, and figuring out that there must have been someone else involved that is unbalancing the equation, and running through the crew manifest, and going quite barmy at someone for not informing him, or realising, that another person was missing. Perhaps people died in the accident and not everyone could be accounted for.
 
I like this idea. It makes sense. Why is it that Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben, and Victor were the only ones caught in the accident?

Plus, I remember reading in Wizard that Bendis and Millar were thinking about the whole elemental thing (air/water/fire/earth/metal) when they were developing the series.
 
The Captain said:
i thought there already was an ultimate man thing that was featured in ultimate marvel team up...

Ultimate Marvel Teamup isn't really canon at all.

I like this idea.
 
DigiEmissary said:
Ultimate Marvel Teamup isn't really canon at all.

I like this idea.

As of right now, according to Bendis, it is all canon except for issue #9.
 

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