THE INFERNAL MAN-THING #3

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 4.1
 
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Story by Steve Gerber
Art by Kevin Nowlan
Letters by Todd Klein
Cover by Art Adams

Size: 0 pages
Price: 3.99

Two shames befall this book:

1) Only 107 people (including myself) decided to buy this finale.

2) We will never see another Steve Gerber comic ever again.

This final issue of this wonderful mini series is ‘Pure’ Steve Gerber. It is batshit insane on one level but a thing of beauty on another. It would be difficult to even describe what the hell happens in this issue. It took a couple of re-reads to figure out what I just read. But whether I read it the first time or the third time, I really enjoyed this issue.

Clearly, whether Gerber thought this would be his final story or not, he wanted to go out describing his mindset on writing. This story, that spanned the decades, is about a writer going insane over his work. His mind is literally trying to kill him and I feel so close to this story in a lot of ways. Yeah, I’m not a writer nor can I ever say I will be, but the idea of your brain trying to kill you can really work for anyone. Maybe Man-Thing is a macguffin to even have this story in the first place, but I loved this mini because it’s nothing like anything you’d read from Marvel. That’s what made Steve Gerber great in the first place. He was never scared to try new things even with the established heroes and I’ll always love Gerber for doing that.

Even if you’re not a fan of Gerber’s writing you gotta admit Kevin Nowlan is the shit. He goes all out in this issue and he doesn’t shy away from some of the darker elements. Because he did everything here; pencils, inks, and colors; he took the time to make this issue is own thing. His painted colors sets the tone of the story and he draws some fantastic looking characters in here. The tree character in here goes through a transformation that reminds me a lot of ‘Ren & Stimpy’. That might sound like a knock but his style on these cartoon characters remind me a lot like John K.

You get a great back up in this arc as well with the origins of Man-Thing. It might be a little dated but you get Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, and beautiful Gray Morrow art so it all balances it out.

I’ve loved this mini since the first issue and in fact both the first and this current issue is my ‘Pick of the Week’. For once, Marvel had the balls to release something unique to the public and also pay tribute to a legend. (Two things they never do now a days.) I don’t wanna wave my finger and say ‘shame on you’ to those who didn’t pick this up but….I hope some will read this review and grab the entire mini series when it comes out in trade. Cause you guys missed out on an inventive, mind boggling, and downright gorgeous mini series written by one of the greatest comic book writers of all time. I know this is something I’ll be reading for years to come.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

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