Marvel Already Set Up Man-Thing’s Perfect MCU Origin Story (In 2013)

Warning: Spoilers for Werewolf By Night!

Man-Thing was finally introduced in the MCU’s Werewolf By Night, but the character’s perfect origin might have already been set up back in 2013. Marvel Studios’ first Special Presentation has received praise for not expositing too much backstory for any character, but one of the most mysterious is the swamp creature that Ulysses Bloodstone’s family and followers have gathered to hunt. Man-Thing debuted in Marvel Comics’ Savage Tales #1 back in 1971, which provided a black-and-white origin for the character, one which Marvel Studios has stayed true to after the character’s first appearance in Werewolf By Night.

In Marvel Comics, Dr. Theodore “Ted” Sallis and his team had been trying to recreate the super-soldier serum that gave Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, his powers. After being betrayed by his wife, Ellen Brandt, Sallis injected himself with the last of his experimental serum before crashing his car into a Florida swamp, where the mixture of the serum, the swamp, and mystical forces transform him into the humanoid plant-like creature, Man-Thing. While the character’s backstory wasn’t investigated in Werewolf By Night, the design of Man-Thing is remarkably comic-accurate, and the fact that Jack (Gael García Bernal) calls Man-Thing, “Ted,” implies that the origins of the character could be the same.

It’s often expected that Marvel Studios will adapt the comic backstories of characters to better fit the growing Marvel Cinematic Universe, but this doesn’t need to be the case with Man-Thing. The lumbering creature’s origin already shares connections with several previous MCU projects, most notably with the themes of people trying to recreate Dr. Abraham Erskine’s original super-soldier serum, and many aspects of 2013’s Iron Man 3. So while Man-Thing has only just been introduced to the MCU, viewers might have already seen the start of the character’s story.

Why Iron Man 3’s Setup Is Perfect For Man-Thing’s MCU Origin

Kicking off the MCU’s Phase 2, Iron Man 3 reestablished characters such as Tony Stark and James “Rhodey” Rhodes after the traumatic events of The Avengers. They faced new villains including “the Mandarin,” who turned out to be British actor, Trevor Slattery, and the organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM). Though never receiving a mention in Iron Man 3, Man-Thing’s origin shares many connections with the storyline of the film. Ellen Brandt, who appears as an Extremis test subject portrayed by Stéphanie Szostak, was Sallis’ wife in the comics. It’s her working with the nefarious AIM who betray Sallis in order to take possession of his super-soldier serum. Brandt is shown with burns on her face and a missing arm in Iron Man 3, injuries that could have easily been caused by her former husband, just as they were in the comics.

Though it’s never actually stated, it’s possible that Iron Man 3’s Extremis could have been an attempt at re-imagining the super-soldier serum, pointing even further to Sallis’ involvement in the project. Werewolf By Night displays Man-Thing’s ability to disintegrate his opponents using intense heat, using this to dispatch both Kirk R. Thatcher’s hunter, Jovan, and Harriet Sansom Harris’ Verussa. This ability could have easily been a side effect of his injection of an Extremis-like super-soldier serum. On top of all of this, the fake Mandarin tapes featured in Iron Man 3 were filmed at Aldrich Killian’s (Guy Pearce) Miami headquarters, not far from the Everglades of Man-Thing’s origin, so it’s clear that Man-Things roots go deep into the MCU, long before his Werewolf By Night debut.