Created by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow back in 1971, Marvel’s Man-Thing is set to return next year in the new saga Avengers: Curse of the Man-Thing!

Being unleashed in March 2021, Issue #1 kicks off a three-issue storyline that will be told through three separate one-shots that have Man-Thing interact with different Marvel characters and teams. The series is penned by critically acclaimed writer Steve Orlando, (Martian Manhunter, Batman, Wonder Woman), who is making his Marvel debut with this one.

In Part 1, “For decades, the Man-Thing has haunted the Florida Everglades. Now a new enemy has hijacked his body on a quest to take his incendiary abilities global! We wake to fear as gargantuan monoliths menace cities worldwide, with only the AVENGERS standing between the population of Earth and a planetwide inferno. Can they save Man-Thing in time to douse the fires? And does the man inside the thing, TED SALLIS, even want to be saved? Introducing a sensational new villain, THE HARROWER!”

The horror-heavy storyline celebrates the 50-year anniversary of Man-Thing, and we had a chance to chat with Orlando about it. He told us, “Man-Thing has always cut a unique path since debuting in SAVAGE TALES, a muck-encrusted mirror for society’s darkest urges. That was true at his first appearance, and it was truer than ever under icons like Steve Gerber and RL Stine. So now, to join the character and celebrate his debut five decades ago is intimidating. But like anyone facing the Man-Thing, I can’t show fear lest I face the consequences. It is honestly amazing to be welcomed to Marvel and tell this nailbiter of a story that’s going to remind people just how unique Man-Thing is. He’ll be better positioned than ever to shock and scare readers and villains alike, but first he’ll have to survive an attack that cuts him to his core and sets the Marvel Universe ablaze.”

He continued, “These three issues are a journey that draws together the biggest names in the Marvel Universe. But who else would you call when the Nexus of All Realities in unguarded and cities across the world face fire and fear? But Man-Thing is the star of this adventure, and it’s his journey that draws us through our three issues, catching the Avengers, Spider-Man, and Krakoa in the slipstream. After a massive trauma at the hands of Harrower, it takes allies expected and unexpected to pull the Man-Thing back from the brink so he can save us from our worst fears. It’s a tale of near-death and rebirth, but what better for Marvel’s resident swamp god than to be forced to hunker down into himself before he can re-emerge bolder, bigger, and more powerful than ever, just like the swamp that first gave him new life. Man-Thing’s quest to reckon with the secret he’s long held within draws from his earliest appearances and feeds into the hyper-new, not just with his re-emergence, but the debuts of a new villain in Harrower and a new team out of Krakoa in the Dark Riders. Everything that he touches is bound to see new growth.”

Orlando also teased the new villain The Harrower, who sounds quite fearsome.

“Harrower is the body horror savant of both the plant and animal worlds,” he reveals. “She studied with some of the world’s foremost biologists and botanists, and landed finally at some of the world’s most disgruntled. You know them from their time making hell for the X-Men – those beautifully aggressive action scientists known as Hordeculture. But for as much as Hordeculture wishes to trim humanity back to a reasonable size and restore balance to Earth, Harrower doesn’t think that’s good enough. What they call the wisdom of experience, she calls cowardice and half-measures. Harrower feels we’ve had our shot, and that another species deserves a shot at a billion years of evolution and being top of the food chain. She believes hard enough that she abandons the science Hordeculture raised her on for the supernatural, something that gets her disowned by her mentors…and unleashed on the world.

“Harrower’s spellwoven scars allow her to commit horrific acts of bio-fusion or bio-fission, melding animal with animal, plant with plant, or animal with plant, in tortured ways. It’s this ability that makes her uniquely suited to hurt the Man-Thing and take his godlike powers for herself.”

Orlando is working with artist Francesco Mobili on the 3-issue storyline, who he describes as “a gift.” Orlando adds, “Along with Carmen Carnero‘s frightening fashion design for Harrower, Francesco’s work on this first issue is fearless and infused with incredible amounts of body horror blockbuster energy. This is not a small story, no quiet tale of folks conversing in a study, it’s massive, with a huge cast of characters all there to stand with the Man-Thing, and Francesco didn’t blink. He’s delivered. He’s got a home run action shot on every page, and he’s shown no signs of stopping. Paired with covers by Daniel Acuña and jaw busting variants from Chris Sproue and Nick Bradshaw, both career bucket lists for yours truly, this entire creative team has come together to toast the Man-Thing, and welcome me, as I never imagined.”

Preview Issue #1 below, including the Main Cover by Daniel Acuña, three interior pages by Francesco Mobili, and a design sheet for Harrower by Carmen Carnero!