Do you think you have seen the weirdest and grossest superhero team-up? The latest Captain America and Spider-Man team-up will force you to reconsider, stick around to find out how.
Being comic book nerds, we witness all sorts of amazing and unimaginable stuff, including superhero team- ups and crossovers. As amazing as out heroes may be, there are some foes that they cannot beat on their own and that’s where team- ups come in. Every comic universe witnesses a superhero team-up every now and then but the grossest one is yet to come. The Amazing Spider- Man: Curse of the Man Thing #1 reunites the dynamic duo of Captain America and Spider- Man with a twist, adding one peculiar member in their team.
This new member of the team is one of the old acquaintances and nemesis of Spider-Man, Dr. Curt Conners a.ka. the Lizard. The duo turned trio team up in order to help another fellow hero that operates in the shadows who is currently in peril and as the name reveals, this dark hero is none other than cute little (a little ironically) “Man-Thing”. The morality and the very life of Man Thing’s human counterpart are in danger and it’s up to the peculiar team to save him.
The Man Thing And The Lizard’s Backstory
Dr. Theodore “Ted” Sallis was a biochemistry professor who was hired by the U.S. Army to develop a serum that would help the soldiers survive bio-chemical warfare. After the experiment turned out a failure, he used that serum as a basis to develop a super-soldier serum similar to that of Captain America. Unfortunately, a chain of events led him to inject himself with his prototype serum and then crashing into a swamp.
The accident should have been fatal, killing him off but the magical powers of the swamp combined with his serum turning him into the living “Man-Thing”. Similarly, Dr. Curt Conners was a scientist who befell victim to his own research. After trying to replicate a lizard’s regenerative abilities for humans and bring back his lost limb, Dr. Conners ended up turning into a man-sized lizard-like being who turned out quite sinister. Note that Ted and Curt were old associates and together came up with the idea of Captain America 2.0 super-soldier serum.
Man Thing’s Curse
To celebrate 50 years of Man Thing’s debut, Marvel started the “Avengers: Curse of the Man-Thing” which is a three-issue mini-series that features a lot of superheroes and a brand new villain threatening the life of Ted Sallis. This new villain goes by the name “Harrower” and is basically Marvel’s version of DC’s poison ivy. She plans to eradicate all life on Earth using Man Thing’s fire abilities and hence has possessed his body. Ted is still alive, trapped inside Man the body of Man-Thing, and is fighting for control. Meanwhile, Man-Thing is engaged in combat against the Harrower while he is aided by two heroes and an old friend.
Captain America and Spider-Man are assisting Man-Thing in his fight while he seeks help from the Lizard, his old friend. The Harrower’s army consists of beings engulfed in the swampy vines that are being mind-controlled by her. While their bodies are under controlled, the minds of the victims are transferred to Ted’s mind place. Curt Conners too gets caught in hopes of examining and helping Ted with his current condition. When his body is under attack, Conners transforms and snaps out of the vines and beats them to the pulp. Marvel comics have had their fill of gross stuff but vine engulfed mummies and the swampiness is still gross on another level. If the heroes succeed in saving Ted’s life, the next thing that they all might need are urgent spa appointments and showers
