Excerpt from the Notebooks of Dakimh the Sorcerer

Regarding the Man-Thing: where do I begin? How do I discuss this gentlest of beings, this raging elemental force? He is both of those; a construct of science and sorcery. A creation of a subtler fate than even I may conceive of. How can any being, especially one dedicated to the development of pure mind and pure spirit such as myself, understand the place in the workings of the multiverse of this monstrosity representing pure non-mind and nonspirit, composed not of animal, nor vegetable, nor mineral material (though he is certainly more vegetable, if anyone element can be thought to predominate) known as The Man-Thing? - Shall I speak of Ted Sallis, the man who "died" to become the Man-Thing? Inside that shambling form, Ted Sallis must certainly exist in one manner or another, for attempts have been made in the past to return the Man-Thing to his former, human condition, and, they have many times very nearly succeeded. Speaking for myself, I am uncertain that this would be a good I thing. Sallis; during his life, was a man much like the rest of us, neither a very bad man nor a very good one.

There is no doubt that as a scientist he was brilliant, but he did not seem to be a great man of conscience; the project on which he was working when the accident that turned him into the Man-Thing occurred sought to offend nature - his perfected serum would have changed Men into an army of living war-machines. Returning Sallis to his former state would indeed avail the human race of his scientific mind, but I feel this example shows that his interests were heavily misplaced, for a truly wise man would have attempted to halt war rather than develop methods of furthering it. It must be said that Sallis's intellect cannot have meant much in the universal view, of things. For it was washed away by his transformation Into the Man- Thing. Whose mental functions - If he can be said to have any at all exist soley on the level of empathic response to the creatures around him.

My first encounter with the Man-Thing coincided with the attempt of the Nether Spawn, Thog, to gain control of all realities. Thong, in fact, had led me to the swamp monster, whom he had fought before and I, witnessing the battles of the Man-Thing with my centuries-old foe, even then began planning the league of champions that would overturn Thog's plot. That league composed of Jennifer Kale, one of the Man-Thing's few earthly friends and later my disciple in the mystic arts. Korrek of Katharta, the brash young warrior-prince whom the fates have selected for Godhead. The duck called Howard, whose death I thought I had caused with my negligence but who has since gone on to a destiny stranger than any I could have selected for him, the Man-Thing, and myself-dissolved almost before it began, and has since come into existence only once.

At the end, however, it was the Man-Thing alone who destroyed Thog, and with the Nether Spawn obliterated. My need to enter the Earth dimension is greatly diminished. As are my contacts with the Man-Thing. Yet I still wish to understand, the purpose of that creature. I think now that this purpose deeply involves the mysterious swamp in which the monster resides. It covers a huge tract of land in that most innocuous of locations, Florida, as the Earth dwellers call it. Few persons are aware that the swamp is the nexus of all realities that is a place through which one can gain easy passage to any reality - and, as such, it is a mire of Sorcerous energy as well of water and muck and overgrowth. The energies of the swamp had as much effect on the generation of the Man-Thing in his present form as did Ted Sallis's self-injected serum. (This is another reason why I suspect attempts to return Sallis to his human self would be doomed to failure: one must be ready to counteract the sorcery as well as the science.) The nature of the swamp is such that virtually anything may happen there. The swamp has already witnessed much that would be unthinkable were it to occur anywhere else on Earth: the invasion of Thog's legions, ghosts able to act out their past lives, the existence of a fountain of eternal youth and a civilization rising a round it manifested emotions able to control physical objects, factions sprung mysteriously to life. The Swamp has been the spawning ground of strange tufts: the slime worshippers led by the-degenerate rock star "Star" Spanglet. The misguided Demons of Liberation and the Cult of Entropy who were able to employ the energies of the swamp to the point that they could create a11 entire belong. Jude the Entropic Man, whose remains contain the power to revert the Man-Thing to his human state. Yet I also suspect that the Man-Thing, being made from that swamp, must also share its sorcerous properties... else how could he draw to himself such unusual situations as being taken from the swamp to encounter time-cursed pirates living In a lost ship at the edge of space? How could he be transported across a nation to team with a legion of other monsters and yet never leave the swamp? He appears to need contact with the swamp in order to survive for any period of time; when on other realities he is in constant contact through the nexus. (I have given this much thought, and I propose a theory unprovable, to my knowledge, explaining the Man-thing's existence and purpose. I suggest that the Man-thing was created by the swamp... that the swamp itself is in some mysterious way alive.

This would explain why the Man-Thing exists without mind, and why it is fixed by circumstances to the locale of the swamp. For the swamp, the nexus, of realities, is undergoing much scrutiny from the, realms - and, it requires a defender should the nexus fall. Under the control of any single being, he could command reality on all the planet - providing he first held sufficient knowledge the Man-Thing. Mindless blindly reacting to emotions, would be drawn to any who enter the swamp by their lust for power... and their fear, often subconscious, that must accompany such desire. And being a mindless creature Man-Thing is the Swamp's perfect servant for he has no desire that would interfere with his unsuspected duties. Fate and circumstance chose Ted Sallis to become this guardian; I have no doubt that one would have been provided regardless.

For myself, I leave these speculations now. The history of the Man-Thing has already been well chronicled by my Earth acolytes Stephen Gerber, Gerry Conway, Len,Wein, Michael Riedrich. Marvin Wolfman. Tony Isabella. William Mantlo, Christopher Claremont, Steven Englehart, Ralph' Macchio. and most recently, Michael Fleischer. These tales can be found In: Savage Tales #1, Fear #10-19, Man-Thing #1-22, Giant-Size Man-Thing #1-5. Astonishing Tales #12, 13, Iron Man Annual #3. Howard the Duck #2-23. The Hulk #197, 198. Daredevil #, 113, 114. Marvel Premiere #28, Marvel Team-up #68, Marvel Two in One #1, 43, Master of Kung Fu #19, Giantsize Spider-Man #6, Micronauts #7, Rampaging Hulk Magazine #7, and Monsters Unleashed 3, 6, 8, 9, and in the new series of his own title.

Now, regarding the theory of the multiversal divergences... (At this point, the fragment ends)