The Book of Man-Thing

[Arkham]

The Book of Man-Thing

C3G MARVEL WAVE 30
TOIL AND TROUBLE

Comic PDF



Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Amazing Spider-Man set.
Its model number and name are #033 / Man-Thing.

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Character Bio - Ted Sallis was attempting to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum that created Captain America. However, he was betrayed by his lover, Ellen Brandt, and Sallis had to flee from A.I.M. agents, who saw their potential of such a formula for their own evil ends. He injected himself with the serum, but after crashing in a swamp and apparently drowning is transformed into a swamp creature through a combination of his formula and, as later explained, magical forces extant in the area. Sallis' mind was apparently lost, although on rare occasions he could briefly return to consciousness within his monstrous form, and even to his human form such as when he fought Ben Grimm, who took the appropriation of his own nickname a little too personally.

For the most part, Man-Thing had been left alone, although there have always been unwary passersby who have stumbled across him, usually to their own destruction, assuming of course they aren't sucked into the Nexus of All Realities - or even deposited in the swamp by the nexus, as Howard the Duck was.

For a solitary creature, Man-Thing has been quite the team player; he's served time on The Defenders, The Legion of Monsters, The Thunderbolts and The Daydreamers, where he helped Franklin Richards and Howard the Duck escape Black Tom Cassidy after the events of Onslaught. He is surprisingly good friends with Howard the Duck, Beverly Switzler and Jennifer Kale.
-Comic Vine
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• Base Clarification: Man-Thing is a single-spaced figure.

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Mutate, Man-Thing has these Mutate Synergies.
• As a Creature, Man-Thing has these Creature Synergies.
• As a Mutate Creature, Man-Thing has these Mutate Creature Synergies.
• As a figure with a special power benefitting from water tiles, Man-Thing can benefit from water tiles being placed by one of these figures.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Man-Thing interacts differently with certain special powers.
• Man-Thing's "Those Who Know Fear" special power does not affect Fearless figures.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial Playtest
• Initial Playtest (after tweak)
• Ronin
• Soundwarp SG-1 (after VM change)
• Arkham (after Emotional Provocation and Acidic Reaction change)
• Scapemage
• Ronin
• Soundwarp SG-1
• Art: Comic, Figure, Background
• Art by Arkham
• Man-Thing was created by writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow.

[Arkham]

NAME = MAN-THING
SECRET IDENTITY = TED SALLIS

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CREATURE
PERSONALITY = WITHDRAWN

SIZE/HEIGHT = LARGE 6

LIFE = 7

MOVE = 4
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 280

EMOTIONAL PROVOCATION 5
When Man-Thing attacks an adjacent figure with a normal attack, roll 1 additional attack die for each Wound Marker on the Army Cards of figures within 3 spaces of Man-Thing, up to a maximum of 5 extra attack dice for Emotional Provocation.

"THOSE WHO KNOW FEAR..."
After Man-Thing inflicts a wound on an adjacent figure with a normal attack, or receives a wound from an adjacent figure's normal attack, you must immediately roll one unblockable attack die against that figure. Fearless figures are not affected by "Those Who Know Fear..."

VEGETATIVE MUCK
When Man-Thing defends against an attack, the most wounds he can take from this attack is two. At the end of the round, if Man-Thing is adjacent to an Evergreen Tree or a Jungle Piece, or on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space, remove a Wound Marker from this card.

SUPER STRENGTH

Previous version:

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = MAN-THING
SECRET IDENTITY = TED SALLIS

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CREATURE
PERSONALITY = WITHDRAWN

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 6

LIFE = 7

MOVE = 4
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = ~280

EMOTIONAL PROVOCATION
Start the game with one green Stimulus Marker. When an opponent's Unique Hero that is not Fearless ends its turn within 5 spaces of Man-Thing, if that Hero attacked during its turn, you must place your Stimulus Marker on its card. The figure with your Stimulus Marker on its card is considered Man-Thing's Provoker. When Man-Thing attacks his Provoker with a normal attack, roll 3 additional attack dice. If Man-Thing inflicts at least one wound on his Provoker with his normal attack, the Provoker receives one additional wound.

ACIDIC REACTION
After Man-Thing's Provoker takes a turn, you must move Man-Thing as close to his Provoker as possible, moving up to a maximum of 4 spaces. When Man-Thing moves with this special power, if a figure rolls for a leaving engagement attack against him and does not roll a skull, the figure receives 1 wound.

VEGETATIVE MUCK
When Man-Thing defends against an attack, the most wounds he can take from this attack is two. At the end of the round, if Man-Thing is adjacent to an Evergreen Tree or a Jungle Piece, or on a grass, swamp, or swamp water space, remove a Wound Marker from this card.

SUPERSTRENGTH

[Arkham]

Comic:

Spoiler Alert!

Background:

Spoiler Alert!

[Yodaking]

Pretty excited about seeing him finally get a card. I have the mini if you need pics, just let me know. I think testing will give us a better idea of just how hard he will be to kill off.

[Arkham]

I plan to get the mini as soon as the newest Batman Animated ones get released and become available for individual sale. I’ll take pics if you can get them otherwise I should have pics in the next month.

As for the difficulty to kill. I feel people are making him out to be much harder to take out than he will end up being, especially now that his healing is once per round after a turn, on specific terrain, requiring the X. That’s a few hoops. The double shields is nice but by no means a guarantee, botches happen and heavy hitters will bypass. Autowounds will still take him out. The forced leaving engagements will also take their toll. So I feel he’ll need a buff but hopefully I’m wrong.

[Yodaking]

Yeah, hard to account for the regular LEA's impact until we see it in testing.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Arkham

I plan to get the mini as soon as the newest Batman Animated ones get released and become available for individual sale. I’ll take pics if you can get them otherwise I should have pics in the next month.

As for the difficulty to kill. I feel people are making him out to be much harder to take out than he will end up being, especially now that his healing is once per round after a turn, on specific terrain, requiring the X. That’s a few hoops. The double shields is nice but by no means a guarantee, botches happen and heavy hitters will bypass. Autowounds will still take him out. The forced leaving engagements will also take their toll. So I feel he’ll need a buff but hopefully I’m wrong.

That was always one of the best ways to kill the original Superman, though with this guy it comes with a risk attached. Business Suit Lex and some common Criminals should make a good counter-draft, though, as would a Civvie swarm - basically anyone where the results of the LEA carry minimal risk to the opponent.

[johnny139]

I don't quite get the thematic link between him being made of Muck and getting those retaliatory LEAs. I get the extra defense, but I don't see how they tie together.

I kind of like the idea of letting him move even if he can't end adjacent to the enemy for the Emotional Provocation. Lurching forward and not quite getting there is very "horror monster," which works for him.

[Arkham]

I agree on the advancing regardless.

As for the Muck theme, I was drawing from:

These unique forces render the Man-Thing extremely sensitive to emotions. Emotions that are mild and generally considered positive arouse curiosity and the Man-Thing will sometimes observe from a distance. However, emotions that are often viewed as negative, such as violent emotions like rage, anger, hatred, and fear, cause the Man-Thing great discomfort and might provoke him to attack. Once provoked into violent actions, his body secretes highly concentrated acid that can burn human beings to ashes within a matter of seconds. Even individuals that have high levels of superhuman durability have proven unable to withstand this potent acid.

The idea being that those who risk touching him get potentially burned by the acid. Mechanically it's to give him a sort of warding off system to prevent from just being bombarded with endless LEAs the whole game, as they can in-turn cause big damage to those attempting them.

Perhaps a better means to execute both of these ideas being discussed is to include the LEA unblockable into Emotional Provocation since that's where it's needed and fits thematically anyways:

EMOTIONAL PROVOCATION
After Man-Thing or any figure within 5 spaces of Man-Thing rolls defense dice, you must move Man-Thing as close to the attacking figure as possible. If you end this move adjacent to the attacking figure, you may roll an unblockable attack die against the attacking figure. Man-Thing will take any leaving engagement attacks when moving with Emotional Provocation. When a figure rolls a leaving engagement attack against Man-Thing, you may roll an unblockable attack die against that figure.

We would then need to modify his defensive ability however, as it matches Blob's power. Perhaps a simple additional benefit is in order, or a different approach beyond the double shields?

[Ronin]

Quick note: if I get around to Thunderbolts Luke Cage (he's in my old Sidekick thread), he may want the X, and Man-Thing was a pretty big part of Cage's T-Bolts.

I like the general approach, and will try to weigh in more thoughtfully later, when I'm not playing catch up.

[Lazy Orang]

One of my thoughts for testing him is pairing him with someone who can draw attacks to them, like Robin (Dick Grayson) - if they can keep getting hit, then Man-Thing's free to wail away on their attacker with Emotional Provocation with impunity. Something like a Star-Lord, Man-Thing, Robin (Dick), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) build could be fun.

[quozl]

Like I inferred earlier, Vegetative Muck needs to be split into two powers.