Dr. Theodore “Ted” Sallis was a young biochemist working in the Florida Everglades on a project hoping to recreate Captain America’s Super-Soldier Serum. When thugs tried to ambush him and steal the serum, Ted escaped with the last remaining sample. After injecting himself with it, he crashed his car into the swamp. There, the scientific serum and magical forces of the swamp combined, and he arose as the Man-Thing! With a burning touch and horrific strength he attacked his tormentors and fled into the swamp, no longer remembering the man he was before.

As Man-Thing, he has dim memories of his former life and a variety of supernatural abilities he uses as a reactionary creature of plant life. Ted’s massive body is made up of a collection of swamp vegetation in a humanoid shape, with long claws and a face of dangling tendrils. Many who get close comment on his strong odor of rotting plants, and observe that any damage to its body is quickly regenerated by new growth. With little rational thought, the Man-Thing often reacts to the emotional “broadcasts” of sentient beings, acting calm when reacting to wild animals and peaceful thoughts but becoming aggressive and confrontational in reaction to negative thoughts and fears. While the Man-Thing may seem to build relationships to those it interacts with frequently, it’s still unknown if those are actual friendships or more akin to a symbiotic relationship found in the natural world. Regardless, many brave adventurers have made use of Man-Thing’s connection to the mystical nexus of all realities and other supernatural powers.

When attacking, Man-Thing uses seemingly physical attacks consisting of his arms and tentacles grown from his body, but all might not be what it seems. His basic Lashing Tendrils attack serves to generate power like many characters’ first attack, but with luck, he will also draw his enemies toward him with a pull. Under Elsa Bloodstone as his leader, this pull can enable additional damage to nearby enemies. Man-Thing has a preternatural sense of emotions from those around him and when becomes enraged by fear and upset by other negative emotions. When he does detect fear from his victims, he automatically secretes a powerful corrosive that can scar or melt through many materials. In Marvel: Crisis Protocol, this represents itself in one way as his Emotional Agitation, a powerful 7-dice mystic attack which deals Poison and Incinerate. A truly devastating blow to anyone weak to mystical attacks, this attack serves as a potent way for Man-Thing to face off against hard-to-hurt enemies and enable allies to attack an easier target.

Another way that Man-Thing’s corrosive reaction to fear is represented is through All Who Know Fear Burn at the Man-Thing’s Touch. While it is a callback to his classic horror tagline, in game terms this ability allows him to hand out Incinerate whenever he is attacked or attacks another character and they’re within range 2. Since Incinerate is such a useful status effect to get through high defense, many players will use him to cut through big tough enemies and gain the advantage, but it also punishes any enemies that dare to attack him. Paired with his own pull ability or Blade’s leadership ability, Man-Thing can position himself to discourage attackers by getting closer.

The swamp that the man Ted Sallis fell into was not just a normal swamp, but in fact connected to the Nexus of All Realities, a passageway that enables sentient beings to travel to any of the possible alternate realities it is attached to, and as the Man-Thing, he acts as the guardian of the nexus, warding it against the evil emotions that cause him to drive away intruders. Guardian of the Nexus of All Realities is a superpower that allows Man-Thing to Place either himself or a friendly character range 3, opening the doors to many strategies. Man-Thing could Place himself to allow him to give Incinerate to more targets or move a friendly brawler up to get closer and get a large attack off. With Blade as his leader, opponents will struggle to see where any character might be next activation with 2 possible moves from Blade and the Man-Thing. In a pinch, you could even move a weaker target away and hope that the tanky Man-Thing can survive a large retaliatory attack. Opponents will find him difficult to Daze or KO. He’s made of Moss and Mud and Swamp, after all, so he stops the opponent’s attack dice from gaining extra dice on Critical results. That and Healing Factor [2], and Immunity to Hex and Stun will really cause opponents to struggle against this extremely tough 3 threat.

If Guardian of the Nexus of All Realities wasn’t enough, Man-Thing also has access to the unique Dimensional Quagmire Team Tactic Card. This card needs him to be sunk in with enemy characters at the Power Phase, but when used it gives you the chance to completely lock down enemy characters from moving away from him, and if they try he can (50% of the time) teleport them within range 3 of Man-Thing, potentially even yo-yoing them further towards where you choose them to be. That could be especially useful with access to Siege of Darkness in Midnight Sons. Many opponents won’t even try to advance away, and will instead try to attack the monster of Moss and Mud and Swamp.

With the ability to apply multiple special conditions and survive more attacks than your opponents expect, Man-Thing offers a lot to any Marvel: Crisis Protocol player looking for a 3-threat to tank damage and make fearful enemies burn.

That’s all we have for Man-Thing. Check back later for yet another installment of From Panel to Play, the series where we give you your first look at how your favorite characters transition to the tabletop in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Pre-order your copy of Man-Thing today!

Until next time, Atomic Mass Transmissions signing off!