Who is Man-Thing? Exploring origin amidst appearance in Werewolf by Night trailer

Man-Thing/Theodore Sallis was featured as quite the surprise in the first look of Werewolf by Night, which was revealed at the D23 expo. In a blink-and-you-will-miss-it scene, the moss-covered monster shows up as the trailer features some mystical looks inspired by the horror films of the 30s and 40s.

With Man-Thing being featured in Werewolf by Night, it looks like the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be delving into the more nightmarish concepts of its comics.

The character also fits perfectly within the world of Werewolf by Night, and fans are sure to be ecstatic with his live-action appearance.

On that note, let’s take a look at the origins of Man-Thing and see what powers he possesses.

Created by Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Graw Morrow, Man-Thing first appeared in the comic Savage Tales #1 in May 1971. Releasing at the same time as DC's Swamp Thing, both characters surprisingly share many similarities.

According to Fandom, Theodore Sallis was a professor at the Empire State University and was responsible for the creation of the SO-2 Serum. The serum in question, helped the users remain immune to all known toxic chemicals, but the side effects would unfortunately turn them into monsters.

Sallis would then go on to aid Curt Connors when he would lose his arm as well. This would lead to him helping Curt regenerate his arm, and Connors would eventually become The Lizard.

Sallis would then fall in love with one of his students, Ellen Brandt, and the two would then soon start a secret affair. Spending their honeymoon, they would meet a fortune teller as well who would warn them about a major change in their lives.

When Sallis would talk about shifting his work place close to Connors, Ellen would get bitter as she would feel ignored by him. Trying to perfect the SO-2 formula then, he would try to create a new Super Soldier serum.

Ellen would then go with this information to A.I.M., who wanted the formula as well. After the completion of the project, Sallis would burn the records and memorize the formula by heart.

Unfortunately, Ellen would lead him into A.I.M.'s trap who wanted the formula as well. However, while escaping, he would use the only sample of the formula he had on himself and crash in a swamp.

The magical powers of the swamp would keep him alive as Theodore Sallis would slowly turn into Man-Thing and so his story would start. Slowly losing his intelligence, he would start losing his humanity and would slowly begin turning into a monster.

Man-Thing would have a plant-like physiology that would help him manipulate plants and more. He can fly as well and has quite the interesting power which consists of reality displacement as the swamp's magic allows him to travel to different dimensions and more since he is connected to the Nexus of Realities.

You can check out Man-Thing in the MCU when Werewolf by Night releases on October 7.