1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,399 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:13,240 Speaker 2: Hi, my Name is Robert Lammin. This is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:15,760 Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 2: focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:26,759 Speaker 2: Let us return to the pages of Marvel Comics to 6 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:31,240 Speaker 2: consider a true monster. Man Thing. It's not to be 7 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,280 Speaker 2: confused with DC's swamp Thing, but he stands as something 8 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:40,199 Speaker 2: of his spiritual twin sibling, So both man Thing and 9 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 2: swamp Thing are hybrid swamp based humanoids created through an 10 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:50,120 Speaker 2: explosive collision of humanity, mad science and swamp water. Both 11 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,479 Speaker 2: characters hit the comics for the first time in nineteen 12 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 2: seventy one. However, most commentators seem to see it merely 13 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:01,720 Speaker 2: as coincidence and point to very differences in the characters. 14 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:07,199 Speaker 2: Plus Marvel's walking swamp creature the Heap, predates both of them, 15 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 2: dating back to the early nineteen forties, as does the 16 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 2: muck Monster It from Street and Smith Comics. Still, these 17 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:19,080 Speaker 2: various swamp beings become linked. They have a kinship, and 18 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:21,960 Speaker 2: you'll even find a panel in Alan Moore's swamp Thing 19 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:27,040 Speaker 2: run visually suggesting kinship between swamp Thing, man Thing, the Heap, 20 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 2: and others. But I've already talked about swamp Thing on 21 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 2: the Monster fact, so let's get serious about man Thing. 22 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 2: As pointed out by Kelly Knox in the book Monsters 23 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 2: Creatures of the Marvel Universe, man Thing started off with 24 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 2: a human scientist named Ted Sallus. Now, like a lot 25 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 2: of Marvel comic books, scientists, Ted worked on super soldier serums, 26 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 2: at least until enemies tried to take it from him. 27 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:57,200 Speaker 2: Ted then injected himself with the serum and accidentally wrecked 28 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 2: his car in the Everglades and was also exposed to 29 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 2: extra dimensional forces in the process. So what emerged from 30 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 2: the swamp was neither man nor Thing, but man Thing, 31 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 2: a humanoid swamp creature that would become the guardian of 32 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 2: the Nexus of Reality, where science and magic converge. Man 33 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:19,920 Speaker 2: Thing boasts incredible strength and can throw down with the 34 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 2: toughest of physical opponents, but some of his most impressive 35 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,240 Speaker 2: powers are due to his empathy. Man Thing is so 36 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 2: empathic that negative emotions in others can cause him physical 37 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 2: pain and distress, especially when he senses fear. This will 38 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 2: also cause him to lash out violently at individuals in 39 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,799 Speaker 2: the throes of fear and lay his burning hands upon them. 40 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 2: Man Thing's burning hands are fascinating superpower, brought to life 41 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:51,960 Speaker 2: most wonderfully in the twenty twenty two MCU Werewolf by 42 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 2: Night special, which captures it as a kind of holy 43 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:59,840 Speaker 2: fire that incinerates Ted's victims. On one level, this seems 44 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 2: to be just another version of various magical tales in 45 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 2: which creatures feed off of fear or sense fear in others, 46 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:11,079 Speaker 2: as if it is an actual energy or a quantifiable substance. 47 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 2: Man Thing's abilities, however, are frequently explained in terms of chemistry. 48 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 2: NOx attributes his burning touch to chemicals in man Thing's 49 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 2: body and sumeric and wallace in marvel anatomy. The authors 50 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 2: here presume that this chemical secretion is something akin to 51 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 2: sulphuric acid, that it's excreted through man Thing's pores. I 52 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,080 Speaker 2: suppose we might compare this ability to the self defensive 53 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 2: secretions of various natural world organisms, and given man things 54 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 2: plant based physiology, we have to acknowledge that certain plants 55 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:48,240 Speaker 2: do secrete acidic substances through their roots, in some cases 56 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,240 Speaker 2: to dissolve rocky soil, and in other cases to eradicate competition. 57 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 2: But what about this notion that a monster like man, thing, 58 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 2: or even a natural world organism can quote sense fear. 59 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 2: It's a common trope, but is there anything to it. 60 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:07,240 Speaker 2: Certainly there is no true sixth sense for fear in 61 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 2: which humans or other animals can tap into an otherwise 62 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:16,279 Speaker 2: invisible video game fear meter. Fear, like other human defined 63 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:20,560 Speaker 2: emotional states, is hard to quantify in animals and subject 64 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:24,560 Speaker 2: to human testing bias, as Ralph Adolf's discussed in the 65 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 2: twenty thirteen Current Biology article The Biology of Fear. Some 66 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 2: argue that fear is a mere psychological construct and something 67 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,719 Speaker 2: we can't apply to animals as we cannot truly know 68 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:41,480 Speaker 2: their minds. On the other hand, neuroimaging in rodents would 69 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:44,680 Speaker 2: seem to reveal a clear fear network in their brains. 70 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,440 Speaker 2: Ad also stressed a distinction to be made between the 71 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:53,360 Speaker 2: conscious human feeling of being afraid and fear as a 72 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 2: functional state of an organism. This state exists in relation 73 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 2: to fear inducing stimuli, which for humans at least can 74 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,520 Speaker 2: be in the present past or in imagined future, and 75 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 2: induces fearful behavior. Fear in both cognition and behavior is 76 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 2: largely adaptive, and it is because fear can help us survive, 77 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:19,159 Speaker 2: though of course, all of this can become maladaptive as well. Now, 78 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 2: man things relation to fear is interesting in light of 79 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,600 Speaker 2: all of this. He acutely fears the effects of another 80 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:29,599 Speaker 2: organism's fear, but the source of his own emotional distress 81 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:32,400 Speaker 2: in this scenario is not the fear inducing stimuli that 82 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:37,200 Speaker 2: caused the original distress, but the distressed organism itself, which 83 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:40,280 Speaker 2: he may then incinerate with his burning hands due to 84 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:45,120 Speaker 2: a fear response chemical secretion in his own body. So 85 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:48,160 Speaker 2: there's a lot to unpact there. But hey, still a 86 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:51,800 Speaker 2: pretty great swamp monster and I'm always down for a 87 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:55,560 Speaker 2: cool swamp monster. Tune in for additional episodes of The 88 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 2: Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us 89 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:09,080 Speaker 2: at contact at stuff Toble your Mind dot com. 90 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. 91 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 92 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:17,920 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.