Giant-Size Man-Thing #3
Giant-Size Man-Thing #3 (February 1975) is a meaningful waypoint in Steve Gerber's ambitious, interconnected mythology for the Man-Thing — it delivers the in-continuity death of Dakimh the Enchanter, a recurring mystic figure whose spirit would nonetheless continue to haunt the series, and it advances the cosmic stakes around the Nexus of All Realities by making Katharta's mystical significance explicit. The issue also served as the retroactive renaming of a Silver Age Marvel character: the 1961 Amazing Adventures backup feature starring the mentalist hero Doctor Droom was reprinted here with his name altered to Doctor Druid, effectively establishing the modern identity of a character who would go on to join the Avengers. Taken together, the lead story and the Droom/Druid reprint make this issue a genuinely two-pronged piece of Bronze Age continuity-building inside Marvel's ever-expanding shared universe.
In "The Blood of Kings!", Stan Lee and Don Heck deliver a clever sci-fi twist on first contact, where a humble janitor devises a surprising plan to bridge the gap between Earth and Venusian defenders. With a cover by Gil Kane and John Romita, inked by Klaus Janson and John Romita, this 1975 Marvel classic blends quiet ingenuity with cosmic tension.
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The Giant-Size Man-Thing quarterly ran five issues from August 1974 through August 1975 as a companion to the concurrent solo Man-Thing title, giving Gerber expanded page counts to deepen his swamp-horror mythology. Issue #3 was written by Gerber and pencilled and inked by Alfredo Alcala, with a cover by Gil Kane and John Romita Sr. with inks by Klaus Janson; according to Marvel's own lettercol, Alcala was intended to become the regular Man-Thing artist, a plan that did not materialize beyond this issue and one more story. The issue also carried a lettercol note from Gerber himself explaining why a promised Howard the Duck backup story — a Frank Brunner-drawn piece titled 'Frog Death!' — was absent; that story eventually ran in Giant-Size Man-Thing #4. Editor Roy Thomas oversaw the issue, and the reprint material was supervised editorially under Len Wein, who conceived the new name 'Doctor Druid' to avoid confusion with Doctor Doom.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Steve Gerber, pencilled and inked by Alfredo Alcala; cover by Gil Kane and John Romita Sr. with Klaus Janson inks. Published February 1975 (on-sale November 1974), edited by Roy Thomas.
- The lead story, 'The Blood of Kings!' (30 pages across four chapters), centers on Man-Thing, Jennifer Kale, Dakimh the Enchanter, and Korrek battling the wizard Klonus and his henchman Mortak over control of the interdimensional realm of Katharta — described in-story as having mystical significance tied to the Nexus of All Realities.
- Dakimh the Enchanter dies in the lead story (of heart failure during the battle in Citrusville), though his spirit continues to appear in the Man-Thing title; Klonus and Mortak are defeated when Jennifer Kale seals them in energy cocoons and banishes them to space.
- First appearances of the villains Klonus and Mortak, both created by Steve Gerber and Alfredo Alcala.
- The issue reprints 'Krogg!' from Amazing Adventures #6 (November 1961) — the sixth and final Silver Age story starring Doctor Droom — and in doing so renames the character 'Doctor Druid' (Anthony Druid) for the first time in print. The Marvel Database notes the rename is inconsistently applied even within this very reprint, with the character called 'Dr. Druid' in one panel and 'Droom' in the very next. Marvel's own retrospective sources credit editor Len Wein with coining the name 'Doctor Druid.'
- Per the Marvel Appendix (marvunapp.com), this issue is formally catalogued as the first appearance of the character under the retconned identity 'Doctor Druid' (Anthony Druid Earth-616), predating the more widely circulated 1976 Weird Wonder Tales reprint that is often cited instead.
- The promised Howard the Duck backup story ('Frog Death!' by Gerber and Frank Brunner) did not appear; Gerber's lettercol note explains it was still on Brunner's drawing board at press time. The story ran the following issue, Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 (May 1975), where it served as Howard the Duck's first solo story.
- The issue also contains three additional reprint stories: 'Save Me from the Weed!' (Strange Tales #94, pencils Jack Kirby/inks Dick Ayers), 'Humans, Keep Out!' (Journey into Mystery #86, script Stan Lee/art Don Heck), and 'Blackmail!' (Mystery Tales #11, art Manny Stallman). It includes a Swordsman Marvel Value Stamp (Series A, #79).
Cast · 9 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Humans are distressed to discover that the Venusians believe them to be hostile and have built robots to destroy any expedition that lands. A humble janitor thinks of building identical robots, reasoning that the Venusian's robots will not attack things like themselves, allowing peaceful contact to be made.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).