Avengers: Curse of the Man-Thing #1

History

The project was conceived as a deliberate 50th-anniversary commission, with DC-pedigreed writer Steve Orlando — known for Martian Manhunter, Batman, and Wonder Woman — recruited to make his Marvel debut on the title, an editorial choice that signaled the publisher wanted fresh eyes on the character. Orlando worked with interior artist Francesco Mobili, whom he publicly praised, while Carmen Carnero separately contributed the character design for the Harrower and supplied a design-sheet variant cover, creating an unusual collaborative split between interior and design duties. The issue was released March 31, 2021 (cover-dated May 2021) and received a second printing with a new cover by Patrick Gleason, suggesting stronger-than-anticipated reader demand. The entire three-issue storyline — also encompassing Spider-Man: Curse of the Man-Thing and X-Men: Curse of the Man-Thing — was later collected in a single trade paperback edition.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of the Harrower (Harriet), a new villain described as a 'body horror savant' of both plant and animal biology, whose character design was created by artist Carmen Carnero.
• Served as Steve Orlando's Marvel Comics debut, having previously written for DC titles including Martian Manhunter, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
• Explicitly published as a celebration of Man-Thing's 50th anniversary; the character first appeared in Savage Tales #1 (May 1971), created by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Gray Morrow.
• Interior art by Francesco Mobili, colors by Guru-eFX, lettering by Clayton Cowles; main cover by Daniel Acuña with variants by Chris Sprouse, Carmen Carnero (Harrower design sheet), and a 1:10 retailer incentive variant.
• Part 1 of a three-part mini-event structured as three separate one-shots: Avengers (March 2021), Spider-Man (April 2021), and X-Men (May 2021), all written by Orlando.
• The story also connects to the Krakoa-era X-Men: the villain Harrower is depicted as having been raised and trained by Hordeculture (the eco-terrorist group introduced in Hickman's X-Men #3), and the broader arc introduces a new iteration of the Dark Riders out of Krakoa.
• Received a second printing with a cover by Patrick Gleason.
• All three issues were collected in the trade paperback Curse of the Man-Thing (ISBN 9781302928896), with additional art contributions from Marco Failla and Andrea Broccardo for the subsequent chapters.

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Variants (5)