Fear #17
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAdventure into Fear #17 delivers the first appearance and full origin of Wundarr — a deliberately provocative Superman pastiche set loose in the Florida Everglades swamp — making it one of the most creatively audacious single issues of Marvel's Bronze Age. Steve Gerber used the character to explore what a Superman-style alien might look like without the nurturing Kent family upbringing: a being of superhuman power and the emotional development of an infant, which is a darker, more unsettling concept than anything DC was publishing with its own flagship hero at the time. The issue ignited a genuine inter-company legal dispute that nearly cost Gerber his job, and the creative fallout — DC's demand that Wundarr be significantly redesigned — became a documented chapter in the competitive history of Marvel and DC. Within the larger arc of Gerber's Man-Thing run, the issue demonstrates the writer's willingness to blend horror, satire, and pathos in ways that expanded what a swamp-monster comic could be asked to do.
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The story, titled 'It Came Out of the Sky!', was written by Steve Gerber and drawn by penciler Val Mayerik and inker Sal Trapani, with a cover painted by Frank Brunner and colored by Glynis Wein, under editor Roy Thomas. Gerber later stated that his motivation was purely affectionate — a parody-homage born of his own love of Superman — but Thomas recognized before publication that DC would view the near-identical origin sequence as plagiarism and asked Gerber to revise his script; Gerber made minimal or no changes. DC did threaten legal action after the issue shipped, Stan Lee considered dismissing Gerber to appease the rival publisher, and the eventual settlement required Marvel to make subsequent Wundarr stories meaningfully different from Superman, including changing the character's red-and-blue costume to white. This episode is recounted in Reed Tucker's 2017 book Slugfest and confirmed in Gerber's own 2006 interview published in The Krypton Companion and Back Issue #31.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of Wundarr (later known as the Aquarian), from the planet Dakkam — created by writer Steve Gerber and penciler Val Mayerik.
- Story title: 'It Came Out of the Sky!' Full credits: script by Steve Gerber, pencils by Val Mayerik, inks by Sal Trapani, colors by George Roussos, letters by Jean Izzo, cover art by Frank Brunner (pencils/inks) with colors by Glynis Wein, edited by Roy Thomas.
- Cover date: October 1973; the series' indicia title was simply Fear, though cover-branded as Adventure into Fear.
- Wundarr was conceived by Gerber as a conscious Superman parody/homage: his parents Hektu and Soja rocket him from doomed planet Dakkam, his ship crashes in a Florida swamp in 1951, and he grows to physical adulthood inside the pod while retaining the mind of a child — only freed when Man-Thing breaks open the craft 22 years later.
- DC Comics disputed the character's resemblance to Superman; the inter-company dispute nearly resulted in Gerber's termination, and DC ultimately required Marvel to distinguish Wundarr further — including a costume color change from red-and-blue to white.
- A key narrative twist seeded here — that Dakkam's sun never actually went nova, meaning Hektu's alarm was unfounded and Wundarr's exile was pointless — is revealed in Wundarr's next appearance, Marvel Two-In-One #2 (March 1974).
- Jennifer Kale, Andrew Kale, and Joshua Kale appear as supporting characters; Jennifer Kale's first appearance was the earlier Fear #11 (December 1972), not this issue.
- The story has been reprinted in Essential Man-Thing Vol. 1 (2006, black and white), the Man-Thing Omnibus (2012), Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (2015), and the Adventure into Fear Omnibus (2020).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Eclipso #50 (1975), Strange Spécial Origines #202 (1986), Essential Man-Thing #1 (2006), Man-Thing Omnibus #[nn] (2012), Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection #1 (2015), Adventure into Fear Omnibus #[nn] (2020), Marvel Masterworks: Man-Thing #1 (2024)
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