Man-Thing #9

Marvel's swamp-born muck-monster takes center stage in this September 1974 entry, as a cover by Mike Ploog and John Romita plunges readers straight into bayou dread — the shambling, vine-entangled Man-Thing looms over a terrified blonde woman clinging to a small boat, while an even larger, more monstrous creature towers behind them both in the murky darkness. The tagline "Deathwatch!" and the sheer scale of the threat pressing in from all sides make this one hard to set back on the rack. Steve Gerber's writing and Mike Ploog's interior art bring the same atmospheric unease that made this series one of Marvel's most genuinely unsettling horror titles of the decade.