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M/TIO 1

Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 1:01 pm
by scottandrewhutchins
On the Man-Thing chronology, how was it determined that this issue comes between AIF 17 and 18, several months before it was published?

The issue doesn't have close ties to other stories, except for IM@3, which takes place much later. I would propose that it come after M-T 1 based on these clues of external evidence:

*The issue was published the same month as M-T 1 (January 1974), which is the end of a story arc.

*Both M/TIO 1 and Man-Thing's regular series were scripted by the same person, and every story leading up to that finale had at least a few panels showing the Kale family, while this does not.

*Man-Thing is temporarily transformed back into Ted Sallis in M/TIO 1. He was changed back by unrelated means in AIF 13. As M/TIO 1 is essentially self-contained, it would seem to make more sense dramatically if this were not in the midst of that story arc. This would also make sense as the magical element to the M-T stories was largely absent until issue 5, and here the transformation is not from Thog's magic, but from the (pseudo)science of the Molecule Man.

Was there a particular rationale for deciding that this story came earlier than M-T 1?