File:Man-Thing Vol 1 2 001.jpg

Description
Richard Rory, down and out loser, was minding his own business while camping in the Florida swamps when he accidentally spills coffee on an alligator. The gater, naturally attacks him, which prompts the Man-Thing (which had been silently watching Rory) to rescue the man from his reptilian attacker. When the Man-Thing finishes killing the gator, Richard tries to get the Man-Thing to administer first aid to his injuries but he blacks out due to blood loss. When he comes out of it, he finds that the Man-Thing is gone, but has been replaced by a woman named Ruth Hart. Ruth has patched Richard up, and when Richard asks her about the muck-monster, she tells him that she saw him there alone. She tells Richard that she needed to find somebody to stop people from killing her and has elected Richard for that job. Meanwhile, at the office of F.A. Schist, Schist is having a board meeting where he and his executives try to figure out a way they can destroyed the Man-Thing. Hargood Wickham, an M.I.T. graduate offers to deal with the Man-Thing, and is hired by Schist to do the job. While back at the swamp, Ruth and Richard get to know each other Richard explains to her his hard luck in life. Silently watched by the Man-Thing, the muck-monster eventually leaves the two to some privacy and wanders the swamp. In it's travels it runs into the Skull-Crushers, the biker gang which Ruth used to be a part of. When they see the creature, they attack it nothing works. When their leader Snake tries to attack the creature with a chain, the Man-Thing grabs him and his momentary fear causes him to be burned by the muck monster. When the Man-Thing finally departs, Snake vows to get the creature and orders his gang back on their bikes and find Ruth, and the money she took. While at the F.A. Schist construction site, Schist is shown Hargood's invention: The Slaughter Room, which will lure the Man-Thing in with sounds and then kill the muck-monster. While back with Ruth and Richard, Ruth tells Richard that she's on the run from the gang because she's blamed for stealing the gangs treasury, but she confesses it was really her former lover Snake. When the gang finally finds her, Ruth flees into the swamp and Snake attacks Richard. However, when Richard questions Snake about the truth regarding the gangs money, Snake denies it and runs into the swamp after Ruth. Meanwhile, the Man-Thing finds itself drawn to the Slaughter Room, pained by the sonic vibrations emanating from inside it. Inside, the muck-monster is attacked by flame devices designed to incinerate the Man-Thing. However, the creature manages to destroy the device by throwing chains at it's controls. At that moment, Ruth has fled onto the construction site, followed shortly by Snake and Richard. Both end up at blows, but when the Man-Thing indifferently throws away the chains it used to free itself, the strike Snake, the blow to the head killing him. Sickened by the sight of the dead man Schist and Hargood flee the scene and a grateful Richard believes he'd beaten the odds and that finally his luck will start changing.