Warning: major spoilers ahead for The Amazing Spider-Man: Curse of the Man-Thing #1!
Captain America and Spider-Man get their grossest team-up ever in a new comic from Marvel. The Amazing Spider-Man: Curse of the Man-Thing #1 is pairing up Captain America, Spider-Man, and Curt Connors for one of the strangest - and grossest - team-ups they have ever been in. Ted Sallis is in danger and it is up to Marvel's best heroes, and unlikely additional recruits, to save him.
Doctor Ted Sallis is Marvel's Man-Thing. To celebrate the character's 50th anniversary, Marvel has begun releasing Avengers: Curse of the Man-Thing, a new three-issue mini-series including Spider-Man and the X-Men. The entire story revolves around Man-Thing being possessed by the Harrower, who wants to set the world on fire, literally. She plans to use Man-Things fire abilities to reach her goal of eliminating humanity and so far, there isn't much that Ted Sallis has been able to do about it.
The Amazing Spider-Man: Curse of the Man-Thing #1 is created by Steve Orlando, Marco Failla, and Clayton Cowles. In this issue, Spider-Man teams up with Captain America to investigate what is happening with the Man-Thing. With the help of one of Spider-Man's villains, Ted Sallis may just be able to free himself and take control of his body back. Curt Connors, also known as the Lizard, has become the cavalry, having been requested by Ted himself. However, this team-up is about to get even stranger.
Man-Thing's body is possessed by Harrower, but Ted Sallis is still trapped inside of a portion of his alter-ego. This means that there are two fights happening simultaneously: a standard fight against growths controlled by Harrower and one INSIDE what is left of Man-Thing. All that is left is a pile of swampy vines, though this pile is more than it appears to be. In order to talk to Ted Sallis, the swamp pile wraps itself around the person and engulfs them, allowing them access to Sallis' mindspace. Captain America and Spider-Man have fought beside each other before, but a situation has to be very peculiar for a villain to be someone's personal request for a lifeline.
Connors is engulfed in the swampy vines, becoming a swamp-mummy while he figures out what is wrong with Sallis. He manages to transform into the Lizard while inside, and he busts out of his husk in time to fight against a slew of enemies. The Avengers and their heroic friends have been up against some rather strange things before, but being encased inside a swamp mummy husk is definitely a new level of bizarre. This is especially true when the Lizard and Spider-Man escape from Sallis' mindscape, shredding the vines. This pile of swampiness is gross, being similar to Venom's symbiote. Encasing heroes is nothing new, but this encasing is one of the grossest that Earth's Mightiest Heroes have ever faced. Captain America and Spider-Man definitely have their plates full, and Marvel's heroes will need a few showers when the fight is over.