Man-Thing

Man-Thing's History

Ted Sallis was an old Seminole tribal chieftain and shaman living in Bywater, New Orleans, and a personal acquaintance of Pete Horn, another old Seminole shaman from the same tribe. As the leader of the tribe, he was in charge of the ancient tribal lands; including the sacred area known as the Dark Waters, in a local swamp. The Native Americans believed that those lands were full of magic and were home to their old guardian spirit; who protected the Nexus of All Realities. Sallis' tribe was scarce in money, but it owned the land and Sallis was its manager.

Native mestizo scoundrel Rene LaRoque convinced local oil tycoon Fred Schist to buy the tribal lands for oil drilling, believing that the money would help the tribe. But Sallis refused to sell the ancestral land, something that was not surprising to people; who knew Sallis personally. Schist greedily murdered Sallis in the Dark Waters, with the expressed intent to bury him there. Sallis used his last breaths to tell Schist that Schist was liberating Sallis, something that Schist found ludicrous. Sallis believed that; by being murdered in that exact place, he would reincarnate in the guardian spirit; until the moment Schist stopped desecrating the sacred land. Schist then buried Sallis and raised a drilling tower in the sacred place, on Sallis' unmarked grave.