Choices of the Insane

Its night time at a Florida farmhouse and Carina Jakes is praying for something she calls Athelstan to come and protect her from the people who hurt her. She tells her stuffed teddy bear that her mother said Athelstan would come if she called and she has been trying to summon him with her mind to no avail. That’s when her brother Cetus comes barging in all drunk. He tells reminds his sister how he and her other brothers protect her before he forces her to show her gratitude by raping her.

The following morning, Nomad is out on the highway trying to thumb his way out of the state.[1] He gets picked up by a man who tries to make a pass at him. Jack forces him to pull over at a gas station and warns the pervert that if anyone in the area goes missing he’ll hunt him down. As the man drives off in a panic, a woman pulls off at the gas station to ask him what jeans he is wearing before speeding off after getting an answer.

Eventually, Jack is picked up by a woman named Ferlie who offers to take him as far as Tallahassee. As they drive, Ferlie asks Jack what he does for a living. When he tells her that she helps people that are in trouble, she tells him about the situation with Carina Jakes. Hearing about how her brothers brutalize her all the time, Jack agrees to do something about it. However, Ferlie keeps a lot of details to herself. It’s not until she takes Jack to the local diner where the Jakes brothers hang out that they are pals with the local sheriff.

Ferlie introduces Jack to the Jakes brothers — Cetus, and Morley — and he impresses them with his knowledge of truck modifications and is invited to sit down and drink with them. Jack plays along and drinks with them well into the evening when they invite him back to the Jakes farm for some more beers. There, the Jakes show off their hunting trophies and brag about the underhanded ways they got their kills. That’s when Morley mentioned how he saved their sister, Carina, from a cotton mouth on time. This reminds Cetus that he hasn’t introduced Jack to their sister and decides to drag her out. Since Carina is disabled and needs a wheelchair to get around, there is nothing to stop her older brother from wheeling her out in her underwear to show her off to their guest. As repugnant as this is, Cetus even offers Carrina up to Jack to have his way with.

This display confirms everything that Ferlie said about the Jakes brothers and he attacks them both, taking them both down relatively easy. That’s when the third Jakes brother, Grus, arrives home and hollers out to his brothers to know what all the noise is about. Grus comes in with a bunch of his hunting buddies. Afraid of what Grus might do to her, Carina apologizes to Jack before calling to her brother for help. Grus and the other guys swarm Jack and begin pummeling him.

However the beating comes to an abrupt end when the Man-Thing suddenly bursts in through the front door. Many of the men are instantly afraid and burn at the muck monster’s touch. With the monster as their primary concern, some of the guys haul Jack’s body outside and dump it in a nearby canal. Back inside, the men continue to pump bullets into the Man-Thing with little effect. Seeing how the muck monster is shambling toward his sister, Grus picks her up and carries her outside despite the fact that she seems to want to stay.

Outside, Ferlie arrives on the scene and hauls Jack out of the canal. Catching him up on what went down inside the house, the two race back to Ferlie’s truck to try and find Carina before the Man-Thing can get her. Meanwhile, the Man-Thing catches up with Grus and kills him by simultaneously burning him with its touch while also drowning him. When it turns to Carina, she is actually happy to see the Man-Thing as she considers the creature a friend. In fact, she believes that it is the entity she calls Athelstan that she has been praying would come and rescue her.

Eventually, Jack and Ferlie can’t find either Carina or the Man-Thing and decide to go back to the Jakes house to see if anyone will return there. Sure enough, they spot the Man-Thing shambling into the nearby swamp and follow after the monster. While Ferle climbs out of the truck to rescue Carina, Jack drives the vehicle into the Man-Thing. However, all this does is knock them both into the swamp. This leads to a brawl between the two until Jack realizes that the monster is only lashing out due to emotions. When it has him by the throat and is trying to drown him, Monroe forces himself to relax. Sure enough, when he does, the Man-Thing lets go of his throat.

Pulling himself out of the water, Jack tells Ferlie not to attack the Man-Thing as that is what makes it violent. Since Carina wants to go with the muck monster, Jack and Ferlie have no choice but to let the Man-Thing pick her up and carry her away.[2]

Recurring Characters

Nomad, Man-Thing

Continuity Notes

1. Jack’s hand is in a cast here because he broke it punching Grizzly in the stomach last issue.

2. As you can probably guess, Carina is never seen again after this story. The Man-Thing’s most recent profile (as of this writing in October, 2022) was in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #7. For some reason this incident was omitted from the entry (In fact, the Man-Thing profile glosses over a lot of stuff) So what happened to Carina is unknown and your guess is as good as mine. Given the fact that the Man-Thing often loses interest in things when there is a stronger or curious emotion around, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Man-Thing just walked away from her one day. Being she was a disabled woman in the middle of the swamp wearing nothing but her underwear, I somehow don’t think she had a very happy ending.

Topical References

• The woman who asks Jack about his jeans specifically asks him “Excuse me… Are those Daily Bugle jeans you’re wearing?” If you’re confused by the question, that’s because this is parodying an old ad for Bugle Boy jeans. In it, a man is standing at the side of a desert highway and a beautiful woman in a sports car pulls over to ask him if he’s wearing Bugle Boy jeans. When he confirms that they are, the woman rolls up her window and drives away. It’s funny because it is playing on fashion tropes that would usually have the handsome man be offered a ride, not the opposite. This should be considered a topical reference because this is a joke so dated I had to explain it to you. More over, Bugle Boy went out of business in 2001.

Supplement Material

• This issue features a pin-up of Domino.