The Man-Thing creature in the Marvel comics was one of my favorite characters. I loved the mystical nature of the character and the interesting supporting characters.  I also love the idea that he is neither good or bad. The story of the Man-Thing revolves around a scientist named Ted Sallis who was was doing research to re-create the Super-Soldier serum that created Captain America. He was married to a woman named Ellen (she actually makes a small cameo in Iron Man 3).  She becomes very lonely and jealous of all the time Ted spends on working on this project and is ripe picking when a organization of bad-guys named A.I.M (also in Iron Man 3) comes knocking.  She helps the bad guys go after her husband. Her husband drinks the serum to keep it out of the hands of the bad guys and due to being in the swamp when he does, becomes the Man-Thing.

One of the first superhero movies (in the budding stages of the MCU)  that never made it to production was, Man-Thing in 2005. This was even before Iron Man 1. I cannot emphasize how terrible this movie was. They made the Man-Thing into a monster who just went around killing people for environmental reasons. They did not even approach the real reason that Man-Thing is in-the-grey area of being good or bad. The reason that he is not really a hero is that he will attack ANYONE who feels fear around him for that very reason, of feeling fear. He is psychially attracted to any source of fear and will kill it by secreting acid from his hands causing you to catch on fire and die. The catch-line for the comic was, ‘whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch’.

Now I am not just sharing this story from my past for no reason.

Fear is a big part of life and talked about a lot in the Bible.

One site gave me over 40 verses about fear and anxiety. Fear has plagued the Lord’s people almost everytime the Lord told someone to do something in the Bible. The stories of Jonah and Peter come to mind and almost everytime an angel appears or Jesus surprises someone, they always say,  “Do not be afraid!”Fear  The Lord is not against giving us scary things to do even today, just ask Martin Luther King, Pope John Paul, or Major Jeff Struecker. Major Struecker was an Army Ranger during the events of Black Hawk Down who had to come to terms with his mortality and said to himself, ‘Either I am going home to my family in Georgia or I am going to go home to my Father in Heaven’. The below video really gets to my point at around 20minutes, but the whole video is worth watching.

There is such thing as bad and good fear though. Bad fear stops you from doing what you have asked to do. It is usually related to fear of what others will think. Bad fear also stops you from asking for forgiveness when you know you have done wrong. Good fear keeps out of the south side of Chicago. Good fear keeps me from going down a scary alley. Good fear helps you to remember who the Lord is. It allows you to remember who we are in relationship to Him.

But now, this is what the Lord says…Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1

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