Just to show that we're a bunch of sick puppies, the idea we drew inspiration from for Ultimate Man-Thing was the recent cassava poisoning that happened here in the Philippines:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/03/09/mass.poisoning/
Somewhere in the city of Des Moines, 30 children are found suffering from a mysterious ailment after eating potato salad from the school cafeteria. Then children have swollen stomachs and are in a strangely comatose state.
Meanwhile, far off beyond the city and into the rural areas of Iowa, lies the strangest mystery of all: Swamps are melding into savannahs, grasslands melding into jungles --- a plurality of incongruous ecospheres coexisting with each other, and an ecological impossibility.
When Susan Storm catches wind of this discovery, she manages to convince her father to send her and her boyfriend Reed Richards to investigate. Perhaps its a remnant of one of Arthur Molekevic's living plant experiments, Sue reasons. Either way, it's a biological puzzle that no one but the most gifted minds in America can figure out.
When Sue and Johnny examine the young children, a sample of their bodily fluids turns up an even bigger puzzle. All readings show that they are pregnant. Whatever was in those potatoes is radically altering their biology to the point that they have become living plant-things, and pretty soon they'll be flowering.
Ben and Reed investigate the Multi-Sphere territory and discover at the center of it, a mysterious man-thing who speaks in half-formed sentences. They discover that he was Ted Sallis, a former temp payroll janitor who was also changed by the N-Zone accident.
Deeply empathic, Sallis responds to Reed's scientific curiosity with a bemused sense of wonder. As their communications with each other improves, Reed realizes that Sallis was not just a janitor, but an undiscovered genius. The irony of a genius janitor cleaning up around whiz kids is not lost on Reed. Or Ben for that matter, "You mean this muckity-muck, used to clean up the muckity-muck you whiz kids make everyday?"
Since the accident, Sallis moved out to the edge of Iowa to live out the rest of his miserable existence, and when he took root, the biodiversity of the area around him was changed by his presence. Plant life around him was adapting to his own chaotic N-Zone altered genetics.
Reed, Ben and Sallis meet up with Sue using the Fantasticar, and when Sallis discovers what he has inadvertently and indirectly done to these children is plagued with unbearable angst and existential guilt. Together, Sallis, Reed and Sue try to work on a cure for these children.
What you guys think?
