ELLEN BRANDT
Real Name: Ellen Brandt
Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Earth-85133) human
Occupation: Agent of AIM, field leader; former lab assistant
Group Membership: Advanced Idea Mechanics
Affiliations: Callahan, Davis, Henrickson, Eric Schist, Shepard, unidentified others;
formerly Ted Sallis
Enemies: Diane Arlington, Jeff, Jacob Knoll, Man-Thing (Ted Sallis), Stell, unidentified mutants
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Commander Brandt
Base of Operations: Mobile;
formerly a secret lab in the swamps outside Citrusville, Florida
First Appearance: Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 (April, 2008)
Powers/Abilities: Ellen is a well-trained armed combatant and undercover agent. She is versatile in the use of rifles, flamethrowers and small firearms. She is presumably educated in biochemistry.
Height: 5'5" (by approximation)
Weight: 125 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
History:
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 (fb) - BTS) - Ellen Brandt was an agent of the terrorist organization Advanced Idea Mechanics. She was in a relationship with Eric Schist, but when AIM, posing as US government, hired scientist Ted Sallis to recreate Operation: Rebirth's Super-Soldier Serum lost during World War II under project name SSS-2, she became his girlfriend as part of her job and pretended to be in love with him to keep tabs on Ted and his work. Working as his lab assistant she got engaged to Ted while working in a secluded lab in the swamps outside Citrusville, Florida.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1) - Prancing around seductively at the lab in lingerie because it was too hot in the swamp for actual clothes Ellen approached Ted in the lab while he was working on the serum. Ellen asked Ted if he felt stressed because the government counted on him ending the big war with his formula. Though he was aware that he and Eric weren't the only ones working on recreating the serum Eric bet that they were along the furthest ahead of the teams. Ted assured Eric and Ellen that as soon as he transcribed what was inside his head they would be. Ted got mad at Eric when he commented on Ellen's skimpy outfit and Ellen left for bed on her own to led Ted continue working on the formula because brass from "Washington" would come in the next morning to see some results.
Later that night Ellen discovered Ted, who had found out about Eric's secret tests with discarded serum samples on human locals, packing up his stuff to keep his formula out of AIM's hands. Ellen threatened him with a gun and revealed that she was working for AIM and her relationship with him was just a ruse. Distracted when her real lover Eric entered the room with a head injury, Ted jumped out the window. Ellen ran after Ted and threatened to shoot him, but he kept running. Her first shot grazed his ear, but her second shot went through his heart. Jumping into the brackish water Ted drank his serum and unbeknownst to her mutated into the Man-Thing. Ellen called him a stupid jerk before returning to the lab where Eric was unable to make any sense of Ted's gibberish writing. Eric was afraid that AIM would kill them if they couldn't deliver any results in the morning. The Man-Thing attacked the lab and after the monster slew Eric Ellen begged the monster for her life. Realizing it was Ted Ellen kept begging. Granting her her wish the Man-Thing burnt her face with its acidic touch, then left the lab leaving her behind with a badly scarred face.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#4 (fb) - BTS) - Ellen's superiors at AIM sent her the next year with a team of around nine soldiers armed back to the swamp to eliminate all remnants of the failed project SSS-2.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#3) - Ellen (or a member of her team) shot Jacob Knoll in the head.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#3 - BTS) - She and her team of soldiers also killed Diane, Jeff and Stell. She then ordered the rest of her team to kill every living thing in the swamp except for the Man-Thing, who Ellen wanted to go after by herself.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#4) - Before splitting up her men into two teams Ellen explained the mission, telling them about project SSS-2, the biological testing, the involuntary creation of the Man-Thing and warned them of the mutants created by Schist's unsanctioned testing. She ordered her men to kill any local who knew about the project, but leave Man-Thing alive because she wanted the creature, which had scarred her to die and burn only after it suffered.
Brandt stayed behind with Shepard at their camp while the two teams searched for Man-Thing in the swamp. Team One fell victim to a spell of loathing cast by local sorceress (and stripper...seriously) Jennifer Kale, which caused them to slaughter each other. When Ellen radioed team leader Henrickson all members of Team One were already dead. Team Two meanwhile encountered the cannibalistic mutants, who ripped them to pieces and feasted on the soldiers. Shortly before he died team leader Davis radioed Brandt and blamed her for causing all their deaths. With both teams gone Brandt took it on herself to find the Man-Thing alongside Shepard. Armed with a flamethrower she found what looked like the Man-Thing, but it actually was just a husk left behind by Man-Thing to lure Brandt and Shepard into a trap. Brandt burnt the husk until Shepard told her to turn around. Man-Thing broke Shepard's neck. Ellen was impressed this seemingly mindless monster could trick her, but still thought Ted was inside the monster and had not the guts to kill her. Man-Thing came closer and grabbed Ellen. While Man-Thing absorbed her Ellen panicked and activated the flamethrower, but it was too late. Man-Thing completely absorbed her body and for a short moment remembered his time as Ted Sallis with Ellen the memory faded away.
Comments: Created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer) & Kano (artist).
Stell from #3 is presumably named Stella, but she was always called Stell by her friends.
She was kind of the same, but also very different from her Earth-616 counterpart.
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing was a MAX title meant for the more mature audience with a lot of gore, nudity and adult themes. It was one of three Dead of Night horror titles published under the MAX label. The others were minis featuring Werewolf by Night and Devil-Slayer.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Ellen Brandt should not be confused with:
Eric Schist should not be confused with:
The mutants were presumably inbred locals and each possessed at least some superhuman abilities due to injections administered by Eric Schist. These abilities or uncommon mutations included superhuman strength, deformed physique, enlarged teeth including canines, enlarged feet and/or hands and at least one of them possessed an eye in the back of his head.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 (fb) - BTS) - AIM scientist Eric Schist caught local swampmen from the Citrusville area and injected them with discarded samples from Ted Sallis' attempts to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum. He kept them drugged and chained up in a nearby shed to hide them from Sallis. The more samples he used on the more the harder it became to calibrate the dosage to keep them drugged.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1) - Hearing their moaning Ted found three mutated subjects and was shocked. Schist revealed what he was doing to them and that Ted and him were actually working for AIM.
Later that night Ted Sallis, mutated into the Man-Thing after drinking his own serum, returned to the shed and released the mutants into the wild.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#3) - Seven mutants surrounded the tents of Jacob Knoll, Jeff, Stell and Diane Arlington, who were in the swamp doing a documentary search for the Man-Thing. Diane had gone into the woods and seen the Man-Thing with Jennifer and Andrew Kale. When she returned she saw the mutants and screamed. Her friends woke up when they left their tents Diane was gone, held down by a mutate in the bushes nearby. Diane bit two of the mutate's fingers off to escape his clutches and warn her friends, but it was already too late. One of the mutants jumped on Jacob and knocked out Jeff while another shot Diane through the shoulder with an arrow. While one mutate chocked Jacob and another dragged Jeff into the woods Stell picked a gun from her rucksack and shot the mutate chocking Jacob through the head, killing him. Everyone stopped in their tracks when the Man-Thing appeared behind Stell. The mutants returned to the woods with their dead leaving the documentary film makers in peace.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#4) - Two mutants carried their dead comrade through the woods alongside four others (one was missing completely). One mutate was shown having an eye at the back of his head. Ellen Brandt warned her team about Man-Thing and the cannibalistic mutants before splitting them up into two teams. Davis' team encountered the mutants and were ripped apart and eaten alive by four of them. Davis was the last one alive and radioed in to Ellen Brandt to blame her for their deaths.
--Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 ([Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 (fb)], 1, 3-4
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 (fb) - BTS) - Eric Schist was working for Advanced Idea Mechanics. He and his lover of Ellen Brandt participated in project SSS-2 to recreate Operation: Rebirth's Super-Soldier Serum, which was lost during World War II. Pretending to be government agents they worked alongside oblivious scientist Ted Sallis in a hidden lab in the swamp outside Citrusville. Because Ellen had to pretend to be in a relationship with Ted to keep tabs on him Eric and Ellen kept their relationship secret from him.
Eric used discarded serum samples created by Sallis and tested them on locals. He kept them drugged and chained up in a shed near the lab to keep them quiet, but the more discarded samples Eric used on the them the more they mutated and it became harder to calibrate the dosage to keep them drugged.
(Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1) - One night Eric entered the lab while Ellen distracted Ted with her female wiles. Eric told Ted that even though they were not the only team working on the recreation of the Super-Soldier Serum they were the furthest ahead and that he had been in touch with the brass from "Washington", who would arrive the next morning to see some results. Ellen went to bed on her own to give Ted the chance to continue his work on the formula.
Later that night Ted discovered the mutated locals when he followed their moaning to the shed nearby. Shocked to see the mutated test subjects Eric came up behind him to reveal that they were the results of Eric using discarded samples of Ted's formula. Eric tried to explain that he was overzealous to test the serum on humans because they were part of an arms race with the Super-Soldier Serum and these test were just a few biological casualties nobody would miss anyway. When Ted questioned if the government would sanction these tests Eric revealed that they had both been working with AIM all along. Ted knocked out Eric with a lamp and ran back to the lab to pick up all his research and the formula. Eric regained consciousness quickly and witnessed Ellen threatening Ted when he tried to leave, but his appearance distracted Ellen long enough for Ted to escape through a window with the formula.
While Ellen chased after Ted and shot him Eric tried to make sense of Ted's writings, but couldn't. When Ellen returned Eric told her that he was afraid AIM would kill them if they couldn't prevent results to them in the morning. Ted, mutated into the Man-Thing after drinking the formula, entered the lab and when he saw Ellen and Eric, picked up the latter and broke him in half, killing him.
--Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 ([Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 (fb)], 1
images (without ads)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#4, p2, pan1 (main image)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1, p2, pan3 (unscarred)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1, p19 (Ellen's face burns at the touch of the Man-Thing)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#3, p8 (mutants stalking people)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#4, p13, pan1 (mutants vs Ellen's men)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1, p3, pan5 (Eric Schist)
Appearances:
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#1 (April, 2008) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Kano (artist), Warren Simons (editor)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#3 (June, 2008) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Javier Saltares (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Warren Simons (supervising editor), Alejandro Arbona (editor)
Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing#4 (July, 2008) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer), Nic Klein (artist), Warren Simons (supervising editor), Alejandro Arbona (editor)
Last updated: 02/12/16
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