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The Man in Grey was a mysterious being. Multiple versions of him were active in the Multiverse, with one spelling the name as the Man in Gray, with an “A”, instead.
Description
Physical appearance
The Man in Grey's principle physical characteristic was the gray robes he wore. (PROSE: The Tribulations of Jenny Over-There)
Personality
Even in universes where he wasn't really especially villainous, the Man in Grey freely referred to himself as “evil”. (PROSE: Open Sourcing) Over-There once cited “working for the Man in Grey for extended periods of time” as something which “tend[ed] to shift one’s perspective a little on the relative badness of kidnapping situations”. (PROSE: Family Business) He combined an outsized confidence in his own mental faculties with a yearning for approval from his betters that left him crushed when he failed to get it. (PROSE: A Series of Queer Events)
In at least some incarnations, his liking for the colour grey extended beyond his wardrobe, with him entire painting the M.F.S. office in this same shade. (PROSE: Open Sourcing) The 925th Universe's version also fell under the label of grey-asexual, but claimed this was a complete coincidence. (PROSE: A Series of Queer Events)
Powers & abilities
The Man in Grey generally had an aura of grayness which extended beyond his physical wardrobe choice. Jenny Over-There found Jenny Nowhere's comparable aura of wrongness eerily familiar. (PROSE: Family Business)
Biography
In the 925th Universe
- See main article: The Man in Grey (925th Universe)
Though he may have originated in another universe as “the Man in Black”, (PROSE: Open Sourcing) one version of the Man in Grey was principally active in the 925th Universe, where he founded the Multidimensional Finders Service within the Backrooms on the orders of the Great Higher-Ups. This made him Jenny Over-There's boss. (PROSE: The Tribulations of Jenny Over-There, Fragment: A & E, etc.)
In Universe 925-B
- See main article: The Man in Gray
In “Universe 925-B”, a somewhat more sinister equivalent of the Man in Grey who called himself the Man in Gray, with an A instead of an E, ran a Monouniversal Finders Service. (PROSE: Annals of the Jen: One Year of Jenny Over-There) He looked similar to his 925th Universe counterpart that Dynamite Thor couldn't tell the difference, also being “a gray, unremarkable figure wearing a badly-fitting gray suit”, although Jenny Over-There could easily tell the difference. He was aware of the 925th Universe's Man in Grey and once visited the M.F.S. office to meet with him and discuss his lack of a Talisman of Restriction. (PROSE: Fragment: A & E)
In the 775th Universe
- See main article: The Man in Grey (775th Universe)
In the 775th Universe, the Man in Grey was in charge of the Altern Corporation, and a noticeably more sinister figure than the version who ran the M.F.S. office. The local Jenny Nowhere was one of his operatives. He appeared as a tall figure with gray skin, short white hair, and pointed ears. His eyes were heterochromic, with one being solid black with a white pupil, and the other white with a black pupil. (COMIC: Call Me Nowhere)
Behind the scenes
Genesis
The Man in Grey was introduced in 2022 in The Tribulations of Jenny Over-There, an April Fools' Day story by Callum Phillpott which also introduced Jenny Over-There. Phillpott's rendition of “the Paragraph” released Jenny Over-There as an open-source character in her own right under similar conditions to Jenny Everywhere and other recurring characters, and also said of the Man in Grey:[1]
| You can also just use the Man in Grey if you want, I won't get on your case about that, he's public domain now. |
| —Callum Phillpott |
The character's mystery and descriptor made him reminiscent of Phillpott's earlier creation, the Man in Black from their Doctor Who universe novel Cyber-Hunt. This was addressed directly in Open Sourcing.
When he devised the Man in Gray in Fragment: A & E, Scott Sanford specified in the copyright note
| The Man in Gray is as public domain as the Man in Grey – if they’re different people at all, which you couldn’t prove by talking to Dynamite Thor. |
| —Scott Sanford |
Notes & References
| Incarnations of the Man in Grey |
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| What Went Down at Facebook • 925th Universe • Universe 925-B • 775th Universe |
| Open-source elements making up the core Jenny Everywhere mythos | ||||||||||||
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