A Belated Anniversary
Contest of Champions, the first Marvel miniseries, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary late last year. So I felt it only appropriate to take a look back at it, and see how it might… differ… if published today.
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October 31st, 2007 la 11:28 am
Yeah…there’s not much you can do to good ol’ Ben Grimm….
October 31st, 2007 la 8:29 pm
Grimm is love.
November 1st, 2007 la 8:55 am
Is that really Aaron Stack in the first image, or are you just joshing us?
November 1st, 2007 la 9:01 am
Wait, did Wolverine just call the Black Panther”Blacky?”
how did that get passed editorial?
November 1st, 2007 la 12:15 pm
I really prefer “I’m German!” instead of “Lieber Gott!”
And I really really prefer “Generator” instead of “Blitzkrieger” (it would be an excellent name for a German super-villain, though.)
November 1st, 2007 la 3:23 pm
they spelled lieber gott wrong, anyway. He’s obviously not German if he’s saying “LEIber Gott.”
November 1st, 2007 la 4:17 pm
Ugh.. What the hell is wrong with Marvel? They never make the character changes they should make and they changes they do make are 9 times out of 10, intellectually retarded.
The Thing has so much potential and yet they can’t seem to do anything but let the character stagnate in the literary pitfall that is lovable loser land.
November 1st, 2007 la 6:48 pm
CLOBBER THE DISGUSTING FLESHY INFIDEL!
November 2nd, 2007 la 6:52 pm
Benjy is all about heart. He, more than most Marvel characters, ain’t broke, so don’t fix him.
November 3rd, 2007 la 1:59 am
Ben’s still got it after all these years.
November 4th, 2007 la 12:35 pm
Benjy has only been about getting the shaft when other people have something going for them. They did the same thing with Worf in the Next Generation movies. When everyone got younger and more energy, Worf got a zit the size of a walnut. When everyone was having a good time at Riker/Troi’s wedding reception, Worf had a hangover.
The “lovable loser” is a cheap literary ploy for cheap emotional attachment and it only serves to limit a character’s potential. Its cliche, predictable and worst of all, repetitive. By maintaining this kind of literary standard, is it any wonder why comic book writers can’t get respect from mainstream media?
November 5th, 2007 la 8:31 pm
Ben is about loyalty and acting on your principles. He is tragic, but unpretensious, lacking the brooding quality that characterises other comic characters dealing with personal problems. I don’t love Ben as a loser. I love him as a character who you -beleive- would lay it all on the line. Who you -beleive- is good with kids. He is beleiveable as the guy who drew the short end of the stick in the superpowers lotto, but who is still likeable and happy.
Worf, on the other hand, was a tightass. The “Tightass Made to Look Rediculous” is a common narrative trope. Not tearing Johnny’s head off when he plays pranks doesn’t make Ben a loser. Characters like this help give comics crossover appeal far more than overwrought, overwritten characters. Ben never struck me as a simple character so much as a straightforward guy.
November 8th, 2007 la 3:51 am
“He is tragic, but unpretentious, lacking the brooding quality that characterizes other comic characters dealing with personal problems.”
In other words, he’s a lovable loser.
“He is believable as the guy who drew the short end of the stick in the superpowers lotto, but who is still likable and happy.”
That’s just it. It isn’t believable. Maybe you could make that argument back when he looked like an walking, orange callous, but now he doesn’t look half as ugly as they continuously portray him to be.
And speaking of Johnny.. the hot-headed fire elemental. Ok. I think that pun wore itself out a long time ago.
I’d love the chance to rewrite the Fantastic Four. I’d turn Ben into a mob boss so he’d get the respect, though fear, that he couldn’t earn on his own merits (and get Reed special items for his research). I’d turn Johnny into a pagan priest. I’d turn Reed into the fantastic womanizing sleaze he was in the Marvel Manga one-shot and maybe turn Susan into a politician. Now that’s a comic worth reading.
November 9th, 2007 la 11:40 pm
“I’d love the chance to rewrite the Fantastic Four. I’d turn Ben into a mob boss so he’d get the respect, though fear, that he couldn’t earn on his own merits (and get Reed special items for his research). I’d turn Johnny into a pagan priest. I’d turn Reed into the fantastic womanizing sleaze he was in the Marvel Manga one-shot and maybe turn Susan into a politician. Now that’s a comic worth reading.”
Hey, that sounds… Awful. Just awful.
November 10th, 2007 la 12:32 pm
Frankly, I’d rather read Englehart’s run. Or watch the film. Or be eaten alive by cockroaches atop a pile of my own filth.
And Ben comes out on top reasonably often. I mean, his Dan Slott written title, by the end everything is going great.