The Thing #1 // Review
It’s been a long day for Ben Grimm. He’s just gotten back from the Negative Zone...which is enough to disorient ANYBODY. Given what he was doing with the other three people on his team, it was a lot more taxing than a quick business trip. There was physical exertion and all kinds of monsters and peril and...Ben Grimm just wants to rest. He’s not going to get that in The Thing #1. The big guy made of orange rock returns to his own title in an issue written by Tony Fleecs with art by Justin Mason. Color comest o the page courtesy of Alex Sinclair.
Ben wants to sleep for a week. He’s just the guy who might be able to do it, too. Unforutanatly, he’s not going to make it anywhere near that long. He gets back to his place. Feeds the cat. Showers whatever it is that might have oozed onto him in the Negative Zone and goes to bed...only to find himself awakened by a knock at the door at 8:38 am. It’s H.E.R.B.I.E. He caught someone trying to sneak into the elevator. Says he’s an old friend of Ben’s. He’s reluctant to talk to the guy until he tells her that Shelly Flynn is missing. He’s going out to find her. Shelly...Shelly used to be nice to Ben. That means something to him, so he’s going to go and find her.
Fleecs rather quickly launches Ben into a very street bound adventure that is firmly rooted in the Marvel Universe. The big challenge with this sort of thing with this type of character is trying to gain perspective. This is a guy who has cosmic level adventures, but is also capable of slumming it on the streets of New York. And it's kind of difficult to manage a balance where there's a realistic fusion between the side of him that is a cosmic level superhero and a street level nice guy. Fleecs has a good time of it, but Ben still feels like kind of a scattered character by the end of the issue.
Mason knows how to throw a punch on the panel. And it looks really good. Especially when it's super powered very strong people throwing punches in a corner bar somewhere in Brooklyn. It's kind of fun to get into it. And some of the squalor and some of the darkness and shadow do come through. But the contrast between that and the cosmic level stuff doesn't quite hit the way it should. this wouldn't be that big of a deal were enough for the fact that the issue actually opens in another dimension and ends on the street levels of New York. There needs to be more contrast between the two levels and there needs to be more of a prominent feeling of power coming from the conflict between two super-powered people inside of a small bar. Doesn't quite hit. But it does feel very strong and it is very compelling with respect to the action.
While Fleecs does a pretty good job of firmly rooting the story in some of the more interesting margins of the Marvel Universe, he’s not quite the connections that he needs to order for it meet the potential for Ben Grimm slouching through the darker parts of Marvel Manhattan.
