Random Happenstance

It's not strictly true, but it really feels like I have not accomplished a darn thing today, so let's go to a classic and see if that turns things around: from 1974, Marvel's Greatest Comics #52, reprinting 1967's Fantastic Four #69, "By Ben Betrayed!" Written by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott.

A minor classic, and the middle of a storyline: "Dr. Santini" has chemically turned Ben against the FF, all part of his master plan, since he was really the Mad Thinker! I kind of like him, although I don't think he's necessarily remembered highly in the rankings of FF villains. (You could argue his more visually striking Awesome Android was more memorable; the Thinker may place behind Diablo.) "When I'm done with ya--the Fantastic Four'll be dead--! And then--mebbe Ben Grimm can begin to live again!" I don't think Reed, Sue, or the reader have time to dwell upon how much of that is the Thinker's influence, and how much is really Ben's deeply buried but deeply felt resentment; since Ben is charging at the Four most of the issue, and they are not doing so hot at holding him off.

The Thinker is also adept at driving Ben forward: he can't give Reed a moment, or he could construct some new weapon to defeat him, that's what he does! Also of note: when the Thinker dissolves his Santini disguise, it also removes his "hastily-grown moustache"--he grew a real mustache for his disguise? Well, he must've crunched the numbers and decided that was the way to go. Reed gets Sue, Johnny, and Crystal out of there on a rocket cycle; then manages to sidestep Ben's charge, which launches the furious Thing out the hanger door, to his death! Maybe: that looked like a forty-story fall, would that have killed the Thing? We don't find out, as Reed stretches to save him, but is also pulled out of the Baxter Building. Ben steals a convenient dump truck to give chase as Reed glides away, while the Thinker is pawing all of Reed's stuff. But the Thinker's computers predicted this would be the moment he makes the "most awesome" discovery...the Negative Zone! Which is clearly labeled "Danger!" but the Thinker seems determined to see it.

Ben demolishes a condemned building to try and stop Reed, so Johnny steps up to give Reed a breather. Despite his fury, Ben's thinking as well: he makes a clumsy attempt to douse the Torch with a fire hydrant, but that was just to get him in position to clap his hands and knock him out with a "vacuum-blast!" Distainfully, Ben tells Johnny he could finish him anytime, but rejoins the hunt for Reed. Meanwhile, Sue has got to the cops, who waste no time sending in jets, as Ben shakes his fists at them, King Kong-style! Reed thinks Ben may be in more trouble than he actually is. 

Back at the Baxter Building, the Thinker is checking out the Negative Zone portal, but there was a fly in his ointment: odds were the Thing had killed Reed by that point, but if not Reed certainly would have guessed "Santini" had been the Thinker, and would try to free the real Santini. The Thinker opts to go dispose of the evidence, as in, Santini; while Reed does in fact figure it out. And as an army of cops and firefighters swarm the area, Ben steals a coat and hat and sneaks away, even angrier that "Richards turned everyone against me!"

It's like Ben is doing a really, really angry version of the sad walking-away bit from the end of the Incredible Hulk TV show. I wonder if there's a metal cover of that on YouTube...