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danpalooza's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
This is a slew of solo stories featuring The Thing of Fantastic Four fame. Read the description if you want the individual issues collected.
Anyway, Benjamin J Grimm is one of my top two Marvel characters, the other being Daredevil. I knew snippets of what went down in this so I had to pick it up when I saw a sweet ass deal on Instocktrades.
This was a hard one to rate. First off, the Battleworld storyline in the aftermath of Secret Wars was a snoozer and went on about six issues too long. Apart from that, I liked it quite a bit. Ron Wilson does the art on most of the issues in this and his depiction of Ben Grimm is iconic. Once Ben returns from Battleworld and finds Johnny and the Skrull impersonating Alicia are a couple, he goes walkabout and that's where the best parts of the book happen in my opinion.
While trying to find himself, Ben becomes part of a stunt motorcycle group, the Thunderiders, fka Team America, and later joins the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, a wrestling outfit for super strong characters. As we all know, he eventually ends up back with the Fantastic Four but the journey is the fun part.
A lot of groundwork was laid for later stories in this volume, whether they writers at the time knew it or not. Sharon Ventura and D-Man are introduced, the Scourge pops a few victims, and Vance Astrovik spends some time as The Thing's sidekick before his tenure as Marvel Boy and later Justice. There's also an emotional tale where The Thing meets his college girlfriend after she became a famous actress.
Like I said, this was a hard one to rate. I didn't like the Battleworld storyline enough to think it deserved twelve issues and some of the tie-ins from other titles weren't that great either. I'm giving this a 4 but it's a working man's 4.
Anyway, Benjamin J Grimm is one of my top two Marvel characters, the other being Daredevil. I knew snippets of what went down in this so I had to pick it up when I saw a sweet ass deal on Instocktrades.
This was a hard one to rate. First off, the Battleworld storyline in the aftermath of Secret Wars was a snoozer and went on about six issues too long. Apart from that, I liked it quite a bit. Ron Wilson does the art on most of the issues in this and his depiction of Ben Grimm is iconic. Once Ben returns from Battleworld and finds Johnny and the Skrull impersonating Alicia are a couple, he goes walkabout and that's where the best parts of the book happen in my opinion.
While trying to find himself, Ben becomes part of a stunt motorcycle group, the Thunderiders, fka Team America, and later joins the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, a wrestling outfit for super strong characters. As we all know, he eventually ends up back with the Fantastic Four but the journey is the fun part.
A lot of groundwork was laid for later stories in this volume, whether they writers at the time knew it or not. Sharon Ventura and D-Man are introduced, the Scourge pops a few victims, and Vance Astrovik spends some time as The Thing's sidekick before his tenure as Marvel Boy and later Justice. There's also an emotional tale where The Thing meets his college girlfriend after she became a famous actress.
Like I said, this was a hard one to rate. I didn't like the Battleworld storyline enough to think it deserved twelve issues and some of the tie-ins from other titles weren't that great either. I'm giving this a 4 but it's a working man's 4.
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