Inaugural Post: The Ever-Changing Blue-Eyed Thing

Doug: Ever have an idea percolating in your brain for... forever? This is that. For many months I've been wanting to do something on the blog with one of the greatest aspects of the end of the Bronze Age and beyond. In the early-mid 1980s Marvel Comics published a periodical encyclopedia called The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe; the Distinguished Competition's entry in the genre was the equally entertaining Who's Who in the DC Universe. There is a nearly bottomless mine of good stuff for us to discuss, so we'll see if today's inaugural foray gets any kind of commenter love. And I don't want to hog this idea -- if anyone reading wants to submit a post in this vein, by all means email us.

Doug: Below you'll find the entry for the Thing, as it appeared in the second volume (1986) of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe:

Doug: My focal point for today's discussion is the height of Benjamin J. Grimm. From the moment I first laid eyes on this issue of the Handbook I was a little skeptical as to the accuracy of whatever tape measure was used to check the Thing's height. However, doing a quick image search for the purpose of researching my accusation that something must have been amiss, I found that by and large through the Silver and Bronze Ages the Thing was drawn at about the same height as Reed Richards. In the Handbook, Ben Grimm is listed at an even 6'0", while Reed Richards is a bit taller at 6'1". See the images below from superstar FF creators Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, and John Buscema. Nowhere do we find the Thing towering over his teammates --

Doug: Additionally, we can use the Hulk for comparison's sake. From the earliest days of the "splash tops" that ran on page one of Bronze Age Marvel Comics, we knew what we were dealing with in terms of the Hulk's massive scale:

Doug: And here are some visuals in support of the Thing's "diminutive" stature:

Doug: Going hand-in-hand with the Thing's relatively short height is his weight of "only" 500 pounds. So at 6'0", 500 pounds, the Thing is certainly not imposing in the presence of She-Hulk's 6'7" height, Thor at 6'6" and 640 pounds, or even Captain America (6'2", 220 lbs.). But then the "Image era" began and Benjy grew... and grew... and grew (please excuse the glorification of Sue's assets (ahem) -- after all, it was the 1990s):

Doug: Obviously there are many more points of interest in the Thing's biography. But today let's center on the man's scale, particularly as compared to his fellow denizens of the Marvel Universe. How's that stature? Too small for you? In the Fantastic Four films of a few years ago, featuring Michael Chiklis made up as the Thing, Ben was no taller than his male teammates. But then, what of some of the latter samples I posted -- too large? In the FF film from last year, the CGI Thing seemed more in line with the art above. That being said, I suppose Ben would still be in scale with the Hulk, as ol' Jade Jaws is now never depicted on film as shorter than 10 feet (or so it seems). Have at it, and thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Fantastic Fail

Karen: I went into the theater to see Fantastic Four having read the reviews, knowing Rotten Tomatoes had the film at a 9% rating, and so I was not expecting anything. That's not true -I expected it to be terrible. And it wasn't, not entirely -the first part of the film was actually somewhat interesting, as the characters were introduced and the story began. But things went awry mid-way and really fell apart in the last 20 minutes or so. All the talk about how the studio had come in and taken the film out of director Josh Trank's hands and performed many reshoots was obviously true, as there were many shifts, thematically and stylistically. Were the reshoots for the better or worse? Who knows. As it stands the film is a mess, but I don't think it is is deserving of the 9% rating -but I couldn't give it a 'thumbs up' either. 

Karen: I realize it is based on Ultimate Fantastic Four, a comic series I never read. That's probably part of the reason it feels so little like the Fantastic Four to me. For much of the film it could be a generic science fiction film, and while that film might be mildly entertaining, that's not what I want to see when I go to see a Fantastic Four movie.

Karen: None of the characters are particularly likable or compelling. There's no chemistry between any of them -maybe between the very young Reed and Ben. Otherwise, everything feels cold and detached.

Karen: This film gets Dr. Doom even worse than the previous two Fox films, which I would have thought impossible. Honestly, if Marvel gets the rights back to the FF, I think it would be for the best if they avoided using Doom in the first film. He's as played out as Lex Luthor is in Superman films...

Karen: The film is already considered a huge bomb, but it's by no means clear that Fox won't try again, and hang on to the rights. I'd still love to see Marvel get the rights, but this feud between Marvel and Fox seems unlikely to end soon. I can see Fox hanging on almost out of spite.

Karen: If you saw the film, what did you think? Do you think critics are being too harsh? And here's a question: if Marvel Studios got the film rights to the FF back, what would be the best way to incorporate them into the movie universe?