The Thing #26

[iamrman]

Ben takes a trip to the circus. The circus is revealed to be a front, but for once it is not the Ringmaster and his cronies.

Later, Vance investigates on his own.

Vance blows his cover, but luckily Ben is alerted to all the ruckus.

Comments

[beyondthefringe]

I love old school Taskmaster. I mean, what a great concept: training mooks and goons and lackeys for other people, as a way to explain where so many of them come from. I feel like treating him as just another mercenary gets away from that angle.
(And even sometimes training would-be Captains America on behalf of the government... )

Vance Astrovik before he got his big break with the New Warriors. At this point, he was barely more than a footnote courtesy of the Guardians of the Galaxy doing timey-wimey stuff... you'd never think he'd go on to make it big (ish)for a while.

[zylly]

The Taskmaster as originally conceived and used was pretty much pitch perfect, right out of the gate. Making him a generic merc, retconing his origin (though I’ve often wondered if the serum origin was meant to keep him from being a mutant and falling under the Fox umbrella, like a similar Squirrel Girl retcon), all of it diluted a good concept.

And the Udon costume stunk. This outfit here is perfect.

[scorntx]

One day, there will be a circus in a comic which really is just a circus and nothing else.
At this point, that'd be more of a twist than being a front for criminal activity / ancient conspiracies / what have you.


With the knowledge of just what Mr. Astrovik's like, Vance's running away and Ben's trying to make him go back is in a pretty different light.
Mr. Astrovik is the worst.


"Aw, no, the kid's recognised me, as if a hat an' trenchcoat couldn't hide the fact my skin's made'a bright orange rocks! But it works all the time in New York!"

[phantomfo]

I was more entertained by the mooks who thought they'd be more than a speedbump for Ben.

"Sure, he regularly fights the Hulk. But we've got spunk and moxie!"