Thus endeth the rant.
Friday, February 16, 2018
Unleash The Beast!!
You know what I don't get?
Pretty much every single day, I find myself wondering...
...why in the world Marvel prefers to keep Hank McCoy in a lab coat...
...being "team support" and "technobabble dude" and "dire exposition" guy...
...when this version of the guy is available?
I mean, who doesn't prefer the ever-loving bouncing Beast...
...to dour and unexciting "you guys go out and fight and I'll just stay in the lab" Hank?
It's a rhetorical question, because obviously Marvel and a long line of creators prefer to keep McCoy on the sidelines in most adventures, like he's just one of the millions of helpers in a CW super-hero control room talking in the hero's ear, instead of a freakin' Avenger and X-Man and Defender and guy who has saved the Earth 12 or 13 times.
I just miss this version of Hank, is all I'm saying.
Thus endeth the rant.
From Avengers #167 (1978), #164 (1977), #148 (1976), and #141 (1975)
Thus endeth the rant.
Hank's strong treatment in these examples is partly due, I'd say, to being written by Steve Englehart, who co-created Hank's iconic furry form in what I think was his first super-hero work. Creators always have a soft spot for their "kids" after all. Also, since the Avengers at that time were up to their armpits in science types, and since one of those science types, Hank Pym, neatly overlapped Hank McCoy's expertise, Englehart probably decided to make McCoy more of an action hero rather than a scientist. It'd be too confusing to have two Hanks sharing a biochemistry lab, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteFair point, but A) There are many who could also be performing the labcoat type duties for the X-Men--no reason not to free Hank B) Englehart (& others) made clear that Hank's persona was (in part) a way to deal with the tragedy of his being transformed (literally) into a Beast. That could (and should) still apply...
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