WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for The Marvels #2 by Kurt Busiek, Yildiray Cinar, Richard Isanove and Simon Bowland, on sale now.
The Marvel Universe is a scary place no matter who you ask. But as the young superhero tour guide Kevin Schumer just learned, sometimes the high-flying and adventurous lifestyle isn’t all fun and games, as Ben Grimm just said. Ben can’t stand scary movies, because they remind him far too much of work.
While heading home on a repurposed Goblin Glider, Kevin Schumer sees the Human Torch flying with the Thing right by his side. Kevin activates his invisiblity-granting Chameleon Circuit to go in for a closer look, hoping to catch a few choice photos for his publicity. As Kevin moves in to get a better shot, Johnny Storm is busy chiding Ben Grimm for his taste in movies, even jokingly calling him a coward. The Thing assures Johnny that he just prefers books to film when it comes to horror, saying he would rather all the monsters “stay on the page.”
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As their conversation goes on, the Thing and the Human Torch admit that they don’t respond well to the more stressful elements of horror movies like jump-scares. The Torch even acknowledges that he has had the occasional fiery outburst when caught off guard by Pennywise from It. This entire conversation may seem like little more than a fun bit of humor, but it also acts as a deep piece of character development for these two heroes, and maybe even the superhero community at large.
For as long as he has been the Thing, Ben Grimm has been fighting interstellar gods, interdimensional horrors, and even more mundane, terrestrial superpowered threats on a near-constant basis. Though the Fantastic Four might be known as much for their interpersonal drama as they are their high flying adventures, both of those things come fast and heavy for Marvel’s First Family.
As Ben explains, the jump-scares and fast-paced frights remind him more of work than he can appreciate, admitting that even the audiobooks he listens to with Alicia are sometimes too much for him.
With everything that these two have been through, it isn’t any surprise that they would want to avoid anything that might set them off. It’s hard to imagine the Punisher wanting to spend much time in a haunted house attraction unless he was looking to test how well he can pull his punches. Considering the horrors that the heroes of the Marvel Universe experience on daily basis, it’s not surprising that they prefer more controlled entertainment experiences.
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