The story opens with the Thing in the crosshairs. Yes.
But he's also in bed reading a Stephen King novel, eating a box of chocolates and smoking a cigar.
Look at this! I never thought I'd see the day.
The Thing with no money. I'm so used to this guy getting bankrolled by Reed Richards.
I did mention that the Thing was in somebody's crosshairs right? Well, this someone starts shooting. So what happens when the thing gets shot? I was expecting some fatal or near fatal result but against Ben's rock-hard skin our hero simply feels that he's being assaulted by bees. His reflex action vs these stings plus his prodigious strength results in some serious infrastructure damage.
Unsurprisingly, he is reported to the authorities and is arrested. What is surprising is the Thing's reaction.
Surprising, yes, but this happens. It's called self-pity or fatalism and is very revealing of the psyche of the man-monster Ben Grimm has become. The fear of being a monster, no, the tragedy of being a monster, has always weighed heavily on Ben Grimm. He used to be a college jock and hotshot test pilot. Suddenly he's huge, monstrous and a freak. He's been holding it in but when an unexpected bad day happens it all just comes out. Just like it does for most of us some of the time. It's also a reminder that the Thing is one of Marvel's outsiders. He just covers it up a lot with his wise cracking.
Remember, in the adventure with Tigra when Ben unlocked a door in the Baxter Building using his fingerprint and I commented that the Thing doesn't have fingerprints? Well, here the cops are taking down his prints as part of their procedure.
Well, the Thing does have fingerprints after all, just very unique ones - which serves the purpose exactly. Well, no not quite, since the Thing's fingerprints could probably be forged using a carefully selected piece of gravel.
Then the mug shot, to be followed by the out-and-out ridiculous lineup identification:
Matthew Murdock is Ben's lawyer and his strategy is simple. Get character witnesses to Thing's heroic day-to-day activities and appeal that all charges be dropped.
Unfortunately, the prosecutor makes an excellent case.
He's right, we're not talking about the past, we are talking about recent acts of property destruction. and yes, you're still reading Marvel Two-In-One not Gotham Central.
Another witness is called and this one refers to the past (stupidly negating the prosecutor's line of reasoning). A lot of references are made to property destruction done by the Thing that have been chronicled in the pages of Fantastic Four when the FF were battling the likes of the Hulk and Silver Surfer.
And, of course, the all-important detail about who's going to pay for all this?
Everybody's embroiled in the details but I'm impressed about how Matt can make an appraisal of the 'long view' or strategic view of this proceedings.
Matt is able to grasp the underlying problem and that it does not seem to have a quick solution.
Just like in real life, the times when you have to wait seems to be the hardest times of all.
Just as the jury agrees that Ben must stand for trial the mysterious "stinging" starts up again with violent results.
Daredevil is able to sense more about this courtesy of his heightened senses.
With his whole courtroom wrecked, lets empathize with the judge as he loses his impartiality.
Well the entire story has been virtually in court. I enjoyed it but I pity the youngster who bought this looking for some action. Looks like we'll be getting it next issue because next up is still Matt but this time as Daredevil!
