Gruff characters with hearts of gold run circles of lovability around squeeky clean heros like Superman, Jesus, or Barak Obama. In fact Obama tried to align himself with both Superman and Jesus at one point.
Thus he proves that he's not very interesting. He lacks substance. He's like the wind, thin of character, soulless. No wonder he failed to secure a third term. Americans, and all humans, love flawed heros. Flaws give them depth, relatability, soul. Angels with dirty faces. Flaws are good, a scar shows character. We want to be flawed. Not too flawed, just enough flawed. Being a gruff misshapen freak is a crowd flaw-favourite.
I recently read a bunch of Hellboy books and thought that he and Ben Grimm would make a great buddy film (comic).
The Fantastic Four is a great set up. They are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, the four elements. Their powers reflect that, as do their personalities. Reed Richards is water, he's fluid. Johnny Storm, fire, is a hot head, and Ben Grimm, a salt of the Earth type, is steadfast, immovable, relentless.
Ben Grimm's interactions with Johnny Storm entertain us because the two embody the older soldier taking the young buck under his wing. We love watching the nurturing rocky monster interact with the young buck's youthful impetuosity, his annoying impulsivness. This formula provides some of the most cherished moments in the series.
Replacing Storm with Hellboy, as fire, puts the old soldier on equal footing with another war horse. Grimm and Hellboy become partners, and probably friendly rivals. Two hardluck misfits going through the motions of a humanity that they can never attain. Their shared misfortune and exclusion bond them like brothers.
Together they navigate the world, figuring things out, kicking arse, taking names. It could be a road picture. Hellboy adds an otherworldly (spirit) aspect to Grimm's otherworldly (scientific materialism) aspect. I think that it might look something like this:
Pathos, baby. The Fantastic Four touched on it with Victor VonDoom, and his close relationship to Reed Richards. VonDoom isn't"evil" exactly, he's an underdog king trying to shepherd a viable country (along with living a strong megalomaniacal tendency). But due to Marvel's approach, "The illusion of change," his story never really blossomed.
VonDoom is both a scientist and a wizard, a perfect foil for team Hellboy/Ben Grimm.
Steeped in Eastern European ancient mysteries, schooled at an Ivy a League college Von Doom is himself a misshapen product of science and magic gone wrong. In Hellboy Versus Ben Grimm his involvement might finish with this panel:
The book writes itself; these images did. We can throw a girl in the batter just to give some non-gruff relief, innocence, sexual tension, smoothness. The Beauty and the beast angle.
I'm just putting together the obvious. I'm a cobbler, a jury rigger, a scrimshanker assembling ready-made parts, and surprisingly, I have never seen this done before.
Have you?
