The small handful of you who read I Was Ben on a regular basis may be wondering what happened to us over the past few weeks. Gary and I only see one another once a year, if that, and since I Was Ben is at least partly a desire for us to swap stories despite living a world apart from one another, it makes sense that the site would go on hiatus while we were in close proximity. In a way, with all the Hulk comics, Hong Kong action movies and Battle Fantasia tourneys, it’s like the last three weeks was I Was Ben come to glorious life.

Despite launching in March, I Was Ben was conceived a little over a year ago, the last time I saw Gary. We were in Vancouver, hiding from the rain playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance on our brother’s Xbox 360. Whatever flaws the game may have, and it has plenty, it papers over the cracks with tons of cameos and costuming options. For two guys who used to challenge one another to name various B-listers on the Marvel Universe poster, it was like a dream. We made teams comprised of such characters as 70s Luke Cage, the western version of Ghost Rider, and Beta Ray Bill, and played until the break of dawn.

We were about ready to call it quits for the night when we decided to play as the Fantastic Four, Kirby-style. Each character has multiple catchphrases. While “It’s Clobberin’ Time” is an obvious one, The Thing also wails the plaintive moan, “I was Ben…” It’s just about the saddest thing one can hear while punching AIM agents in the face at five in the morning.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2009 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Aunt Petunia's Favorite Nephew, videogames. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.