#ben is a super villain

[bairdthereader]

Ben is an evil genius, and I don't mean that in a good way.

(Heads up, this is quite a long post. I hope you'll find it a worthwhile read!)

[Caveat: I do think Ben is a much more complex character than is generally acknowledged, and he brings a lot of important issues to the surface throughout the comics and show. I’ll be writing on that soon. But for today, I’m focusing on one very specific way that Ben interacts with the people around him, so it’s a necessarily narrow view.]

Ben’s brand of evil genius lies in a particularly pernicious variety of emotional intelligence: the ability to identify people’s unique pressure points and hammer them with merciless accuracy. We see this first with Charlie, whose mental and emotional complexities Ben picks out and exploits to manipulate and break Charlie down, keeping himself in a position of control.

Ben insists on secrecy, which we all know is due to his own fear of discovery. But instead of owning up to that fear and discussing it with Charlie (a la Nick and his wish to take time to figure things out), Ben takes Charlie's very specific insecurities and leans on them to ensure Charlie's compliance.

We know from the flashback to their first conversation that Ben is aware of all the bullying Charlie experienced when he was outed, so he likely knows the intricacies of Charlie's pain--being called disgusting, being made to hate himself, being made to feel less than human. Ben barrages Charlie with these messages, just with slightly different language:

"I don't even know who you are." This preys on Charlie's sense of worthlessness, and it's a pressure point that Ben leans on again and again over the course of many public slights. It keeps Charlie feeling small and invisible, which in turn protects Ben from pushback or discovery.

"It's not like anyone else is going to want to go out with you, is it?" Ben knows Charlie was made to feel disgusting in the past, and this comment--which Ben also repeats--triggers those deeply painful, cyclical emotions of self-hatred, and is an attempt to make Charlie feel grateful for Ben's unreliable attention.

"As if anyone would ever want to go out with someone as desperate as you." Ben knows Charlie wants more, that he wants a relationship that means something. Here, he's twisting Charlie's desire for a loving relationship into something repulsive and off-putting, essentially ensuring that Charlie won't attempt to find anyone else.

"You were just there like some tragic loser with barely any friends who ate lunch alone and let bullies walk all over you . . . I just felt really sorry for you." Ben's exploiting Charlie's past feelings of weakness and lack of control by reminding him of the times he felt lowest. Not only this, but he spins his interest in Charlie into a charity case, trying to make Charlie feel as if he only wanted to go out with him out of pity (which we know after the finale of S2 is the thing Charlie worries about most).

But once Charlie starts consistently pushing back—saying he doesn't want to see Ben anymore, literally pushing him away at Harry’s party, the post-race conversation at sports day— and once there’s a watchful guardian in Charlie’s life (Nick) who sees Ben for what he is, Ben switches his attention to Nick. He knows that the worst way he could hurt Charlie, to take away his newfound confidence and power and reinstate Ben’s position of dominance in the relationship (such as it was), is to push Nick away from Charlie.

Ben uses his own experiences of being closeted to identify Nick’s insecurities and poke at them viciously. He knows how emotionally exhausting it can be to hide your true self, and even if he’d never admit at this point in the story that he’s hiding at all, he still recognizes that weariness in Nick and does all he can to increase it.

"Am I not allowed to like girls as well as boys?" This is Ben accusing Nick of being a hypocrite, which is something Nick has been struggling with for months now, though it’s never named as such in the show. He’s been trying to shed his rugby lad persona in favor of his authentic self, but it’s been a challenging and frightening journey during which Nick probably does often feel like a hypocrite, and here’s Ben, blatantly calling it out.

"Does Charlie know you don’t want to come out?" (Which, we have to remember, comes shortly after Ben telling Nick he needs to "stop acting so gay for" Charlie if they're trying to keep their relationship quiet.) I’d argue that this is Ben’s most effective method of attack against Nick, because it encompasses all of Nick’s challenges in one statement: the pressure he’s put on himself to come out, his niggling doubt that Charlie really believes him when he says he wants to come out, the sense that he's harming Charlie with the secrecy.

"You’re just the same as me." Ben knows that Nick is a truly decent person with almost faultless integrity—something for which Ben has no respect but perhaps a bit of deeply buried envy—so he knows he can antagonize Nick with this comparison. He also knows he can do it without fear of significant public retribution, since Nick would never intentionally out Ben, or even retaliate physically since Ben carefully avoids, mostly, directing any significant insults at Charlie himself in these confrontations, which would have been the only thing that might inspire someone as intrinsically good as Nick to lash out.

"What if I said I want Charlie back?" This is a particularly sly attack. Yes, you could argue that Ben is just lashing out in anger or desperation and that this is him grasping at straws, but this is actually the culmination of weeks of mental assault. Ben has gradually upped the ante in each conversation with Nick, chipping away at Nick’s confidence in his bond with Charlie and trying to make himself look like the better option for Charlie. He even finishes up by saying he'd never give Charlie a hickey, something for which Nick already feels intense guilt. Ben knows exactly what he's doing here.

Nick overcomes Ben's strategic attacks partly through personal fortitude, partly through a real understanding of how Ben operates, and partly through the open communication he and Charlie share that builds them both back up again.

Imogen deserves a mention here, too, as Ben exploits her pressure points with cruel ease. Once he’s secured her by being “lovely” to her, he promptly tries to exert the same power dynamics he had with Charlie, breaking her down pressure point by pressure point.

He only shows her affection when the "right" people are looking--mainly people he wants to impress, or people he wants to hurt, like Nick and Charlie. This is just as damaging, in its own way, as the secrecy he insisted on with Charlie, especially for someone as starved for affection as Imogen often seems to be (her pressure point).

Imogen desperately wants to be loved and accepted. In almost every interaction she has on screen, she’s trying to find her place, something Ben certainly sees (especially since there’s a deeply buried part of him that wants the same thing), and then exploits. Ben is openly neglectful of Imogen several times, especially on the Paris trip, showing her how little he cares while simultaneously attempting to make her feel grateful for the moments of attention she does get from him. Then, when he tells her that her desire to get a lock for the bridge is lame (just one example of this behavior), he’s casting himself as the ultimate judge and jury of her wants and needs, another power play.

As we know, this backfires pretty epically when Imogen throws all of his manipulations back in his face in one of the best breakup monologues on film. Ah, the satisfaction.

As Tao so succinctly and accurately described it, Ben has stinky energy. It’s the evil genius oozing out.

[movedtodykedvonte]

I think it’s be funny to have a Spider-Man that is genuinely just a kid, not like a teenager or a kid who understands the gravity of his abilities but a kid who does heroics simply because that’s cool to a kid.

The gimmick is that the villains think it’s a gimmick and Spider-Man(?) fucks with them by acting like a kid to make ‘em feel bad or embarrass them only for them to realize he’s a literal child due to a forced team up where they like offer him a brewski afterwards and he’s legitimately like “Mr I am 9 years old, I just do this cause my aunt can’t take me to the park every afternoon.” And they grill him on adult things and he sits there just blanking cause he’s fucking 9.

[shinigami-striker]

Greg Cipes | Thursday, 01.04.24

Same voice actor, different characters - featuring Greg Cipes (happy birthday).

2003

Beast Boy (Garfield Logan) - Teen Titans (TV show/video games, 2003-2006)/Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo (movie, 2006)/New Teen Titans (mini-series, 2011-2012)/Teen Titans Go! (TV show, 2013-present)/Young Justice: Outsiders/Phantoms (TV shows, 2019-2022)

2004

Chiro - Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! (TV series, 2004-2006)

2008

Kevin Ethan Levin - Ben 10: Alien Force (TV series, 2008-2010)/Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (TV series, 2010-2012)/Ben 10: Omniverse (TV series, 2012-2014)/Ben 10 (TV series, 2016-2021)

2012

Michelangelo - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV series/video games, 2012-2017)

[bananacreamphi]

Ben 10 reboot sequel where Lagrange is inexplicably exes with Vilgax. They reluctantly team up only for it to devolve into an argument while Ben and his friends are forced to awkwardly watch them rehash their relationship problems

[marvelousmrm]

Super-Villain Team-Up #6 (Englehart/Trimpe, June 1976). A bonus issue of Fantastic Four! The fam race to rescue Namor from Latveria, but Doom leverages his forced alliance with Atlantis to gain recognition from America as a sovereign nation.

[merrymarvelite]

Cover of the Day: Super-Villain Team-Up #5 (April, 1976) Art by Rich Buckler

[poes-sinbin]

I don’t have a caption for this. But if you need me to add specific tags, please let me know :)

[i-just-want-to-destroy]

descendants wouldve been so good if disney didnt write it

[devoted-to-colin-farrell]

Colin Farrell and the Daredevil cast

[omgthisisnotmyrealaccount]

finally watched season 2 of shadow and bone and like the issue with that show (outside of the bad acting lmao) is that the plot happens in one story line but the fun happens in the other 

like alina babes i don’t care about your search for the hot bird im sorry

[roach-works]

i feel like there's a rich vein of SOME kind of ore to mine with regards to the romantic woes of visibly "freakish" and inhuman superheros, especially in silver age comics. like, because of the comics code, the writers could not in-universe admit that some people are really kinky and would absolutely nut in an instant if a gigantic alligator man or a living rock monster or a ten foot tall woman who's on fire gave them a little smooch on the head. like maybe most people in the 70s and 80s had no idea this was the case, either!

but so you end up with these romantic plot lines where some poor freakish superhero with a heart of gold and the skin of, i don't know, a bunch of octopi, is miserable because they'll never find true love, except for a totally normal woman has the power to see their inner heart (which is normal) and fall in love with them for that (normally). villains can sometimes be like 'yeah this chick is super into the fact that i'm an eight foot tall deathbot, we're both evil like that' but ben grimm can't get a date! even blind women are a little concerned that he's literally made out of rocks. it never works out because the writers either can't imagine or can't admit that no matter the freak, there's a bigger, hornier freak who's praying for a chance to shoot their shot.

i don't know. it's just interesting. obviously modern comics can acknowledge a lot more sexual variance than the stuff from fifty years ago, but it's just kinda neat to consider the bizarre limitations a heteronormative paradigm enforces on a population of very strange characters.

and also i feel like in real life ben grimm's DMs would be full of incredibly horny geologists going PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE all day long.

[chaoticladyfire]

Things I screamed about in ATSV (spoilers)

-Got to rewatch the film so I’m just going to add the colours changing to warmer tones when Gwen hugs her father. Not even ten minutes in and I was already crying.

-Realised that we missed the Gwen-Vulture fight BUT got to see Jessica Drew enter the scene like a bad ass in her bad ass bike and hearing the audience collectively say ‘me too’ when Gwen asked if Jessica could adopt her. 

-Screaming OSCAR ISAAC when Miguel spoke

-Lyla. Just Lyla.

- ‘Do you say anything other than no?’ ‘No-YES!’ more of miguel and jessica pls

-The Spot’s introduction. I didn’t see any promotional stuff, teasers or even trailers before watching this film so I had no idea who or what the The Spot was which was great because he really went from villain of the week to villain of the movie. And they clearly had a great time choreographing the fight scenes with him

-Miles’ heating up the beef patty while the spot and the convenience store man argue

-Miles patting the spot’s with a ‘good cow’ text

-Gwen and Miles both having to deepen their voices to avoid being recognised by their respective cop dads

-Miles saying that he can get two cakes when the counsellor says you can’t have your cake and eat it too and then bringing two cakes for his father’s party and neither of them saying what he wanted to convey. 

-Rio and Jeff scolding an annoyed miles but instantly smiling when a relative hugs them what an universal experience 

-Gwen teasing Miles for drawing her in his notebook almost obsessively but also breaking the biggest rule to spend time with him knowing the consequences. 

-As they went to talk, my friend leaned over and said ‘yeah I bet they will talk’ and when they only talked he groaned very loudly at which point I had to remind him Miles was only 15 

-Watching Jeff talk to Spiderman about his son not knowing his son is spiderman

-The DJ increasing the volume when Miles’ parents started scolding him in the middle of the party (the real mvp of the movie actually) 

-JK Simmons cameo that no one seems to be talking about??? Embarrassingly enough I had to literally scream into my friend’s ear for most of the people to realise it was indeed JK Simmons

-Just the entire Mumbattan scene. It was so exciting to see my city be represented like that, still a bit cliched in my opinion but not like Slumdog so obviously they have updated their views. Everything from the traffic gag to Pav’s rant about chai tea had the theatre howling. Also the detail of the thought boxes (?) and sounds being written in Hindi 

-Screaming DANIEL KALUUYA

-My friend and I are huge fans of the UK punk scene (her for the ideologies and myself for the music and fashion) so Hobie was a dream come true. He was already super cool with his guitar and mohawk costume but when he revealed his face it was just so amazing

-Gayatri is every indian’s dream girl with her modern shirt-flannel and jeans combo mixed with bangles and piercings I really wish we get to see more of her in the next movie. Anyway there was a lot of wolf-whistling and hooting for her and Pav

-Also Pavitr literally means pure I don’t know if they did that on purpose or not but I love it

-His pet name being Pav cured my soul

-’This is the most emotional I have seen him’ and Captain Singh has no emotions at all

-I want to see how they came up with so many spider designs because each was so unique and immediately endearing. My friend who is also a big dinosaur fan screamed DINOSAUR 

-Kind of obsessed with how detailed Ben Reilly’s arms are they did not need to go that hard with it

-Tom Holland’s Spider-Man being referred to as ‘the little nerd’ by Miguel

-When everyone was making puns about the Spot my friend leaned over and said ‘i wonder which hole the spot prefers’ it is a miracle we are still friends actually

-The Donald Grover cameo!!!

-Peter B Parker having a cute little baby with the love of his life is what he deserves

-Miguel O Hara is one step away from becoming a Batman-Spiderman 

-Hobie’s admiration for Mayday being the avatar of chaos Spider-baby

-Screaming ANDY SAMBERG

-I think they saw the appreciation for the art style in the previous film and then trebled it for this film and I cannot thank them enough for it

-Peter complaining about how Miguel breaks the Spiderman tradition of being funny and witty and Miguel being the first anomaly 

-Every scene with the Spot is very unnerving because as I said, you watch him transform from this joker to a literal void of vengeance and it is every bit of terrifying

-Miguel is a man suffering from the destruction of an entire universe because of his selfish actions and forcing that anomaly narrative on a fifteen year old boy who became a spiderman on accident and doesn’t want his father to die because of that. Unlike the Spot, who isn’t even human anymore, Miguel is drowning in grief and guilt and trying to ignore it by holding the weight of the spider-verse on his shoulder. I hated him so much for making a boy go through that but then I just couldn’t in the end. 

-Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire cameo!!! Hopefully we’ll get a fun Tom Holland one too in the next movie.

-’Let me guess, he died?’ being a therapist for Spider Men must be a fairly boring job after a few patients.

-I just loved the absolute of wrongness of the scene where Miles returns ‘home’. The rain and darkness. I didn’t really think about Rio asking Miles what happened to his hair because I thought she was referring to the rain (although of course she wouldn’t ask him why his hair was wet when it was obviously raining outside) but realised something was wrong when he didn’t know about comic con but she did because in the first film there’s a joke about Peter B Parker explaining the concept to Miles. 

- This movie is not good for my father related issues

-The glaring neon welcome sign when the gang end up in Earth 42

-How did Uncle Aaron get even scarier? 

-Miles being the Prowler is honestly a great twist I saw it coming but still felt the shock of the reveal

-Prowler Miles having an accented voice meaning his father probably died when he was young and he only had his mom growing up

-Can’t wait for the original spider team to return for the third film seeing as they brought back Spider-Man Noir and Spider Ham and Peni Parker

-Screaming WHAT when the ‘to be continued’ appeared because that cliffhanger is absolutely destructive. All that adrenaline and excitement just popped. I’m still oscillating between being impressed and being disappointed. 

I probably skipped over a lot of other scenes because these were the most memorable and I only watched the film once (unfortunate) but I can’t wait for the movie to hit streaming services and watch it again and again for all the other details I missed. Ill probably keep adding things as I remember

[mugenfinder]

Ben Ravencroft is a real villain, you can tell he was waiting so long to go nuts on everyone, he starts playing it up immediately.

The entire movie, he doesn't really have that Tim Curry sound, but the moment he gets the book he switches up his speech patterns.

Average Horror Writer after getting super powers.

[marvelousmrm]

Super-Villain Team-Up #5 (Englehart/Trimpe, Apr 1976). Doom zaps Namor, rendering his cool black life support suit useless. Back to the green trunks! Meanwhile a mysterious prowler catches Johnny’s attention.

[hurts2think]

Heyyy! I love the idea of Chloe Charming x fem reader who is Red’s sister (or some other villain). And the reader has never felt loved by anyone until she met Chloe but she’s scared to fall in love her. So basically the reader is like “I don’t know what love feels like.” And Chloe is like “Maybe I can teach you.” Sort of like Ben and Mal :)

Angst/comfort

I’m sorry if this is really confusing, but I didn’t really know how else to describe it. Hope that doesn’t sound rude!

⚔️Chloe Charming x Reader⚔️

Reader pronouns: she/her

Pairing: Chloe Charming x fem! reader

Plot: Reader is the daughter of the Big Bad Wolf. A VK. She doesn't know how to love or what it feels like. But a certain blue haired princess is determined to help with that. Even after the reader ran out on her.

Word Count: 1.3k

Extra: I recently discovered not everyone knew the iconic "I don't know what love feels like" came from Mal and Ben. And what I have to say about that: Go watch Descendants 1! So amazing. Reader is kinda super dramatic in this. Hope you enjoy this even though it's short🫶

It wasn't really like in the books or movies. You didn't 'wolf out' or go uncontrollably insane every full moon. It was more like your chest felt heavy, you legs ached, and your head pounded.

Going out to be in the moonlight didn't necessarily help, but you needed to get away. Far away from the hurt, but it only followed.

You walked through the trees and grass, pulling your thin red coat tightly around you as the wind sent chills through you.

Maybe it was a bad time coming out on a full moon in the cold. Maybe it was a bad idea to run off because you didn’t know how to handle what happened. How could you have handled it? Smiled and hugged her? Kissed her?

The thought just made you shiver again.

You finally stopped at a small clearing in the woods. There was a small bench there that you’d come to when you didn’t have anywhere to go.

You sat on the bench and sighed, looking up into the sky. You could hardly see the stars, all covered by clouds with only the moon peaking through and the light reflecting off your eyes.

You tried taking a deep breath but it only came out shaky. You clenched your fists and your abnormally sharp nails dug into the palms of your hands. You were trying everything to just calm down but you couldn’t.

You held your hand against the tree that was ingrown into the side of bench, digging your nails into the bark, as if trying to let out your pent up frustration somehow. And the full moon definitely wasn’t helping.

There was a sudden rustle coming from the direction you came from, you immediately jumped up, ready for whatever would jump out of the darkness. But what did jump out was a girl. A girl with big blue curly hair with a couple of leaves and sticks stuck in it and a worried expression on her face. Though she visibly relaxed when she saw you.

You on the other hand rolled your eyes and slumped back into the bench, “Why are you here, Chloe?”

She tried ruffling the leaves and twigs out of her hair as she slowly approached you, “You just ran off… I wanted to make sure you were okay…” she explained, settling in the seat next to you on the bench.

“Well, I’m fine. So you can leave now.” You huff, refusing to even look at her.

Chloe sighed, “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset… but you shouldn’t be out here by yourself.”

A scoff escapes your lips, finally deciding to look at Chloe, “I’m half wolf. I think I can handle taking a walk by myself.” You say with a snarky bite in your tone. You really really hate talking like that. Especially to Chloe, your one and only friend. But it was like a shield. The attitude is what kept you from getting hurt. That’s what you thought at least, but it never seemed to work.

“That’s not what I meant—“ Chloe paused and took a breath, as if trying to find the right words, “Just… please talk to me. I get if you don’t feel the same way…” she trailed off for a minute, “But I don’t understand why you just ran off like that.”

You wished more than anything you could just make her understand. But someone like her couldn’t really understand you. Not really. You had to look away from her again. Seeing the moon in her eyes and the light making her blue hair look like it was glowing made you wish you could just grab her and kiss her.

“I don’t understand either. I don’t understand why you feel like that anyway…” you Mutter before continuing, “I mean, you’re a literal princess and I’m some villain kid. Not a reformed villain kid who aced goodness class, just some kid who gets in trouble and will inevitably follow in her dads foot steps.” Your voice slowly started to raise as you spoke. Like all of your emotions were about to start spilling out.

“That’s not true—“

“No. It is true.” You suddenly stood up from the bench, facing Chloe, “Why are you so convinced that I’m like you? I’m not some princess who goes around smiling at everyone I see! I’m not like you. Your mom and dad taught you how to sword fight for fun and good manners. What do you think my dad taught his daughter? How to be nice? How to be a good team player?”

Chloe stood up shortly after you finished your tangent. She carefully took one of your hands into both of hers. You wanted to pull away but you didn’t. He hands were soft and warm compared to the sharp chill that filled the forest, “What I think, is that none of that matters. You’re your own person, and I see the good in you. The real you. I don’t think you like antagonizing people, I don’t think you like following in your dad’s footsteps. I think you like school, and being on the track team, and being around the people that love you.” Her voice was so soft and sweet. It was so understanding it was almost annoying. But her voice was soft and she was gorgeous, especially underneath the moon. You had to look away again.

There was a long pause before you even spoke again. She was right. You didn’t like running around and scaring people. You didn’t like taking and breaking things. You just wanted to be you. But all that came out of your mouth was,

“I don’t know what love feels like…”

Chloe smiled softly. Everytime she smiled it felt like your heart would beat so loud that anyone around could hear it. She had a smile the shone brighter than the moon, a smile you’d be lucky to see just once in your life.

She gently grabbed your chin and turned your face to look at her, “Maybe I can teach you.”

And there it was again. Your heart beating so loud you thought it’d alert the birds sleeping in their nests.

And now more than anything you really wanted to kiss her, but everything in your head was stopping you.

“You don’t know that you can…”

Chloe’s hand leaves your chin and runs down your arm, “I’m willing to try. Because… I love you. I love you for you. And I want you to believe that.”

That was the first time you’ve ever heard those words from anyones mouth to you. It felt… nice. Nice but scary. The idea of letting her in and the potential of getting stabbed in the back later. Being vulnerable was never something you were allowed to do, even as a little kid you weren’t.

“I’m not ready…” you pause and then rephrase yourself, “I’m not ready for a relationship…. But… if you’re willing to wait for me… maybe something will work out.” You say quietly. You felt your face heat up, basically admitting your own feelings for the girl.

Chloe’s expression turned bright, she immediately wrapped her arms around you, pulling you in tightly. And damn did she give the tightest hugs in the world.

You wanted to push her off and remind her how you felt about the hugging… but you didn’t. You felt warm and calmed. You felt safe almost. Not quite, but almost.

“I will always wait for you. I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth. No matter how long it takes, I’ll be right there for you. No matter what.” Chloe finally says, breaking away from the hug and looking you in the eyes. She always knew exactly what to say to make your heart flutter and your face hot.

And for the third time this encounter you wanted to kiss her again. You wanted to grab her face and smash your lips into hers, but you didn’t. It was probably best to start things slow. You’d work your way up to that one day.

The clouds cleared and you could see the sparkling specks of stars in the sky. For once in your life, you felt at peace on a full moon. You could think clearly, you could stand tall, and it was all thanks to one knightly princess.

[prodigaldaughteralice]

sometimes it actually makes me so sad that people seem to have forgotten Mystery Men

Apparently it only has like a sixty-something on rotten tomatoes?? HOW? That flick is goddamn hilarious 

Also all the costumes and sets are incredible, which I didn’t even realize when watching it as a kid bc our DVD wasn’t very high def but now that we have a better quality copy hot damn

Fuckin. Janeane Garofalo. Eddie Izzard. William H Macy, Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Tom Waits, Paul Reubens, Kel Mitchell, Geoffrey Rush, Greg Kinnear?  All in top form???

Superhero decon/reconstruction, before that was a Big Thing, with a bunch of wannabe heroes who are shitty at it and a popular and successful hero who wears the patches of his various corporate sponsors on his super-suit and intentionally lets a super-villain out of the asylum so he has someone to fight to keep his deals? 

the guy whose superpower is that he gets really mad, but it doesn’t give him super strength or anything, he just gets really mad?

I love this goddamn movie you guys