Episode 291 of the Letters Page: Creative Process: Benchmark Foes

Who could hate this guy enough to be a foe?

Wow, when was the last time we had a 2-hour episode? …The answer is June, for Wipeout!

I really do love the idea of a hero created to be hated. Benchmark is great.

Puppy Kicker sounds like a great nemesis for Gun Rat.

I’m with Adam, About-Face is a fucking fantastic shapeshifting villain name. I’m stealing that if they don’t use it. <_<

Alternate reality Mark Bench, I’m loving this. XD

“…embedding the System’s systems into your own systems.” And this is why Degenerate is amazing.

Yay, love for Skeleton Key!

Umm, akshually, Skeleton Key’s powers do not go “vwvwvw”, they go “fwee fwee fwee”, this was clearly stated in the episode. 8|

These questions about the extent of his powers are, uhh, following a trend it seems. c_c;

Zhu Long vs. Guise is the “Lex Luthor takes off Flash’s mask while in his body” scene. XD

…I can’t believe no one has ever asked this Zhu Long dragon question before. lmao

Adam had Guise do yard work instead of Hedge Lord?!

My “face” character is Face Jack “I jacked yo face” a petty car jacker robs some old guy and gets picked up by the feds in half an hour. old man was a retired super villain - “Jack of Faces, Master of disguise” and he breaks the thief out of jail and gives him his instant hologram mask tech. old guy took the young punk as a protégée for petty revenge for the robbery. The kid will never be satisfied with any amount of money stolen and is going to get punched by superheroes.

I think that given how “about-face” has so many military and para-military connotations (drill and marching), I think that would really work as some kind of spy or other military hero/villain type. Maybe a British or Canadian “official” hero that occasionally comes into conflict with Legacy over methods and loyalties.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that it wasn’t a play on Mark Benadetto.

maybe a double triple sleeper agent that basically has forgotten where his final loyalty lies, because allies do spy on each other, but U.S.A. and U.K. will never actually go to war.

Would Zhu Long know the actual identity of John Rhodes?

Hah, I wrote in to ask that (and to ask whether he still remembers the Scholar.)

At this point why don’t we just ask if he knows why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch or how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?

Makes one wonder if Zhu Long is a scion of Veil, Singular Entity of secrets.

It’s good to see someone has their priorities straight around here! >:V

When they did the Young Legacy in the Inverse-averse story with Inverse Zhu Long making the mistake of separating the 2 Felicias inside his mystic planetarium and responding “oops that’s on me” I started thinking that maybe each Zhu Long takes taboos like old D&D Wu Jen and that good Zhu “has” to act like a bit of a clown to limit himself and evil Zhu “has” to be self restrictively enigmatic.
“I will send agents to set thing in motion in 3 places and cast a forbidden spell and then I will receive a copy of the newspaper each day” “wouldn’t it be easier to just-” “NO! I work in mysterious ways”

I’m writing this late at night, hours after finishing this episode, and I’m trying to remember the exact thing that prompted this idea, but something about the Benchmark timeline reminded me of the Young Legacy in college timeline. Dammit, gonna have to read the transcript to remember the idea again. Oh right, the “created by a TV writer” bit. K. Matthew Nonameski. Mystery box villain of the week, never getting an answer, etc. what years was Felicia in her college arc again?

According to the wiki from Young Legacy episode:

Justice Comics #687 August 2012 - leaves for college
Year of backup stories in JC
America’s Finest Legacy #498 - last headline for Paul VIII
America’s Greatest Legacy #499 August 2013 - retrospective on Paul VII
America’s Newest Legacy #500 - Felicia’s book, in college until end of Multiverse at end of 2016
~40 issues with last quarter being more OblivAeon than college

So there were two very similar arcs going on at the same time, both featuring villain of the week mystery, both featuring a superhero essentially on the fringes of the rest of the universe, both featuring a character who could be seen as an attempt at a replacement/upgrade over existing heroes.

I wonder if C&A had realized the similarities when they were planning things out.