{"id":801,"date":"2010-11-06T16:00:36","date_gmt":"2010-11-06T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/?p=801"},"modified":"2010-11-06T16:00:36","modified_gmt":"2010-11-06T16:00:36","slug":"day-36-big-bear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/2010\/11\/06\/day-36-big-bear\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 36: Big Bear!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many a Kirby group has a tough macho and\/or intimidatingly big man, either a Rocky from The Challengers of the Unknown<\/em> or the Howling Commandos<\/em>‘ Dum-Dum Dugan, but none are quite like the jovial, happy, rock-em sock-em, red-headed giant of The Forever People<\/em>, Big Bear. Think Alan Hale (junior, senior — doesn’t matter) only without a whiff<\/em> of grouchiness and you’ve got the group’s Super-Cycle pilot to a tee. Picture a good-looking Thing but always in a good mood and never in self-pity mode.<\/p>\n

I know, I know: I said the group is non-violent, a statement seemingly at odds when we see Big Bear taking on a Justifier, cordially telling the hapless villain, “Big Bear<\/em> is my name, sir! — and power<\/em> is my game!! That’s my bag<\/em>, sir!! I store an excess<\/em> of free atoms and send them where they’re needed!!<\/em>” (Yup, he can concentrate his atoms to any area of his body, giving him, for all practical purposes, super-powers.)<\/p>\n

Still, he does fret over his rough behavior, lamenting Highfather’s words of “Violence breeds<\/em> violence,” and, moments later, telling his fellow Forever Peeps, “Well! I thought you’d never<\/em> get here!! I’m getting involved in all<\/em> kinds of violence!!”<\/p>\n

Big Bear’s head device, framed by a lion’s mane-like flaming red hair, is equipped with head gear, with what appears to be a paper-thin glass mask and ear circuits capable of “instantaneous translation,” which aids in his time-traveling trip to ancient Briton, where the self-described history buff helps a future King Arthur begin his legendary deeds. Cheerful throughout his visit, he later tells the kids, “Darkseid sent me to a place of violence<\/em> but I had a nice<\/em> time!!”<\/p>\n

One of the most memorable moments of the series is when Darkseid calls the group to attention, berating them as would a drill sergeant, and in a classic scene, tweaks Big Bear’s nose while urging the “baboon” and “clown” to learn discipline. It remains one of Jack’s most humorous panels.<\/p>\n

Finally, I just gotta mention Big Bear’s manner of speech, which, at times, is downright incomprehensible. Take this opening dialogue line in FP<\/em> #2, when the team is looking over an inner-city neighborhood: “”Dig this place! It’s got the ingredients<\/em> of the cake — but it needs more<\/em> baking!”<\/p>\n

Pray tell, anyone got “instantaneous translation” for that pearl???<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many a Kirby group has a tough macho and\/or intimidatingly big man, either a Rocky from The Challengers of the Unknown or the Howling Commandos‘ Dum-Dum Dugan, but none are quite like the jovial, happy, rock-em sock-em, red-headed giant of The Forever People, Big Bear. Think Alan Hale (junior, senior — doesn’t matter) only without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,8,29,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-day-entries","category-heroes","category-new-genesis","category-the-forever-people-1"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3urou-cV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}