Though I wasn’t a big reader of John Byrne’s NEXT MEN series while is was being published, when I DID get down to collecting them all and reading them, I LOVED IT to DEATH!
With an original storyline of five super-powered individuals who awaken from a dream world state and are suddenly thrust into the real one, Byrne created these thoughtful and sympathetic characters that you really cared about. And out of all of the so-called “Next Men”, the one that I loved head and shoulders above the rest was the indestructible maiden of might, Bethany.
I fell in love with Bethany from the very first moment I laid eyes on her, happily chatting with Nathan in the “Greenery” the virtual paradise in their minds, dressing like a beautiful extra in Logan’s Run, though I really can’t explain why she won me over so immediately.
But from the moment she awoke into the “real” world and had to begin dealing with her powers/curse of having a virtually indestructible body, her plight always seemed the most interesting to me: having a completely indestructible body meant long hair, long fingernails, and since even her pigment couldn’t be affected, developing a pale complexion!
It was great storytelling to see her go from the pretty, optimistic and curious girl talking in the Greenery...
To the cold, bitter and ruthless warrior who grew out of her experience of having to deal with the loss of feeling, the loss of her love, and the helplessness of not being able to save innocents from the hands of truly evil men out in the real world.
There are traces of Susan Storm-Richards in Bethany to be sure, and why not? Byrne was trying to elevate Sue from the crying, wringing-her-hands girl she was in the early comics to become arguably the strongest member of the Fantastic Four, an ass-kicking beautiful blonde- exactly the prototype for the character Beth became!
Why, there are even similarities in Bethany’s “Hardbody’ cosutme and Susan Storm’s “Hate” outfit from FF #281! AHAHAHA..Byrne shows his S & M Style LOL
PS: Speaking of Behtany’s supposed “Codename” Hardbody, well, I never liked it. In fact, in the comic it was a name thrust upon her by an overzealous fellow member who envisioned them as Comic heroes. I don’t know if Byrne menat Hardbody to stick as her real codename, but since even Bethany didn’t like it, I don’t feel any need to accept it either AHAHAHAHA!
