Here’s The Thing: Ben Grimm is the most fun I’ve had on Marvel Rivals in a while

It’s finally clobberin’ time, and not a moment too soon. Marvel Rivals’ season 1.5 update launched earlier this morning with everyone’s favorite lovable rock man, and I’m so thrilled with him.

As a Vanguard main and Thing fan, the wait from the launch of season one a month and a half ago to get this big galoot named Benjamin J. Grimm into the game has felt like an eternal night. But he’s here now and playing him is the most fun I’ve had on Marvel Rivals in some time.

The tank meta in Rivals has seemed stale for a while, always feeling as though I needed to default to Dr. Strange or Magneto to compete or protect my over-eager teammates. I’m not sure if The Thing will become a meta pick just yet, but he sure as hell is my pick right now when it comes to enjoying the game.

Rivals considers Ben a one-star difficulty hero. He feels relatively easy to play, but I also feel like it will be very easy to overextend and get caught out of position, and or caught between a rock and a hard place, so he will most likely be difficult to master at a high level.

Regardless, his kit is a blast. Between his charge attack that launches foes into the air and leaves them immobile for a time, his charged-up punch that deals big damage, and his Embattled Leap ability that allows him to jump to a teammate for safety and damage reduction having two charges, he’s just a breath of freshness in a role that has felt overly simplistic for a while.

And, of course, when it’s Clobberin’ Time, it feels like it. That ultimate ability is one of my favorite in the game thus far, dealing some damage while also launching enemies into the air and stunning them for several seconds, leaving them defenseless to be clobbered by Mr. Grimm and the rest of his team.

Surprisingly, Ben is already the ninth tank in the game, but it doesn’t feel like it. That’s probably because, still, multiple players will insta-lock a Duelist or a Strategist, and leave the leftovers to play a tank without any regard for team composition throughout multiple rank levels. It’s annoying, but I’ve learned to live with it (or take a break from the game entirely like I had recently just done) and embrace my Vanguard soul.

Tanking is nothing new to me, as I’ve been a tank main in Overwatch for years. But for some reason, The Thing feels like a whole new world when it comes to tanking in this game. He’s similar to other brawlers like Hulk or Captain America, but Ben just feels right.

This might just be a honeymoon phase, but for now I feel excited to boot up Rivals once more instead of begrudgingly getting online to complete challenges and lose in Competitive mode again and again.

I hope it lasts. But for now, I’m ready to clobber.