Ben Thompson Badass, The Birth of a Legend

Badass: The Birth of a Legend

Ben Thompson

Harper, Mar 15 2011, $16.99

ISBN: 9780062001351

Ben Thompson switches from the real Badass personas of his previous tale to those of legend (biblical, mythology and Hollywood) with thirty-eight entries. Some of the toughest kick butts are females like Kali the Indian Goddess who dined on entails washed down buy blood and Atalanta who sailed on the Argo and defeated the male Greek heroes in a wrestling tournament. Others include Captain Kirk, Moby Dick, Thor, Beowulf and Godzilla, etc. The basic underlying theme that connects the Badass heroes and antiheroes is the battle between irrelevancy and reverence for top dog as only the winner does not have to look at the butt of the loser (even Saint Michael the Archangel who beat Satan's butt receives this treatment). Fittingly the Daleks are included; if you are unaware of who they are, this probably is not your book. For the rest of us, the glib commentaries make my day (Harry is included).

Harriet Klausner