Jack Reacher vs Mark Rathman

After reading my first novel, one of my siblings said that Mark Rathman reminded her a bit of Jack Reacher. I have not read any of Lee Child’s work at this point so curiosity made me go look online. Based on a Wikipedia article, I’ve noticed that there are some similarities.

First and foremost both characters stand six feet five inches tall. Mark is lighter at 225 pounds. Reacher was listed as being somewhere between 220 and 250 pounds. He is listed as having a fifty-inch chest. I’m six foot five and have a forty+ inch chest and weigh in at a lean 210. Unless Reacher has no legs he has to be closer to 250. Both men have very little body fat, well-muscled natural physique and abnormally quick reflexes. Both men have a bullet scar on their chest although Mark didn’t start “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” with one. He earned it along the way. Mark has dark hair and dark eyes while Reacher has ice blue eyes and dirty blond hair.

Their backgrounds are significantly different but similar. Reacher was raised in a military family and was trained by the military. Mark on the other hand came from a civilian police family and acquired his skills through special training and from his father.

Personalities are completely different. Reacher is very aggressive while Mark is only as aggressive as he has to be in a given situation. I get some of this from the article in Wikipedia but also from a few movie clips I watched. As a side note the movie may not be much of a reflection of the books. Keep in mind that Reacher is played by Tom Cruise who is not a very physically imposing individual. As an example I refer to the five on one fight scene outside a bar. Young lady asks to share a table with Reacher. He talks in riddles to her and insults her to provoke the fight. Mark would have never gotten into that one. Complete waste of his time and abilities. Both men share a like for blues.

Last similarity is that both men are “ghosts”. Reacher is a drifter and just keeps moving around while Mark has alter egos since birth that he maintains. They both have a knack for disappearing into crowds.

So who would win in a head to head confrontation? I’m biased but I think Mark would win and I have a solid reason for thinking so. Reacher I believe has a clear strength advantage and his aggressiveness may give him another small edge. I think their marital arts skills and reflexes would cancel each other out. Where Mark has a clear advantage is with knives. Reacher doesn’t like facing an opponent with knives. Mark is an expert with his k-bar and double ended daga as well as a few throwing knives. On that basis I tip the scale strongly in favour of the hero I created.

My apologies to Lee Child, I expect to read one of your books someday. I suspect I would like them just because. I give my character the edge but you have a whole series out there and a movie based on one of your books. I’m just recently published. We know who has the edge in this standoff. Heck, you’re probably an expert in the use of the coma.

Things That Amuse Me And Things That Baffle Me

I don't know why but I love statistics. I like to peruse the background statistical information from my Blogger account. I can't help it. I go there almost everyday. Same with my writing dot com account. Yesterday I noticed that I got referral page views from something called thetaoofbadass. Does that sound cool or what? I like to think that my character from my first novel, Mark Rathman, rates badass.That would have been such a cool connection. I ruined everything by going to visit the site. Turned out to be some instructional video about picking up women. I have no idea how that connects to anything I wrote,

There is one other statistic connected to this url that baffles me. All the page views came from Russia. This wouldn't be strange as a one off incident but I get a lot of views from Russia consistently. Why? I only have one friend on Facebook who has any connection to Russia. I can't even blame this on her. We only reconnected as friends recently and this phenomenon has been going on since the beginning. I don't mind, in fact, I'm delighted. At least someone is paying attention to my writing. I just don't understand the connection. Why is Russia a solid number three behind Canada and the United States? Cheers to all my Russian readers. I'm glad you're finding something here you like.

Writing dot com gave me another winner recently. I posted as story I wrote a very long time ago called "Way to Go Barstow!" A very poorly written tongue in cheek children's story. I posted it hoping to get some feedback on it before contemplating a rewrite. It's about an obese young boy whose weight problem turns him into a super NHL goaltender and ends Toronto's ongoing Stanley Cup drought. Someone found that story on bing by searching proper+fit+goalie+pads. I'm sorry I laugh about that every time it crosses my mind.

Writing Took A Backseat For More Than A Month

Way too much going on the last month plus to get many entries made here. Started the month trying to have a painful kidney stone dealt with medically. It worked but it was a long excruciating process. Took a lot out of me. That wasn't the only issue for the month. We also moved the whole family to another home. That was another whole adventure. The move was finished two weeks ago but the Internet wasn't fully functional here until last evening. There is still lots of work ahead of me and more pain from sciatica but things are heading back to normal. I look forward to making this blog a place worth visiting.