Urich is a chain-smoking, tough-as-nails investigative journalist for the New York newspaper The Daily Bugle. Urich deduced the secret identity of Daredevil and has used him as a source of information and vice versa. To a lesser extent, he has a similar relationship with Spider-Man, whose alter ego Peter Parker is a photographer for the Bugle.

Universe

Earth-616

Created by

Roger McKenzie, Gene Colan

First appearance

Daredevil #153
(July, 1978)

1 HistoryEdit
2 Powers and AbilitiesEdit
- 2.1 Powers
3 NotesEdit
4 LinksEdit
- 4.1 Discover and Discuss
- 4.2 Footnotes

HistoryEdit

Urich investigated Wilson Fisk, a businessman who was secretly the Kingpin, the head of the New York mafia.

Later, Urich was also responsible for outing Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin in a book titled Legacy of Evil, although after Osborn's presumed death. When Norman returned from the dead (or rather, Europe) he was able to discredit Urich and the book, going through great effort to clear his name.

During the period where Daredevil's identity was exposed in print, Ben refused to confirm it to J. Jonah Jameson on the principle of protecting his sources and his status at work suffered for it. However, Jameson was able to move beyond that argument when he assigned Ben to the new supplement, The Pulse.

Ben Urich turned out to be right when he originally exposed the Green Goblin, as Daily Bugle research would show, and conclusively when the Green Goblin was unmasked before a public and sent to jail. Although the Green Goblin is currently at large again, he can no longer walk around free like he was before.

Later, Ben was approached by the Kingpin to act as journalist covering the Kingpin brokering a deal with the FBI for release and reinstatement of his wealth, in exchange for proof that Daredevil is in fact Matt Murdock. To Ben's horror, he was the one that was forced to lead the FBI to Daredevil's location.

Matt Murdock was recovering at the Night Nurse's clinic, of which Ben Urich knew the location (he had written an article on her), and he was forced to give that information to the FBI, thanks to the manipulation of the Kingpin.

Ben covered Iron Man's side as an embedded journalist during the Civil War and discovered some shocking revelations.

During the events of World War Hulk, Ben and journalist Sally Floyd, in their capacity as the new editorial staff of Front Line, were two of the few reporters who covered the alien invasion in close proximity. During the course of those events, Sally Floyd learned that Daily Bugle editor Jonah Jameson was the mysterious financial backer of the publication, a fact which they agreed to hide from Urich, lest it kill his spirit.^[1]

When the Skrulls invaded Earth, Ben was covering a story in a local hospital, only to be trapped inside during the Skrull attacks. He survived, though a new-found nurse friend and all the others inside were killed by rampaging Skrulls. Ben and many other human refugees made their way to Stark Tower, though few were aware a human-hunting Skrull with a large body count hidden within. The Skrull perished via human trickery and Ben and one of the survivors wandered the city. The duo witnessed the climatic battle against the Skrulls in Central Park.

After the end of the the invasion, Urich learned that his wife had died, and hit both an incredible depression and writer's block. Later, Urich got word of Norman Osborn's rise to power, and confronted Osborn at the press conference where he announcing the control of the Thunderbolts Initiative over SHIELD and the Avengers. Urich confronted Obsorn about his past, only to get brushed off by Osborn. The crowd cheered for Osborn. This ultimately broke Urich's writers block, prompting him to write his return article: "Dark Reign: Norman Osborn Takes Control".^[2]

Later on when Osborn was about to Invade Asgard, Urich decided to travel to Oklahoma with his old friend Will Stern and Volstagg.