Ah, but bumbly Jack Ryan is a bit of a mask, he can be as scary, if not scarier than John Clark in the fact that he keeps his worse natures tightly wound. When he goes off, he gets dangerous.
Hell, He never even saw Combat, he was a baby officer, his helo hit the drink UPSIDE DOWN and I believe he was the sole survivor. The movies always make it some crappy RPG attack when the books made it so much scarier. Hell, there are parts in Red October where they just throw out survival times like "Yeah, anything goes wrong? suuuper dead".
So this crippled marine, who never actually got to serve in uniform, DESTROYS the rather stupid terrorists in Pat Games. I also hate how they always change this, it's crazy that he saved the friggin heir to the throne while jogging around like a meathead.
Surviving terrorists bide their time and mope like jackasses, while Jack Ryan's response is "That was weird". and he gets back to his life. He's more annoyed by the Knighting than being shot.
They mess with his wife, he unleashes the monster he can be. They shoot up his house, he kills more of them.
It's like a horror movie, they keep trying to kill him, and they end up dying. It's almost like Tucker and dale vs. evil.
This of course, makes the TV show even less impressive. Jack Ryan is a man who wants to be a nerd, but wrote his dissertation on making critical decisions under imminent threat. Of course, Captain Ramius was not impressed.
Man, it is a shame that Clancy is dead, he wrote Competency Porn at a level that few can hit.
