Sharon Ventura

Origin

Brought up by her strict father, Sharon Ventura constantly sought ways to gain his approval including joining military school, but she constantly failed to live up to his super-high standards. During her time at the school Sharon refused to turn in a fellow student and was expelled. This caused an even bigger rift between her and her father and the two went their separate ways. A year would pass and Sharons father would die, and after he died, she would pursue dangerous activities to somehow prove herself to him beyond the grave. Overwhelmed by guilt she chooses to prove to herself that she was the best at all she did. Sharon joined professions which were both thrilling and extremely dangerous. She became as stunt woman, a deep-sea diver, martial arts expert, and a lion tamer to name a few. Always reaching for something long lost from her relationship with her past.

Creation

Sharon Ventura is a Marvel Universe character and made her first appearance in The Thing #27 (September 1985). Sharon was created by Mike Carlin and Ron Wilson. She would go through various variations of the original character concept later renamed She-Thing.

Character Evolution

Always one for the adrenaline rush of imminent danger, Sharon would go stunt-bike riding with the Thunderiders. During that time, Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four had met and fallen in love with a woman (Tarianna) who looked exactly like Sharon on Battleworld during the Secret Wars, and he returned to Earth looking for Sharon. Not realizing this, Sharon voted for Ben to replace her on the Thunderiders team, and she left. Sharon would go on to pursue other interests on her own exploring the world.

Ben moved on to join the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation and Sharon secretly attended his matches. Eventually the two grew close, although Sharon only wanted a friendship while Ben wanted more. When a group of female wrestlers called the Grapplers thought Ben guilty for the murder of one of their members, Sharon tried to help him. This brought her to the attention of Auntie Freeze who was their manager. Auntie introduced Sharon to the Power Broker. Sharon signed up for the Power Broker's program in order to join the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation (UCWF). The Power Broker employed Dr. Karl Malus to create super-powered wrestlers for his competitions, but Sharon was unaware of the criminal activities of Jackson or Malus. While boosting their subjects' strength, the pair addicted the subjects to a drug, ensuring their obedience. Sharon was given a costume by Auntie Freeze and was given the code-name Ms. Marvel.

During her treatment to enhance her strength, Sharon changed her mind. She was unwilling to become addicted to the drug that would be injected into her. She was able to break free and, after Thing's timely arrival, flee.

Learning of how many people were now addicted to the drug Power Broker used, Sharon decided to take the battle to him. She was sold out by her (then) boyfriend and taken hostage by the Power Broker and Karl Malus. They attempted to remove her powers from her. Alongside that, various henchmen raped and tortured her. She escaped her captors leaving before Malus could obtain his revenge and eliminate her. Luckily, she had some help from Captain America to bring it all down.

The events did drastically alter not only her physical prowess but also affected her mental stability after enduring such trauma. She had a huge mistrust towards men and physically recoiled from being touched as experienced not only by Captain America but on various interactions with the Thing.

Major Story Arcs

Fantastic Four Membership

Chancing upon a battle between the Fantastic Four and Diablo, Sharon was able to defeat the villain. Due to her recent experiences, she had a new hatred for men and almost killed Diablo. Thing stopped her in time and offered her membership on his team, which she accepted. Shortly thereafter, on a mission in space, she was bombarded with the same type of cosmic rays that the Fantastic Four encountered years ago and mutated into the same shape as Thing. She had an extremely hard time with this at first, and even tried to commit suicide by acting reckless in battle.

Months later, she was offered a cure by Doctor Doom which she refused. She was growing more comfortable with her appearance and place with the Fantastic Four. For many months she thrived with the team and adventured all over the Universe and the Microverse. She and Ben Grimm became quite close during this time, and she even became the only 'Thing' on the team when Ben was cured. Eventually, this bothered her, and she sought out a cure for herself from Doctor Doom. She was cured, but Ben was turned back into the Thing. She stayed by his side and only quit the team when Alicia Masters returned to Ben's life.

Doctor Doom returned to her life yet again and convinced her to spy on the Fantastic Four as payment for her cure. She did so willingly but turned on him once on the inside, Doom swore revenge. Ben had a hard time forgiving her, and she left. Later, Ben went out in search of her due to his feelings for her. He discovered her in an alley, mutated once more. She had lost the will to live and tried to kill herself several more times to no avail. Mr. Fantastic did all he could to try and cure her. But when Reed was thought dead, she left once more.

Enlisted in the Frightful Four

Alone and confused, Sharon was targeted by the Wizard for recruitment into the Frightful Four. As the mutated She-Thing, Sharon and her evil friends had the Fantastic Four on the ropes. Wizard had the Torch beaten so much he could not use his flame. The Red Ghost and his Super Apes had the Thing severely weakened. Klaw had Ant-Man helpless. She-Thing had Susan Storm so totally exhausted that her force field was done. Unfortunately for Sharon and her pals, Wizard grabbed the Torch in an attempt to choke him to death. This opened up a pocket of non-causality which suddenly gave all of the Fantastic Four extra strength and allowed them to overcome their foes. If Wizard had not grabbed the Torch, Sharon Ventura, aka the She-Thing, really would have finished off Sue Storm!

Ventura Reinvented

Sharon battled the Fantastic Four twice before Wyatt Wingfoot talked sense into her. She quit both groups and joined Wyatt on his reservation hoping to rediscover who she was. After so much pain, emotional and physical she would slowly come to find herself identity again. With the help of Wyatt and being away from the "superpowered" world she connected with a sense of inner peace not reached in many, many years if ever. Sharon would than come to fully accept her rocky form without the emotional need to use her abilities or powers to be needed, wanted, or loved.

She later rejoined her former teammates and friends for Invisible Woman's "girl's night out" and Thing's bar mitzvah (celebrating thirteen years as the Thing). Now a more complete person and no longer requiring affirmation from those she loved.

Registration Act

Sharon apparently encountered Iron Man and SHIELD as they tried to arrest her and a group of heroes refusing to register. It is unknown if she was arrested or escaped. It is also interesting to note that she was back in her human form.

Secret Invasion

Sharon later seemingly reappeared back in her She-Thing form during the Secret Invasion. She was however, quickly revealed to be a Skrull impostor and dispatched by the Skrull Kill Krew. The real Sharon was recovered from a downed Skrull ship after the final battle with the Skrull invaders. Being held captive for as long as she had left some psychological trauma in her, and she attends a support group with others who had been kidnapped and replaced by Skrulls.

Powers and Abilities

While holding the title of Ms. Marvel, Sharon possessed incredible superhuman strength and high endurance levels due to the augmentations provided by Dr. Karl Malus. It has been stated by Sharon that while in her original human enhanced form by the Power Broker she was able to lift and press approximately 15 tons. This strength level is at the similar range of the superhero Spider-Man. She has superhumanly enhanced reflexes and balance, and hand to eye coordination. She could also go for many hours before toxins buildup in her blood stream casing fatigue to her muscles. Heer speed was also enhanced, and she was way above the peak human athlete abilities. her physical musculature was changed along with her bone structure all enhanced and very durable to trauma.

When exposed to cosmic radiation, Sharon became the She-Thing which brought her previous levels of strength to an even higher level which also resulted in her physical attributes mirroring the Thing. In her She-Thing form she was able to lift and press about approximately 75 tons. In this cosmic irradiated form Sharon appearance significantly changed. She was a 6'ft. hairless, four fingered, earless, orange rocky creature resembling the original Ben Grimm the Things appearance. This also increased her durability considerably and she was able to advance even with direct blasts from Ultron. She was able to continue exerting herself for up to 24 hours before feeling enough fatigue to impair her. In this form she was also highly more impenetrable but could still be injured. Her rocklike exterior could withstand vacuum of space, high caliber impacts, direct high explosives, extreme changes in temperature, concussive forces, and caustic acids.

Sharon is proficient in the martial arts and boxing and is extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat. She is an expert in scuba diving, skydiving, motorcycling, skiing, lion-taming and wrestling due to her professional status of stuntwoman and education provided to her while in military academy.

Also, while in her She-Thing form, Sharon has demonstrated an above-average application of critical thinking, utilizing both intuition and keen intelligence in various situations which may be an added power due to her exposure to cosmic rays.

Personal Data

Characteristics

• Gender: Female
• Height: 5'8" (6'0" as She-Thing)
• Weight: 135 lbs. (340 lbs. as She-Thing)
• Eyes: Blue
• Hair: Red (none as She-Thing)
• Unusual Features: Rock-hard, orange skin when in She-Thing form

Status

• Citizenship: American
• Place of Birth: Pullman, Washington
• Identity: Known to authorities
• Marital Status: Single
• Known Relatives: Jack Ventura (father, deceased), unidentified mother (deceased)
• Occupation: Wrestler; former prisoner, adventurer, stuntwoman, scuba diver, motorcycle performer. lion tamer,
• Education: Expelled from Military Academy

Alternate Realities

• MC2 (Earth-982)

In this reality, Sharon was later made completely human again, she and Ben were married, and have twin children, Alyce and Jacob, although they later divorced. Dr. Doom, imprisoned for years by the Sub-Mariner, finally breaks free, and imbues countless robotic duplicates with the Power Cosmic. Just one robot manages to decimate the Five and destroy Ben's robotic implants. Although the team manages to stop the robot by trapping it in a stasis beam, the real Doom appears and banishes the younger members to a spaceship orbiting earth and trapping the others within Mr. Fantastic's own rubbery body. Franklin has the others remove the inner shielding of the ship and exposes himself to a massive amount of cosmic rays, which increases his powers dramatically. He manages to destroy the Doombot guarding them but is greatly pained by using his increased powers. Doom, seeking to humble Reed once and for all, has the others freed from his body, and has Reed and himself plugged into an Infinity Device for a mental duel, the loser of which will have his mind sent to the Crossroads of Infinity. Reed's teammates use the opportunity to escape, and with Kristoff's help, shut down the cosmically powered Doombots. Reed and Doom are shown to be evenly matched in their duel, and both minds are sent to the crossroads as a result, leaving their bodies blank and motionless. Sue and Kristoff decide to remain in Latveria and look after Reed, while Alyce goes home with her mother. Ben's son Jacob takes Reed's place on the team.

Other Media

• Video Games

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Sharon, in her Ms. Marvel costume appears as a variant skin for the Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel character.

• Toys and Action Figures

Toy-Biz, circa 1997

As her original Ms. Marvel identity Toy-Biz introduced her in a limited-edition action figure for the She-Force, Marvel Hall of Fame series. The toy was issued in 1997.

Wiz-Kids, circa 2020

In 2020 Marvel HeroClix released a Fantastic Four set, booster pack #3. Sharon Ventura as She-Thing comes in this five-figure booster pack. The pack includes. The Thing, Spider-Man, Klaw, and Doom 2099 figures.