Thing
Thing is a comic book character that first appeared in Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #1
The unfortunate member of the Fantastic Four. Ben is literally made of stone but has a big heart. Evil doers beware, if you get on the ever lovin' blue eyed Thing's bad side then it's Clobbering Time!
Origin
Background
Excelling in football as a high school student, Ben received a full scholarship to Empire State University, where he first met his eventual life-long friend in a teenaged genius named Reed Richards. Despite them being from radically different backgrounds, science student Richards described his dream to Grimm to one day build a space rocket to explore the regions of space around Mars, and Grimm jokingly agrees to fly that rocket when the day comes.
Following college, Grimm joins the United States Army Air Forces, where he is trained as a test pilot (his exploits as a military aviator are chronicled to a limited extent in issue #7 of the "Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders" comic, in a story entitled "Objective: Ben Grimm!"). While in the Air Force, Nick Fury orders him to serve as pilot during a top secret surveillance mission into Vladivostok in the Soviet Union, along with Logan (the future X-Man Wolverine) and Carol Danvers (the future Avenger Ms. Marvel).
Following this, he became an astronaut for NASA.
Some years later, Reed Richards, now a successful scientist, once again made contact with Grimm. Richards has built his spaceship, and reminded Grimm of his promise to fly the ship. After the government denies him permission to fly the spaceship himself, Richards plots a clandestine flight piloted by Grimm and accompanied by his future wife Susan Storm, who had helped provide funding for the rocket, and her brother Johnny Storm, who helped the group gain access to the launch system. Although reluctant to fly the rocket, Ben was persuaded to do so by Sue, for whom he had a soft spot. During this unauthorized ride into the upper atmosphere of Earth and the Van Allen Belts, they were pelted by a cosmic ray storm and exposed to radiation against which the ship's shields are no protection. Upon crashing down to Earth, each of the four learn that they have developed fantastic superhuman abilities. Grimm's skin is transformed into a thick, lumpy orange hide, which gradually evolves into his now-familiar craggy covering of large rocky plates. Richards proposed the quartet band together to use their new abilities for the betterment of humanity, and Grimm, in a moment of self-pity, adopted the super-heroic sobriquet, The Thing.
Trapped in his monstrous form, Grimm was an unhappy yet reliable member of the team. He trusted in his friend Reed Richards to one day develop a cure for his condition. However, when he encountered blind sculptress Alicia Masters, Grimm develops an unconscious resistance to being transformed back to his human form. Subconsciously fearing that Masters prefers him to remain in the monstrous form of the Thing, Grimm's body rejects various attempts by Richards to restore his human form, lest he lose Masters' love. Grimm has remained a stalwart member of the Fantastic Four for years.
After the events of the first Secret Wars, Grimm leaves the team when he opts to remain on an alien planet where he can control his transformation to and from his rocky super-powered form. Upon returning to Earth, he learns that Alicia had become romantically involved with his teammate Johnny Storm during his absence (it is eventually revealed that this Alicia was actually the Skrull impostor Lyja). An angry Grimm wallowed in self-pity for a time, later on joining the West Coast Avengers, and hanging out at the West Coast mansion. Eventually, he returns to his surrogate family as leader of the Fantastic Four when Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman leave the team to raise their son Franklin. Ben invited Crystal and Ms. Marvel II (Sharon Ventura) to fill their slots. Soon after Sharon and Ben were irradiated with cosmic rays, Sharon became a lumpy Thing much like Ben was in his first few appearances while Ben mutates into a new rocky form.
After being further mutated into the more monstrous rocky form and briefly being changed back to his human form, Grimm has once more returned to his traditional orange rocky form. He remains a steadfast member of the Fantastic Four.
Despite his unquestioned loyalty to the Fantastic Four, Grimm has been temporarily replaced on the team twice. First, after Grimm temporarily lost his powers and reverted to human form, Reed Richards hired Luke Cage (then using the code name "Power Man") to take his place.Years later, after Grimm chose to remain on Battleworld in the aftermath of the "Secret Wars", he asked the She-Hulk to fill in for him.
Relationships
Grimm's relationship with his teammates has been a close but occasionally edgy one given his temper. He and the Torch (aka Johnny Storm) are always arguing and have often clashed, causing no end of mayhem in the FF HQ. When Storm started a relationship of his own with Alicia Masters and they became engaged, Grimm was upset. However, he had to concede that, unlike himself and his stone-covered body, Johnny could "be a man". He even agreed to act as best man at their wedding.
The relationship between Alicia and Johnny was vehemently disliked by many fans,[citation needed] and was later retconned and explained that the Alicia that Johnny fell in love with was actually Lyja, a member of the shape-changing Skrull race. The real Alicia, who was kept in suspended animation, was soon rescued by the Fantastic Four and reunited with the Thing.
Recently, Ben has been dating a teacher named Debbie Green. Their relationship goes so well that, after only six weeks, Ben asks Debbie to marry him, which she accepts.
He calls Reed Richards "Stretch" given both the fact that he is naturally tall and can literally stretch his body. However, Grimm also holds Reed responsible for his condition since he dismissed the potential danger of the cosmic rays that gave them their powers, whereas Grimm took them very seriously. At times of real frustration towards Reed, he even refers to him simply as "Richards".
He is the godfather of Reed and Sue's son Franklin who affectionately calls him "Uncle Ben".
The Thing has had a long-standing rivalry with the Incredible Hulk. The two refer to each other as "Grimm" and "Banner", and their feud isn't completely resolved.
In the 21st century
The Thing uses his newfound wealth to build a community center in his old neighborhood on Yancy Street, the "Grimm Youth Center." Thinking the center is named after the Thing himself, the Yancy Street Gang plans to graffiti the building exterior, but discovers the building was actually named after Daniel Grimm, the Thing's deceased older brother, who had been a former leader of the gang. The relationship between the Yancy Streeters and the Thing is then effectively reconciled, or at least changed to a more good-natured, playful rivalry (as exemplified by the comic ending, with Yancy Streeters spray-painting the sleeping Thing).
Some personality traits of the cantankerously lovable, occasionally cigar-smoking, Jewish native of the Lower East Side are popularly recognized as having been inspired by those of co-creator Jack Kirby, who in interviews has said he intended Grimm to be an alter ego of himself. However, as was usual for comic-book characters of that era, no religion was publicly mentioned. Grimm has since been revealed to be Jewish, like Kirby, in Fantastic Four v3, #56, published in August 2002, in a story titled "Remembrance of Things Past". In the final issue of his solo series, Ben even agrees to finally have his very own Bar Mitzvah, it being 13 years since he began his "second life" as the Thing. To celebrate the ceremony, Ben organizes a poker tournament for every available superhero in the Marvel Universe.
Civil War/The Initiative
Ben returns to New York as both sides of the SHRA battle in the city. Oblivious to whichever side gets in his way, Ben makes it his job to protect civilians from harm. His current status in the aftermath is unknown.
In the latest issue (March, 2007) Ben celebrates the Fantastic Four's 11th anniversary along with the Human Torch, and late-comers Reed and Sue. The aftermath of the Civil War is still being felt in this issue, as Ben and Johnny (and even Franklin) consider the future of the team and Reed and Sue's marriage. When Reed and Sue arrive near issue's end, they announce they are taking a break from the team and have found two replacement members: Black Panther, and Storm of the X-Men. The title of the story in this issue is a quote from Ben, "Come on, Suzie, don't leave us hangin'."
Ben has been identified as Number 53 of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book Avengers: The Initiative #1.
World War Hulk
Released from his imprisonment, Ben, Spider-Man, and Luke Cage attack the Warbound, with Ben fighting Korg. Their battle is brought to an abrupt end when Hiroim repairs the damage to Manhattan Island, drawing the energy to do so from Ben and Korg.
Secret Invasion
In the Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four miniseries, the Skrull Lyja, posing as Sue, sends the Baxter Building, with Ben, Johnny, Franklin and Valeria inside, into the Negative Zone. Not long after their arrival, Ben has to protect Franklin and Valeria from an impending onslaught of giant insects.With the aid of the Tinkerer, which Ben broke out of the Negative Zone Prision, they, with the exception of Lyja who stayed behind, were able to return to the regular Marvel Universe just after the invasion was over.
Powers
The Thing has immense superhuman strength. In his first appearance, he could only lift 5 tons. Over the years, he was steady at 85 tons but now can lift easily over 100 tons, his strength is enough to allow him to go toe to toe with Colossus, Silver Surfer , and even hold his on against Hulk. He has enhanced stamina and his body can withstand extreme environments and abuse. His skin can withstand 15 pounds of explosives. He can live in the deep crushing pressures of the ocean, he can go through space without air. Despite his size, he still has a decent amount of agility and movement. He is trained to operate a number of aircraft's, including the many inventions created by Richards. He has some training in hand-to-hand combat and is a very skilled wrestler.
Interesting Facts
Evolution of his Skin
In the Thing's first appearance, Jack Kirby (the original illustrator) had intended his skin to be something like dinosaur hide. Over the years his skin has evolved growing into more rocky plate like structures. The rocky exterior moves over a more viscous inner hide. This can be seen in story lines from the 1980s where Reed Richards attempted to cure the Thing. He succeeded in removing the rocky exterior but was not so successful in removing the inner hide which left the Thing looking like bumpy mush for a period of time. It is commonly accepted that the evolution of the Thing's skin is a measure of the Thing's overall physical changes and strength.
Alternate Realities
In the Ultimate universe Thing is a bit younger and still a member of the Fantastic Four.
Earth-982
In the MC2 universe Thing is a member of the Fantastic Five alongside Human Torch, Ms Fantastic, Franklin Richards and Big Brain. Much of the past history of the Fantastic Four remains as it is in the 616 reality. His left arm and much of the body has been replaced by cybernetic parts needed after a battle with Terrax.
Thing married Sharon (later to become Sharon Ventura after remarrying) and had two children named Alyce and Jake.
Earth-2149
In the Marvel Zombies universe the Thing has, as most of earth's heroes been turned into a zombie.
Earth-721
In this reality, also known as Earth A, (first seen in Fantastic Four #118), Only Reed Richards and Ben Grimm was aboard the spaceship and got exposed to cosmic rays. Afterwards Reed Richards got the Thing powers and Ben Grimm got the Mr. Fantastic powers. Furthermore Johnny Storm was believed to have died in Vietnam, but he became Gaard and later Vangaard. Sue Storm married Ben Grimm.
Earth-311
In the 1602 reality Benjamin Grimm got his powers from the Anomaly and became a member of The Four of the Fantastick.
Earth-58163
In the House of M reality Doctor Doom is leader of the Fanatic Four which consists of himself, Invincible Woman ( Valeria Von Doom), Inhuman Torch ( Kristoff Vernard) and The Thing, Here known as The It.
Earth-772
In this reality Thing is a member of Fantastic Five alongside Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Spider-Man.
Earth-917
In this reality Thing is a member of Fantastic Five alongside Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Namor.
Earth-912
In this reality Thing is a member of Fantastic Five alongside Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Silver Surfer.
Earth-4400
Thing was also a member of Fantastic Five in this reality, alongside Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Spider-Man. They were all killed by Hyperion and Weapon X.
Earth-295
In a "What if?: Age of Apocalypse", Ben is a member of the Defenders, the AoA version of the Avengers. In this reality where Legion killed both Professor X and Magneto leading to the X-Men to never be formed, The Defenders are composed of Ben, Captain Britain in Iron Man's armor, Wolverine aka Weapon X, Brother Voodoo, who is the Sorcerer Supreme in this universe, X-Man, Molecule Man, Colossus and Sauron with their leader, Captain America, in possession of Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Ben was killed by Apocalypse's son, Holocaust.
Earth-2301
In the Marvel Mangaverse, Ben is a member of the Fantastic Four, a team that battle giant monsters with their mecha power packs. The whole team was killed by The Hand, except the Human Torch.
Earth-9939 (Earth Charnel)
In this reality Thing is a member of the Avengers and is married to Alicia Masters, but has tragically been rendered paralyzed by the evil entity known as Charnel. To move and fight, Thing must be connected to a mechanical exo-skeleton.
Characteristics
Height:7'1"
Weight:800 lbs
Eyes:blue
Hair:Bald
| Super Name: | Thing |
| Real Name: | Benjamin Jacob Grimm |
| Aliases: |
Benjamin Jacob Grimm Ben Grimm Blackbeard the Pirate The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing Bashful Benjy Dr. Josiah Verpoorteen Uncle Benjy Idol of Millions Grim Ben The Thing Dragonfly (What If) Ricardo Jones (impersonator) La Cosa Cosa It |
| Publisher: | Marvel Publishing |
| Gender: | Male |
| Character Type: | Radiation |
| 1st Appearance: | Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #1 |
| Appears in: | 2440 issues |
| Birthday: | 11/09/1961 |
| Died: |
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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Sequel to the Fantastic Four movie.
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Fantastic Four
The first Fantastic Four movie ever released, but the second to be filmed.
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Fantastic Four
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