Thing (Marvel)
The Thing is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Benjamin Grimm
His father Daniel, an alcoholic was unable to hold a job. Much of the family's income came from Grimm's older brother, Daniel Jr., who obtained funds illegally as leader of the Yancy Street Gang. (Thing v1 #1)
Under a football scholarship, he came to get a place at state university where he became a football hotshot. It was whilst he was there when he came to meet Reed Richards who became his roommate. (Fantastic Four v1 #11)
After his graduation, he came to enlist where he became a marine fighter ace with him fighting over Okinawa and Guadalcanal. His accomplishments led to him being regarded as a hero to every American who could read the newspapers. (Fantastic Four v1 #11)
Ben was later tapped by veteran soldier Nick Fury to fly a new prototype stealth plane into Russian territory to investigate why the Soviets were setting up ultra-low frequency radio wave transmitters. Joining him on this mission was his previous acquaintance Logan and Department of Defence agent Carol Danvers who were part of a secret sealed mission the details of which they would know only once they crossed over into Russian airspace. As they crossed over into Russia they were intercepted by KGB fighters led by Russian operative Natalia Shostakova, soon realizing that someone betrayed them and their mission. (Before the Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm and Logan v1 #1) Forced to land their plane, Ben and Logan faced off against Russian forces while Carol fled into the woods with their black box flight recorder. Ben and Logan were soon captured and loaded aboard a prisoner train that was also carrying a Soviet weapon called Project: Red Storm, the objective of Logan's mission. Ben and Logan managed to break free, steal Red Storm and were pulled off the train by Carol who had stolen a scout plane. (Before the Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm and Logan v1 #2) The trio then managed to recover their stolen plane and escape the Russians, but their mission was not yet complete. However, the details of the rest of their mission are unrecorded. (Before the Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm and Logan v1 #3)
Fantastic Four
One day, Reed came to Ben about the mission to the stars where Grimm at first refused as there had not been enough research into the effects of cosmic rays. However, when Sue called him a coward then Ben decided to pilot the ship on the mission. This saw him joining Reed, Sue and Johnny as they snuck onto their ship where they engaged in an unauthorised launch. Whilst in space, they were exposed to cosmic rays resulting in them crashing back on Earth. The incident resulted in each of the four crew members gaining superpowers as a result with Ben Grimm's body gaining a large rock-like quality. After coming to terms with their changes, the quartet decided to work together as a team of superheroes where they decided to take the name of the Fantastic Four. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)
The quartet were quickly picked up by the government and were then contained in a government quarantine facility for those exposed by cosmic rays under the command of Reed's colleague General Walter Montgomery. There Reed was contacted telepathically by Professor Franz Stahl, another cosmic ray mutate who saw their transformations something that evolved them beyond humanity. Ben lashed out over his transformation, trashing his room. When Linda attempted to see him in his room, she was frightened away after looking at him. Stahl caused another mutate, Raymond Perry to go on a rampage in the facility. (Fantastic Four: First Family v1 #1)
Thing sat hidden in a secluded central room inside the Fantastic Four's temporary headquarters, furiously destroying his private furniture out of rage over his permanent physical mutation. When Reed Richards attempted to pacify him with a newly developed experimental biochemical formula designed to reverse the cosmic effects, Ben Grimm forcefully smashed the testing vial and briefly reverted back into his human form. Before the mutation returned, he was utilized by Reed Richards as a threatening physical presence to interrogate a group of suspicious shape-shifting Skrull infiltrators who had posed as the Fantastic Four to systematically dismantle Earth's global defenses. Upon learning that the alien vanguard was operating from a secluded tracking facility, Ben Grimm traveled alongside his teammates to confront the invaders directly. During the chaotic encounter, he relied entirely on his massive physical stature to smash through their security barriers and disable their technological assets, which successfully forced three of the remaining Skrull operatives to completely surrender. To eliminate the future threat of global panic, the team coordinated to hypnotically alter the memories of the captured extra-terrestrial saboteurs, permanently forcing them to transform into harmless dairy cows to live out their lives on a rural human farm. (Fantastic Four v1 #2)
Grimm returned to the team's newly established permanent headquarters inside the top floors of the Baxter Building, where he loudly expressed intense irritation regarding a series of complex internal security tests orchestrated by Reed Richards. Seeking a brief distraction from his ongoing domestic frustrations, he accompanied Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Reed Richards to attend a public theatrical stage performance, which was abruptly interrupted by a hostile individual calling himself the Miracle Man. The antagonist utilized advanced hypnotic manipulations to project a series of terrifying illusions to mock the Fantastic Four, forcing Ben Grimm to experience a frustrating sequence where he was completely unable to land a physical strike on a massive, phantom dog. Infuriated by the public humiliation, Ben Grimm abruptly abandoned his teammates and stormed off alone into the local metropolis, leaving himself entirely vulnerable to an active tracking sequence initiated by the Miracle Man. The villain successfully ambushed the solitary hero inside an isolated alleyway, utilizing a specialized, blinding chemical vapor to completely neutralize Ben Grimm's sensory processing and leave him entirely unconscious. He was subsequently rescued from captivity when his teammates located the villain's subterranean hiding place, enabling Ben Grimm to recover his senses and use a powerful high-velocity vehicle searchlight to completely blind the Miracle Man, which permanently shattered the villain's focus and neutralized his hypnotic control. (Fantastic Four v1 #3)
The Thing witnessed the sudden, dramatic dissolution of the Fantastic Four when Johnny Storm abruptly left the group following a bitter domestic argument, prompting Ben Grimm to aggressively declare his own resignation and separate himself entirely from Reed Richards. While wandering through a local civilian neighborhood, he accidentally discovered Johnny Storm residing at a low-tier transient lodging house, where the younger teammate had unearthed a discarded, amnesiac individual who possessed exceptional physical traits. Johnny Storm used an intense burst of flame to shave the stranger's facial hair, revealing that the homeless man was actually Namor the Sub-Mariner, the legendary ruler of Atlantis. Upon regaining his memories, Namor rushed back to the open ocean only to discover that his underwater kingdom had been completely obliterated by modern human atomic testing, prompting him to formally declare total war against the surface world. Namor summoned a colossal, multi-ton Giganto sea monster to launch a devastating attack directly onto the shorelines of New York City. Recognizing the immediate global peril, Ben Grimm cast aside his personal grievances to rejoin the Fantastic Four, racing directly from a local military depot carrying a massive, high-yield explosive device strapped securely to his back. He crawled directly inside the gaping maw of the rampaging sea beast, successfully detonating the weapon within its internal cavities to permanently neutralize the threat to the city. Following the monster's defeat, Ben Grimm engaged Namor in a brutal, close-quarters physical wrestling match on the shoreline, but the encounter ended abruptly when a sudden tidal wave swept the Atlantean king back into the deep ocean. (Fantastic Four v1 #4)
Later on, he was engaged in a chaotic domestic skirmish inside the Baxter Building alongside Johnny Storm, with their aggressive roughhousing abruptly halted when Doctor Von Doom encircled the entire skyscraper in a specialized, impenetrable electrical net. Kept immobilized alongside his teammates while Susan Storm surrendered herself as a hostage to safeguard the family, Ben Grimm was forcefully transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the villain's heavily fortified gothic castle. Doctor Von Doom revealed a newly engineered temporal displacement platform and explicitly mandated that the remaining heroes travel centuries into the past to retrieve a legendary chest of enchanted relics once belonging to Merlin from a notorious pirate faction. To mask Ben Grimm's distinct monstrous physiology from historical onlookers, Reed Richards outfitted him with a heavy leather eyepatch and a faux fabric beard before sending the trio back to the era of the high seas. Upon arrival at a coastal tavern, the adventurers were promptly drugged and shanghaied onto a rogue vessel, but Ben Grimm easily shattered his restraints, burst through the wooden deck plates, and completely subdued the hostile crew. Due to his massive physical build, aggressive fighting prowess, and artificial facial hair, the pirates immediately hailed him as their legendary captain, formally bestowing upon him the moniker of Blackbeard. Fully embracing his new role as a seafaring commodore, Ben Grimm commanded his crew to attack an opposing treasure ship laden with rare gems, but he subsequently suffered an intense bout of megalomania, turning on his own teammates by ordering the crew to douse Johnny Storm and set Reed Richards adrift in a lifeboat. A massive, sudden waterspout violently obliterated the pirate vessel and deposited the team back on the shoreline with the prize, prompting their automatic temporal retrieval back to the modern era. Upon discovering that Reed Richards had deceptively replaced the magical artifacts with worthless chains, Doctor Von Doom furiously prepared a lethal counter-strike, but Ben Grimm launched a massive, full-force punch that completely shattered the tyrant’s outer armor, exposing the adversary as a sophisticated automated robot decoy while the real mastermind slipped away. (Fantastic Four v1 #5)
Over the years, the mutations to the Thing's body have continued to progress slowly. The composition of his epidermis changed from an abnormally dense, somewhat-lumpy-but-still-comparatively smooth hide to a flexible, interlocking network of rock-like lumps. His superhuman strength increased considerably over time. Early in Grimm's life as the Thing, he would sometimes revert to his original human form unexpectedly. But neither these changes nor those induced by Richards in his efforts to turn Grimm back to human form ever proved to be permanent. Eventually, Grimm always reverted to his monstrous, superhumanly powerful form. Appalled by his appearance, Grimm was at first filled with anger at his situation, but he eventually became resigned to his fate, although he continued to be disturbed by his appearance and to hope for a means of regaining his human form that would last. Instrumental in helping Grimm to adjust to his life as the Thing was the blind sculptress Alicia Masters, whom he met during the Fantastic Four's confrontation with her step-father, the Puppet Master. (Fantastic Four v1 #8)
New Avengers
In the wake of the Dark Reign, Luke Cage asked the Thing to join his new incarnation of the Avengers that were being based at Avengers Mansion with Grimm accepting the offer. (New Avengers v2 #1) They were then attacked by a possessed Doctor Strange and Daimon Hellstrom who were looking to claim the Eye of Agamotto. (New Avengers v2 #2)
When Skadi released the Serpent, he called the Hammers of the Worthy to Earth. One of these hammers fell on Yancy Street and transformed the Thing into Angrir, Breaker of Souls. After destroying Yancy Street, the Future Foundation attempted to free Ben's mind, but he was too far gone and too powerful for them to stop. Later, he noticed Spider-Man swinging to a hospital to help a pregnant woman and followed him, hoping to make an example of him to all who opposed the Serpent. Spider-Man convinced Angrir to leave the hospital, even though Spider-Man could have taken him down, but instead, he outsmarted Angrir, though barely surviving the ordeal. Red Hulk then challenged him, but of the two goliaths, Angrir emerged victoriously and destroyed Avengers Tower. (Fear Itself v1 #3) Eventually, he, alongside the hammer-possessed Hulk, now Nul, engaged Thor and was mortally wounded in the fight. The blow was enough to bring him back to his senses and was freed completely from the hammer's influence by Franklin Richards, who broke his promise to not use his powers to save Ben. (Fear Itself v1 #5)
Future Foundation
Fall of the Fantastic Four
Guardian of the Galaxy
Marvel 2-in-1
He came to be recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. as an agent where he was set to investigate and arrest Doctor Doom who had begun to operate as a hero where he assumed the identity of Iron Man after the disappearance of Tony Stark. This saw him travelling to the University of Cambridge in order to question Dr. Amara Perera who had recently been sighted with Victor von Doom. (Infamous Iron Man v1 #1)
Fate of the Four
In the aftermath, he was one the Moon as Quoi and the Cotati were sent to live in peace in some distant part of the cosmos. Meanwhile, concerns were raised over the weapons of the Cotati that were composed of highly advanced material. This led to Reed asking the Profiteer for aid where she revealed that it was incredibly old technology and one unknown to her. For her services, she intended to claim the material along with the Skrull Requiem and Kree Chronicle. The heroes looked to battle the Elder and stop her from claiming the two children but she attempted to rely on a contract from the Kree and Skrull empires that signed away the children to her servitude. However, Emperor Hulkling annulled the contract as both empires no longer existed as they were part of the Alliance. Thus, the Profiteer was forced to depart the scene without the kids with Emperor Hulkling deciding to place N'Kalla and Jo-Venn under the care of Ben as well as Alicia Grimm. Thus, the children were formerly adopted by the married couple as their foster children. (Empyre: Fallout Fantastic Four v1 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, the Thing was a massive, heavily built humanoid creature whose entire body was covered in thick, orange, rock-like hide. His physical frame was exceptionally wide, featuring an overly dense muscular structure, broad shoulders, and enlarged, four-fingered hands that lacked standard human fingernails. His face possessed no visible nose structure, displaying instead a heavy, protruding brow ridge made of solid, segmented rock plates that shadowed his small, dark eyes. His mouth was wide with thick, stone-like lips that remained rigid even when speaking. When moving through regular human environments, he wore a large, full-length double-breasted trench coat, a wide-brimmed fedora hat, and dark sunglasses in an attempt to completely obscure his monstrous traits from the public. Beneath his civilian disguise, his only attire consisted of a pair of simple, dark blue, durable trunks designed to accommodate his heavy physical build. After being transformed by cosmic rays, Susan Storm came to remark that he had become a 'thing' with Ben Grimm deciding to adopt the name as a superhero where he became known as the Thing. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)
He grew angry if anyone called him a coward and looked to prove them wrong. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)
During university, he came to get along fine with his roommate Reed Richards where they came to be fast friends. (Fantastic Four v1 #11)
Eventually, he reignited his relationship with Alicia with this resulting in him proposing to her. She came to accept and the two were set to get married. (Fantastic Four v6 #1)
After the Cotati war, the Skrull Requiem and the Kree Chronicle that were two children bred from their respective races as living war diaries had no place to call home after the conclusion of the Kree-Skrull War. Thus, Emperor Hulkling gave custody of the female Skrull N'Kalla and the male Kree Jo-Venn to Ben Grimm. As a result, the pair were formerly adopted by Ben and Alicia Grimm who served as the pair's new foster parents with them being ecstatic in taking the two as their children. (Empyre: Fallout Fantastic Four v1 #1)
For a time, he claimed that Susan Storm had fallen in love with the wrong man in Reed Richards. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
Ben Grimm was originally an ordinary human being though one who came to be a skilled pilot. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)
Piloting a ship into space, the crew came to be exposed to cosmic rays that resulted in his transformation into a rock-covered superhuman. The Thing was a mutated human being who gained superhuman attributes following an intense exposure to cosmic radiation in outer space. His primary attribute was immense superhuman strength, which allowed him to lift massive weights, rip through reinforced steel barriers, and effortlessly shatter solid stone structures with his bare hands. He gained a degree of super-strength as a result where he was said to be as strong as an ox. His physical endurance was drastically enhanced, enabling him to engage in prolonged physical combat and exert himself at peak capacity without succumbing to normal human fatigue. His entire skeletal and muscular systems were incredibly dense, granting him an immense body weight that allowed him to easily crush everyday objects simply by stepping on them or leaning against them. His exterior rock-like hide functioned as a natural layer of heavy armor, providing him with a high degree of durability that protected him from blunt force impacts, high-velocity collisions, extreme physical trauma, and the crushing pressures of deep underwater environments. Additionally, he possessed advanced military and civilian aviation skills, retaining the precise technical knowledge required to operate highly complex, experimental aerospace vehicles and experimental rocket ships under extreme conditions. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)
He regenerated a significant portion of his hide in a week-long coma brought on by exhaustion and damage after a fight with the Hulk along with any blunt trauma that he had suffered. Returning to duty almost immediately. (Fantastic Four v6 #13)
The Thing could biologically age as a side-effect of the mutation brought on by cosmic rays. The only way for Ben Grimm to age was by being in his human form. Theoretically, Grimm could never die if he decided to not turn back human or only turned back to human one day a year. (Fantastic Four v3 #605)
Reed Richards came to develop a serum that could help turn Ben Grimm back to his normal human self for short periods of time. (Fantastic Four v1 #11)
After being drawn to a hammer of the Worthy, Ben was forcibly transformed into the host of Angrir who was known as the Breaker of Souls. (Fear Itself v1 #3)
Following his mutation by cosmic radiation, he came to be one of the founding members of the Fantastic Four. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)
Notes
- The Thing was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where she made her first appearance in Fantastic Four v1 #1 (November, 1961).
- In Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel (2017), it is noted that the Thing was modelled by Jack Kirby on himself.
- Writer Al Ewing wrote about the character in an interview where he said, "Ben isn't famous for winning fights; he's famous for not losing them. The Thing's strength is not that he can punch harder or lift more, or even take more punishment - it's that no matter what you do, he will never stay down. That, to me, means more than simple feats of strength."
Alternate Versions
- In X-Universe v1 #1 (1995), an alternate version of Ben Grimm appeared in the Age of Apocalypse reality that was designated as Earth-295 in the Multiverse.
In other media
Television
- In Fantastic Four, the Thing appeared in the 1967 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Paul Frees.
- In Fantastic Four, the Thing appeared in the 1978 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Ted Cassidy.
- In Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, the Thing appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Brian Dobson.
- In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Thing made several appearances in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Fred Tatasciore.
- In Avengers Assemble, the Thing appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Hulk's Day Out" where he was voiced again by actor Dave Boat.
- In Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., the Thing appeared in the animated television series in the episode "The Collector" where he was voiced once more by actor Dave Boat.
Films
- In Fantastic Four, the Thing appeared in the 2005 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Michael Chiklis.
- In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the Thing appeared in the live-action film sequel where he was once more portrayed by actor Michael Chiklis.
- In Fantastic Four, the Thing appeared in the 2015 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Josh Trank.
Video games
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, the Thing appeared as a playable character in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Gregg Berger.
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, the Thing appeared in the setting of the video game where he was voiced again by actor Fred Tatasciore.
- In Marvel Heroes, the Thing appeared as a playable character in the setting of the MMORPG video game where he was voiced by actor Dave Boat.
- In Marvel: Contest of Champions, the Thing appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
- In Marvel: Future Fight, the Thing appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
- In Marvel Puzzle Quest, the Thing appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
Appearances
- Fantastic Four v1: (1961)
- Marvel Two-in-One v1:
- Strange Tales v1:
- New Avengers v2:
- Fear Itself v1:
- Fantastic Four v5:
- Guardians of the Galaxy:
- Infamous Iron Man v1:
- Marvel 2-In-One v1:
- Fantastic Four v6:
- Empyre: Fallout Fantastic Four v1: (2020)
External Links
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