The Tragedy of Ben Grimm, A.K.A. the Thing

The Thing may be one of Marvel’s greatest heroes, but Ben Grimm’s life hasn’t always been so fantastic. After a rough childhood, Ben grew up to be a pilot and flew the Fantastic Four into a storm of cosmic rays that gave them superhuman abilities. Where his friends developed powers they could control, Ben underwent a painful and practically irreversible transformation into the Thing. While his teammates became glamorous celebrities, Ben evolved to have a rock-like appearance and struggled with losing his human body.

Despite the work of Reed Richards and some of the world’s greatest minds, the Thing has only regained his human form temporarily. Even though Ben has saved the universe countless times, his unwilling transformation into the Thing has defined his life and caused a cascading series of tragedies. Even when Ben has regained his human body, the costs have been too much for him to bear. Now, let’s take a closer look at the Thing’s never-ending transformation and break down how his superhuman powers defined his life.

HOW BEN GRIMM BECAME THE THING

Before he turned into the Thing, Ben Grimm’s life was on the upswing. After losing his brother and getting involved with the Yancy Street Gang as a kid, Ben grew up to become a high school football star, a decorated combat pilot, and a student at State University. At college, Ben shared a room with Reed Richards, the young genius who became his best friend.

When Reed needed someone to pilot his experimental rocket, he turned to Ben, who had jokingly promised to fly it when they were students. Even though Ben expressed doubts about the mission’s safety, the rest of the Fantastic Four convinced him to pilot the mission in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

When the Fantastic Four flew through cosmic rays, they all developed powers through a painful physical process, and Ben went through the most painful transformation of all. His limbs became too heavy to move, and he collapsed in pain as their ship crashed to Earth. As soon as he stepped out, the Thing developed super-strength and a lumpy, leathery skin. However, the Thing’s outer skin settled into a kind of organic rock with distinct geometric shapes, which became his standard look moving forward.

THIS MAN, THIS MONSTER

While the rest of the Fantastic Four could turn their powers off and on at will, Ben Grimm felt a loss of control during his early days as the Thing. Ben was deeply uncomfortable with his appearance, and Reed began a years-long quest to make friend feel like himself again. While some of Reed’s inventions turned Ben human for a few moments, he always morphed back into his rocky form at random intervals. Even though Reed is arguably the smartest man in the world, he never found a permanent solution to the Thing’s condition.

In one of the Fantastic Four’s most iconic stories, a scientist named Ricardo Jones briefly restored the Thing’s human form in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #51. After stealing Ben’s powers, Ricardo impersonated the Thing and posed as the hero. With his human body restored, Ben tried to propose to Alicia Masters, his longtime girlfriend—but after Ricardo sacrificed himself to save Mister Fantastic, Ben’s powers returned. Other villains like Doctor Doom and Diablo also briefly restored Ben’s human form.

HOW THE THING BECAME HUMAN

After making several attempts to reverse his transformation, Ben Grimm got some unexpected help from the Hulk. During one of several slugfests between the two heavyweight heroes, the Hulk drained the Thing’s powers in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #167 by Roy Thomas and George Perez. Although the precise reasons for this remain unclear, the cosmic radiation that fuels the Thing’s powers and the gamma radiation that fuels the Hulk have canceled the other out in the past.

When Ben was human, Luke Cage briefly replaced him in the Fantastic Four, and the former Thing struggled to adjust to his civilian life. However, Ben rejoined the Fantastic Four when Reed built him a robotic exosuit that replicated the Thing’s powers and appearance. Following a few adventures featuring the exosuit, Galactus forcibly restored Ben’s powers.

The Thing used a similar exosuit after he lost his powers in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #326 by Steve Englehart and Keith Pollard. While fighting the Frightful Four in Reed’s lab, Ben fell into a device that drained his powers. However, he transformed himself back into the Thing to make Sharon Ventura, his then-girlfriend with Thing-like features, feel better.

THE THING AND SECRET WARS

As Mister Fantastic studied the Thing’s powers, he made a startling discovery that reshaped their relationship. Reed realized Ben could control his transformations in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #245 by John Byrne. However, Reed believed Ben had a mental block that kept him from accessing that ability. He concluded that Ben’s block stemmed from his relationship with Alicia Masters, who met him as the Thing, and his internal doubts over whether she would still love him in his human form.

When the Thing arrived on the planet Battleworld in the original SECRET WARS (1984), he discovered his ability to transform at will. Mister Fantastic led him to believe this was due to the planet, and Ben stayed there when the other heroes returned to Earth.

Once he lost the ability to transform, Ben returned to Earth, where he found Human Torch dating a shape-shifting alien Skrull posing as Alicia. Just as Ben adjusted to that, Reed told him everything he knew about his lost ability to transform in THING (1983) #23 by Mike Carlin and Ron Wilson. After flying into a rage, Ben left the Fantastic Four and spent time as a wrestler and West Coast Avenger before eventually returning to the team.

THE THING’S TRANSFORMATIONS

Ever since cosmic rays transformed Ben Grimm into the Thing, he has never truly stopped transforming. In his original form, the Thing had dinosaur-like leathery skin, which hardened into his standard rocky look. Through his attempts to return to his human form, Ben Grimm has briefly existed in various middle grounds between his human body and his rocky appearance. In fact, one of Reed’s treatment attempts transformed Ben back into this leathery appearance in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #238.

The Thing went through another dramatic transformation when he was exposed to cosmic rays again in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #310. While escaping an alien world, the Thing and the super-strong Sharon Ventura traveled through cosmic rays. The rays gave Sharon a Thing-like transformation, and they made the Thing’s rocky exterior even more jagged and pointed.

Shortly after Ben’s usual rock form was restored, Wolverine severely scarred his face. The Thing wore a helmet to cover the scar until a gloating villain named Hyperstorm showed off his power by healing it.

THE THING AND THE FUTURE FOUNDATION

After years of false starts, the Thing finally found a sustainable solution to his transformation issues with the Future Foundation, but that treatment also set up some of Ben’s darkest moments. When Reed assembled a group of young geniuses as the Future Foundation, the think tank decided to address Ben’s condition in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #584 by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting. The kids ultimately developed a serum that could transform Ben back into his human form for one week every year.

While Ben was in his human form, Annihilus and his alien Annihilation Wave attacked through a portal to the Negative Zone. The Human Torch sacrificed himself to save Ben and the kids, moments before Ben’s serum wore off and turned him back into the Thing.

Because of his guilt over his friend’s apparent death, dark magic managed to transform the Thing into Angrir, Breaker of Souls, during an Asgardian attack in FEAR ITSELF (2010). Once freed, the deeply depressed Thing was arrested for the apparent murder of the Puppet Master and incarcerated at the Raft, where he faced the scorned Sharon Ventura. Shortly after Ben’s innocence was proven, he died when the Multiverse collapsed in SECRET WARS (2015).

THE IMMORTAL THING

Even though his teammates saved the Multiverse, the Thing continued to feel alone. While Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, and the Future Foundation rebuilt the many worlds of the Multiverse, the Thing and the Human Torch stayed on Earth, where they thought their friends and teammates were dead. Just as Ben accepted that, the Future Foundation returned, and the Fantastic Four reformed. Ben even got married to Alicia, and the couple adopted two alien children, Jo-Venn and N’Kalla.

Because of his unique condition, the Thing also seems set to live a long natural life, as glimpsed in a potential future in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #605 by Hickman and Ron Garney. Ben does not age in his rocky form; he only ages during his one week a year as a regular human. In this future, the Thing remained a consistent member of the Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation for thousands of years. Although he spent most of that time fighting alongside the similarly ageless Franklin Richards, the Thing missed his long-dead teammates and family even in his final days.

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