Grimm Facts

Are you a fan of The Thing? Let's see how much of a fan you are! Here are One Dozen Thing Facts!

1. The Thing was a founding member of The Fantastic Four and as such a huge inspiration for the rest of Marvel Comic's pantheon of characters. The Fantastic Four inspired the creation of The X-Men as Stan Lee's boss saw the success of superhero teams. The Thing had been the most popular member of The Fantastic Four because readers enjoyed seeing a superhero who was basically a monster, so Stan Lee would later create The Hulk. Image Comic's Badrock was also a rip-off of The Thing.

2. Ben Grimm grew up on The Lower East Side of New York City, he and his poor, Jewish family lived on Yancy Street and his older brother was killed in a street fight when Ben was eight. These elements of Ben Grimm's childhood were directly inspired by his co-creator Jack Kirby's life. Like Grimm, Jack Kirby also grew up in a poor, Jewish household and his brother died when he was young.

3. While in The Air Force, Ben was selected along with "Logan" (before he was Wolverine) and Carol Danvers (before she was Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel) by Nick Fury to take part in a Soviet surveillance mission.

4. After thirteen years of being "The Thing", Ben organized a second Bar Mitzvah. He does this as a way of accepting himself as The Thing and to commemorate what he considers "his second life". Part of the ceremony was inviting multiple Marvel superheroes to a Poker Tournament.

5. In one of The Fantastic Four's many, many time travel stories, Mr. Fantastic creates a cure for Ben Grimm's appearance, but the cure doesn't work. It would have worked back when Ben's body was softer, but his body was too solid at that point. So The Thing used a stolen time machine to go back in time-a few days after he became The Thing-and cured his past self. When he returned to the present and discovered nothing changed, Mr. Fantastic broke it to The Thing that doing what he did simply created an alternate future and nothing he does in the past will effect his present.

6. The Thing's memberships include: The Fantastic Four, The Future Foundation, The Guardians of The Galaxy, and three variations of The Avengers. As a young man he led The Yancy Street Gang. He was a member of The Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation-an underground wrestling federation exclusively for superpowered people-before he helped Demolition Man take the whole organization down. During "Fear Itself", Ben Grimm became part of The Worthy when the soul of an evil Asgardian possessed his body and he became Angrir The Breaker of Souls.

7. There were three instances where Ben Grimm reverted into his human form. During these three instances, he asked other Marvel heroes to take his place on The Fantastic Four. Luke Cage, She-Hulk, and She-Thing all took his place. The latter used to be the third Ms. Marvel and a member of the UCWF, but after an adventure with The Fantastic Four she became rocky like The Thing (renaming herself She-Thing) and The Thing's rocky body became sharper and heavier.

8. The Thing's body is not completely made out of stone. His internal organs, inner fluids, and other internal features are all organic. It was only his skin that was turned into stone, and the size of his body was slightly altered. It is possible to crack or remove his stone plates, revealing muscle underneath.

9. During "Civil War", The Thing refused to join either Captain America's side or Iron Man's side and instead ran off to France to just avoid the entire confrontation. His friends Reed and Susan Richards were on opposing sides, and Johnny had been in the hospital at the time.

10. The Thing is referred to as "Uncle Ben" by Reed and Sue's kids Franklin and Valeria. This is likely a reference to Spider-Man's Uncle Ben seeing as how Spider-Man is a good friend of The Fantastic Four and had filled in for The Human Torch during The Future Foundation era. There was also a one-off story where a villain used their powers of emotion manipulation to make The Thing and Spider-Man fall in love with each other. An adventure both men refuse to talk about.

11. In the universe of "Marvel 1602" Benjamin Grimm is Captain of a ship called The Fantastick and later-after becoming a rock monster-joins William Shakespeare's acting troupe, playing the part of Falstaff. In the "House of M" universe Ben Grimm was the only survivor of Reed Richard's space voyage and returned to Earth a dimwitted, rock monster. He is named "The It" by Doctor Doom and kept as his pet. In the "Ultimate" universe, Ben Grimm's rocky body was a cocoon for another humanoid form with radiating purple energy. In this universe he also married Susan Storm. Though not confirmed, Ben Grimm is thought to be Doctor Doom's throne and/or Doom's wall separating his kingdom from the rest of the world in the 2015 "Secret Wars" where Doctor Doom rebuilds the world in his image. At the end of "Secret Wars", a giant version of The Thing battles Galactus.

12. The Thing's main love interest was Alicia Masters, a blind sculptor. Alicia was the step-daughter of the villain Puppet Master who The Fantastic Four would fight regularly. When Ben stayed on another planet after the original "Secret Wars", Alicia began a relationship with his friend and teammate Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, much to Ben's misery. Even later, Alicia had a relationship with The Silver Surfer. Currently, Peter Parker owns The Baxter Building-the former home of the Fantastic Four-and standing in the main hallway is a statue of The Fantastic Four that was built by Alicia Masters.
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