comic cartoons: The Thing

Super Name: Thing
Real Name: Benjamin Jacob Grimm
Publisher: Marvel
Creators: Stan Lee,Jack Kirby
Gender: Male
Height: 7' 1''
Weight: 1200 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: None (Brown before transformation)
Character Type: Radiation
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #1 - The Fantastic Four!
Appears in: 5696 issues
Birthday: November 09, 1961
Died: Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1 - With Great Power...
The Infinity Gauntlet #1 - God
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #11 - ...And Dust to Dust!

Origin:

Benjamin Jacob Grimm was born on Yancy Street in the heart of New York City into a poor Jewish family. When Ben was a young kid his older brother, Daniel Grimm, was the leader of the Yancy Street Gang, a group of young trouble-makers from the area. When he was old enough Ben joined this gang as well. He was inducted into the gang by being ‘beaten in.’ Growing up poor along with his gang affiliation and related activities made Ben street-smart, tough and 'hard' very early in life. All of these personality characteristics have served him well throughout his lifetime of brawling and adventuring.

During Ben's formative years tragedy struck his family hard; his older brother Daniel was killed in a gang fight when Ben was still a kid and his parents Daniel, Sr. and Elsie both died in an accident when he was a teenager. Ben was placed in the custody of his Uncle Jake (his father's brother) and Aunt Alyce (Jake's first wife) who took him from New York to Arizona. Unfortunately, Alyce died relatively young. After Alyce's death, Jake Grimm re-married. His second wife's name was Sophie, whom he also out-lived. Jake married yet a third time, this time to a much younger woman named Petunia (whom Ben speaks of quite often).

Now physically removed from his past troubles, Ben did well in high school, using his natural talent to his advantage becoming an excellent football player, Ben won an athletic scholarship to Empire State University where he met, roomed and became best friends with Reed Richards. While attending university Ben and Reed also meet Victor Von Doom who was studying there as well.

After college, Ben joined the US Air Force and became a fantastic pilot, often testing experimental aircraft and even flying top secret missions for the US government. His piloting skills eventually landed him a spot at NASA.

Creation:

The Thing was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a member of the Fantastic Four. What made the Thing unique was the fact that he was the first superhero who didn't look like a superhero. He looked like a monster. Stan decided that having a heroic character who was stuck in the form of a monster would be an interesting departure from the standard superhero stories of the time. Jack Kirby had been in the comic book industry for well over two decades at the time and was very well versed in the design and depiction of practically any type of comic character including, most recently at that time, monsters. Before the Fantastic Four ushered in the 'Marvel Age of Comics', monster comics were very popular. Playing off the popularity of monsters, Kirby designed the Thing as a big, lumpy orange-skinned brute with superhuman strength. The Thing first appeared in Fantastic Four # 1 in 1961.

Major Stories:

Project Pegasus
Secret Wars and Battleworld
Further mutation and the New Fantastic Four
Onslaught and Counter Earth
Return to earth
Seeming Death and Fame
Civil War and a Wedding
Joining the Avengers in the Heroic Age
Death of a Teammate
Fear Itself
Avengers vs X-Men

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