It's the Superman of Marvel, the Crown Jewel of Jack Kirby, Stan's successful son,Uncle to the Marvel Universe, Aunt Petunia favorite nephew, Reed's Best friend, and the idol of Million's himself, the Ever Loving Blue eyed Thing.

The Thing is one of those characters MODERN fans scoff at, because they have terrible taste. All right enough make fun of the newbs, the Thing is honestly the most important Marvel character because he MADE what being a Marvel hero is.

Created before Spider-man and the Hulk when the thing was created there wasn't a superhero really like, a man who HATED his powers was something novel to a lot of fans back in the day and Marvel's template of it's heroes starts with Ben Grimm.

Ben started out as Reed's Best friend and college roommate who became a pilot he traveled on that Rocket and his life was changed forever in...a most...fantastic way.

The FF was very important for superheroe teams, and the Thing innovates a couple things right off the bat.
*the rebel
*the hero who hates his powers
*the one who causes drama
Ben's unique placement as a character made him stand out he became the breakout hero of FF.

Now you might notice that Thing looks very lumpy from his first appearance well yeah as time went on The thing would evolve into his current look and more or less be what he is now around issue 20, this was later explained by him mutating to become more pretty.

Another early plot is Ben being cured, in the early stories he would often regain humanity temporally and turn back into the thing, this later retcon to his actual power but he never got real control of it. Later there was a fix...kind of .

Now if there is one thing the Thing is famous for it's some of his catch phrase, Aunt Petunia first shows in FF 22. It's also the first appearance of his MOST famous one...but were going to save that for later.

Of course the thing also developed his own personal set of enemies, first we have the most INFAMOUS EVIL AND VILE VILLAINS OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE....the Yancy Street Gang. Showing up in FF 15 Ben's old neighborhood would rib him and prank him into oblivion. Some say it was Johnny

Of course issue 25 would pit him for the first time with hi MOST famous rival the Incredible Hulk, while weaker then him on average this fight is some of the best of early Marvel and is a stand out. He and Banner would battle every so often again and again.

Issue 8 though is an important turning point for him, with Meeting Alicia Master's, who would become his on again off again, love interest, she just married him this year and THANK FUCKING CHRIST. Honestly Alicia can't really be topped and I don't know why they try.

Alicia brought some MAJOR change to Ben while he wanted to be normal, HE WAS now afraid because he started to believe she loved the Thing, ah Marvel drama you always add a fucking wrinkle to everything, this would later play into the Thing finding ways to STAY AS THE THING.

But the thing many great adventures in the silver age....he did become Black Beard once. See good old Vic, the guy needed them to back in time and the Thing became Black Beard, this would later SPAWN an alternate reality and get referenced all the time.

Fantastic 4 40 would have one of his best EARLY fights against Doctor Doom in the battle of the Baxter Building lasting about 5-6 whole pages this drag out fight would be one of the earliest embarrassments of good old Vic.

But we can't go one without mentioning one of the most memorable stories of the Silver age. This is one of the greatest pages in comics and I will fight anyone who says otherwise!

A man takes the Things power and lives as him trying to kill Reed but seeing his kindness and heroics, becomes as heroic as the genuine article, proving that the Thing has it in him and that his family is there for him. A bittersweet tale.

Now let's get fun, after the Silver Age rolled off where onto the Bronze age and the Thing would get his OWN SPIN OFF Marvel TWO IN ONE BABY! One of the most important bronze age books for how much it set up and is just a fun title.

Now my OWN UNCLE HAD EVERY ISSUE, and now...I'm going to go over all the fun YOU PEOPLE ARE MISSING BECAUSE YOU THINK IT'S NOT IMPORTANT! AUNT PETUNIA IS DISAPPOINTED

The Thing and Ghost Rider save CHRISTMAS! and also become two of wise men, it's odd for a Jewish man and Demon from hell to save Christmas, but damn it there the heroes to DO IT!

Project Pegasus saga one of the early multi issue saga saw the thing get involved with Project Pegasus and help several heroes become better people, one of the best Marvel stories you don't hear about.

Issue 50 is an important Marvel issue, explaining how Time Travel works in the MU at the time, see the Thing goes back to cure himself and realized how much he changed but changing the past only creates an alternate universe.

Annual 2 would the first major loss for Thanos, because the Thing and Spider-man DECIDED TO SAVE THE AVENGERS and if your going to take on Thanos you might as well get the two POPULAR ONES TO DO IT!

Speaking of Annuals, we have 7 where the Champion with the Power Gem Challenges the greatest heroes of Earth. It is the best boxing comics of all time
*What about Ashi...
BEST BOXING COMIC OF ALL TIME IT HAS THE THING GOING I'M TOP STUPID TO QUIT

This issue would also be adapted almost for Dexter's lab except changing every character. Rasslor was voiced by Randy Savage himself in one of my favorite episodes of cartoons ever.

The thing would team up with the Sandman and defeat him...by having a beer with him and giving him a chance to redeem himself. Ben is the best.

Issue 96 has the thing in a hospital! OH NO! AND EVERY SUPER VILLAIN EXCEPT DOCTOR DOOM IS ATTACKING! SOMEONE SLIPS IN!...but Ben handles it like a champ.

Issue 100 takes us back to issue 50 and we get to see what would happen if Ben was not the thing. This was also the last issue being replaced by...a Thing Ongoing.

The Thing ongoing lasted 36 issues, it would be the reason the Thing left the FF for a bit and also have him become John Carter after Secret Wars and when he got back becoming a superhero shoot wrestler.

The thing would break up with Alicia Masters...and she would Marry Johnny Storm...let's...skip this part because it's become weird and Skrull heavy...I will save this for Johnny's thread. It wasn't her....but...again..save it for later.

Anyway speaking of regretful Bryne stories, he also introduce Aunt Petunia during his run of FF, he would reveal that she is rather young and well later stories would go out of it's way to slowly write it out. Still.

Now during his ongoing two character would come to prominence in other Marvel titles, Sharon Ventura Ms.Marvel and D-man, Sharon would later become the She thing and take Ben's place on the FF sometimes.

Ben, Sharon, Jonny and Crystal would become there own FF team for a bit, it was not a long run and Ben would mutate further he would lose his powers but after a stint as a hero in a Thing suit he would gain them back and Sharon would fade from the team.

Now the thing has more major events but well now be skipping around, after the 90's the thing most major story was him coming out as Jewish, it was always a fan theory and Jack Kirby might have added that in drawing him like that at one point but vol 2 56 confirmed it.

after that in the Mark Waid run HE WOULD DIE!...But don't worry Jack kirby is actually god and brings him back to life. He was always the rock of the FF.

During Hickman's run is was revealed that he never ages, during the run he also gets a cure, making him be able to become normal for a little while, and he will outlive all his friends, the only one he won't is Franklin.

Reed looked into this, and well Reed with this in mind Reed does the only thing for his friend he knows to do, be there for him while he is around.

There are other modern thing stories, for one he might the guy who helped create Doom...might. But the Thing is still around, not even the FF embargo could keep him down. He found his family again.

and right now the thing is Married and having the time of his life. He is one of the most connected heroes, has a family, and is still the ever loving blue eyed Thing. Still he plays such a huge part at Marvel.

The thing has proven to be a loyal friend, hero and mentor to the MU, he hosts poker tournaments for charity, and is loved for his attitude. The Thing has it made still there are other...Things.

the Thing has been adapted to live action several times, The FF movies have a storied history and well aren't the best with the third one being rather INFAMOUS for how he got his catch phrase from his abusive brother. The other two are great.

The thing has appeared a lot in animation and I have no bad word to say for the most part, honestly it's easier to LIST MARVEL CARTOONS HE HAS NOT BEEN IN, but well focus...on the infamous one.

Hanna Barbara adapted him to a new block of Flintstones cartoons called the Flintstones meet the Thing..they never met. What it was, was the Thing Cartoon gave him a Shazam set up where he was a teen who TRANSFORMED into the thing with two rings.

With the trasnformation phrase "Thing rings do your thing" he would turn into the thing and fight rather underwhelming bullies and the like. If you want a bad Marvel cartoon to have fun with this one will do ya better then the Herbie FF.

The Ultimate Version would go into a very different direction, becoming the main love interest of Sue, father of Franklin, and basically Wonder man but not called that. This version of Ben is not brought up often.

Still the The best alternate thing story is one MANY of you have seen. But if you haven't, who say All Ages comics can't EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATE YOU! Meet Marvel Adventures FF 17 by Zeb Wells and Kano.

It's start out with this page asking the question, what could break the skin of the thing? Well we are about to find out.

The Thing meets a girl named Jennifer and it's look like something might work out, look at Ben finally having his chance at Happiness!

but this is Ben Grimm, and sometimes thing don't work out for him like that. and sometimes what can you say?

But I will admit, the last page gets me everytime. Sometimes it's works for our boy, sometimes where just crying hoping he can make it to another day.

What is there to say about the Uncle Ben who can't die, the monster with the heart of gold, the bruiser from yancy street, the the original Hebrew Hammer, and one of the greatest superheroes of all time?

Well I think I forgot to mention something but I will let Ben sum it up himself.

and that was the Thing.