Benjamin Grimm (Earth-1111)

Ben had a rough childhood suffering constant abuse at the hands of his older brother, who said "It's Clobberin' Time!" at one point, before slapping him repeatedly. In middle school, Ben met and befriended a young Reed Richards, the two became best friends and had a mutually beneficial relationship, Reed would tutor Ben and math and science while Ben would beat off the bullies. Due to being a child prodigy, Reed graduated middle school and left Ben at regular middle school, Ben never saw him again until 14 years later.

Ben, now graduated from high school and eighteen years old, worked for his dad as a mechanic for a couple of years. At twenty years old, Ben went into the U.S. Air Force and became a highly skilled fighter pilot, as well as a test pilot and an astronaut.

Favor for a friend

In 2012, his childhood friend Reed who he hadn't seen in years gave him a call asking for his help in building a state of the art space shuttle, with the two going way back, Ben agreed to help. Ben was also introduced to Johnny Storm who would be helping him build the space shuttle, Victor Von Doome and Reed's fiancee and Johnny's sister Sue.

Becoming the Fantastic Four

After it was built, the five went to investigate the wormhole but were sucked inside of it being basked in the dark matter and extra-dimensional energies.

The four crash landed back to Earth in the desert of New Mexico, although Victor was no where to be found. Reed was elongated and stretched out across the ground, Sue was nowhere to be seen until she reappeared out of thin air, Johnny was unconscious and on fire, and Ben was covered in rock. They were later discovered by the U.S. Army and taken to a military base. The four awoke and discovered their powers and were later told that they had been gone for a year.

The army then made Ben and the others stay at the military base where they could run tests on their newfound powers, in the meantime Reed created suits for the four that could contain their powers while also discovering the dark matter and extra-dimensional energies they were bathed in had granted them their powers. Since Ben felt angry and like a monster, Reed promised him he'd find a cure. In the meantime, Johnny and Ben developed a friendly rivalry, with Johnny constantly pranking Ben and Ben always retaliating.

In the months of Ben, Reed, Sue, and Johnny testing the limits and learning how to control their powers; an ex-Military supervisor code named Mole Man had created an army called the Mole Men and began his attempt in taking over Manhattan with his new army. Seeing as the military had attempted to fight off his army and failed, the four volunteered to use their powers to fight off the Mole Men. In their very public battle and almost wiping Manhattan off the map, they succeeded in defeating Mole Man and his army. A few weeks after their battle the Daily Bugle and other news outlets dubbed them as the Fantastic Four.

Doctor Doom

A year had passed since the Mole Man Invasion and more superheroes and the Fantastic Four established themselves as full-fledged superheroes and moved into the Baxter Building, Reed would later go on to create H.E.R.B.I.E: a robot that would help the four in the Baxter Building. The Fantastic Four would go on to become celebrities and were considered the "Beatles of Superheroes". The Fantastic Four would go on to go on many missions, many on Earth and many in space.

One day, an army of drones were sent to attack the Four, the Human Torch would scorch them all with his super nova blast. Later on Reed would examine one of the destroyed drones and recognize that the markings, materials and design was from Victor Von Doome, which would lead Reed to question if Victor survived the wormhole accident. Reed would later hack into the drone and find out that it came from Latveria, the Fantastic Four would then take Reed and Johnny's newly designed Fantasti-Car and fly over to Latveria to see if Victor was indeed alive.

The Fantastic Four arrive in Latveria at Victor's ancestral castle. They discovered Victor sitting on his throne although he looked different; his skin was covered in metal (signifying that the wormhole accident altered him as well). Reed and Sue were relieved to see he was alive, and Victor explained that he only just came back to Earth and his metallic skin saved him from burning up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. Ben then asks why he tried to kill them to which Victor replies with "I've always hated you Reed, and now with the power I have I can kill you. Oh, and my name is DOOM!" he then emits a mass of electrical energy and hurls it toward Reed, it hits him and knocks him out cold. Ben immediately begins attacking Doom, Ben is shocked by Doom's advanced strength due to his metallic skin, Sue attends to Reed and orders Johnny to go and help Ben.

Johnny goes to find Ben and Doom fighting outside, seeing Johnny as the wildcard, Doom immediately destroys a fire hydrants and blasts it toward Johnny infused with his electricity. It cools Johnny's fire out while electrocuting him causing Johnny to also go unconscious. Sue manages to wake Reed up and the two go outside to help Ben and Johnny only to see that Johnny's also unconscious, Sue then also attends to Johnny while Reed attacks Doom, Reed dodges an incoming attack from Doom and wraps himself around him restraining him. Ben uses this as an opportunity and punches Doom square in the face and sends him miles. Johnny then wakes up and tells the team he can't flame on due to him still being wet.

Doom comes back and is ready to kill the Fantastic Four, Sue tired of all the fighting creates an air bubble around his head and knocks him unconscious. The Fantastic Four bring Doom back to the Baxter Building and imprison him there, Reed feels guilty over what happened to him and decides to find a cure for Victor and Ben.

Silver Surfer

On a quiet day, with no threats and no adventures. The members of the Fantastic Four would have a relaxing day, Reed and Sue would have dinner at the Baxter Building while Johnny and Ben would watch the Super Bowl until an alert on Reed's device would inform them of an alien threat. The Fantastic Four take the Fantasticar and find a man covered in silver floating on a board, Johnny would go on to comment on how he looks awesome. The alien would attack the team forcing them to fight back, the alien would prove too powerful to the team and almost lose their lives until the Thing would knock the alien out with a sneak attack. The Fantastic Four would take him back to the Baxter Building and incarcerate him.

The alien later woke up, after waking up Reed began to question and the alien told Reed everything, from his past, to all the information he knew about Galactus and revealed his name as Norrin Radd. The Surfer would then go on to warn the Fantastic Four that Galactus plans to devour this planet and they'll need [Silver Surfer's] help if they want to stop him.

Arrival of Galactus

After Silver Surfer's revelation, Reed contacts Nick Fury detailing him of what has transpired and Silver Surfer's revelation. Nick Fury tells Reed and the other members of the Fantastic Four to come to the Triskelion, and also bring the Silver Surfer.

When Galactus arrives, Fury sends Ben and the Fantastic Four with the help of the Avengers and X-Men into the field to distract Galactus while Tony Stark, Hank Pym and Reed work on a way to stop him once and for all. When they arrive into the city and start battling Galactus, Hulk, Thor and the Thing are the heaviest hitters and causing the most damage to Galactus until he blasts them with cosmic energy causing Hulk to revert into Banner and Thor and the Thing to be knocked unconscious. Without their heavy hitters the three teams are decimated by Galactus' powers. As Galactus is about to kill the three teams, Sue protects them with a psionic shield bubble but is diminishing her strength. Silver Surfer and Cable arrive to help, Cable is quickly knocked out but Silver Surfer gives Galactus a run for his money, realising he can't defeat Galactus alone, Silver Surfer retreats and uses an untapped power the allows him to teleport himself, the other superheroes (including Spider-Man and Daredevil) back to the Triskelion.

Silver Surfer warns Nick Fury that Galactus sees them as a threat now and will be coming for them. Stark, Pym and Reed notify Ben and the other heroes that they have discovered a dimension called the Negative Zone that has no life in it and if they could create a wormhole and find a way to push him inside of it, they can defeat him. Quicksilver then notifies them that if they know how to build it and tell him how to build it, he'll use his superspeed to get it built fast, Stark, Pym, Reed and Banner then begin brain storming on how to create a device that can create wormholes.

Suddenly, Galactus arrives and attacks the Triskelion. Ben and the heroes begin battling Galactus to hold him off while the brains attempt to blueprint a wormhole device. After a long battle the heroes are defeated by Galactus but luckily the brains have come up with a way of creating a portal device, they wake up Quicksilver to build the mission, although Quicksilver will need a distraction, Banner transforms into the Hulk in a berserker rage and begins pounding Galactus. From looking at the blueprints, Quicksilver builds the device and activates it creating a wormhole. Hulk with a limited understanding keeps on punching Galactus in the direction of the wormhole and attempts to push him into it, as Galactus falls into the wormhole he grabs the Hulk and with no way to escape his fate seems to be sealed.

Until Silver Surfer zooms in and tackles Galactus into the wormhole going inside with him. Quicksilver quickly shuts down the device closing the wormhole forever, after successfully averting the dystopian future Cable hails from, he begins fading from existence. As he is fading, Cable thanks Daredevil, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iceman and Quicksilver for being a family to him when no one else would in the future and he tells Cyclops and Marvel Girl that he loves them and hopes to see them again soon.

A few days later, Reed and Sue would announce that they are pushing up their wedding. After Reed and Sue are married they leave to go on a honeymoon while Ben and Johnny would stay and keep an eye on things in New York.

Aftermath

During Reed and Sue's honeymoon, cosmic threats that deemed the Fantastic Four's attention worthy were minimal, Johnny saw this as a reward from the universe for all the good deeds they had done and saving the world from Galactus, Ben would agree to this.

When Reed and Sue returned from their honeymoon, they had wonderful news. They revealed to Ben and Johnny that they were pregnant, this news would make Ben ecstatic, happy to see his childhood friend about to become a father and so happy with Sue, Reed would also ask Ben to be the child's Godfather.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

The Thing received his powers when dark matter and extra-dimensional energies bombarded his body. He is extremely strong and durable. Nick Fury's intel classified him as power level 8.

Rock-like Skin: The Thing possesses a smooth, rock-like hide as a result of exposure to cosmic rays. The mutagenic process caused his musculature, bone structure, internal organ composition, soft tissue structure, and skin to greatly increase in toughness and density. After being subjected to a serum, he now reverts to human form once a year, which is now the only time he ages.

Superhuman Strength: The Thing's primary superhuman power is his great physical strength. Initially, he was only strong enough to rate as a class 5. Over the years, through rigorous training and further mutation, his strength dramatically increased to the point where he rated as a class 85. (The rating system is only for comparing characters with each other, and should not remotely be taken literally.) His latest rating put him as class 100. His feats include successfully holding back a giant alien spacecraft from jettisoning from Earth, lifting an oil rig and stopping a multiple story building (weighing roughly 30,000 tons) from falling over and lifting it back into place. Another feats include holding bridges main cables together for an extended period (which support about 10,000 tons). The most impressive feat was to overpower a pile driver mechanism stated to be powerful enough to push through a planet.

Superhuman Stamina: The Thing's advanced musculature produces considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of a normal human. At his peak, he can exert himself for about 24 hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to affect him. Incidentally, The Thing's lungs are of greater volume and efficiency than a normal man's, enabling him to hold his breath underwater for up to 9 minutes, despite the fact that he used to smoke.

Superhuman Durability: The rock-like composition of the Thing's body renders him highly resistant to physical injury. The Thing's body can resist extremely powerful impact forces, such as the force of the Hulk's punches (the Hulk is far above class 100, which makes his punches devastatingly strong). He can also withstand exposure to high levels of explosives, such as being struck full with bazooka shells, without sustaining injury. His body can also withstand extreme temperatures. However he couldn't withstand being slashed by Wolverine's adamantium claws, and sustained facial injury, making adamantium one of the few things that can pierce the Thing's nearly impenetrable body.

Superhuman Sensory Adaptation: Though his senses aren't superhumanly acute, his five senses can withstand greater amounts of sensory stimuli than he could when he was a normal human being, with no reduced sensitivity. This was demonstrated during the Fantastic Four's first fight with the Hulk. While the sonic boom caused by Hulk's thunderclap knocked out the rest of the group, Ben was barely phased, only sent slightly back due to the accompanying shockwaves.

Immortality: The Thing cannot age. The only way for him to age is by being in his human form. If he's not turned back to human or decides not to turn back to human one day a year as he's able to, The Thing would theoretically never die.

Abilities

Expert Pilot: Ben is an exceptionally skilled and experienced pilot, proficient with many varieties of both conventional and exotic aircraft.

Experienced Astronaut: Ben has also trained as an astronaut and was piloting Reed Richard's spacecraft during the team's fateful bombardment with cosmic rays.

Master Combatant: He is uniquely gifted in the art of hand-to-hand combat (a skill Ben honed long before he became the Thing), though his fighting style tends to be a rather loose brawling technique all his own. This style often incorporates collegiate wrestling techniques, Boxing (as he has been stated to have spent hours upon hours honing his boxing skills in the gym during college), and on at least one occasion even Jujutsu. In his youth, Ben was a talented football player.

Indomitable Will: One of Ben's remarkable qualities is his extreme willpower. Whatever obstacles may come, he would try until he overcomes them or dies. In fact, during his fight with the Champion of the universe, despite suffering severe injuries, he kept coming back, making the Champion remark that while he could break every bone in Ben's body, he could never defeat him, as he could never break Ben's spirit, and forfeited the fight so that he wouldn't be forced to hurt Ben anymore.

Strength level

Class 100

Weaknesses

None known.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Fantastic Four Uniform: The Thing's costume, and the rest of his wardrobe, is constructed of unstable molecules. The Thing's costume has a complete data processing and telemetry system woven into its fabric on a molecular level, making it like a wearable computer. The costume forms a network with the rest of the Fantastic Four, providing a constant, real time uplink of everyone’s physical condition as well as their location and current situation. The costume is capable of displaying data and has touch-pad controls on the gauntlets. Its sensors can track all of the team’s uniforms and provide a picture of their immediate vicinity. The costume has an intricate scanner system which can detect things around the wearer, from how many people are in the next room to what dimension or planet they are on.

Fantasti-Flare: The Thing normally carries a miniature flare pistol capable of creating a fiery “4" signal in the sky. Used as a weapon, the incendiary charge will ignite flammable materials.

Universal Translator: Ben has a universal translator that can decipher and interpret languages, both alien and terrestrial, into the native language of the user.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

No special notes.

Trivia

Ben was born in 1987

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Links and References

None.