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This article, Benjamin Grimm (Earth-21410), is property of MarvelousMarty. |
Daniel Grimm (father; deceased),
Elsie Grimm (mother; deceased),
unnamed individual (cousin), Franklin Richards (godson),
Alicia Masters (fiancée; estranged)
Fear Incarnate
Vol 1 1
Fear Incarnate
Vol 1 5
History
Finally *slurps...* It's slobberin' time!
- — The Thing
- — The Thing
Early Years
Benjamin Jacob "Ben" Grimm was born to neglectful parents on Yancy Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where he grew up in a crime-ridden neighborhood burdened by poverty. Thankfully, the young Ben would get the chance to move in with his older cousin's residence in Central City, California, as an optimistic opportunity in order to start a better life compared to the struggles he encountered at Yancy Street. Years later on, Ben decided to join his best friend Reed, close friends Sue Storm, her brother Johnny Storm and Victor von Doom in Reed's spacial project, with the Baxter Building being the testing site of a teleportation project, which sought to pierce the dimensional barrier into an antimatter realm called the Negative Zone. Ben knew that Reed had always experimented with quantum physics, and wanted to see how his old friend was getting along. Along with it, a brutal cosmic ray storm had battered the crew as they were on the alternate dimension, drastically affecting their DNAs, which gave them superpowers in the process, with Ben becoming the stone-skinned orange Thing, and one of the now famous and beloved superhero teams in the world, the Fantastic Four.
The Sickness
The Thing, before before the Festering Fear infected him
Ben, and the rest of the Fantastic Four, had been out, doing what they could for the city, sincerely believing that they should evacuate every survivor they could find through the Baxter Building's interdimensional portal, expecting that they could find sanctuary in another dimension, at least for a while. During the evacuation of the Baxter Building, the Thing used himself as a barricade to help the rest of his fiancee Alicia Masters, his teammates, and the Baxter employees to get through the portal safely. Ben had the intentions of catching up, only to be challenged by the arrival of Venom, whose the symbiote itself was revealed to be also infected by the mysterious pathogen. Thing tried to restrain the symbiote, but its fluid structure were proven to be too much for the fantastic one. Venom projected a piece of itself onto Thing's mouth, wherein the living piece began to infect the once invincible Thing until it died out within his body. Fulfilling its sacrifice according to plan, Thing quickly falls upon the infection, much to his fiancee's horror as she could only cry out while Mister Fantastic was painfully forced to close the portal when the succumbing Thing shouted to leave without him. In his final moments being "himself," the Thing used his every strength to throw Venom out of the Baxter with a single yet stalwart blow, hoping that it would at least knock him out while the pathogen slowly and surely takes over him, becoming one of the superpowered "Festering Dreamers".
As days have passed, Spider-Man and the Defenders' search for the Fantastic Four inside an abandoned Baxter Building, hoping that there would be a cure to develop, Spider-Man's spider-sense made him realize they were too late. At the midst of realization, the slinger and his surviving teammates were attacked by the infected Thing and a horde of infected Baxter employees, whom the former mocked the living heroes that they were abandoned by Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, revealing that they've already left into the safety on other side of the Baxter portal before closing it for good. Most of the heroes were either hopelessly torn apart or turned into one of them as a "Festering Dreamer," but Spider-Man and Black Cat had enough time think of a way out by using a teleportation device from Baxter. Spider-Man and the survivors then formed a hypothesis whether the pathogen may be part mystical due to how the infected seemed to appear somewhat possessed by something that's not of the earthy realm. Spider-Man then thought of the only acquaintance he knew is related to this: Doctor Strange.
Spider-Man was ready to lead the people into safety setting their course to the New York Sanctum after setting the coordinates to Strange's sanctuary, but what he didn't expect came lunging at him in the form of Venom, who sank his mostly canine teeth into his shoulder, much to Black Cat and the survivor's dread. However, despite this abrupt ordeal, the web-slinger manages to fight his zombified-like nemesis long enough to set the teleportation device on a one way trip. The Thing and the rest of the infected populace of the building watches as Venom attacks the weakened web-slinger, who slowly succumbs into the disease. However, with his memories of Spider-Man being Ben Grimm's ally and friend, the Thing instinctively stepped in the way and had enough of the infected Venom's abuse. The two festered brutes fought for their own might, breaking every wall and road they cross paths with right until they reached the underground sewers of Manhattan. With its mutation, Grimm broke through the symbiote as he reached into his spine, removing it from the rest of his body in the most brutal of fashion.
Proving his might over the black-suited killer Grimm began to feast on Brock's scattered remains while the Venom symbiote sneaks its way out of the scene, away from the bloody aftermath of its host. While he indeed won against Venom, the battle costed him his eyesight after the villain had torn both of it. Nevertheless, Thing was able to consume more pieces of the symbiote, which still compensated Grimm with his newly-gained heightened senses. Being the only downfall for this addition was that Thing had to endure the rest of its continuously rotting life lying in the sewers, waiting and lurking for his following victims for a long while, whether it those would be small sewers animals or lost survivors who fell into his illusive traps. Weeks pass, the visually paralyzed and mutated Thing would end up being discovered in the sewers by a group of escapees from Ravencroft Institute. They pushed one of their fellow escapees, who immediately devoured the patient until he was nothing but bones, which Thing regurgitated out. The deluded patients saw this moment as a divine miracle, deciding to found a cult-like community based on their following on the Thing, believing the Thing's words that he would both spare and give them a space to settle as long as they offer him each and every once in a while; otherwise they too, would end up becoming his meals.
Another several months came by, the mutated Thing had ended up being discovered by Daredevil, who was being offered by his toadies as the latest line of his feast. The Thing had his smell and his other heightened senses locked on at the heroic survivors who came to rescue Daredevil, despite trying to their best to fight back while find a way out of his clutches at the same time. In all of a sudden, something large came through his domain through a hole created by a powerful force. And at that moment, the Thing discovered an infected Hulk, giving the survivors a chance to escape their state of entrapment outside the sewers. Feeling somewhat fearful but more insulted by the demeaning appearance of the mutated Thing, who nevertheless saw his old ally as an interesting meal, the Hulk was initially overpowered by the former due to his size and intimidation, only for the Hulk to feel its own mutation: his own rage. Motivated by this hunch, his Sickness-induced rage released microparticles in the air, which attracted hundreds of infected civilians nearby the area to help overwhelm the Thing in his number of assistance by devouring the rocky mutated Dreamer. With this chance, the Green Goliath gave the final blow at the weakened Thing, punching through his stony head, shattering his skull into smithereens. The Hulk was unchallenged once more, and in celebration, he and the rest of the Dreamers around the area feasted on the corpse of the mutated Ben Grimm. Tasting on his fallen ally, the Hulk morbidly described the mutated Thing's flesh and bones to be the same as steak as he could feel his mutation at accelerating at a faster rate.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Seemingly those of Ben Grimm of Earth-61615.
- Nightmare's Dream
- Momentary Mutations
- Enhanced Intelligence
- Superhuman Strength
- Superhuman Speed
- Superhuman Stamina
- Superhuman Senses
- Superhuman Agility
- Superhuman Reflexes
- Superhuman Durability
- Superhuman Mental Process
- Size Manipulation
- Limited Shapeshifting
- Biological Immortality
- Extremis Enhancements
- Microparticle Carriers
- Infected Venom Symbiote
- Momentary Mutations
| Power Grid [1] | |||||
| Intelligence* |
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| Strength* |
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| Speed* |
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| Durability* |
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| Energy Projection* |
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| Fighting Skills |
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| * Lower values represent the effects of the infected as symptoms of Nightmare's Dream slowly festers over their mind and body throughout time, while the higher values represent their original power grid levels. | |||||
Abilities
Seemingly those of Ben Grimm of Earth-61615.
Strength level
Seemingly those of Ben Grimm of Earth-61615.
Weaknesses
Seemingly those of Ben Grimm of Earth-61615.
- Blindness
- Nightmare's Dream
- Several Symptoms
- Induced Paranoia
- Hallucinations
- Constant Hunger
- Psychic Madness
- Visions of Infected's Fears
- Hemorrhagic Fever
- Slowly Decomposing Body
- Frequent Bleeding
- Aphasia and/or Dysphasia
- Decreased Intelligence
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Latent Spasms and Seizures
- Decreased Healing Factor
- Several Symptoms
Paraphernalia
Equipment: Seemingly those of Ben Grimm of Earth-61615.
Transportation: Seemingly those of Ben Grimm of Earth-61615.
Weapons: Seemingly those of Ben Grimm of Earth-61615.
Notes
- No special notes.
- ↑ Modern Comics: Fantastic Four Vol 3 5
Trivia
- Ironically, the infected Ben Grimm ended up embracing the very image and identity some people had been fearing him when he first appeared in the public as the Thing, becoming feared by the survivors when the Sickness started mutating him.
See Also
- Appearances of Benjamin Grimm (Earth-21410)
- Character Gallery: Benjamin Grimm (Earth-21410)
- Quotations by Benjamin Grimm (Earth-21410)
Discover and Discuss
- Search News for: Thing · Benjamin Jacob Grimm · Benjamin Grimm (Earth-21410)
Links and References
- None.