Ben Grimm grew up in poverty on Yancy Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side. His alcoholic father unable to hold a job, forced his older brother Daniel to resort to crime for much of the family's income as the leader of the Yancy Street Gang. Idolizing his brother, Grimm became embittered against the world when his brother died during a clash between rival gangs. Grimm would eventually succeed his brother as leader of the street gang.
With the death of his parents, Ben was remanded to live with his Aunt Alyce and Uncle Jake, who had risen from poverty to become a successful physician. First resisting his new guardians' kindness, he eventually came to return their love. Earning a football scholarship to State University, Grimm roomed with future aeronautical engineer Reed Richards, and the two became best friends.
Now an Air Force pilot Grimm was contacted years later by Richards to pilot an experimental starship capable of interstellar travel. Rounding out the crew of four were Richards' fiancée and longtime sweetheart, Susan Storm, and her brother, Johnny. A freak cosmic-radiation storm changed the rocket's inhabitants granting them each unique powers. When the rocket crashed back to Earth, Grimm mutated into a rock-hard monster, dubbed by a fearful fellow adventurer, Sue Storm, as a Thing.
Current Version:
The Thing (Return)
Former Versions:
Ben Grimm
The Thing (Original)
The Thing
The Thing (Spiky)
The Thing (Masked)
Angrir
The Thing (Future Foundation)
The Thing (Guardians of the Galaxy)
