Benjamin Grimm

[Source]

"*It's clobberin' time!*"
―The Thing[src]
**Benjamin "Ben" Grimm** (also known as the **Thing**) was Human Mutate pilot and astronaut who served the U.S. Air Force as well as a founding member of the Fantastic Four.

## Biography

### Early life

Benjamin Grimm was born on June 18, 1979 in New York, New York to Elsie and Daniel Grimm.
Benjamin J. Grimm was born on Yancy Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where he grew up in poverty. His father, an alcoholic, was unable to hold a job. Much of the family's income came from Grimm's older brother, Daniel, who obtained funds illegally as leader of the Yancy Street Gang. Grimm, who idolized his brother, became embittered against the world when Daniel was killed in a battle between rival gangs. Grimm was only eight years old at the time. Within ten years, he had succeeded his brother as leader of the Yancy Street Gang. After his parents died, Grimm was taken in by his Uncle Jake, who had risen from poverty to become a successful physician. At first, Grimm resisted his new guardians' kindness toward him. But eventually, he came to return their love. He left his life with the Yancy Street Gang behind, entered high school, and became a football star there. While he was a senior at Stuyvesant High School, Ben received a football scholarship to State University in Hegeman, New York. On the football field, Ben received the nickname "Grimm Reaper."

Grimm's freshman year roommate was the brilliant science student Reed Richards, who became his closest friend. During their first meeting, Richards confided in Grimm his intention someday to build a starship for interstellar travel. Grimm jokingly promised that he would pilot the starship for Richards if he ever built it.

Upon graduating Grimm went into the U.S. Air Force and became a highly skilled fighter pilot, as well as test pilot and astronaut. In the meantime, Richards went ahead with his project to build a starship, using both his own fortune and funding from the Federal government. On the day that Grimm left the military, Richards came to him to remind him of his promise to pilot the starship.

### Fantastic Four

Reed Richards' project was based in Central City, California. When the federal government threatened to withdraw its funding from Richards' project, Richards decided to take the star ship on a test flight himself as soon as possible. Grimm was opposed to the idea, warning that the star ship's shielding might prove to be inadequate protection from intense radiation storms. Nevertheless, Grimm was persuaded to serve as pilot, and Richards' future wife Sue Storm and her teenage brother Johnny insisted on accompanying Richards' as passengers. The four friends stole into the launch facility, entered the star ship, and launched it. They intended to travel through hyperspace to another solar system and back. However, unknown to Richards, a solar flare caused Earth's Van Allen radiation belts to be filled temporarily with unprecedented, ultra-high levels of cosmic radiation. Since the ship was designed to shield against ordinary levels of radiation, the cabin interior was subject to intense cosmic ray bombardment which irradiated the four passengers and wrought havoc on the ship's controls. Pilot Grimm was forced to abort the flight and return to Earth.

Once back on Earth, the four passengers discovered that the cosmic radiation had triggered mutagenic changes in their bodies. Grimm was transformed into an orange-colored, thick-skinned, heavily-muscled, and super humanly strong "thing." Richards convinced the three others that the four of them should use their new powers for the good of humanity as members of a team named the Fantastic Four. Richards called himself Mister Fantastic, Susan and Johnny Storm took the names of the Invisible Girl (later Invisible Woman) and the Human Torch, and Grimm, morose over his new grotesque appearance, named himself the Thing. Under Richards' leadership the Fantastic Four has become Earth's most honored team of superhuman adventurers, and has saved the world from conquest or destruction many times. Their incorporation heralded the modern age of superheroes.
The Fantastic Four were not just Ben's friends, they became his surrogate family, and he was like a beloved uncle to Reed and Sue's children, Franklin (whose middle name was Benjamin, after the Thing) and Valeria. He also often assisted his teammate Johnny during the young man's solo adventures.

## Personality and traits

"*Okay, I'm sure this's interesting and all, but if we don't actually fight the bad guys, we'll lose our hero license!*"
―Benjamin Grimm[src]

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

**Rock-like Skin:** The Thing possessed 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 was able to revert to his human form whenever he chose to.

* ***Superhuman Strength:*** The Thing's primary superhuman power was his great physical strength. Over the years, through rigorous training and further mutation, his strength dramatically increased. His feats included successfully holding back a giant alien spacecraft from jettisoning from Earth, lifting an oil rig and stopping a multiple story building from falling over and lifting it back into place. Another feat included holding bridges main cables together for an extended period.

* ***Superhuman Stamina:*** The Thing's advanced musculature produced considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of a normal human. At his peak, he could exert himself for about 24 hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in his blood began to affect him. Incidentally, The Thing's lungs were 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 rendered him highly resistant to physical injury. The Thing's body could resist extremely powerful impact forces, such as the force of the Hulk's punches. He could also withstand exposure to high levels of explosives, such as being struck full with bazooka shells, without sustaining injury. His body could 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 could pierce the Thing's nearly impenetrable body.

* ***Superhuman Sensory Adaptation:*** Though his senses weren't superhumanly acute, his five senses could 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.

### Abilities

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

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

**Master Combatant:** He was uniquely gifted in the art of hand-to-hand combat, a skill he honed long before he became the Thing, though his fighting style tended to be a rather loose brawling technique all his own. This style often incorporated 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.

## Appearances

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