Thing (Marvel Comics)
fictional character in Marvel Comics
The Thing (Benjamin Jacob "Ben" Grimm) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a founding member of the Fantastic Four. The Thing was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and he first appeared in Fantastic Four #1 (cover-dated Nov. 1961). Known for his trademark rocky appearance, he has superhuman strength, a sense of humor, and the battle cry and catchphrase "It's clobberin' time!".
The Thing's personality and background is heavily modeled by Kirby's own background. A key feature throughout his character arc is his struggle to accept his newfound powers and form, an experience which often parallels real-world experiences of disfigured people and those with body dysmorphic disorder. This arc culminates in his returning to his human form before again going back to his mutated form. Eventually, the Thing came to accept his mutated form and found love with the blind sculptor Alicia Masters, with whom he was married and adopted two alien children. He has been depicted as an Ashkenazi Jew.
“Thing (Marvel Comics)” enters the record as fictional character in Marvel Comics. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Thing, Marvel and Comics can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thing (Marvel Comics)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.