| The Thing |
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| Portrayed by <E.g. "Taylor Cole"> |
| Statistics |
| Full Name |
Benjamin Jacob Grimm |
| Age |
39 |
| Height |
6' |
| Build |
Tall and Broad |
| Eyes |
Baby Blue |
| Hair |
Bald |
| Factions |
Fantastic Four |
| Occupation |
Clobberin' |
| Alignment |
Hero |
Claim to Fame
As The Thing, Ben Grimm is mostly known for punching space monsters, yelling at paparazzi, and superhero poker nights.
Reputation
The Thing is the Fantastic Four's surly, cigar-chomping, stone-plated brickhouse. One ill-conceived space expedition ago, he was Benjamin J. Grimm, former hoodlum/collegiate linebacker/Air Force pilot/astronaut.
Biography
Benjamin Grimm was a poor kid from Yancy Street on the Lower East Side. He spent most of his childhood getting into trouble with a local gang, but eventually found a way out of what might have otherwise been a life of violence and hardship when his natural athletic prowess led to a full-ride football scholarship from Empire State University.
At ESU, he met a number of people who'd go on to influence the rest of his life, including Reed Richards. He did an admirable job of splitting his time between studying and football, and during the off-season, he got himself into amateur boxing to stay in shape and give himself another healthy outlet for aggression.
After graduating with a physical science/aeronautical engineering degree, he chose to enlist in the Air Force to see the world outside of New York City and make the possibility of continuing his education later a little less onerous. After qualifying as a pilot, he flew missions in Serbia, Afghanistan, and Iraq over several tours, building up a rep as a skilled airman in the process. After a few years of active duty, he transferred to an test flight program where he put the next generation of aircraft through their paces. He even qualified for astronaut training eventually, an opportunity that he wasn't about to let pass him by.
And then, after a couple years of training, his ol' pal Reed tracked him down and brought plans for an experimental spacecraft with him.
It didn't take a ton of convincing to get Ben on board with the project, though he had far more misgivings once he realized how lightly shielded the rocket would be. Still: Reed was the smartest person he'd ever met, and he trusted him; he remaind on board as pilot despite his concerns, and eventually, the craft was ready for a test flight.
Alongside Reed, Susan Storm, and Susan's brother Johnny, Ben was bombarded by cosmic radiation when the craft passed through a storm of the stuff on its inaugural flight. Ben was able to steer them through it and bring them back Earth safely, but they didn't escape untouched: each of them was changed forever, with Ben making the most startling transformation of all by becoming a knobbly, stone-skinned Thing.
Though he harbored a lot of anger and resentment for the fate he'd been cursed with, he begrudgingly joined the other three in using their newfound powers to not only protect their world, but explore whole new ones. Since then, the bonds of friendship and camaraderie between the quartet have done a lot to mend his wounded spirit. He still eagerly awaits the day when Reed(or someone, or something) is finally able to help him control his condition, but throwing down with space monsters, picking up extra-dimensional tchotchkes, and becoming a household name are pretty decent consolations until then— especially for a punk kid from Yancy Street.
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Character Details
Ben Grimm usually maintains a gruff and boisterous persona to disguise his feelings of anxiety, frustration, and depression in the wake of becoming the Thing. It's essentially just a (slightly) heightened version of who he was pre-transformation: he might not have been prone to hollering about clobbering or Sunday Punches then, but he was always a gregarious, unpretentious straight-shooter. His tough, irreverent exterior hides a deep well of empathy, compassion and other softer, less destructive emotions that he prefers not to broadcast too regularly or too loudly.
College, seeing the world as a pilot, and exploring the rest of existence as a superhero have all done a lot to expand his ideas about who he is and what he's capable of beyond the somewhat narrow boundaries of his upbringing, but he /still/ isn't entirely comfortable with expressing himself honestly, even among family.
He's also highly protective, particularly of loved ones; even as a young Yancy Street Gangster, he tended to stick up for the smaller and/or weaker kids, even if it meant clashing with his running buddies. Besides the more readily apparent issues of being brought up in an environment where squishy emotions weren't really appreciated or accepted, this protective streak plays into his preference for keeping his inner demons bottled up around the Four: it wouldn't do anyone any good to be constantly reminded of how miserable he is as long as there's nothing that any of them can do about it.
The other members of the Four are like family to Ben. Even though they frustrate and confoud him at times, they're still people who have been there for him day in and day out since his transformation, supporting him on the unusual occasions that he's willing to let them. Having people in his life who care for him despite his various flaws and eccentricities is a big part of what's allowed him to flourish as a public hero and adventurer.
| Too Ugly To Die |
Ben's body is permanently covered with a nigh impenetrable layer of interlocking, plate-like stones. This renders him extremely resistant to most forms of harm, to the point that he's able to slug it out with phenomenally strong superhumans for extended periods of time, withstand most explosives, and repel blades that aren't composed of exceptionally hard materials like promethium or adamantium.
Although he now weighs about a quarter of a ton, Ben is every bit as graceful and athletic as he ever was; his new form doesn't impede his agility or reflexes at all, giving him a slight edge over less mobile brutes. |
| Adaptation |
| Extreme temperatures, excessive pressure, and other environmental hazards are generally not an issue for Ben. He does need to breathe, but he's able to hold his breath for much, much longer than the average non-rock monster. Also, his senses(with the exception of his sense of touch) can withstand exceptionally high levels of stimuli. |
| Monstrous Strength |
| As part of his permanent transformation into the Thing, Ben has become superhumanly strong. Currently, he can lift about 100 tons without major effort, but he works out constantly to improve his power. |
| Clobberin' |
| Ben combines jiu-jutsu, wrestling, boxing, and Yancy Street-style brawling into a unique fighting style. He was an avid boxer even before his transformation; since the flight, he's dutifully worked to build his skillset out of a desire to protect his friends as effectively as he can. |
| Pilot |
| Ben served in the US Air Force and underwent astronaut training before joining his friend's experimental shuttle flight. He flew a plethora of both combat and test flights then, and has since logged many hours behind the controls of the Four's various vehicles. Air and space crafts are his specialties, and he's highly capable of guiding either through tense combat situations, mechanical failures, and any number of complex maneuvers. He can handle land and sea vehicles with a reasonable degree of competence too, but he's nowhere near as comfortable with them. |
| Too Dumb To Quit |
| Ben is a stubborn and highly determined individual who can generally be counted on to throw himself fearlessly at even the most impossible of obstacles until he simply can't anymore, especially for the sake of protecting others. |
| Bachelor Of Science |
| Ben has a bachelor's degree from Empire State University, majoring in physical science and minoring in aeronautical engineering. He'd been considering going for a master's towards the end of his astronaut training, and then some genius came and roped him into an experimental space flight. |
| Athletics |
| Ben was a talented high school and college football player who attended Empire State University on a full-ride athletic scholarship. He also did a lot of amateur boxing during the off-season, especially in college. |
| Gambling |
| Ben and his friends/teammates/fellow soldiers often used to kill time with cards and dice, as they tended to be cheap, easy to carry, and versatile distractions during down periods. He's got a pretty good head for a range of games, but poker is his specialty. |
| Fantastic Four |
| Ben is a founding member of the Fantastic Four, a team/family of cosmic adventurers and superheroes. The group has amassed a dizzying array of high-tech vehicles and equipment and is headquartered in the Baxter Building, a skyscraper packed with cutting-edge labs, medical facilities, gyms, residential wings, and security measures. Given his condition(and the unpredictable wonders of living in a sci-fi fever dream), Ben lives in the Building full-time. |
| Suit |
| Ben has worn several uniforms over the years, and they've all incorporated Reed Richards' proprietary unstable molecule technology. Unstable molecule-enhanced fabrics are designed to react favorably to the wearer's powers while also being highly durable; in Ben's case, these two things are basically the same. He generally doesn't wear much more than trunks or pants, but they are resistant to fire, bullets, and slashing damage. |
| Immortal |
| Ben doesn't age as long as he's powered up, meaning that he could theoretically live forever provided that he doesn't get eaten by a carnivore planet or something. |
| Is A Monster |
| Ben's rocky appearance is very distinctive and can be unsettling to some, despite his established career of heroism. Also, he weighs about 500 pounds and is broader than even the average NFL linebacker; even in places where people are generally okay with his presence, there's a pretty good chance that the space itself won't really be able to accomodate him. On top of /that/, he's missing a finger from each hand, and the ones he does have are much broader than normal, which makes it hard to handle anything small or delicate. |
| Rogues Gallery |
| The Fantastic Four have amassed many enemies throughout their history. They run the gamut from costumed supervillains to hostile alien species, with a few of mad autocrats mixed in for good measure. Most have scores to settle with the team as a whole, but at least a few are liable to have some degree of enmity towards the Four's stubborn, trash-talking brute. |
| Idol Of Millions |
| Ben Grimm's identity as the Thing is public knowledge, as is his residing at the Baxter Building. Anyone from enemies with an axe to grind, annoying reporters, or, God forbid, the Yancy Street Gang could easily track him there, and his appearance makes hiding even harder than it might be for other members of the Four. He does frequently wear trenchcoats, hats, shades, and other concealing items in public, but they only do so much good. |
| Protective |
| Ben is intensely protective, so much so that he's usually willing to throw himself face first into anything that threatens his friends and family - surrogate or otherwise - whether it's a bunch of Hand ninja or a Sun Eater; leveraging those bonds is a great way to draw him into dangerous situations or keep his attention occupied. He's slightly less single-minded about protecting strangers, but only slightly: if the only way to stop the Hulk from reaching a bus full of innocent children, commuters, or even tourists is to take a serious beating, he's probably going to do it. |
| Thick Skinned |
| Ben's rocky exterior does a good job of protecting the relatively squishy innards beneath, but massive impacts can still cause internal injury, or even crack his exterior in extreme cases, specially made blades and projectiles can pierce his hide, and clever(or just plain cruel) opponents can find other ways to bypass it. He isn't entirely impervious from injury, and when he does get hurt, his powers work against him by making him nearly impossible to treat in conventional settings with conventional tools. |
Relationships
| Image |
Name |
Relation |
Information |
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Character Name |
Friend |
Insert a description of the relationship here. |
Notes
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