Ben Grimm, a.k.a. the Thing, will go back to his hardscrabble roots and face down a murderer’s row of Marvel villains in an upcoming limited series by writer Tony Fleecs and artist Leonard Kirk that will launch ahead of the Fantastic Four movie.  The five-issue series, titled simply The Thing, takes Grimm back to Yancy Street, where he grew up, to solve the mystery of a missing child. When he gets too close, and becomes the target of a hit, all the bad guys show up to battle him.  Marvel Comics will release the first issue will on March 5, 2025, with a main cover by Nick Bradshaw and a variant by Greg Land.

“What I love about Ben Grimm is that he's just a regular hardworking guy—who happens to have super powers,” Fleecs said in a statement accompanying the announcement.  “He's Jack Kirby.  He's not easily impressed by all of the outlandish, cosmic stuff constantly going on around him.

“The fun thing about this book is trying to figure out—'okay, then what WOULD surprise the Thing?  What WOULD catch him off guard?'  In that spirit, we're throwing every villain in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe at him.  Trying to pit him against some opponents that you wouldn't expect.  We've got Leonard Kirk drawing The Thing!  Believe me, you're gonna see ol' Benjy clobber some guys he's never clobbered before.”

The movie Fantastic Four: First Steps is slated to premiere on July 25, 2025 (see "Movie Calendar 2025").

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