Alternate versions of the Thing

The Thing is a Marvel Comics superhero and a member of the Fantastic Four. He has many alternate counterparts throughout the Marvel Multiverse.

1602

In Neil Gaiman's "1602", Benjamin Grimm is the captain of the ship "The Fantastick", before gaining his abilities from the Anomaly. His power is associated with the classical element of earth.

In the sequel "1602: Fantastick Four" Benjamin has found work as an actor with William Shakespeare's troupe, where he can hide his monstrous form behind false whiskers as Falstaff. He is soon forced to reveal himself, however, when Otto von Doom's vulture soldiers kidnap Shakespeare.

Age of Apocalypse

In What If?: Age of Apocalypse, Ben is a member of the Defenders, the AoA version of the Avengers/Ultimates. In this reality, Legion kills both Professor Xavier and Magneto in the past, therefore the X-Men never exist and the Defenders are mankind's only hope. At some point, Apocalypse asked the Fantastic Four to become his Horsemen of Apocalypse. When they refused, he sends his son, Holocaust, to kill them. Thing is the only survivor from the attack, losing his right arm during the fight. Now using a metal prosthetic arm, he joins the Defenders to fight the forces of Apocalypse: Captain Britain (using Iron Man's armor), Weapon X, Brother Voodoo, Nate Grey, Colossus, Molecule Man, and Sauron, led by Captain America (who wields Thor's hammer, Mjolnir).

During the attack on Apocalypse's tower, Ben finds a street sign on the ground, which reads Yancy Street. He faces Holocaust once again, screaming out "Yer standing on Yancy Street! This Here's My Turf!" as he brings his fists down hard enough to fracture Holocaust's armor. Holocaust, however, overpowers and kills Ben, ripping the prosthetic from his body, and then blasting Ben with the weapon on his arm.

Earth-A

In this universe, Ben and Reed Richards are the only occupants of the experimental spacecraft. Ben is called "Mr. Fantastic" and has stretching and flame powers instead.

"The End"

In this setting, where the entire Sol System is being colonized by humanity, with humanity undergoing a Golden Age because of the use of technology developed by Reed Richards in an effort to create a utopia, The Thing is married to Alicia Masters with 3 super-powered children, residing on Mars with the Inhumans. He is now capable of shifting between human form and 'Thing' form at will.

In this setting, the Fantastic Four are in a state of flux, with the Human Torch a member of the Avengers, Susan Storm an archaeologist, the Thing a contented house-husband and Reed Richards a reclusive scientific hermit.

Heroes Reborn

In this alternate universe, Ben and Johnny share a more dangerous adversarial relationship, knowing each other even before the ill-fated spaceflight. Traveling to the remote location of the spacecraft, the two play a game of chicken. Since neither had powers at this point, both could have easily died in the crash.

House of M

In the "House of M", Ben Grimm was the pilot in Reed Richards' voyage to space, alongside Susan Storm and John Jameson. Like the others, Grimm was mutated, though he was the only survivor of the rocket's explosion. Ben was transformed into a rock-skinned creature with superhuman strength and a diminished intellect. He was taken by Dr. Doom, who named him the It. The It became one of the Fearsome Four, though he was treated like an animal and was often the victim of Doom's frustrations. Tired of being mistreated, the It betrayed Doom and sided with Polaris after Doom tried to kill Magneto and Quicksilver. After Doom was defeated, the It ended up meeting Alicia Masters, who took him to the Human Resistance.

Marvel Mangaverse

In the Marvel Mangaverse comics Benjamin (pronounced "Ben-ya-meen") Grimm is a member of the Megascale Metatalent Response Team Fantastic Four. The team uses power-packs to boost their talents to manifest at mecha-sized levels. Benjamin is a shy, intelligent, somewhat neurotic man with a stutter in his civilian identity; however, once he uses his meta-talents, his "serious badass" side comes to the fore. His meta-talent exo-skeletal armature is subsumed from miscellaneous urban materials such as bricks, cars, steel rods, concrete, etc. The team fights giant Godzilla-sized monsters from alien cultures that attack Earth for performing experiments which endanger all of reality. In "New Mangaverse", the Fantastic Four, with the exception of the Human Torch, are murdered by ninja assassins employed by the Hand.

MC2

In the alternate future timeline of the Marvel universe published under the MC2 imprint, Ben is still a member of the Fantastic Four, whose roster has expanded to make them the Fantastic 5. In this future, he was married to Sharon Ventura and had a set of twin children by her (Jacob & Alyce), though they are now divorced. Much of the left half of his body has been replaced with cybernetic parts following a battle with Terrax. He always appears alongside the F5 whenever they appear in the Spider-Girl series and related miniseries.

New Amsterdam

In "Marvel Two-in-One" #50, Reed Richards advises Ben that his mutation is ongoing, and tells him that the cure he has developed for his condition will no longer work. Ben decides to borrow a time machine from Reed and travel back in time to give himself the cure in the past. He ends up fighting "himself", then forcing "him" to take the cure, which returns "him" to normal. When he returns to the present, however, nothing has changed, and Reed advises him that he succeeded only in creating an alternate universe.

In "Marvel Two-in-One" #100, Reed examines records of that trip and determines that Ben did not create that reality after all, based on a newspaper that shows the name of the city as "New Amsterdam" instead of "New York." Curious, Ben travels back to that reality, this time to its present. He arrives to find the city in ruins. He meets "himself" and learns that in this world, Spider-Man replaces The Thing in the Fantastic Four, and Ben Grimm settles down to a normal life as a bartender. Unfortunately, Galactus arrives soon after, kills the planet's superheroes, and devours most of the life essence of the planet. Ben wonders if he is to blame, he learns that the Silver Surfer did not come to Earth in this reality. The local version of Ben Grimm is the leader of the remaining humans in New Amsterdam.

Planetary

Warren Ellis' Planetary features a villainous take on the Fantastic Four known simply as The Four. One of them, a covert-ops pilot called Jacob Greene, is granted superhuman powers during a top-secret spaceflight and transforms into a rocky-skinned engine of destruction. Described by one character as "inexhaustible cannon-fodder", Greene's role in The Four's conspiracy seems to be purely as a weapon, something to be unleashed when the job simply requires the killing of everything standing between The Four and their goals. From his lack of dialogue Greene may no longer possess higher brain functions, but it's also possible that, given the revelation concerning the Reed Richards analogue's powers (Randall Dowling) Ellis is hinting that Greene shared Ben Grimm's repressed fury towards his teammate for sticking him with a monster's body, Dowling however took action to provide an outlet for Greene's anger while still retaining the use of his superhuman capacity for violence.

Ruins

In Warren Ellis' "Ruins" mini-series, Ben Grimm refuses to fly Reed Richards' ship the Astraea because it needs Lateral Monitors on it in order to be ready to fly. As a result, Reed asks Victor von Doom be the ship's pilot. This results in the horrific mutation and subsequent deaths of all on-board. Grimm avoids becoming the Thing, but is left to live with the guilt of thinking he could have prevented the tragedy.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Ben is Reed's childhood friend. When they were in school together, Ben would protect Reed from bullies and Reed would help Ben with his homework. Ben moved on to college and was invited to watch Reed's teleportation experiment. The experiment gave Ben a rocky hide which gave him incalculable strength. The Ultimate version of the Thing is highly durable to physical damage and physiologically stressful conditions, such as extreme temperatures and toxic breathing environments. He seems to weigh a lot more than the 616 version, requiring a special body suit to regulate his density. His physical strength appears to be greater than that of his 616 counterpart. His strength feats include: defeating the Marvel Zombies universe Hulk with one punch, and delivering the knock-out blow to Ultimate Hulk in the final issue of Ultimate Power (although it should be noted that The Hulk had been fighting the combined might of the Ultimates, the Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and two versions of the Squadron Supreme). No upper limit for his strength has so far been established, although, he was once calculated to be exerting seven tons of pressure per square inch with his bare hands on a machine designed to measure his strength (which was subsequently destroyed by the effort). However, this version of the Thing has taken his transformation even worse than his 616 counterpart, carrying ongoing resentment towards Reed Richards (since Reed is admittedly responsible for his condition), and recently revealing that he has tried to commit suicide. Recently, after being revived after he was turned to glass and shattered by Diablo, Ben's normal orange color became blue for a while, changing back a few weeks later.

=What If?=

In "What if Doctor Doom had Become the Thing?", Doom befriends Reed during their their college days, and Ben is left out. Dropping out of college, Ben joins the army, earning the rank of sergeant. Reed and Doom, meanwhile, went ahead with their experimental rocket. When the cosmic rays turn Doom into a Thing-like creature, he attacks Reed, sending him into a gamma bomb test site, where Ben is stationed. In saving Reed from the bomb's radiation, Ben is transforms into a Hulk-like creature. Calling himself "Grimm", he fights and defeats Doom. After Reed calms him down, Ben decides to join him in forming the Fantastic Four.