My name is Ben Grimm, and once upon a time..I was human. I grew up on Yancy Street, used to run with the gang there, but I straightened myself out, went to school. Shacked up with a guy I had little in common with at first glance, but a man I'd come to see as my best friend. The man who changed my life..Reed Richards. I'd always loved flying, so being in the Air Force had been a dream job. Got into more than my fair share of scrapes in the process, both in the air and on the ground. So when Reed told me his dream about going off into space, I jokingly told him if he could do it I'd pilot it.

Sometimes I think irony loves me a little too damn much.

Low and behold Reed actually pulls it off and I find myself keeping the promise I hadn't even thought through. Added to the mix is Susan Storm and her kid brother, Johnny. Sue's a sweetheart, smart, and not bad looking at all, but her brother's a pain in the ass goofball. Not sure how they convinced Reed to let them on, but they did. So the big day came and for awhile it looked like things we're going to work out fine, but like I said, irony just loves good ol' Benjie. We ended up in what reed called a "cosmic storm" or some thing like that, and I had to go out and play moonwalker to fix something on the ship. I did it, but we all ended up getting hit with those rays of cosmic energy. I got back inside, but I could feel something changing me, but I had little time to dwell on it as our ship was taking a swandive back to Earth. I mananged to right it enough to save our lives, but we still crashed.

At first I thought we were all lucky to be alive, but then everything changed. Turns out those rays gave us all superpowers. Reed could now stretch, Susan could turn invisible, and Johnny could light himself on fire. But me? I wasn't quite so lucky. I got turned unto a giant, rocklike..thing. I ran from the others, angry, sad, and a host of other stuff I can't begin to describe. I went to my girl's place, hoping she'd understand and offer something in the way of comfort, but she was terrified of me. In stupid anger I went on a bit of a rant through town until Reed and the others calmed me down. Reed promised he'd find a way to cure me. He then started talking about forming some kind of super-team, but I was in no mood to listen to any of that. I just walked off, telling Reed I'd be in touch. 

Thing. That's what people in the streets called me. Guess that's what I am now. The Thing.

tags: the thing