The Fantastic 3¾

 

---

Where YOU Weigh In on the Pros and Cons of a Character's New Attire

---

FEATURING:   

Ben Grimm, the Thing   

Technically, the orange-scaled contraption which Ben is extricating himself from here was referred to as an "exoskeleton," but I think most of us probably shorthanded it as simply "the Thing suit"--an invention of Reed Richards which allowed Ben to once more take his place on the Fantastic Four as the Thing after lengthy exposure to the Hulk's gamma radiation reverted him to his human form (a situation not without its degree of tension). It took some doing, but Ben got the hang of being in the Thing's "skin" in short order, with a little guidance from his best friend.

The Thing suit was the brainchild of writer Roy Thomas, and put through its paces for a period of eight issues during March-October of 1976 before being summarily kiboshed near the end of Thomas's run on the book. In that time, we learned that it could also double as a spacesuit, even holding up against a bruiser like the Destroyer (infused with the essence of Galactus, no less):

It also didn't depend upon its wearer's freedom of movement for its removal, which would come in handy on those occasions when restraints were used on the FF:

Oddly enough, the Thing suit was conspicuously absent from the Thing's other series at the time, Marvel Two-In-One, thanks to a timely Editor's note which stated the tales in question took place before FF #166 (the culmination of the FF's battle with the Hulk). The only exceptions were by necessity--specifically, Thomas's time travel crossover stories which began in the 1976 FF Annual, continued in the '76 MTIO Annual, and concluded in MTIO #20.

If memory serves, the only other cameo the suit makes in that time is during an Avengers story which centers on a new lineup for the team. By that time, Ben has apparently grown so comfortable with the suit that we even find him lounging in it.

But finally, during the FF's dealings with the High Evolutionary and Galactus on the world known as Counter-Earth, the writing is on the wall for this exoskeleton when the suited Thing is struck by Galactus--a blast which doesn't take its toll until later, causing the Thing suit to bite the dust.

Despite the evidence of our eyes, however, the suit is not as demolished as it appears. Thirteen years later, in the "Atlantis Attacks" crossover that plays out in sixteen annuals published in 1989, we learn in a story scripted by Thomas that the suit has simply been in storage all that time.

(With Thomas evidently not feeling like providing a more detailed explanation of its reappearance, we're left to presume that Reed took what was left of the suit and constructed a new one in his spare time.)

Writer/artist Walt Simonson also featured the suit during his run on the FF book:

As it turned out, the suit would receive quite a bit of mileage, going on to be seen in a number of other titles in addition to its FF appearances. With Ben regaining his normal status often enough to warrant pulling the suit out of mothballs, however, we might be able to conclude that Marvel had by that time decided to leave behind the so-called tragic aspect of the Thing--the one member of the FF who was trapped in a monstrous form and prevented forever from living a normal life. And if you were lamenting the loss of the genuine Thing and didn't care for the precedent of FF characters using artificial means to duplicate their powers, Thomas prefers to instead address the issue in a corporate sense:

So it's time to deliver your verdict on "the Thing suit"--
an invention that let Ben Grimm have his cake and eat it, too.

OR: ?