The Thing is Becoming The Fantastic Four’s Most Powerful Member

Warning! Spoilers for The Thing #4 below.

With a series of new weapons, The Thing is becoming the most powerful member of his Fantastic Four family. This is happening in his new solo series The Thing, which the story arc title “The Next Big Thing.” It’s being written by Walter Mosley with art by Tom Reilly.

The series takes place early on in the Fantastic Four adventures. After returning from a much-needed fishing vacation, Ben Grimm finds the Baxter Building completely empty. In perfect Ben Grimm style, he finds himself in one problem after the next. He gets arrested, breaks out, goes on a dating app, is attacked by his date’s stalker, beats him (with his date’s help) and then is attacked again by an Elder of the Universe called the Champion.

Along the way, Ben acquires a series of strange but useful artifacts. The first is a vial of light that somehow granted the stalker extraordinary strength. In fact, it was with this very strength that Ben was able to defeat the immensely powerful Champion. This Elder of the Universe has near cosmic level strength, but while holding it, Ben was able to knock him paralyzed with just a single blow. The Silver Surfer eventually came to collect the Champion, but not before he left the Champion’s teleportation belt at Ben Grimm’s request.

In just four issues, Ben has been able to acquire two mysterious yet powerful devices that he’s utilized during the series. The teleportation belt and strength-granting vial of light have given Ben an edge over the rest of his Fantastic Four counterparts. Neither Sue, Reed, nor Johnny are able to match the artifacts’ powers on their own, let alone when they are added to the super-powered abilities The Thing already possesses.

If The Thing is indeed becoming the most powerful member of The Fantastic Four then he will certainly need it. There is a villain named Mot that has been orchestrating a lot of devious events in the series. In fact, he was the very fiend that gave the stalker the vial of light. As Ben Grimm continues to acquire these tools, it seems he’s bound to use these newfound powers in a final fight against this mysterious foe. Then again, Ben isn’t usually known to be the type to amass all the power he can. A more likely scenario is that he passes up the power and the rest of his family shows up at the last second so they can beat the big bad together. Fantastic Four fans will just have to finish the series to find out.

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