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Warning: contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #41!
The beloved Thing of the Fantastic Four has his latest brush with death in the pages of Fantastic Four #41, and his marriage is the only thing preventing him from shuffling off the mortal coil for good. Benjamin Grimm has seen his share of danger, even before joining Marvel’s First Family, but the new Reckoning War crossover event is the team’s grandest and most high-stakes adventure yet, with the fate of the universe at stake. In a titanic battle between aliens and cosmic creatures beyond human understanding, leave it to the most human of customs to save the day.
The Reckoning War begins when the Watcher observes various planets armed with Watcher technology. This culminates in a Badoon ship obliterating Earth’s moon, and pieces of the satellite rain down on the planet below. After the Fantastic Four deal with the deadly debris, they journey into space to confront the Reckoning species – but they must first journey into the space of the Shi’ar Empire along with She-Hulk and protect the M’Krann Crystal, the nexus of all reality.
The Thing spots the warrior Rapture and the two fight, but Rapture can easily best the Thing’s fighting style (which mostly consists of head-on charges and includes no defense regarding enemies with swords). Rapture brings her blade down against the Thing’s outstretched hand – and though parts of his rocky skin have peeled away, he isn’t dead (to his astonishment). He notices his wedding ring took the attack that was meant for him. “Alicia” he can only say as Rapture attacks a second time; Ben is only saved thanks to Reed’s timely intervention.
Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters’ romance has existed for nearly five decades, and is one of the elements of Ben’s character that fans admire the most. Alicia is a blind artist, and Ben initially believed she was attracted to him only because she couldn’t see Ben’s true face (though she did feel it and didn’t seem to mind). Ben assumed Alicia would eventually tire of him, and even imagined she was attracted to the Silver Surfer (leading directly into This Man, This Monster!, a classic Thing tale). But the two worked through their differences and finally married in 2019; this culminated in the Thing’s wedding ring literally saving his life.
The Thing did not escape the battle unscathed; he’s still badly injured and held together by grit and Reed Richards. But his relationship with Alicia grounds the Thing as one of the more human characters of the Fantastic Four, despite having his distinct non-human visage. The Fantastic Four are down but not out as the Reckoning War continues; hopefully the Thing will survive the event and reunite with Alicia on Earth.
