10 Insane Alternate Versions Of The Thing You Won't Believe Exist

[Music] now here's the thing there are a lot of things and by thing of course we mean Benjamin Grimm the long-serving muscle of Marvel's first family the Fantastic Four the idea of giving ordinary people extraordinary powers and having them reacts realistically proved extremely successful for the Fantastic Four we've seen countless other superheroes follow this formula since and that's not all we've also seen a huge number of variations on the thing himself whether it's from being in an alternate reality and in universe copycats or just a straight-up ripoff from another publisher there are so many alternate versions of the thing that we couldn't fit them all on one list so apologies in advance to any captain thing be advance but with all that in mind I'm will for culture and here are 10 insane alternate versions of the thing you won't believe exist 10 Marvel mangaverse is Benjamin Grimm now the manga verse was an interesting thing yes the comics were drawn in a traditional Eastern comic-book style but the stories within them were also considerably retooled to incorporate the tropes and trends of manga and anime storytelling so the manga versus Benjamin pronounced Benjamin Grimm was no longer the grumpy Rock Monster we knew and loved he was now a geeky young introvert with a stammer who had the power to manipulate rubble and other urban material he used this power to create a mecha like armor of rocks around his own body and once armored up Benjamin's real personality would rise to the surface an absolute badass 9 iceberg and The Fantasticks although it's no secret that the Fantastic Four's absence from comics for a while was the result of a business decision rather than a creative one the reunification of marvel's longest-running super team did generate a lot of hype so imagine their surprise when upon their return they saw that New York had already fallen in love with a new very familiar-looking team The Fantasticks made up of Miss fantasticks 2d hope and the iceberg The Fantasticks were basically the Fantastic Four with better social media management Jack the iceberg Pierce was the team's muscle he was essentially the thing made of ice instead of rocks with a trendy pair of shades thrown in for style points guess you could say this guy looks cool [Music] eight Jack Kirby its well-known that the thing one of Jack Kirby's most iconic creations resembles him in a few ways but what if the thing didn't just resemble Jack what if the thing was Jack that was the question asked by Marvel's what if eleven written and drawn by Kirby himself this comic presented us with an alternate reality in which the scrolls gifted the real-life staff of Marvel a chance to live life as the very heroes they created Editor Stan Lee became mr. fantastic secretary Flo Steinberg became the Invisible Woman vice president Sol Brodsky became the Human Torch and of course Kirby kept the best for himself he became the thing aside from upon Shawn for chewing cigars and a talent for drawing there's honestly not a big difference between Kirby's thing and Benjamin Grimm's thing this makes a lot of sense as Kirby often spoke about growing up in a tough New York City neighborhood where you needed to know how to fight to survive seven Ricardo Jones Ricardo was born with an unfortunate skeleton aside from having human skin instead of orange rocks his frame was almost identical to that of the things bullied his entire life because of his appearance Ricardo grew deeply jealous of the things fame power and relationships so he decided there was one thing for it he would replace the thing after drugging a down-and-out Ben Grimm and sending him to sleep Ricardo used a machine of his own making to transfer the things appearance and powers into his own body the rest was easy he simply walks right into the Fantastic Four's headquarters and began his new life unbeknownst to Ricardo while absorbing the things powers he had also absorbed a part of his heroic spirit when an experiment went wrong and mr. fantastic ended up falling through a dangerous portal Ricardo didn't even think twice he jumped in after this man he barely knew and saved his life Ricardo would die in that portal knowing he had done the right thing and not even caring that all the credit for his action would end up going to the thing 6 rex Magisto s-- astro city is an anthology comic set in a city full to the brim with super people almost all of astro city's citizens are analogs for other well-known see and Marvel characters and the comic serves as a fun copyright dodging way to explore an alternate world of alternate heroes and villains the Fantastic Four of astro city are known as the first family and the member of the team we're interested in is Rex Magisto s' Rex is the heir apparent of the throne of monstro City and also happens to be the son of Madame Majestics the first family's greatest nemesis unlike the thing his powers are not the result of a freak intergalactic accident but simply his natural dinosaurian physiology like the thing he has all the street smarts and mannerisms of a brash bawdy New York brawler though he can't turn on the sophisticated upper-class charm when he needs to if you love the thing but just wish he looked more like a dinosaur and spoke more like a member of the royal family well astro city might just be for you 5 the wonderful one in Marvel's infinity warps Gamora used the Infinity stones to fold the universe in half this created a world of brand-new heroes and villains all of whom were the result of two characters being merged into one naturally this folding turns the Fantastic Four into the terrific two and the thing was merged with the Human Torch to create hot rocks now there wasn't really that much to hot rocks being basically just the thing but on fire however the fun did not stop there in the follow-up event secret warps the Infinity stones folded the universe in half once again leading to even more insanity hot rocks and mr. invisible joined forces and bodies to become Rubin Storm the wonderful one with the combined powers and ego of every member of the Fantastic Four the wonderful one was a hodgepodge pick and mix of distinct superpowers contrasting personalities and terrible terrible puns for Harvey peckers pal the thing Harvey Pekar was a legend in the underground comic scene creator of American splendor he revolutionized the way graphic novels were perceived both by critics and the general public that's the beauty of Harvey pecker Meets The Thing one of the last strips pecker ever wrote there are no fights no intergalactic conquests no threats of global domination is just an old friend stopping Harvey in the street to see if he can help him find a job that old friends just happens to be super-powered orange behemoths the thing this comic book strip actually turned out to be strangely prophetic the thing tells Harvey that's even though they're making a movie about his team he's worried that Marvel are about to fire him he's running low on cash and he heard that Harvey was retiring so the thing asks if he could take over Harvey's file clerk job even though Pecha had no way of knowing when he wrote the story the movie in question would turn out to be a massive flop and Marvel Comics would cancel the Fantastic Four series for a few years after this comic now as for whether the thing actually got the desk job we we never find out sorry three dragonfly we now take another foray into the alternate reality madness of Marvel's what-if series issue 6 from 1977 asked a very simple question what if the Fantastic Four had different superpowers the issue retold the Fantastic Four's origin almost verbatim with the only difference being how their bodies reacted to the cosmic rays inspired by Ben Grimm's postures are highly skilled fighter pilots he was transformed into dragon fly rather than the stocky muscle-bound fighter that the thing was dragon fly had a pair of wings that were fittingly somewhat of a cross between a dragons and the flies this suited Ben perfectly and we got to see a version of the character who was confident and proud of his powers rather than ashamed of his deformities much more of an agile and tactical fighter than the original character he flourished and took on more of a leadership role within the team to the ruins of Ben Grimm and Peter Parker Warren Ellis's ruins is an intensely depressing and entertainingly mean-spirited parody of Alex Ross's masterpiece Marvel's following the same main character photographer Phil Sheldon ruins takes place in a universe that follows one rule and the thing that can go wrong will go wrong this reality's point of divergence from the mainstream Marvel Universe actually stems from Ben Grimm in this version of events when Reed Richards asks him to pilot his spaceship he refused the ship was struck by cosmic rays and everyone on board died Ben now lives his days wallowing in regrets knowing that if he was the pilots things might have gone just a little bit differently the closest thing to the things classic look in ruins is a deadly mutant iris the Peter Parker picks up after being bitten by an irradiated spider turning him into a disgusting yet familiar looking orange monster one for more things in another issue of Marvel's what-if series we're treated to for short explorations of four different realities in what if the Fantastic Four all had the same power Jim Valentino the writer and artist had a lot of fun designing the four things Ben Grimm is his usual blocky self Reed Richards is a taller scary a gorilla like grey thing Johnny Storm morphs into a pathetic childlike thing that looks like it's made of lumpy wet clay but he's actually highly reminiscent of the things original design in a bizarre but highly effective choice Sue Storm fully transforms into Man Thing a character already established in marvel law as a vile creature who lives in the swamp and feeds off fear the four things proved to be too much for the citizens of New York and the Fantastic Four are exiled to monster Isle there they live out the rest of their miserable lives forever separated from their fellow man see this here is why we can't have nice things and they have it folks ten insane alternate versions of the thing you won't believe exist feel free to drop this video I like if you enjoyed it and drop me a follow on Twitter and you sly dog you I'm will for what culture thanks for hanging out and I'll see you next time

Channel: WhatCulture Comics

Views: 310,857

Rating: 4.9086108 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: i1cQbLM_viM

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020