THINGBEARD
(temporally divergent counterpart of Earth-616's Thing)

Real Name: Benjamin Grimm

Identity/Class: Human mutate; alternate reality resident (temporally diverged from Earth-616's Thing & resides in Reality-6001)

Occupation: President of the United States;
    former pirate captain, superhero

Group Membership: Formerly the Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Girl/Sue Storm, Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards)

Affiliations: Hulkpool ("Wade Wilson" of Earth-616);
    formerly Fantastic Four

Enemies: British Army, Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom of Earth-616)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Blackbeard, Thing

Base of Operations: Presumably mobile throughout Earth-6001;
    formerly Earth-616

First Appearance: Hulked-Out Heroes#1 (June, 2010)

Powers/Abilities: Thingbeard seemingly had the powers of his prime universe counterpart, including superhuman strength and durability due to his rock-like hide.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6'0")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 500 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue 
Hair: None (black beard which may or may not be fake)

History:
(Hulked-Out Heroes #1 (fb) - BTS) - Earth-616's Thing, Reed Richards and Johnny Storm were sent back in time by Doctor Doom in order to obtain Blackbeard's treasure. The Thing took on the identity of Blackbeard and began captaining his ship and soon wanted to stay in the past. He tied up Reed and Johnny and placed them in a separate row boat.

(Hulked-Out Heroes #1) -  "Wade Wilson" of Earth-616 became enhanced with Gamma radiation and turned into Hulkpool, soon deciding to traveling back in time to kill his weaker past self. However, his ally Bob did not have experience in using the time machine they had found and instead Hulkpool ended up in 1717 on Blackbeard's ship. A storm was about to arrive but Hulkpool used his strength to create an enough force when he clapped to dissipate the storm. Blackbeard was so impressed by this that he promoted Hulkpool to first mate and Hulkpool used his breath to blow the sails, abandoning Reed and Johnny and thereby creating a reality divergence. Residing in the now-diverged Earth-6001, the pair then sailed for a few months together amassing a huge pile of treasure and Hulkpool began referring to his friend as "Thingbeard."

While later feasting, Thingbeard's ship was attacked by the British, who used sorcery to summon a great leviathan to attack the ship. The pair were saved by Bob, who brought in Devil Dinosaur, Moon-Boy and the New Folk to help. The leviathan was slain and when Thingbeard returned to the feast, Bob picked up everyone present and dropped them in the American West circa 1873. Devil Dinosaur went berserk and Thingbeard stopped the Two-Gun Kid from accidentally killing anyone. Bob was soon able to gain control of the machine and seemingly send everyone back to their rightful time. Thingbeard returned to Earth-6001's 1700s and attacked the British, ultimately starting the American Revolution early, leading him to form America on Earth-6001 and become the nation's first president.

(Hulked-Out Heroes #2 - BTS) - At some point before World War II, a statue of Thingbeard was erected and his face was placed on the $1 bill by the modern age.

Comments: Created by Jeff Parker, Humberto Ramos and Carlos Cuevas.

    This version of the Thingbeard cannot be from Earth-6001, as the native Ben Grimm of Earth-6001 was prevented from becoming the Thing by Earth-616's Hulkpool. Thingbeard was still president of this reality despite not being a native as his face is on the $1 bill that Earth-6001's Deadpool later gives to a stripper in the modern era.
After much discussion, it appears this Thing was originally Earth-616's Thing but the arrival of Hulkpool altered Earth-616's past events, diverging Earth-6001 from Earth-616 and creating this temporal divergent Thing (not unlike the various divergent Kang counterparts). Earth-616's original Thing continued his life as we know it in Earth-616 history while this temporal divergent Thing became Thingbeard and settled into the newly divergent Earth-6001. --Proto-Man

    Thingbeard's height and weight are approximated from his Earth-616 counterpart

    Ben never refers to himself as any name. "Thingbeard" is the name that Hulkpool repeatedly calls him and is never corrected. As with Earth-616, it's possible "Thingbeard" actually referred to himself as Blackbeard but it's never clarified with this counterpart.

Profile by Copeinator123.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Thingbeard has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Hulked-Out Heroes#1, p7, pan1 (Thingbeard, main image)
Hulked-Out Heroes#1, p14, pan1 (Thingbeard, headshot)
Hulked-Out Heroes#2, p11, pan4 (Thingbeard's face on the dollar bill)

Appearances:
Hulked-Out Heroes #1 (June, 2010) - Jeff Parker (writer), Humberto Ramos (penciler), Carlos Cuevas (inker),  Nathan Cosby (editor)
Hulked-Out Heroes #2 (June, 2010) - Jeff Parker (writer), Humberto Ramos (penciler), Carlos Cuevas (inker),  Nathan Cosby (editor)

First Posted: 09/23/2022
Last updated: 09/23/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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