THINGPIN
Real Name: Benjamin Jacob Grimm
Identity/Class: Extradimensional/Alternate reality (Earth-78719) human mutate
Occupation: Crime boss;
former air force test pilot
Group Membership: Heads his own criminal
organization;
formerly US Air Force
Affiliations: Yancy Street Gang;
formerly Johnny Storm, Sue Storm, Reed Richards
Enemies: Johnny Storm, Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), Reed Richards, Sue Richards, Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
Known Relatives: Daniel Grimm (father, deceased), Daniel Grimm Jr (brother, deceased), Jake Grimm (uncle)
Aliases: The Thing
Base of Operations: A skyscraper on Yancy Street, Manhattan, NYC, Earth-78719
First
Appearance: One Thing After Another (July 1987)
Powers/Abilities: The Thingpin possesses durable
rock-like skin and superhuman strength. A little out of shape, he can
lift around 80 tons, and though once a highly capable fighter,
over-reliance on letting his underlings do the physical stuff has left
him out of practice. He is also an exceptional pilot, once one of the
best in the world, but again his skills have atrophied somewhat through
prolonged disuse.
Height: 6'
Weight: 850 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: None (formerly brown)
History: (Dragon
Magazine#127) - As on Earth-616, the Earth-78719 Ben Grimm grew up in
New York's Yancy Street slum with an alcoholic father and a beloved
elder brother who was killed in a turf fight after joining the local
gang. However, Ben's life was turned around when his Uncle Jake took
him in. Placed in a good school, Ben discovered he wasn't stupid and
that he could also play football well enough to earn him a scholarship
to Empire State University, where Ben's genius roommate Reed Richards
became Ben's best friend. When Reed shared his dream of one day
building a spaceship to take mankind to the stars, Ben jokingly
promised to fly it for him.
After graduating Ben enlisted
and became an ace USAF fighter pilot and then a test pilot. Meanwhile
Reed also achieved his dream, and asked Ben to fly his new ship on its
maiden voyage. Denied official permission for the flight, Ben and Reed
snuck on board accompanied by Reed's girlfriend Sue Storm and her
younger brother Johnny. At first things went well, but after exiting
the Earth's atmosphere the ship ran into a storm of cosmic rays which
cut through the ship's inadequate shielding to bombard those within.
The ship crashed, though Ben managed to bring it down safely enough
that all within survived, but the exposure to the radiation caused all
four to mutate, in Ben's case transforming Ben into an orange-colored,
rocky-skinned monster that Sue unintentionally named the Thing.
Ben eschewed the suggestion they team up to better the world, choosing instead to go his own way, and, perhaps driven slightly mad by this turn of events, swiftly fell back into his old criminal ways. Using his strength the streetwise Grimm soon forged a criminal empire second only to reigning (and rival) crimelord the Kingpin, thus earning Grimm his new moniker, the Thingpin, and bringing him into conflict with his former friends as well as the superhero Spider-Man.
(One Thing After Another (fb) - BTS) - Based out of a
skyscraper he had built on Yancy Street, the Thingpin fell in love with
the blind Alicia Masters, and she became his moll.
Eventually war broke out between the Thingpin
and the Kingpin's respective mobs. Two weeks into the conflict Alicia
naively went to the Kingpin hoping to broker a peace by appealing to his
sense of humanity, but instead he took her hostage. Hoping to draw his
rival out of his well protected penthouse, the Kingpin publicly
announced he was going to be throwing a party at the Penthouse Club and
coerced Alicia into agreeing to accompany him, intending to secretly rig
her with remote controlled explosives to kill both her and the Thingpin,
who assuredly would come to rescue her.
(One Thing After Another) - What the Kingpin could not plan for was the presence of a second Thing. On Earth-616 that world's Fantastic Four had been exposed to a toxin that required untainted cosmic ray exposed blood to synthesize a serum. As the strongest member, the Thing was the only one of the team still functioning, and he had traveled to Earth-78719 seeking to obtain the vital blood from his own counterpart. Learning of Alicia's plight, the Earth-616 Thing reluctantly teamed up with his criminal counterpart and working together they were able to overpower the Kingpin, preventing him from detonating the bomb and killing Alicia. Afterwards the grateful Thingpin donated the blood his counterpart had been seeking, and the Earth-616 Thing, still needing additional blood, departed for the next alternate reality.
Comments:
Created by Warren Spector and Mike Machlan.
The Thingpin appeared in the gamebook One
Thing After Another, where the adventure could unfold in different ways
depending on the reader's choices. As such the exact details of the
Thingpin's encounter with the 616 Thing varied - in some paths, they
only met one another when the 616 Thing turned up at the Penthouse Club;
in others the Thing approached the Thingpin at the Yancy Street
skyscraper; in a few the Thing ran into the Kingpin first and initially
agreed to help him beat the Thingpin in return for Alicia's life; in one
the Thing found Alicia before the party and freed her, and so only met
the Thingpin when the grateful Alicia introduced them (and yes, the
Thingpin, retaining a sense of honor, still provided blood to the Thing
in that instance). For the purposes of this profile I've discounted any
paths which ended in failure, as we know the 616 Fantastic Four didn't
die from a toxin. In case anyone is wondering, any path where the Thing
worked with the Kingpin and didn't change sides during the battle to
work with his counterpart ended in failure, as the Kingpin had no honor
and killed Alicia anyway, the bomb also destroying the Thingpin so there
was no way for the Thing to get the blood he needed. Apart from working
with the Thingpin, the Thing's only other option for successfully
obtaining the blood sample was to decide to abandon Alicia to her fate
and knock the Thingpin out the moment the pair met. Since the 616 Thing
isn't the type to leave anyone in distress, let alone Alicia, I also
discounted that option for the above history.
This profile was completed 09/28/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary's celebratory event.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Thingpin has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Dragon Magazine#127, "Marvel Phile," p82, pan2 (main image)
One Thing After Another, p154,
pan1 (headshot)
One Thing After Another, p84, pan1
(fighting Kingpin with Earth-616 Thing)
Other Appearances:
One Thing After
Another (July 1987) - Warren
Spector (writer), Mike Machlan (interior art), Jeff Butler
(cover art)
Dragon Magazine#127 (November
1987) - "Marvel Phile": Warren Spector (writer), Mike Machlan (art),
Roger E. Moore (editor)
First Posted: 09/29/2021
Last updated: 09/28/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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