THE THING
In our universe, Benjamin J. Grimm's destiny took a dramatic turn the day he met Reed Richards, his college roommate at Empire State University. The two became best friends, and after college collaborated on a project that changed both their lives. Richards, a brilliant scientist, designed and built a revolutionary starship prototype, and contacted Grimm, then an astronaut with NASA, to be its test pilot. Rounding out the crew were Sue and Johnny Storm. Beset by government interference, Richards was forced to test the prototype before it was ready. As a result, inadequate shielding allowed the astronauts to be bombarded with cosmic radiation during the starship's maiden flight. After returning to Earth, the crew developed superhuman powers and banded together as The Fantastic Four, initially operating out of the now-destroyed Baxter Building in New York City. Now known as The Thing, Grimm is covered with an orange rock-like hide and possesses superhuman strength and endurance.
When former SHIELD Director Nick Fury left the federal government to form his own organization, the anarchist SHAFT Agency, the Fantastic Four declined to join, primarily due to Richards' dependence on government funding (see the August 2002 edition of the SHAFT NewsWire). Later, the Fantastic Four were transported into a pocket universe by Franklin Richards, the mutant son of Reed and Sue Richards, after a battle with the supervillain Ultimate Onslaught. They later returned to our universe, transformed into younger, hipper, and more attractive versions of their former selves, and enlisted in SHAFT as the Fantastic Four Resistance Cell.
The Thing was one of the SHAFT agents incarcerated in The Vault prior to the U.S. government's initial invasion of Wakanda (see Ultimate Nick Fury, Agent of SHAFT #2). In November 2004, he fled to Canada along with the rest of SHAFT, and has since returned to New York.
Ben Grimm, Agent of SHIELD
However, in a parallel universe, events took a completely different course. Teenager Benji Grimm discovered a magical ring that would allow him to transform into The Thing whenever he uttered the incantation "Thing Ring, do your thing." Benji used the power of the ring to get revenge on his tormentors, the Yancy Street Gang Bangers. After high school Benji pursued a career in law enforcement, and thanks to his superhuman abilities as The Thing, eventually became an agent of SHIELD.
Agent Grimm showed natural leadership ability and was soon heading up the SHIELD Strike Team, part of Nick Fury's Global Narcotics Squad. In 2001, the Strike Team was responsible for orchestrating many of the events leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks (see Get Shafted #1 for details). Furthermore, they manipulated the stock market in order to benefit from the attacks financially. The profits were somewhere between 2.5 and 5 million dollars, but because trading was suspended for four days after the attacks, the Strike Team was unable to cash-out quickly, and follow-up investigations into the scam prevented them from ever collecting the money. Although the 9/11 Commission cleared them of the charges of insider trading (see the December 2004 edition of the NewsWire) after the Strike Team deflected suspicions to the CIA (see Illegal stock trades prior to 9/11 traced back to the CIA), Grimm's team was still out millions of dollars and in need of a new "nest egg" for their eventual retirement.
After assassinating the family of fellow SHIELD Agent Frank Castle (in retaliation for his having testified against the agency during the 9/11 Commission hearings -- see the December 2004 edition of the NewsWire), Ben Grimm's SHIELD Strike Team came up with a new get-rich scheme. Using technology that SHIELD agents had seized from his universe's Reed Richards (whom Benji had never met), Agent Grimm traveled to our universe to capitalize on his identical appearance to the Fantastic Four's Thing.
Discovering that The Thing always works security on the SHAFT Money Train, SHIELD Agent Grimm plotted to take his place, hijack the shipment of cash, and return with it to his own dimension. The purpose of the SHAFT Money Train (which is actually the X-Men Cell's X-Jet) is to fly around the country, pick up the weekly profits from the FUBU-S (Undercover Brother Serum) "franchises," and transport it to the Fisk Industries tower in Manhattan. The operation is overseen by Wilson Fisk, who imports the drug illegally from Banner Laboratories in Wakanda for sale on the American black market.
What Agent Grimm didn't count on when he infiltrated the hangar bay below the X-Mansion was that Professor Xavier would psychically detect the presence of two Things on the premises and use mental paralysis to instantly immobilize him. He is currently being held aboard SHAFT's Orbital Headquarters for questioning, and his mystical Thing Ring has been turned over to Dr. Strange for analysis.
Alicia Masters
The Thing is currently dating Alicia Masters, a blind sculptress. Masters is the first woman to test the newly reformulated Undercover Brother Serum after it was discovered that the original formula caused psychosis in female users.
