The Thing Inside All of Us
by Michael McClelland

Some of you may not know that Ben Grimm is my favorite Marvel superhero (Dr. Doom would be my favorite comic book character, Batman my fave DC, Vision my fave Avenger . . .). This is because even very young I always related to Ben Grimm, "The Thing." If there is anything basic to my makeup as a person it is my insecurity and I have always seen Ben Grimm as a metaphor for insecurity.

Any time you have armor you have insecurity. Dr. Doom is a man in armor, hiding his true face (the face of Reed Richards) from the world so that he can do carry out the desires of his Id unfettered. But Ben Grimm IS armor. He is encased in a rocky exterior -- sheltered in a turtle-like hide because he cannot face the world as he is.

If each member of the FF got their powers based on their desires (Reed to stretch the boundaries of humanity, Sue to hide behind her man, Johnny to be a flaming teenage star), Ben was to hide in a shell where he could not be hurt.

Ben Grimm -- a college educated, test pilot who is presumably intelligent -- but no Reed Richards -- hides his envy of Reed's intellect by speaking like a moron and acting like a 1930's movie bowery boy. Ben has always loved Sue -- but always has had an excuse as to why she doesn't love him -- first, that he wasn't as smart as Reed, then that he was ugly and mishapen.

Even his name "Grimm" indicates dire circumstances -- a grim outlook on life stemming from insecurity. If you have no belief in yourself then the future is a pretty scary thing and the present is even worse.

In my theory of Ben as the bitter insecure part of the "FF man" he is another hidden face of Reed -- the part that believes he doesn't deserve Sue, the part that doubts his own prowess in the lab. The part that feels freakish (possibly because of high intelligence) and shunned by society.

Ben Grimm is nothing BUT insecurity (and its insuing bitterness) in my opinion. The "thing" we have in all of us.

Michael C McClelland
Hate-Monger