The Thing & The Human Torch

The Thing (2005) #1-8

by Dan Slott, Ty Templeton (Illustrator), Andrea Di Vito (Illustrator)

Dan Slott takes on half of the Fantastic Four - and, naturally, the ever-amazing writer brings Spider-Man along for the ride! First, the Human Torch and Spidey's unique friendship is explored across five adventures in different eras. From high school to adulthood, from the Coffee Bean to the Negative Zone, from Dorrie Evans to Mary Jane Watson, it's the ultimate team-up of Flamebrain and Webhead! Then, the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing takes the spotlight! The idol of millions is now worth billions, and he's enjoying his newfound riches - not to mention the odd game of poker - with pals including the FF, Goliath, Hercules, Lockjaw and, yes, Spider-Man! But fear not - bashful Benjy has reserved a clobberin' time or two for foes like Arcade, Shockjock and classic sparring partners Trapster and Sandman!
SPIDERMAN/HUMAN TORCH 1-5, THE THING (2005) 1-8

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels

320 pages, Paperback

Published August 28, 2018

About the author

Dan Slott is an American comic book writer, the current writer on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, and is best known for his work on books such as Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, The Superior Spider-Man, and Ren & Stimpy.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collects Spider-Man/Human Torch issues #1-5 and The Thing (2005) issues #1-8

This collection exists because Dan Slott recently took over the writing duties on the "Fantastic Four." These are the two "Fantastic Four"-adjacent titles that Slott had previously written for Marvel, so they are collected here to prep readers for his take on the FF.

Here are my reviews for each of the volumes collected here:

The Thing (2005) issues #1-8:

The stories in this collection are pretty good, but nothing too epic. I wasn't reading comic books at the time this came out, so I'm not sure why The Thing is rich in these issues. There may have been a brief explanation in this book, but if so, I missed it somehow. Knowing what Slott is doing in the 2018 "Fantastic Four" series, it is fun to see that he has always been invested in the relationship between Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters.

Spider-Man/Human Torch issues #1-5:

I mostly checked this out because I love Dan Slott's run on "Amazing Spider-Man," and this is some of his early Spider-Man writing. Each of these five issues tell a single story from some point in the history of the friendship between Spider-Man and the Human Torch. There are some early adventures, and the last issue brings us to the present day of when this series first came out. I appreciated some of the Clone Saga references in the last issue, especially considering what Slott does with Ben Reilly during his "Amazing" run. This was fun to read, but not epic in scope.

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I'd read the Spider-Man / Human Torch stories before, and I definitely hadn't read The Thing series, so there were great fun to finally get to. I do enjoy the writings of Dan Slott, and these were no exception.

[Tahlia Theisen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is extremely lackluster with the story writing and it is so boring I just cannot manage to enjoy the stories in this compendium. I’m going to return it to the library and find something with a little more depth.

[Alex Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longtime Marvel readers will appreciate the Spidey/Torch section as it’s essentially a series of humorous retconned flashbacks to different periods of its history.