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The Thing Omnibus
It's clobberin' time as the Fantastic Four's ever-lovin', blue-eyed idol o' millions goes solo! Join the Thing as he takes on all comers - including the Inhumans, Wonder Man, She-Hulk and Spider-Man! But after the Secret Wars, the Thing seeks a new life on Battleworld - as Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger! It's action and adventure, mayhem and monsters, love and loss - but is the Thing ready for what awaits him back home? And we don't just mean the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation! a wild Thing/Hulk team-up and more classic tales of bashful Benjamin J. Grimm! Collecting THING (1983) #1-36; FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #274, #277 and #296; SECRET WARS II #7; WEST COAST AVENGERS (1985) #10; QUESTPROBE #3; MARVEL TALES (1964) #198; MARVEL GRAPHIC HULK & THING - THE BIG CHANGE and material from MARVEL FANFARE (1982) #15 and MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1990) #5.
- GenresComicsMarvelSuperheroes
1160 pages, Hardcover
Published December 13, 2022
9 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
John Byrne
2,954 books359 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 17, 2022
At first i didn't think The Thing as a character could carry his own series. Maybe a mini series but not a regular monthly. John Byrne proved me wrong on that thought. Very fun read with some good story plots. Recommended
January 1, 2023
This is a slew of solo stories featuring The Thing of Fantastic Four fame. Read the description if you want the individual issues collected.
Anyway, Benjamin J Grimm is one of my top two Marvel characters, the other being Daredevil. I knew snippets of what went down in this so I had to pick it up when I saw a sweet ass deal on Instocktrades.
This was a hard one to rate. First off, the Battleworld storyline in the aftermath of Secret Wars was a snoozer and went on about six issues too long. Apart from that, I liked it quite a bit. Ron Wilson does the art on most of the issues in this and his depiction of Ben Grimm is iconic. Once Ben returns from Battleworld and finds Johnny and the Skrull impersonating Alicia are a couple, he goes walkabout and that's where the best parts of the book happen in my opinion.
While trying to find himself, Ben becomes part of a stunt motorcycle group, the Thunderiders, fka Team America, and later joins the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, a wrestling outfit for super strong characters. As we all know, he eventually ends up back with the Fantastic Four but the journey is the fun part.
A lot of groundwork was laid for later stories in this volume, whether they writers at the time knew it or not. Sharon Ventura and D-Man are introduced, the Scourge pops a few victims, and Vance Astrovik spends some time as The Thing's sidekick before his tenure as Marvel Boy and later Justice. There's also an emotional tale where The Thing meets his college girlfriend after she became a famous actress.
Like I said, this was a hard one to rate. I didn't like the Battleworld storyline enough to think it deserved twelve issues and some of the tie-ins from other titles weren't that great either. I'm giving this a 4 but it's a working man's 4.
Anyway, Benjamin J Grimm is one of my top two Marvel characters, the other being Daredevil. I knew snippets of what went down in this so I had to pick it up when I saw a sweet ass deal on Instocktrades.
This was a hard one to rate. First off, the Battleworld storyline in the aftermath of Secret Wars was a snoozer and went on about six issues too long. Apart from that, I liked it quite a bit. Ron Wilson does the art on most of the issues in this and his depiction of Ben Grimm is iconic. Once Ben returns from Battleworld and finds Johnny and the Skrull impersonating Alicia are a couple, he goes walkabout and that's where the best parts of the book happen in my opinion.
While trying to find himself, Ben becomes part of a stunt motorcycle group, the Thunderiders, fka Team America, and later joins the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, a wrestling outfit for super strong characters. As we all know, he eventually ends up back with the Fantastic Four but the journey is the fun part.
A lot of groundwork was laid for later stories in this volume, whether they writers at the time knew it or not. Sharon Ventura and D-Man are introduced, the Scourge pops a few victims, and Vance Astrovik spends some time as The Thing's sidekick before his tenure as Marvel Boy and later Justice. There's also an emotional tale where The Thing meets his college girlfriend after she became a famous actress.
Like I said, this was a hard one to rate. I didn't like the Battleworld storyline enough to think it deserved twelve issues and some of the tie-ins from other titles weren't that great either. I'm giving this a 4 but it's a working man's 4.
March 31, 2023
(Zero spoiler review) 2.5/5
This was my first foray into any of the Fantastic Four's main lineup. I have the Lee and Kirby run sitting on the shelf but haven't gotten to it yet. I would imagine The Thing works better in an ensemble, but he really doesn't suit a solo title. Or the way he is written here at least doesn't convince me of that fact. The Byrne issues are the highlight here, a little bit of bronze age cheese aside. That Swedish guy with massive robotic shoes??? Good God, no! There are even a few outstanding issues about halfway through, with a rather profound and deep exploration of Ben Grimm's motivations and loves. It was the absolute highlight of the book without question. Sadly, Byrne left the title soon after, and the book quickly spiraled into narrative mediocrity, and I stopped reading about 2/3 of the way through. The plot lines that followed were ridiculous, with Grimm treading water amidst some incredible mediocre, aimless writing. I'm sure there are people out there for whom this kind of comic story is appealing, but I am definitely not one of them. It's sad too, becasue Ron Wilson's art continued to improve right up until the end of the run. Maybe it was the title heading into the late 80's where the style and colouring is my favourite time period in all of comics, but it really was a good looking book by the end. Too bad it read so poorly. I really have to start being more selective with the superhero runs I buy. Just because it was from the greatest decade in comic's history, doesn't mean I'm going to like it. Disappointing. 2.5/5
OmniBen.
This was my first foray into any of the Fantastic Four's main lineup. I have the Lee and Kirby run sitting on the shelf but haven't gotten to it yet. I would imagine The Thing works better in an ensemble, but he really doesn't suit a solo title. Or the way he is written here at least doesn't convince me of that fact. The Byrne issues are the highlight here, a little bit of bronze age cheese aside. That Swedish guy with massive robotic shoes??? Good God, no! There are even a few outstanding issues about halfway through, with a rather profound and deep exploration of Ben Grimm's motivations and loves. It was the absolute highlight of the book without question. Sadly, Byrne left the title soon after, and the book quickly spiraled into narrative mediocrity, and I stopped reading about 2/3 of the way through. The plot lines that followed were ridiculous, with Grimm treading water amidst some incredible mediocre, aimless writing. I'm sure there are people out there for whom this kind of comic story is appealing, but I am definitely not one of them. It's sad too, becasue Ron Wilson's art continued to improve right up until the end of the run. Maybe it was the title heading into the late 80's where the style and colouring is my favourite time period in all of comics, but it really was a good looking book by the end. Too bad it read so poorly. I really have to start being more selective with the superhero runs I buy. Just because it was from the greatest decade in comic's history, doesn't mean I'm going to like it. Disappointing. 2.5/5
OmniBen.
August 14, 2024
Disclaimer: I only read up to when Secret Wars happens. My library's copy of the original Secret Wars is lost, and I wanted to read it before I continued with The Thing.
3 stars. This was a fun examination of The Thing, a Marvel character with whom I only have very limited (and honestly shitty) experience with (see: Fantastic Four (2005)) so I was kind of excited to delve further into what makes The Thing. Mostly, what I read was rather bland and uninteresting. Ben Grimm really just needs to communicate his feelings with his girlfriend, and also needs to get over himself. There were only 2 issues that really changed this from a 2 star read to a 3 star read. You probably know what issues they are if you've read about The Thing before. The first, Ben interacts with the Inhumans, the second, Ben tries to save a mother and her son from violent townsfolk. The way Ben Grimm was portrayed in both of these issues really showcased his inner turmoil and his dedication to saving those like him, or from becoming like him. I really enjoyed this. Hopefully will be able to circle back around to read the rest of The Thing.
3 stars. This was a fun examination of The Thing, a Marvel character with whom I only have very limited (and honestly shitty) experience with (see: Fantastic Four (2005)) so I was kind of excited to delve further into what makes The Thing. Mostly, what I read was rather bland and uninteresting. Ben Grimm really just needs to communicate his feelings with his girlfriend, and also needs to get over himself. There were only 2 issues that really changed this from a 2 star read to a 3 star read. You probably know what issues they are if you've read about The Thing before. The first, Ben interacts with the Inhumans, the second, Ben tries to save a mother and her son from violent townsfolk. The way Ben Grimm was portrayed in both of these issues really showcased his inner turmoil and his dedication to saving those like him, or from becoming like him. I really enjoyed this. Hopefully will be able to circle back around to read the rest of The Thing.
August 7, 2024
So much fun. This is the best era of Marvel!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews