Marvel’s The Thing #1 is a masterful homage to Ben Grimm and Jack Kirby

The Thing #1 the first standalone book for the Fantastic Four’s founding member since 2006, is now on shelves sporting an intriguing pair of credits. Marvel has paired up-and-comer Tom Reilly’s artwork with the writing of Walter Mosley, a 69-year-old author best known for pulpy detective tales. It’s a spotlight treatment of a Jack Kirby character who was present for Marvel’s big bang 60 years ago, but also a guy who usually rides backseat in discussions of that publisher’s biggest characters and franchises.

Who makes it? The Thing # 1Which?

Walter Mosley was the National Book Foundation Laureate. He is best remembered for his pulp-inspiring Easy Rawlins characters, and novel series. The Thing’s writer. Perhaps you recall the 1995 movie called Devil in a blue dress starring Denzel Washington — that’s Easy Rawlins, and the film adapted the character’s first appearance and Mosley’s first novel. Mosley also created the popular comic “voluminous” Maximum Fantastic Four, a 2005 celebration of Jack Kirby’s artwork for Fantastic Four #1 This is the foundation document of the Marvel Universe.

Tom Reilly who penciled X-MenMarvels Snapshots #1 Last year, # 1: Morbius: The Bond of Blood The artist for this spring is Jordie bellaire. Jordie bellaire supplies colors and Joe Sabino lettering.

What does it mean? The Thing # 1About?

Ben Grimm has entered a period of transition. Following an escalated misunderstanding Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters end up splitting. Ben is pepper-sprayed, and then dumped in prison following a violent and public outburst. Once he is released, he reviews his relationships with different people and meets a fashion designer. However, a disturbing dream indicates that he will be confronted with another enemy who is also obsessed with the exact same woman. Hercules points out that Ben is being stalked and manipulated by the evil spirit known as Brusque, as Hercules observed.

Are there required readings?

Image: Walter Mosley, Tom Reilly/Marvel Comics

However The Thing # 1 isn’t a lore-heavy reintroduction, it does assume some knowledge of the character and his substantial contribution to The Fantastic Four’s web of relationship drama. Mosley, who is now 69, reads FFGrowing up as a Los Angeles kid, I was able to see the movie and its characters. So a longtime fan’s perspective — aware of the big stuff, not so much current events — is helpful. Mosley recalls (through Ben’s dialogue) something Mister Fantastic observed about vibranium way back in Black Panther’s 1966 origin issue; that’s a good example of the familiarity his book expects.

This ComicsXF interview featuring Mosley reveals how Mosley thinks about Ben Grimm in a more general way:

When he’s working with the Fantastic Four, he’s the pack animal, carrying all the things they need. Ben and Sue seem to be in the exact same spot: They support each other. Every so often they get their own thing, but when Sue does, she has to be alone, and when Ben does, he usually turns bad for some reason — at least he did back then. He was just trying to get out of my way. It’s hard to write about a Fantastic Four, because it’s much more familial. This is what I enjoy, but I would like to discuss the Thing and his importance to the world. He’s as important to me as Spider-Man.

Are The Things #1 Good?

It’s a slow burn, which is strange considering the blazing pace of events in the book’s first 12 pages. This includes Hercules’ appearance in jail. The explanation is provided by small amounts of text. This introductory issue’s purpose is to drive three characters, two of them new, together on the final page: Ben, his rebound date Amaryllis DeJure, and a new villain, whose visual treatment vaguely reminded me of Jack Kirby’s the Wrecker.

Reilly’s precise, minimalist pencil style serves the overall tone of The Thing well, as does the semi-symmetrical rock pattern he’s chosen for some of Ben’s closeups. But The Thing # 1 is still more pitch than it is sale; I’m intrigued mainly because I’m guessing at the creative urges Mosley wants to scratch.

This story reveals a factual intersection between other-dimensional beings and marvellous high tech, mutated people, and everyday life. These are the hallmarks of Kirby’s Marvel Age. It’s not as subtle as an homage or as overt as a love note, but it’s definitely the work of a longtime fan.

One panel that pops

Image: Walter Mosley, Tom Reilly/Marvel Comics

When Ben is signing up for a dating service, whose concierge apparently is Tinkerbell, he’s asked for his biographical details. “Race? Non-white,” is a good chuckle, but also evocative of how Mosley, who is Black, has seen Ben Grimm ever since he was a young fan. ComicsXF again:

He was my brother when I was young. What I would say now is that he’s not like a white American character. People don’t want him around; they’re afraid of him. They want him to leave a space when he enters it. When he sits in a restaurant, they say “we don’t have any chairs that will fit you.” His girlfriend has to be blind because if she saw who he really was, that would not work out well. So it’s a thing about being classified a second-class person. Necessary — “I need your strength, I need you to back me up and be there for me” — but also, “you make me nervous.”