The following contains major spoilers for Clobberin' Time #3, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
While The Fantastic Four have long been associated with some of the brightest stories in the Marvel Universe, that doesn't mean that Marvel's First Family has escaped their fair share of heartbreaking circumstances. In fact, the strongest of them all is the one who has been struck the deepest by utter tragedy. Thankfully, he has also found the perfect way to reconcile those feelings, and it proves just how big the Thing's rocky heart really is.
Rather than any interdimensional adventure or cosmic journey, Clobberin' Time #3 (by Steve Skroce, Bryan Valenza, and VC's Joe Sabino) finds the Thing sitting down for dinner in a posh restaurant with his wife Alicia, his Aunt Petunia, and Uncle Jake. There, the latter pair are gifted with an exorbitant amount of money, which the Thing has been hoping to give them for quite some time it seems. Of course, he has plenty of good reasons for wanting to do so, especially when Jake and Petunia were there to save him from the same disastrous end that took the life of his brother so many years ago.
Who was Danny Grimm - And What Happened to Him?
Although Daniel Grimm Jr. has made a handful of appearances in various Marvel titles over the years, his first and ultimately last was in the pages of 1983's Thing #1 (by John Byrne and Ron Wilson). As Ben's older brother, Danny looked out for the future Thing in every way he could. On the surface, this meant shielding Ben from their father's abuse at home. Unfortunately, that was hardly the extent of what Danny had to do because of Daniel Sr.'s problems.
In a bid to both provide for and protect his family, Danny took up leadership of the Yancy Street Gang. Though the proceeds from the gang's various crimes did indeed cover the Grimm's expenses, it also put Daniel's life in danger at nearly every turn. This would eventually be the end of him, as Danny was killed in a knife fight while a young Ben watched on in horror. Following Danny's death, it was Petunia and Jake who were there for Ben when he needed it most. In turn, millions of dollars he doesn't need is the least the Thing feels he can do to pay them back for their kindness, especially if what they do with the money goes on to further his brother's legacy.
How Losing His Brother Changed a Fantastic Four Icon Forever
With the near infinite resources that being a member of the Fantastic Four affords him, the Thing has gone out of his way to make sure his brother is remembered as the loving if relentless family man that he was. To that end, Ben has already established the Daniel Grimm Youth Center on Yancy Street, the wider location of which he ensured would be off limits to any future criminal activity. For Ben, the most important thing he can do is let the world know how caring his brother was in life, even if he has to do that well after his brother's death.
This endless love for his brother and the deep-seated desire to establish Danny's legacy that was cut violently short is a clear sign of just how endearing Ben himself is at his core. Beneath the rocky exterior, the Ever-Lovin'-Blue-Eyed-Thing is precisely that in ways only those who know him best could imagine. Then again, Ben hasn't exactly been coy about how big his heart is over the course of his career. So it might not be all that much of a surprise that his biggest undertaking has nothing to do with superheroics.