10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About The Thing

5. He Was Once Killed By Reed Richards

Reed Richards kills Thing
Marvel Comics

Given the Four's image as Marvel's most wholesome family, the fact that Reed Richards actually killed the Thing probably won't sit well with everyone.

During Mark Waid's run on Fantastic Four, the team head to Latveria and take down Doctor Doom once and for all. The dictator dies, and Reed, in all his apparent wisdom, decides to run the place himself. Growing more unhinged by the day and inviting controversy at a global scale, Reed accidentally releases Doom's spirit from Hell and proceeds to track it down. Unfortunately for Reed - and Ben - Doom possesses the Thing, forcing a split-second decision from the team leader where he kills Ben to vanquish Victor, supposedly once and for all.

Obviously this moment came during one of the team's low points, but Ben's death felt bizarre then and still does now. Given Reed's actions in Civil War (which took place just a few years after this storyline), it's clear that the family have their issues like any other. Just, y'know, with the added caveat of energy-based death.

Ben soon returned thanks to some science-based shenanigans, but as far as periods go, this has to be one of the family's worst.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.