Fantastic Four #23: The Humanity Of Benjamin J. Grimm 9

Fantastic Four #23, page 13, panel 5

fantastic four #23: the humanity of

benjamin j. grimm 9

Written by: Stan Lee

Illustrated by: Jack Kirby

Inked by: George Roussos

Lettered by: S. Rosen

Lured to Yancy Street, The Thing is attacked by one of Doctor Doom's powered henchmen. Not content with giving Ben a run for his money in the punching stakes, the minion also has a cosmic beam gun which triggers a transformation back into his human body. It's perhaps a sign of the relative regularity of this event - on average, once every three issues Ben returns to human form - that his first thought isn't 'Hurrah! My humanity has returned'. Instead, he's more concerned with who might have been able to invent such a beam gun.

Disappointingly, due to the small panel size (this is a 7 panel page), the transformation is very underwhelming in art terms. The dashed outline looks rushed and a little lazy, and what should be a big event for Ben comes across as just another beat in the fight.

Check out our coverage of Fantastic Four #23 on our twenty-third episode: (Asbestos) Grease Is The Word