Original Sin: The Faithful Four Part 2

The Thing continues telling Johnny Storm about how he and Mister Fantastic have been lying to him all these years...

Years Ago...

After a failed attempt to revert the Thing back to human form, Ben Grimm finds himself a painful amalgam of his human and Thing forms. Rushing to his instruments, Mister Fantastic determines the only way to stop this painful transformation is to cut the power to the machine. He instructs the Human Torch to melt the cable. As soon as the cables are cut, the power transfer stops and the Thing begins to revert back to his monstrous forms. He complains that Reed promised that this would work.

Although Reed apologizes for the failure, he was sure it was going to work because the machine was specially calibrated for his body. This is still too much for Ben, who still remembers the pain he felt when he recently returned to human form and voluntarily gave it up to turn into the Thing again and save the rest of the team from Doctor Doom. Reed still doesn't know what went wrong, but Ben is through listening to explanations and storms out.

After the Thing is gone, Johnny admits that he must have been what went wrong. He explains how he sat in the machine moments before Reed and Ben entered the lab. Reed reiterates that the machine was specially calibrated for Ben and that Johnny sitting in the device interfered with those readings. If Johnny had told him before they conducted the experiment he could have recalibrated it. When Johnny says he didn't understand what harm it could have caused, Reed loses his temper reminding him that Ben is trapped in his form and how much it hurts watching Johnny getting to be a flamboyant hero when he is trapped in the body of a monster. Once tempers cool down, Reed admits that there was no way Johnny could have known. Still, the young Torch feels guilty about the whole ordeal and wonders how he should tell Ben. Reed informs him that under no circumstances do they tell Ben what really happened.

Now...

Hearing all this, Johnny tries to apologize to Ben for ruining his chance of regaining his humanity all those years ago. However, this does nothing to calm the Thing's temper. He is furious at Johnny because he never thinks things through before he does them. He is furious that despite all the good he had done, he still couldn't live a normal life with Alicia and all the grief he felt. What's worse, Johnny and Reed -- his supposed best friends -- kept this a secret for all of these years. When Johnny asks if there is anything he can do to make it up to Ben, the Thing tells Johnny to never speak to him again and walks out.

The Thing then goes to a bar to drink his miseries, thinking that he should forgive Johnny, but can't bring himself to do it. Suddenly he gets a phone call from Alicia Masters. Answering the call he hears her panicked pleas for help as she is being attacked again by her stepfather the Puppet Master.

As the Thing goes after the Puppet Master's hideout, Johnny calls Reed and informs him of what happened. Mister Fantastic then rushes to Ben's location as the Thing goes tearing into the warehouse. When Reed arrives the battle is long over. He finds Alicia who tells him that Ben locked himself into a room with the Puppet Master. Reed then uses his powers to squeeze under the door and enters the room. There he finds the most shocking thing: The Thing cradling the dead body of the Puppet Master. Regardless of how it looks, the Thing insists that he didn't kill their long time foe.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, Thing), Alicia Masters, Puppet Master

Continuity Notes

• In the flashback, Ben mentions the "last time" he was returned to human form, which happened in Fantastic Four #38. He sacrificed his humanity to stop Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four #40.