Thing #15
Rocky Grimm Space Ranger (Part V of XII) - It Started on [Yancy] Street!
The ship that Ben and Tarianna had salvaged prior to their meeting with the Turek suddenly gives out in mid-air forcing Ben to carry out some fancy maneuvers to avoid crashing into mountains, forest, and the water across the strange patchwork world of Battleworld. Spotting a city not far away, he decides that they should land their ship and try to get repairs done. They come down hard and slide into the alien metropolis and have the bad luck of sliding right into a parked vehicle, scratching it with the nose of their ship. Ben gets out to assess the damage and is forced to transform into the Thing in order to pry his ship loose. Seeing that they only scratched the paint on the other vehicle, the Thing dismisses it as nothing and to find some help, Ben reverting back to human form along the way. As they walk off they are unaware that a group has gathered around the vehicle that they had dented.
Spotting what appears to be a bar, Ben believes that this would be the best place to find what they are looking for. Inside they find a strange and diverse group of creatures attending the bar. Finding a table, they are still unaware that they have been followed. Tarianna, however, has noticed that Ben seems distant for some reason and asks if he is afraid of her. Ben is struggling with the fact that he decided to stay on the Secret Wars planet to sort out his feelings for Alicia Masters, not compound them. Before he can think of this further, Tarianna takes Ben's hand and tells him not to be afraid of her, causing him to smile.
Meanwhile, miles elsewhere, the Takers are still trying to locate Llrrllllnnyyrrl's wedding dowry. One of the Takers thinks he has hit pay dirt when he suddenly finds a massive gun buried amid their ill-gotten loot. Back at the bar, Ben and Tarianna are interrupted by a brute calling himself Gruhl of Shalfbut, who tries to forcibly buy Tarianna a drink. When Ben tries to step in, Gruhl mocks him and easily knocks the human aside. When he turns his attention back to Tarianna, she wants nothing to do with Gruhl and is prepared to defend herself. However before she can act, Ben manages to get up from the punch and land his own in Gruhl without turning into the Thing. The blow is so strong it knocks Gruhl through a window and into a pile of garbage outside. The patrons appear to celebrate Ben's rough treatment of Gruhl wit a drink, but when Ben tries to drink out of the glass, holes in its side cause it to spill all over him. Realizing someone was playing a prank on him, Ben is about to demand to know who when he sees that everyone in the bar doesn't seem too happy to see him and he decides that he and Tarianna should leave.
Back at Llrrllllnnyyrrl's home, the Takers return to her with the weapon they found among their loot. Although Llrrllllnnyyrrl says this is not her dowry, he handles the weapon none-the-less. When she remarks on how it is possibly powerful enough to rival her friend the Thing, the weapon suddenly disappears out of her hands. The weapon then appears in the hands of Gruhl who recognizes it as a Tantoran P-Z Lanta and decides to use it against Ben Grimm. He catches up with Ben Grimm and Tarianna as they are walking down the street. But when Gruhl tries to shoot at Ben, Grimm suddenly ducks down to pick up a wallet he sees that has seemingly been discarded on the street and misses. Much to Ben's surprise, the wallet is attached to a string and someone keeps pulling it away whenever he tries to grab for it. He chases the wallet into an alley where he suddenly sees a bunch of aliens scurrying away. When he goes back to Tarianna, he tells her how this group of pranksters reminds him of the Yancy Street Gang back home. Tarianna shows him the hole in the wall created by the Tantoran weapon and warns him to be careful.
Later down the road the two are bombarded by eggs being dropped by some alien creatures on the roof of a building. Meanwhile, Gruhl programs to the Tantoran to fire target seeking explosive balls. while Ban and Tarianna seek cover, one of these explosives begins to follow Ben and seemingly strikes him. Gruhl celebrates Grimm's demise prematurely as Ben survived the blast by changing back into the Thing. The Thing chases after Gruhl but he keeps getting tripped up by the young aliens who have been playing pranks on him the whole time. After Tarianna catches them she holds them at bay long enough for the Thing to confront them. Before he can, is attentions are turned by to Gruhl once more. As the two are fighting it out, Tarianna learns that the kids are angry at Ben for accidentally scratching their car upon arrival. Also, they inform her how to stop the weapon. Tarianna learns that the weapon is transported to whomever the wielder things is a worthy enemy. Telling Ben this, the Thing grabs the gun and wonders aloud how this weapon would fair against Galactus. Suddenly the Tantoran vanishes. Without his weapon, Gruhl is chased away by the gang of aliens because he had smashed their car more during the fight. As the youths are chasing after their victim they mention their name which sounds awful like "Yancy Street Gang", Ben can only sit back and marvel at how some things on this world are just like back home.
Recurring Characters
Thing, Tarianna, Llrrrlllnnyyrrl
Continuity Notes
This story takes place after the events of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-12. In the second issue of that series Ben discovered that he could change back to human form. By the end of the series he believed it was something to do with Battleworld and decided to stay behind. In reality, as Mister Fantastic deduced in Fantastic Four #245, a mental block in Ben's mind associated with his relationship with Alicia Masters has prevented Ben from willingly being able to change back and forth. A fact that Reed keeps secret from Ben until Thing #23.
Ben's believes that his surroundings were the product of the Beyonder creating Battleworld in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1. However his surroundings are actually being shaped by his subconscious mind, as revealed in Thing #22.
Also discovered in Thing #22, Tarianna is the image of Ben's ideal woman. It's later revealed in Thing #27 that Tarianna's appearance is based off of a female adventurer named Sharon Ventura. His growing romantic interest in her is causing a conflict because Ben has been trying to decide if he should remain with his girlfriend Alicia between Thing #2-10.
The street gang that Ben encounters in this story are an analogue to the Yancy Street Gang, who have had it out for Ben since he quit the gang as a kid, as first seen in Thing #1. The title of this story "It Started on [Yancy] Street" (the word Yancy was written in an alien script) is a homage to Fantastic Four #29 which also carried the same title.