The Thing #2
The Thing #2 (2025) is the second chapter of Ben Grimm's fourth solo series in Marvel history — a street-level gauntlet story that deliberately strips the character away from the cosmic spectacle of the Fantastic Four and grounds him in the gritty urban geography of Yancy Street. Published strategically in the weeks leading up to Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 2025), the issue sits at a rare convergence of film-marketing moment and genuine character work, serving as an accessible on-ramp for new readers arriving via the MCU while still rewarding long-time Ben Grimm devotees. Its Bullseye-centric conflict — pitting one of Marvel's premier brawlers against one of its deadliest precision assassins — delivers the kind of tonal contrast (humor alongside genuine menace) that critics singled out as the defining strength of the 'King of Yancy Street' arc as a whole.
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The five-issue limited series was announced by Marvel on February 26, 2025, and positioned explicitly as a film tie-in complement ahead of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Writer Tony Fleecs — best known for creator-owned horror-tinged work such as Stray Dogs and Feral — was paired with artist Justin Mason (Spider-Punk), with covers by Nick Bradshaw; editor Darren Shan oversaw the project under executive editor Tom Brevoort. Issue #2 hit shops on June 25, 2025, carrying a cover date of August 2025, and the series was later collected in the trade paperback The Thing: The King of Yancy Street (January 20, 2026). According to the Marvel Fandom wiki, the series is set at a non-specific earlier point in continuity when the Fantastic Four still operated out of the Baxter Building, with character designs that broadly evoke the mid-1980s era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Issue #2 is the second chapter of 'The King of Yancy Street,' a five-issue limited series — the fourth solo Thing series in Marvel publishing history.
- Written by Tony Fleecs (Stray Dogs, Feral, Local Man) and drawn by Justin Mason (Spider-Punk), with cover art by Nick Bradshaw; edited by Darren Shan.
- Released June 25, 2025 (cover-dated August 2025); the full series ran from May–September 2025.
- The issue centers on Thing being targeted by Bullseye — a deliberate pairing of an unstoppable-force brawler against a precision assassin — as Ben attempts to protect a former tormentor while navigating a broader criminal conspiracy tied to his Yancy Street childhood.
- The series is set in a retro-continuity framework that the Marvel Fandom wiki notes broadly aligns with mid-1980s Fantastic Four aesthetics, with the team operating out of the Baxter Building.
- The series was published in the weeks immediately preceding Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps (theatrical release July 2025), functioning as an explicit promotional and new-reader companion piece.
- A Juann Cabal variant cover and a 1:25 Jay Anacleto incentive variant were offered alongside the main Nick Bradshaw cover.
- All five issues were collected in the trade paperback The Thing: The King of Yancy Street, released January 20, 2026, by Marvel/Penguin Random House.
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Reprinted in The Thing: The King of Yancy Street #[nn] (2025), La chose - Le roi de Yancy-Street #[nn] (2025)
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