The Thing #30
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Thing #30 is one of the most emotionally focused Secret Wars II tie-ins because it uses the crossover's cosmic premise to excavate something genuinely personal: Ben Grimm's rage at the Beyonder for the chain of losses — Tarianna, his independence from the Fantastic Four, his sense of identity — that followed the first Secret Wars. The issue is also the pivotal moment in which Sharon Ventura steps out of the shadows of the crowd and back into Ben's life, directly catalyzing the romance and partnership that would define both characters through the late 1980s and eventually result in her transformation into She-Thing. As part of the broader Secret Wars II architecture, it demonstrates how a skilled tie-in writer could subordinate the crossover machinery to character-driven storytelling without abandoning the event's continuity obligations.
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Written by Mike Carlin with art by Ron Wilson and inker Dennis Janke, the issue sits squarely within the solo Thing series that Carlin had been steering since the book's mid-run, following Ben Grimm's post-Battleworld wanderings through the UCWF wrestling circuit. Carlin and Wilson had introduced both Sharon Ventura and the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation just two issues earlier (Thing #27 and #28 respectively), making #30 the payoff of a carefully constructed three-issue emotional build. The issue picks up the Secret Wars II thread from Secret Wars II #5 and passes it along to Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #74, slotting neatly into Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter's sprawling, multi-title crossover infrastructure.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published December 1985 by Marvel Comics; official story title is 'Above and Beyond!'; written by Mike Carlin, pencilled by Ron Wilson, inked by Dennis Janke.
- Serves as a Secret Wars II tie-in, continuing directly from Secret Wars II #5 and threading into Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #74.
- Central conflict: Ben Grimm, blaming the Beyonder for the destruction of Tarianna and his post-Secret Wars unhappiness, demands a UCWF wrestling match against the nigh-omnipotent being — who agrees while in a depressed stupor — and nearly beats him to death in the ring.
- Sharon Ventura (created by Mike Carlin and Ron Wilson in Thing #27, September 1985) makes a key in-story reappearance here: she has been secretly attending Ben's UCWF matches, and it is the sight of her in the audience — pointed out by Vance Astrovik — that pulls Ben back from the brink of killing the Beyonder.
- Vance Astrovik (the future hero Justice/Marvel Boy) appears as Ben Grimm's young sidekick and plays a decisive role in defusing the climax, acting as the moral conscience that bridges Ben and Sharon.
- The Beyonder's appearance — drunk at a Brooklyn bar called the Ringside, recruited into the UCWF by promoter Ethan Thurm — captures the darkly comic, existentially adrift characterization that defined the character throughout the Secret Wars II crossover.
- The massive roster of cameo characters (X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four members, and others) appear in recap and flashback sequences referencing the original Secret Wars and earlier SWII tie-ins, not as active participants in the issue's plot.
- The entire Thing solo series, including this issue, was later collected in The Thing Omnibus hardcover (collecting Thing #1–36 and related material including Fantastic Four #274, #277, #296, Secret Wars II #7, and West Coast Avengers #10).
Cast · 26 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in L'Uomo Ragno #87 (1992), Secret Wars II Omnibus #[nn] (2009), The Thing Omnibus #[nn] (2022), Die Fantastischen Vier #31, Secret Wars #30
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