And one more thing...
How Strong is Ben Grimm?
I just want to clear up a common misconception. Back in FF 129 and FF132, Thundra (a seven foot super-strong female from a parallel world) appeared to defeat The Thing. Ever since then, people have treated The Thing like he's second rate in the strength department. Noticeably weaker than the Hulk, weaker than Wonder Man, weaker than Hercules or Thor, and so on. Is this fair?
First, it is true that the Hulk generally beats the Thing (except one time with Pineapple Thing versus Gray Hulk, but that's another story.) This could be because the Hulk has unlimited strength (he gets stronger as he gets angrier). But it could also be because the Hulk is pretty brainless and can become savage. He never pulls his punches. But the Thing is a decent, caring guy. He doesn't hit ladies, he doesn't draw blood, he won't do anything to genuinely hurt someone. He's a sensitive Jewish kid and he always pulls his punches. One thing you have to understand about The Thing is his psychology. For many years he hated himself as a monster. And even after that he was unable to change back to Ben Grimm, simply because he was subconsciously afraid that his girlfriend Alicia would not like him as human. The point is, Ben Grimm has deep psychological blocks in place. It is quite likely that, on an unconscious level, he never lets himself get angry enough to exert his full strength. He may even believe that his strength is limited. But his belief may be misguided.
Lets' take another look at when Thundra "beat" The Thing. Ben Grimm tries not to fight back against women. But more important, BEN GRIMM WAS SICK. It all started back in FF 124. Reed Richards collapsed, unconscious, and had to go to hospital. it was diagnosed as severe exhaustion, due to recent battles. Over the next few issues Ben acted weaker than usual, and was beaten quite easily several times. He held his arm in pain after escaping a cage, and more than once he collapsed. Sue said that Ben had the same exhaustion problem that Reed had. Soon after, Ben was defeated twice by Thundra. (Both times was by a severe blow to the head - perhaps that was significant.) But the point is, BEN WAS SICK and he was AVOIDING FIGHTING BACK because he doesn't hit ladies. This is NO WAY a reflection of his normal strength. In case you missed those issues, these scans are key frames from issues 120 to 133.
So how strong is he really?
In FF issue 39 the Skrulls estimated that Ben could not lift more than five tons. At around the same time, in an early issue of Strange Tales, he is tied to a ten ton object that he is able to move, but only just. But his strength appears to have grown steadily during the 1960s, at the same time as his appearance changed from "lumpy" to "rocky."
Probably his greatest feat of strength took place on FF 92, on a Skrull planet. Here is the sequence in question:
The last frame makes it look like the hydraulo-press was carried by a car, but this is an elien world and looks can be deceiving. It clearly isn't just a heavy pile of metal, or the Thing could have just knocked it over sideways, or lifted it without crumpling it. Clearly it has some special kind of force (magnetic? gravitational?) to give it the power it needs.
How strong was this hydraulo-press?
The hydraulo-press looks like an earth pile driver, but is designed to push through planets. Earth based pile drivers typically have a ramming force of between 80- and 500 tons. they achieve this by weighing maybe 20 tons and being dropped from several feet. (It appears from the pictures that the Skrull hydraulo-press does not need to be dropped to have its force varied, so it probably operates on a different principle. It appears to be vibrating.)
If earth based presses can achieve 500 tons, and the Skrull press could achieve much more than this, then it appears that The Thing can lift over a thousand tons when he has to, when pushed to the limit. Notice that at this time he was influenced by a "brain blast" mind control ray, and was highly frustrated at not being able to escape previously. So the usual psychological blocks probably did not apply.
Bottom line: The Thing can lift (press) a thousand tons... if psychological restraints are removed. At other times he is seen pushing less than a hundred tons, so clearly a lot depends on his frame of mind. Ben Grimm is known more than anything else for being a nice guy who never gives up.
It seems that, like the Hulk, the Thing can call on almost unlimited strength when under extreme stress. But unlike the Hulk he's a nice guy. Too nice to ever really let himself go. The Hulk always gets angry faster, and doesn't get tired. That may be the only reason the Hulk tends to win when they fight.
How strong is The Thing?
to be completed