When pilot Benjamin Grimm was exposed to high levels of cosmic radiation while piloting his best friend Reed Richards' stolen rocket, they - along with Reed's partner and her brother - were mutated and given extraordinary powers. Ben's skin was transformed into an orange, rock-like hide which granted him superhuman strength, durability, and dexterity along with a new identity as the Thing. Along with Susan Storm and her brother Johnny, they became the legendary Fantastic Four, scientists and superheroes who protected the world from threats while enjoying adventures in time, space, and beyond. Ben's mutation has continued to evolve over time in strange and unusual ways, with one of the most significant changes occurring in the Ultimate Marvel universe, where Ben's orange skin was revealed to be a cocoon preparing him for his powerful final form.
Taking place in the Ultimate Universe - a Marvel imprint intended to both shed the weight of continuity and tell stories that could never be told in the mainstream tales - Ben Grimm was a high school friend of Reed Richards who was invited to witness Reed's teleportation experiment. When the experiment malfunctioned, opening a dimensional breach that exposed Ben, Reed, and others to extradimensional energy that left Ben with tremendous strength as well as flesh composed of living rock. Ben, Reed, Susan Storm and her brother Johnny became the Fantastic Four, originally a secret team that eventually went public much to the relief of Ben, whose condition had left him constantly isolated and alone. Despite Reed's promises to cure Ben of his condition, the Fantastic Four was disbanded following the events of Ultimatum, which saw Ben become a pilot with SHIELD, still in his rocky form.
In Ultimate Comics: Doomsday series by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Rafa Sandoval, Ben's reunion and confession of love with Susan Storm saw Ben lose another rocky "scale" - something which had previously happened when struck with enough force. While Susan and other heroes faced coordinated attacks from an advanced alien enemy, Ben was struck by an energy blast at the battle outside Peter Parker's house, causing more chunks of rock to fall as he began to glow with intense energy. As Ben later recovered in a hospital bed, a tearful Invisible Woman confessed her reciprocated feelings for him just before Ben began to glow and eventually explode. Fortunately, Ben emerged from the smoke and wreckage in his original human form, no longer orange but radiating with purple energy.
In the following Ultimate Mystery and Ultimate Doom by Bendis and Sandoval, Ben's new appearance and power set appeared more in line with the mainstream version of Simon Williams aka Wonder Man, as Ben learns that his original orange hide was a temporary metamorphosis in biological preparation for this new, final form. He retained the same strength, durability, and power as he'd had before and later learned he was able to shift between his human, Thing, and purple appearance with a mere thought. These powers became useful, whether fighting an out of control Captain Marvel or helping the other heroes stop a criminal mastermind, revealed to be his former friend Reed Richards. Ben ignored any feeling of responsibility for Reed's downfall and was prepared to kill him for the beating he gave his ex-girlfriend Susan, leaving him disfigured, defeated and alone in the N-Zone.
Able to juggle his new powers as well as his relationship with Susan, this version of Ben Grimm is a great example of what the intention of the Ultimate Marvel universe was, taking famous Marvel Comics characters and reinventing them in a new, unique light. Although Ben Grimm's powers continued to develop and change in the mainstream Marvel universe, even accomplishing the odd return to his human form, his Ultimate incarnation took what is usually seen as a curse and made it merely a stepping stone to an even more powerful version of the Thing who still couldn't wait to tell his enemies what time it was.