The Thing gains the powers of The Thing

[MichaelC]

Instead of becoming a big rock lump, Ben Grimm is granted the power of John Carpenter's Thing by those cosmic rays. He can sprout tentacles and jaws and all that gross shapeshifting, and he can assimilate people, effectively cloning his mind while creating new bodies for himself in the image of those he assimilates. As with canon Thing, Reed is incapable of curing him. Ben's personality is completely unchanged by gaining these powers.

How does the FF's history change with this version of The Thing?

[Captain Morgan]

Can he just stay looking like human Ben Grimm forever now? If so I think he does that. He's not going to go kill a bunch of people to build up an army and the power set otherwise seems useless on the scale the FF play on.

[T-1000]

Can he just stay looking like human Ben Grimm forever now? If so I think he does that. He's not going to go kill a bunch of people to build up an army and the power set otherwise seems useless on the scale the FF play on.

Yeah this ends up being a huge set back for the FF. General shapeshifting is useful but the FF are hurting without their primary muscle and as Captain Morgan said, there's no way Ben would end up really exploiting his power to create an army, even assuming that the infection could actually work against some of the FF's enemies.

[big_adventure]

To be as fair as one might, the lack of muscle might hurt early on, but once Sue learns that she's a badass, it's not like even the strongest iteration of Ben can do anything she couldn't do first with a thought.

That said, the CarpenterThing power set is much less useful to a super hero and definitely for the FF than big rocky dude's power set is.

[Postmania]

This doesn’t seem like much. Maybe reed Richards would get a side project relating to this for like an hour before discarding it

[Captain Morgan]

If he FEELS like a monster he also might just kill himself. There are versions of Thing who have tried and only failed because of his durability.

[The Watcher]

While Ben definitely wouldn't use these powers against humans and other sapient beings, he might employ them against the Mole Man's monsters to stop their rampage when they first encounter the villain. Which would allow him to serve as muscle for the team.

[Captain Morgan]

While Ben definitely wouldn't use these powers against humans and other sapient beings, he might employ them against the Mole Man's monsters to stop their rampage when they first encounter the villain. Which would allow him to serve as muscle for the team.

Yeah, that occurred to me, but even absorbing non-sentient creatures feels rather grim for Mr. Grimm.