| Synopsis | - The Thing wanders past his old stomping grounds on Yancy Street. He stops by the tenement building where he used to live only to find that it is now a condemned, abandoned building. Going inside, he wanders down to the old superintendent's office. He bursts through the door where he finds a group of juvenile delinquents squatting. This is the new Yancy Street Gang. The leader of the gang begins swearing and throwing debris at the Thing, calling him a traitor. Ben puts the punk in his place and tells the group the story of his origin.
Ben grew up in this building and worshiped his older brother, Dan. But what he did not know was that Dan was the leader of the Yancy Street Gang. Their father was out of work and an alcoholic so Dan was the only one bringing any money into the Grimm household as a product of his gang activities. One night, young Ben secretly followed his older brother to observe his late night gang activities. That night, the Yancy Street Gang was rumbling with a rival gang. Ben watched as his older brother was stabbed through the stomach and killed by a rival gang member.
A few years later, Ben's parents died and he went to live with his uncle Jake and aunt Alyce. As Ben became a teenager, he took over his brother's slot as leader of the Yancy Street Gang. But his uncle Jake eventually talked him out of that way of life, and Ben went off to Empire State University. There he met Reed Richards and had a brief run-in with Victor von Doom. Reed told Ben that he would one day build a rocket ship, and Ben jokingly volunteered to fly it should that day ever come.
After a brief stint in the U.S. Air Force, Reed found Ben again and convinced him to pilot his rocket ship. Reed and Ben, along with Johnny Storm and Susan Storm, became the crew of the rocket and flew aboard as the ship passed through a region of cosmic rays which ultimately turned them into the heroes known as the Fantastic Four.
After telling the story of his life to this kid, Ben feels as if nothing he said is really sinking in. But he holds hope that maybe this kid will one day abandon the Yancy Street Gang and forge a new life for himself as Ben once did.
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