The Thing: Back in the Closet?
Three years ago, “The Thing” — Marvel Comics’s orange-hued, stony-skinned, 500-pound member of the Fantastic Four — revealed that before mutating into a superhero, he was Benjamin Jacob Grimm, a Jew from the Lower East Side (Fantastic Four, Number 56, “Remembrance of Things Past”).
But if you were expecting The Thing to revel in his Jewishness in the new live-action “Fantastic Four,” you’re bound for disappointment. (You’re probably bound for disappointment on many fronts if you plunk down 10 bucks to see the picture.)
In his new incarnation, The Thing (Michael Chiklis) makes nary a mention of the J-word.
But for the keen observer, the film does offer a few sly winks to members of the tribe: Ben Grimm is originally from Brooklyn (he might even be from Hasidic Williamsburg, based on the shot we see of his apartment next to the elevated J-M-Z line); when his friend, Reed Richards, is faced with an unfavorable business deal, The Thing, channeling Jewish mothers everywhere, says, “Why not let him have your firstborn child, too?”
On the whole, though, the movie represents The Thing’s retreat to the religiously neutral closet.
The more Things change, the more they stay the same.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
