The Birth: Way back when Marvel Comics just came out, there was no Spider-Man, no Hulk or nobody else. The Fantastic Four was the begining of Marvel Comics and was created by Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby. Stan was the writer and Jack was the artist.
And with this new comic; Fantastic Four #1 (vol 1.) Benjamin J. Grimm made his debut. Ben Grimm like the other members was just a mere human. He was also one of the top test pilots of the air force. It all started when an angry Ben Grimm was goaded by Susan Storm into helping Dr. Reed Richards pilot his spaceship. That night, four civilians; Reed Richards, Benjamin Grimm, Johnny Storm and Susan Storm took off in the spaceship Reed Richards had spent years constructing.
Ben Grimm may have been an excellent pilot and was steering the ship real smoothly, but fate had other plans for them. Their ship entered the cosmic storm area. Unfortunately for the forsome, their ship needed heavier shielding. The cosmic rays bombarded the ship running right through the ship's passengers, putting all of them into a tizzy. Ben felt too heavy to move and lost his control over the ship. Luckily the ship's autopilot kicked in and steered it to a rough but non-fatal landing.
It was only after the four exited the ship that they realized that the cosmic rays had affected them in a really drastic manner. It was Sue who first displayed signs of the after effect of the cosmic bombardment. She started fading away and then all of a sudden returned to normal. The next to experience the change was Ben. His skin started hardening and turned to an orange color. And then Reed started showing an elastic capability. The last to change was Johnny who started burning up and changed into a human torch
Ben was already angry at Reed for not heeding his warning about the cosmic rays. When Sue had started to fade away, he got even more agitated an that's when he started to change. It was Sue who gave him his name when she yelled out - "He's turned into a.. a.. some sort of a Thing!" And after the four decided to go into the superhero gig, Ben decided to take that very same name.

The Alter Ego: Benjamin .J. Grimm used to belong to a common street gang before he entered World War II. Ben went on to become an ace test pilot for the military. Much later, he came into contact with Dr. Reed Richards. Reed wanted Ben to be his test pilot for the ship he had spent years building. And then came the accident whch transformed him into the ever loving blue-eyed Thing we know today.
It was after he became a hotshot superhero in the Fantastic Four that his old gang; known as the Yancy Street Gang started picking on him to remind him that no matter what he had become he was still one of them.
After becoming the Thing; he met a blind sculpturess named Alicia Masters. The two of them fell deeply in love but Ben always felt that she loved him more because he was the Thing rather than the person he was. Reed found that he would be unable to perfect a cure for Ben because of his subconscious will power that rejected the cure. Inspite of all that, he still never got over of being the Thing.
As time went on, Alicia and Ben drifted apart.
Even before the change Ben Grimm was always the scrapper and enjoyed a good fight. He is known to have a short temper and a quick tongue which more than often results in his foot-in-the-mouth syndrome.

The Legend: Benjamin .J. Grimm a.k.a The Thing is easily one of the most strongest beings on Earth; though there are people stronger than him like the Hulk, the Silver Surfer, The Juggernaut, Thor and a few others. In fact Ben's main superpower is his strength. Apart from that, he is able to stand high temperatures and his hard skin also has a high degree of invunerability.
Ben found great happiness when, in Fantastic Four #8 he met the blind sculpturess; Alicia Masters and her evil step-father; the Puppet Master. Of course, the Puppet Master opposed the relationship since he always considered the Fantastic Four as his arch enemies.
Ben took a lot of leave of absences from the team. When out on the second Secret Wars, on the alien planet, Ben Grimm found out he could change from his grotesque Thingish form back to his original human form at will. Discovering this, he left the team and stayed on the alien world. During this time, Alicia got friendly with Johnny Storm a.k.a The Human Torch and soon that developed into a relationship. Sometime along the way, Ben returned, found out what happened and then in a fit a anger, took off again. On his arrival again, the Human Torch and Alicia got married and Ben became Johnny's best man.
A Skrull named Lyja had been sent by her people to spy on the FF in the form of Alicia, the Thing's girlfriend at the time. The switch, it was later explained, had taken place during the events of The Thing #10. When Lyja's deception was revealed, the FF went to rescue Alicia in Fantastic Four (vol. 1) #358, who had been in stasis since her abduction. As a result, the Alicia that appeared throughout 1984-1991 had been the Skrull, conveniently annulling the romance and marriage of Alicia and the Human Torch. But inspite of this Thing's and Alicia's relationship was never built up.
Reed Richards has always experimented with finding a cure to recover Ben's human form. One of his experiments resulted in giving The Thing a more deformed lumpy look. This was later rectified when Franklin Richards (who had somehow grown to adulthood) changed Ben Grimm back to his original rocky form. That was also the time when Franklin revealed to Reed that because Ben thought that Alicia loved him for being the Thing, he would continue to subconsciously reject all treatments.
There was a time when Ben was cured, albiet temporarily, but continued to remain with the Fantastic Four. During any battle, he would wear an exoskeleton developed by Tony Stark which made him look like the blue eyed Thing.

The Fantastic Four #1