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In The Thing #1, one of the Marvel Universe’s darkest gods shows the Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm a terrifying vision of a possible future.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Thing #1, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Marvel’s First Family of heroes, the Fantastic Four, are no strangers to dealing with crisis events that threaten Earth. Their battles with villains like Galactus and the Impossible Man have brought the world to the brink of destruction on numerous occasions. Marvel’s first family can usually depend on one another’s help in high-stakes situations, but in The Thing #1 (by Walter Mosley, Tom Reilly, Jordie Bellaire and VC’s Joe Sabino), Ben Grimm has to face the end of the world on his own.
The issue begins with Ben Grimm returning home from a fishing trip to find an empty Baxter Building. Reed Richards and Sue Storm are at an important conference in Russia, and Johnny is out of town for a car show. Ben reaches out to his girlfriend Alicia, but finds her spending time with an art gallery owner. The Thing immediately erupts in a fit of jealousy which ends with his arrest and appears to signal the end of his relationship. In prison, Hercules tells him that he’s cursed. Ben is skeptical, but he’s certainly having a bad day.
That night, the Thing has a dream, however, that might shed light on the words of his friend and fellow hero. In the dream, Ben walks through a field of rubble to see a vast field of dead heroes and cosmic figures. The bodies of Spider-Man, Captain America, The Silver Surfer, Galactus and even a Celestial can be seen. He turns and spots a mysterious, skeletal character standing behind him who introduces himself as the Death God Mot. Ben attacks, but Mot is too powerful for him, mystically pulling the powerful hero’s heart out of his chest. Luckily, he wakes up in one piece, but is clearly disturbed by what he has seen.
Inspired by the god of famine and infertility from Canaanite mythology, Mot is a powerful god of death from the underworld Irkalla. Mot hasn’t appeared often in the Marvel universe, but 2009’s Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica revealed that he once tricked the storm god Ba’al into eating the food of the underworld to trap him in Irkalla. Many believe that Mot is actually Nergal, the ancient god who first appeared in 1973’s Conan the Barbarian #30 (by Roy Thomas and John Buscema) and remains a formidable demon to this day.
Despite Mot’s mysterious history, the danger he represents is clear. The Thing #1 shows him wandering through the streets of New York and corrupting the heart of a man who later reappears as the villain Brusque.
Mot’s impact on the real world combined with his appearance in Ben’s horrific dream lends a great deal of credence to the idea that Ben really is cursed and that the dream might be a premonition of dark things to come. Ben seems to write the dream off as an anxious response to the end of his relationship, but Mot seems to have more in mind than simply interfering with the Thing’s love life.
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