The Fantastic Four's loveable Ben Grimm / The Thing takes a trip to the sovereign mutant nation of Krakoa in an exclusive preview of his new series. The Thing is known for his catchphrase "It's Clobberin' Time!" which he typically yells out in the heat of battle against foes like Doctor Doom. Clobberin' Time has now been turned into a Thing-centric series by writer/artist Steve Skroce, and he's taking a page out of the old Marvel Two-in-One series to pair Ben Grimm up with a different Marvel hero each month. Last issue featured Thing's rival, The Hulk, and the second issue pairs him up with Wolverine.
ComicBook.com has the exclusive preview of Clobberin' Time #2 by Steve Skroce, Bryan Valenza, and VC's Joe Sabino. It starts things off with Thing on Krakoa holding court and giving a speech to a mutant audience. One individual asking a question happens to have a similar rock exterior to Thing, which he points out as an example of how they're all the same underneath. However, the person asking the question corrects Thing by clarifying how he's a superhero celebrity and dates supermodels, while they were discarded at birth due to their mutant genes. A very awkward moment, indeed.
When another attendee starts mouthing off, Thing loses his cool and fires back with some verbal barbs, but is able to de-escalate the situation thanks to some PR protocols in his jacket. Thing explains this to Wolverine while the two buddies get a drink at a local Krakoan bar. Their downtime is interrupted when the time-travel villain from the first issue resurfaces on Krakoa.
How The Clobberin' Time Series Name Was Decided
ComicBook.com spoke to Steve Skroce ahead of the Clobberin' Time launch, where we learned how Marvel came up with the idea for the title's name. "Legendary editor Tom Breevort reached out to me with the idea of doing a modern version of a Marvel comic that the company hadn't done in a while, like the old Two-in One books. High adventure, but contemporary and self-contained," Skroce said.
He added, "You can't think about the Thing without Jack Kirby, and John Byrne was the guy doing the Fantastic Four when I was a kid along with writing Ben's first solo series, and I tried to take the epic, anything can happen feelings that both those eras gave me and put them into CLOBBERIN TIME."
Who Will Team Up With Thing in Clobberin' Time?
"Ben and the Hulk, Logan, Doctor Strange, Doctor Doom, and the Silver Surfer will face hordes of prototype DEVIANT monsters, robots, undulating, plasma spewing, flesh lummoxes, wizards, and Tuvah Tu, the banished Watcher and Uatu's estranged brother. Ben will also have to experience having his rocky hide pulled right off his soft under flesh," he said.
"We're introducing a new villain called OGDU FRAIZE: the PSYCHOPOMP. He's a human from an unseen distant future of the Marvel Universe Earth. The heroes and villains are long gone, humanity lives in massive, domed cities, the lucky ones anyway, others survive in the futuristic wasteland. Savage gangs and blood cults rule and many worship the old superheroes like ancient gods.
"Ogdu was raised by and survived such a cult, he'll tell you he's "the most intelligent man to ever exist" and he has an ax to grind with the heroes who've left behind his brutal world of haves and have nots."
The exclusive preview of Clobbering' Time #2 can be found below. The issue goes on sale Wednesday, April 26th.