Clobberin' Time?:
     
     Issue 24, page 12, Ben takes a roll down a cliff in an out of control bus, thinking to himself "an' I paid thirteen fifty for this nice, quiet bus ride! Now either I'm gonna get my money back... or it's Clobberin' Time!!"
     Issue 26, page 18, As the lights come up in center ring and Ben and Vance find themselves surrounded, Ben says "don't look now, junior, but I think it's Clobberin Time!", to which a nervous Vance replies "Yeah, but who's going to be doing the clobbering?"
     Issue 31, page 8, After punching out a robot he mistook for a dinosaur, Ben repents. "Hate to say this, but... maybe it wuzn't Clobberin' Time!"
     Issue 33, page 18, Battleaxe, preparing to wrestle the Thing, calls him out: ""You're gonna be callin' fer ya mommy when I get through with you! And d'ya know why, Grimm? 'Cause it's finally really Clobberin' Time!"
     Issue 34, page 11, Ben sits the Puppet Master down and talks at him: "That does it! Sit down here and shut up! An' if ya so much as bat yer goofy lookin' eyes, it's clobberin' time!"
     Issue 35, page 10, Ben yells his battle cry in a UCWF promotional commercial beside Demolition Dunphy.
     Issue 36, page 16. The final "Clobberin' Time" of Ben's solo series is delivered by, of all people, Ben's replacement in the Fantastic Four, the She-Hulk. She yells it while battling Ms. Marvel.

Petunia's Patch:
      No Petunia in this set of issues.

Things of Interest:
      Taking over as your editor as of issue 23... the Gru! Mark Gruenwald, one half of the Two-in-One Twins who did such a wonderful job with the best issues of MTIO, assumed editorship of this title with issue 23.
     With issue 24, the quality is already climbing back up after the Battleworld fiasco. Interesting elements, a nice read on the Rhino, the second appearance of the Scourge (who spak-pum's somebody instead of the usual pum-spak!), and a return to Project:PEGASUS. A very forgettable read on the Miracle Man, though. The story doesn't quite ring true to me (why does the Miracle Man need the Rhino anyway?), but I love the fact that they're getting back to Ben and realizing that he's more than just a lone wolf when not in the FF.
     And then in issue 25, that quality drops again. Ben and a band of leprechauns, okay, sure. Plus a throwaway sidebar page to the current event over in the FF, which have a very vague tie to the last couple panels in this story, and which don't matter at all.
     Vance Astrovik (in issue 26) previously met Ben in MTIO 69. We seem to be getting a supporting cast again now. Also of note is "Kaminsky" in issue 26, a bad guy who gets shot out of a cannon. I assume him to be named after Len Kaminsky, a writer who was just sticking his nose in the door at Marvel at about this time. He'd go on to write a number of titles for Marvel, including War Machine and Slapstick.

     Introduced in a poster in #26, we finally meet Sharon Ventura in issue #27. She'll be a supporting cast member here for the duration of the book (getting superpowers towards the end of it), appear briefly in Captain America (issues 330-331), and then ultimately go on to join the Fantastic Four itself and remain with the team for a long stretch, from issue 306 to issue 382. Also in issue 27 are the Thunderiders, formerly Team America (no relation to the 2004 puppet-based movie by the South Park creators). This motorcycle team had their own book, briefly, and also appeared in Captain America and the New Mutants. If I remember correctly, as I write they've never appeared again since The Thing #28.
     Issue 28 introduces the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, not to mention Demolition Dunphy, later D-Man, who'll go on to a very brief stint as an Avenger before pretty much being ever-after dismissed as a joke. Dunphy is kind of a loser who's willing to sacrifice for what he believes in and what is right, and the Avengers all pretty much make fun of him for not fitting their mold- it seems very high school, with Dunphy being avoided/ignored by the "cool kids." In any case, Ben stays with the UCWF until the book is eventually cancelled, and I'm not sure what to say about the issues. While I like the idea of giving Ben a supporting cast and a community of his own to belong to, wrestling never does it for me. The books don't seem to be truly vibrant- maybe its just too grounded for me, or maybe "showbiz" just doesn't work for someone as blue-collar-seeming as Ben.
     Would you believe Gator Grant got a second appearance after issue 29? Yup, he was brought back in the Fall 1991 issue of Marvel Super Heroes, in an 8 page Marvel Boy (Vance Astrovik) solo story. And later he even gets a third story, in 2005's Nightcrawler 9-10.

     Secret Wars II- perhaps one of the worst miniseries ever, and issue 30 is the obligatory Thing tie-in. Not much to see here, just Ben pulping someone out of rage, kind of depressing overall. Maybe that's why I don't like these stories- there's no real sense of fun in too many of them.
     And just as I note that "no-fun-ness" comes issue 31, which is nothing but fun. Ben on vacation, relaxing. Giant dinosaurs. Beautiful babes. Of course, we also get the first hints of the "illness" which'll soon drive Ben from the West Coast Avengers, so all is not quite wonderful after all. Devil Dinosaur, by the by, had his own series in the late 70s, lasting a whole nine issues. The real question here is: where did the idea for the movie come from? While DD himself did go on a rampage through our time at one point, Moon Boy had never been seen by a human and yet was still in the movie. My "No Prize" worthy suggestion- we know that the "Dinosaur World" visited by Roxxon as seen in MTIO 73 was DD's world. My guess'd be that one of the Roxxon employees later ended up in Hollywood, and certain script elements came from him/her. Perhaps the female script writer seen in The Thing #31 used to be an N^th Commando?
     Issue 32 writes out Vance, sadly. It also nicely introduces the child abuse issue that'll be a major part of his New Warriors life, and gives Vance his first short-lived costumed identity: Manglin' John Mahoney, a UCWF wrestler.
     The April 1991 Marvel Super-Heroes v.2 #5 (Spring 1991 on the cover) includes a story from the timeframe this page covers, with Ben riding a motorcycle through the Arizona desert, where he encounters a mysterious hidden society. Honestly, not recommended, but I figure I should note it in here. The Marvel Chronology Project places it right before The Thing #23, which really seems a psychologically odd time and place for a road trip all the way across the country to Arizona (during which Ben muses about what he learns in issue #23). If we assume that Ben tweaked his bike after Vance left (and Ben no longer wants or needs sidecars), I'd put this somewhere between issues 32 and 35, while he's already in Los Angeles (so a quick trip out to Arizona makes sense). Vance leaves after #32, leaving Ben mostly alone, and from #33 on we're accelerating slightly into the Power Broker plot, so between #32 and #33 seems the best fit.
     Issue 33 introduces a female branch of the UCWF, and also brings back the Grapplers, from Ben's Marvel Two-in-One days, including Screaming Mimi, later to be known as Songbird. We also get another appearance by the Scourge of the Underworld here, who kills the Grapplers' Titania (no relation to the later Titania who would marry the Absorbing Man), and we get the first mention of the Power Broker, the bad guy responsible for creating many of the super-wrestlers.

     34-35 mark the best of this set. 34 deals with the Puppet Master (restoring him to human form after his last appearance as animate clay in The Thing 5-6), and has a logical conclusion to the Thing/Puppet Master conflict, and even lets the PM save the day. Very enjoyable issue, though the Sphinx gets short shrift in this one. 35 introduces the Power Broker, uses classic villainous minor scientist Dr. Karl Malus, gets Sharon Ventura her superpowers and name (Ms. Marvel), explains all the superhuman wrestlers, and advances the plot that'll end the book the following issue.
     Issue 36 I'm not as happy with, as its more of a set-up issue for Ben's next appearance in the FF than a great Ben issue, and Ben's almost a side issue. In any case, from here we go to West Coast Avengers 10 where Ben briefly makes his final appearance of that series, and then to Fantastic Four 296, where Ben returns to that team, ending my continuous coverage of Ben's travails...

     As a very minor note- the next/last links below will take you to Marvel Fanfare 21 as the last issues, and West Coast Avengers 3-10 as the next. Fanfares 20-21 actually occur between The Thing issues 22 and 23, and WCA 3-9 (plus the first page of issue 10) all take place between The Thing 32 and 33, but the rest of WCA 10 does all take place after The Thing 36. If I cared I could have split this Thing 24-36 page into about three individual pages to make this work (and the WCA into two separate pages), but I'm just approximating things here...