With his lovable nature and down-to-Earth personality, Ben Grimm (aka the Thing) just might be the most popular member of the Fantastic Four. That being said, Ben Grimm's popularity isn't based on his good looks, and after one of his worst defeats, his appearance was so damaged that he briefly resorted to wearing a helmet.
The Thing's big turning point came during Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan's Fantastic Four run. During a fight in Fantastic Four #374, Wolverine cut the Thing's face with his adamantium claws, leaving a nasty scar. This wound horribly disfigured the Thing, and left Ben feeling vulnerable. To hide his injuries and to protect his face from any further damage, Ben subsequently donned a metal helmet very similar to one he wore briefly back in 1962's Fantastic Four #3 (by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby).
The Thing's Injury Gave Him Surprising Parallels with Doctor Doom
In Fantastic Four #380, Doctor Doom offered to heal Ben's face. While Doom was looking to gain the Thing's loyalty, he also felt a degree of empathy. There was a similar sense of vulnerability that came out of both Doctor Doom's accident and the Thing's incident with Wolverine. This vulnerability led both men to hide their faces behind cold metal helmets, closing themselves off from the world.
However, unlike Doctor Doom, the Thing didn't actively look for a way to fix his face. And although they experienced similar journeys, the Thing and Doctor Doom ultimately experienced very different outcomes.
The Thing's Journey to Recovery
By 1994's Fantastic Four #385, Ben's wounds had healed enough that he could discard his helmet. While the Thing still had a prominent scar on the right side of his face, he no longer found it necessary to completely hide his face. In Fantastic Four #395, the Thing even forgave Wolverine and the heroes began to move on from their shared ordeal, with the duo even working alongside Ant-Man to fight off the Mad Thinker's army.
Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan's stint on Marvel's First Family would maintain the Thing's scars all the way until 1996's Fantastic Four #409. In this issue, the villain Hyperstorm used his powers to heal Ben's face completely, returning him to his earlier rocky form. Despite the Thing's return to his regular status quo, giving him a helmet for a period of time was an interesting development. Not only did it shake-up his design, but it also played into his physical insecurities, which has always been a core aspect of his character.