Gadget Spotlight: Thing Rings

Back in the 60s and 70s, adapting comic books into cartoons was really popular, but actually staying true to those comics wasn't. And possibly the best example of this is the late 1979 cartoon "The Thing", one half of the cartoon series Fred and Barney Meet The Thing. In the cartoon, The Thing is a kid named Benjy Grimm who can turn into The Thing when he touches two magic rings together as he says, "Thing Ring, do your thing!" (The jury's still out on whether he needs to say it or if it's just an affectation.)

Someone - Matt Fraction, to be exact - finally found a way to incorporate those into the comics in FF #1 (January 2013) with the introduction of Darla Deering, aka Ms. Thing. Deering uses two decidedly not magical rings created by Reed Richards that release Thing-shaped unstable molecules when she touches them together. She too says "Thing rings, do your thing!" but it is definitely not necessary.