Back in the early 1970s, Marvel test-marketed the idea of teaming up the Thing with different heroes in a couple of consecutive issues of Marvel Feature. The experiment was a success, which led to the Marvel Two-In-One series that ran for nearly ten years. There was a brief experiment with returning to the series back in 2017. Now, Marvel returns to an all-new Thing team-up mini-series with Clobberin’ Time #1 by writer/artist Steve Skroce. Color artist Bryan Valenza adds depth and atmosphere to the opening tale of the Thing and the Hulk going to an alien world.

Ben and Bruce are hanging out with Reed. Reed’s in the middle of work that Bruce is helping out with. Then, a strange-looking figure from the future pushes them through a portal to a distant planet in the distant future. From there, Ben and Bruce have to defend a group of peaceful aliens against a class-four kaiju. Then, there are the massive hordes of demons that come to invade. It isn’t going to be easy, but it’s nothing that Ben and Bruce haven’t dealt with countless times over the decades. It’s going to be exhausting, though. 

Skroce jumps right into the action. There isn’t a whole lot of definition on the action. That battles are set up and then breezed through. As told through the eyes of a Watcher, Skroce’s story is really more about what happens between the action moments as the Thing and the Hulk exchange a few lines of dialogue here and there on a strange and alien planet. There’s more than enough personality to propel the story from cover to cover, but there isn’t much going on. It’s just a couple of big guys helping a race of little guys out on a weird world. Fun, but not much else.

Skroce’s art hits the page with a great deal of heart. The big, heavy rendering of a couple of Marvel’s biggest bruisers lumbers charmingly across the page. There’s a lot of detail in every panel. There are some pleasant angles to the action as the two heroes pummel their way from cover to cover. Valenza’s colors give the alien world muted hues that never overpower the big, beefy detail that Skroce is pounding against the page. Skroce’s art lacks the refined sense of gravity that might contrast against the bulk of the two massive heroes at the center of the story, but everything seems to cling together quite respectably. 

Skroce wouldn’t be picking up a series like this if he wasn’t a big fan of the Thing. There’s real love that’s put into Ben Grimm’s appearance on the page. It’s a rich and cuddly kind of craggy rockiness that Skroce is bringing to the page. Next month, Ben teams up with a rugged little bruiser as he fights alongside Wolverine. He’s not a bad choice for the second issue of a five-part series. Skroce is off to a good start.

Grade: B