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I'm not sure exactly to what extent his body is composed of rock.

In order to be alive I'm assuming he has organs and blood and such. His tongue and eyes look human enough and they require blood flow.

But has Thing's exterior shell ever been damaged to the point he actually bled?

For the purpose of this question, we're pretending the terrible movies have never existed.

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6 Answers 6

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Yes

In Fear Itself, while possessed by an Asgardian demon hammer, Thor punched a hole in his chest and while you don't necessarily see blood coming from the wound, Thor's hammer is covered in it. So that seems to show that he can and does bleed if anyone is actually able to penetrate his skin that far.

enter image description here

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  • Wow, great find!
    – Daft
    Commented Jun 26, 2015 at 20:30
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    The Thing also bled in the "Unthinkable" storyline after Dr. Dooms Henchmen (Henchcreatures ?) smashed out several of his teeth (this is drawn with some rather distinctive puddles of blood). Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 7:10
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    Note that this doesn't apply to the Ultimate version of Thing - Ultimate Reed specifically tells him that he no longer has internal organs or blood, and they really don't understand how he's even alive.
    – Omegacron
    Commented Aug 4, 2015 at 16:22
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The Thing has rarely been (as far as I can recall) depicted as bleeding even when he fought incredible powerful or vicious combatants such as Tryco Slatterus (Former Champion of the Universe) Thundra or the Hulk. To be fair, it seems a bit odd, the Thing also rarely fights opponents who have the ability to cut him, so that might explain why we've rarely seen him bleeding.

  • If Ben Grimm's body retains the ability to bleed, (and the Marvel Handbook does not indicate it would not) it is rarely shown no matter who he is fighting. The assumption is, he is too difficult to cut deep enough to reach anything resembling a vital organ. It is also safe to assume, his rocky form, if it still uses blood keeps that part of him deeply embedded within his rocky exterior.

  • While the Marvel Universe's handbook indicates the Thing still has blood under all of his keratin-like armor, his body's physical structure has been enhanced and become far more durable than it would otherwise. So even if you could penetrate his external armor, his internal structures are also tougher than they would be normally.

  • The Thing possesses superhuman strength, endurance and durability. The mutagentic, specific-frequence cosmic ray bombardment caused his musculature, bone structure, internal organ composition, soft tissue structures and skin to greatly increase in toughness and density. Despite his bulk, his reflexes have retained their above average human levels.
  • The Thing's lungs are of greater volume and efficiency than a normal man's enabling him to hold his breath underwater for nine minutes. He can withstand extremes of temperature from -75 to 800 degrees Fahrenheit for up to an hour before heat prostration occurs. He can withstand the effects of armor-piercing bazooka shells (15 pounds of high explosives) with no injuries. REF: Handbook of the Marvel Universe : Ben Grimm - Thing
  • I would suspect this is another case of the character's ill defined powers being poorly depicted and almost never explained, thus we are left to wonder how their physiology does what it does.

  • I equate this along the same lines as Colossus' osmium-transplanted flesh where his body "somehow" (insert handwavium here) trades places with a biological equivalent of osmium (heaviest metal known) and he is able to continue to exist without a problem.

HOWEVER:

  • In a battle against Wolverine (Fantastic Four vol. 1, #374 (Mar. 1993)), his face was cut open by Wolverine's Adamantium claws and bled. The claws left scarring that Ben would later wear a helmet to hide the scars. He was later healed by Hyperstorm.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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Yes, he bleeds. Here is is bleeding while fighting The Champion. Notice the trail of blood he leaves as well as the blood coming from his mouth.

The Thing bleeeds when hit hard enough

The Thing is still "normal" underneath his rocky skin. He's got blood, organs, everything. His skin is ~2 inches thick (OHOTMU) and very durable. That's why it is rare that he bleeds.

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  • What comic is this? Not familiar with it. Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 1:15
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No. In this savage fight against the Hulk, Hulk literally breaks part of his face but he doesn't bleed.

Hulk v Wolverine and Thing - Incredible Hulk 12 Hulk v Wolverine and Thing - Incredible Hulk 12

In last week's Future Imperfect 2 Hulk fought another version of the Thing, which less pronounced rocky skin and again broke off chunks of it but Thing didn't bleed.

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In Marvel Two-In-One #54 (part 2 of six-part Project Pegasus saga), the Thing bled after being shot at point blank range by Deathlok using an amped-up laser:

Thing shot with laser by Deathlok

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Wolverine has cut Ben Grimm, Hulk, other people but Not Thor, Hercules, Colossus, etc...and he has come to regret slashing Ben Grimm. . . later on....fact researched from 30+ years of comic books & the Marvel Comics Encyclopedia/DICTIONARY.

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