Issue(s): Thing #14
Cover Date: Aug 84
Title: "Wild blue yonder"
Credits:
Mike Carlin - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
Joe Sinnott & Andy Mushynsky - Inker

Review/plot:
Mike Carlin takes over the writing from John Byrne for a little while (Byrne will be back for issues #19-22), and it's actually not much worse. So far, the issues with the Thing on the Battleplanet have been pretty corny, and this issue's no different.

We're definitely getting more obvious about the wish-fulfillment aspect of the Battleplanet. Ben Grimm gets an opportunity to be an experimental jet fighter pilot again. He discovers a strange spacecraft...

...and finds that he can "remember" how to fly a strange spacecraft when he's in human form, but not as the Thing.

He helps a group of aliens fight off a rival tribe, but they're pretty hapless...

...and he winds up having to do a lot of it himself. I think the point is that Ben Grimm doesn't like being a leader but it's not really clear.

Ben is still hanging out with Tarianna, the barbarian warrior he picked up during the previous arc.

Ron Wilson can draw, so it's kind of a shame that he's stuck on the backwoods of the Battleplanet here.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• We'll probably get a reference to Secret Wars in every issue of this series while the Thing is on the Battleplanet.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The strange spacecraft seems similar to the small spacecraft from "Buckaroo Banzai".