Rob Wilson wrote:
I used to read the early FF, but the 90's put me off them. But maybe you can settle something, I'm positive there was a female Thing, and at the time Ben was human. I'm also sure that at some point Ben wore a helmet. Most of my comic reading friends tell me there was no Female thing and they're split on the Helmet thing.
The book has been pretty crappy at times but I'd built up so much momentum that I didn't stop getting it even during those times. John Byrne's run on the FF was very good.
Anyway to your questions. There was a female thing who was Sharon Ventura who had been part of the unlimited class wrestling federation in the Thing's book. She ended up joining the FF in human form during a period where the thing was in charge. IIRC the teams was The Thing, Ms. Marvel (Sharon, no relation to the Avenger by that name), The Human Torch and his sort of wife Lyja the Laser Fist (an augmented Skrull). Anyway, The Thing and Ms. Marvel got shot into space for some reason and exposed to more cosmic rays. The Thing mutated further into a bigger stronger spiky version of himself. Ms. Marvel mutated into a creature like the earlist version of the Thing but stronger because of her previous superhuman strength augmentation.
Ms. Marvel later mutated to where she looked like a female version of the classic Thing at about the same strength level. It was during this period when you might have caught her appearance in The Incredible Hulk. In that book the Hulk had been poisoned and was trying to track down who had done it. In the 4 issue story the Hulk fights the Abomination, The Thing (actually Ms. Marvel) the Leader and Madman. In the issue with the FF the Grey Hulk gets into a fight with Ms. Marvel and kicks her ass. Also, Ben Grim is human at the time (I don't remember why though) and tries to help MM. He later has a beer with the Hulk and the Hulk tells him that during all the times he beat him up as the Thing he was going easy on him.
There have also been a couple of times in the recent past where The Thing has worn a helmet. There was a time where he was mutating more but the main reason was when his face was slashed by Wolverine during another stupid whoring use of the character (real FF vs. replacement $$$$ stunt FF of Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Spiderman & the Hulk). Other times The Thing has worn the helmet when he hasn't felt confident about how he looks or when he is just concerned with scaring people.
The last that I looked at the current FF series the Thing is able to control the transformation so he can be Ben Grimm or the Thing whenever.
Here are some FF related links.
http://www.ffplaza.com/
http://www.shrublands.com/fluxion/
http://www.smackbomb.com/fantasticfour/