Featuring the following heroine!

Ms. Marvel: Sharon Ventura
by Sean Kleefeld

Real name: Sharon Ventura

AKA: Shary. The She-Thing.

First appearance: Thing 27

Favorite quote: "I'd prefer that you called me Ms. Marvel! My civilian name is reserved for my friends - a category which definately excludes you!" (Spoken while doing a flying kick to Nathaniel Richards head. Fantastic Four 376)
Team affiliation: "The Grapplers," The Fantastic Four and the Frightful Four, although 
her alliance with the Frightful Four is similar to the Hulk being a charter member of the 
Avengers.

Powers: Sharon first had her strength artificially increased by Dr. Karl Malus so she 
could wrestle as a member of "The Grapplers," a more-powerful-than-average female 
wrestling troupe. During this time, she was roughly on par with Titania in both strength 
and invinciblity. After she had joined the Fantastic Four during Mr. Fantastic's and the 
Invisible Woman's mutual hiatus from super-heroing, a mission in Aqiria ended with 
the Thing and Ms. Marvel getting shot into space and receiving a dosage of cosmic 
rays. Sharon mutated into a female version of how Ben Grimm originally looked, 
gaining the strength and power to match. Dr. Doom returned her to her human form 
temporarily before she mutated even further into a Hulk-like monster. Since that time, she has roughly the same power levels as She-Hulk with roughly none of the physical attractiveness.










Favorite storyline: Fantastic Four 350 and 352. While Walt Simonson's earlier stories did an excellent job of having Ms. Marvel adapt to her Thing-form, in these two issues Shary is tranformed by Dr. Doom back to her human state and needs to readjust to how she used to be. You could almost feel her emotional duress. It showed both her inner strengths and weaknesses as several people used a lot of valid psychology on her to alter her perceptions.

Least favorite storyline: Fantastic Four Unlimited 5. The Wizard (without even using his Id Machine) convinces Sharon to battle the Fantastic Four. Supposedly her mind is waning with her ongoing transformations, but I've seen the green Hulk have better days. Sharon spends the entire story yammering about how unfair it is that she's mutating and how she's going to make the Fantastic Fourpay even though Dr. Doom, by her own acknowledgement in that issue, caused her condition. It ends with her running off into the countryside, where she presumably remains since no one has bothered to look for her since. What a way to destroy a character!