Released in late 2021 through early 2022 with the subtitle, "The Next Big Thing," this was a six-issue mini-series set at some point in the FF's history, written by novelist Walter Mosley. In it, things go wrong for Ben Grimm very quickly. He comes back from a fishing trip to find the rest of the FF away and Alicia having a pleasant afternoon with the owner of an art gallery. Ben gets aggressive, then gets arrested, and Alicia breaks up with him.
So he accepts the offer of a pink fairy-looking thing to use their dating service to find someone, and is matched with an attractive and creative 'choreographic clothes designer' named Amaryllis. At which point, people start attacking him. Ben doesn't know why they attack him, but is all too willing to punch them.
Amaryllis is obviously more than she first appears, and the two of them meet a young boy who is endlessly curious and wise beyond his years. He also turns out to be more than he appears. The Thing, however, is still The Thing. Not a genius, but not an idiot. He can tell there's stuff going on with Amaryllis and the boy he doesn't understand, even if he can't figure out what. He's not about to let Doom have a robot army, but he will help him try to recover his mother's soul. (Curious how this and Clobberin' Time both have The Thing team-up with Dr. Doom.) He refuses to give up, which is both a strength and a weakness, especially when combined with his temper, which Mosley seems to amplify. Mosley's version of Ben rarely strikes in response to being struck. Instead, he strikes first.
During the frequent fights, Reilly often goes to series of small panels of hits being landed, which Bellaire shades in the same manner as the splash page above. The fights aren't graphic, exactly, but the Thing's opponents do a fair job getting blood from a stone. The rocks that make up his outer layers aren't stripped away, but they are often pierced or cut, suggesting a certain brutality, as though the opponents respond to his increased aggression with their own.
I think the story ends the way it has to, for who Amaryllis is and who Ben is. He's not going to accept her, not yet. Won't have a choice some day. For now, he and Alicia find their way through the forces trying to manipulate or separate them, and Ben agrees to try getting some anger management.
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