Let me complete that title: " . . . and the Yancy Street Gang".
From the temporal storyline last issue this story is a laid-back street adventure - what a treat.
Ben is no longer able to endure being apart from Alicia so he finds the courage to finally see her.
It turns out that the other guy Ben saw Alicia with is a professional acquaintance, her art dealer. In order to assuage his fears about his and the FF's foes getting to him through Alicia, Ben proposes she move into the Baxter Building - he hasn't asked the other FF members yet though.
Once he does, Alicia gets a warm welcome.
Alright, now on to these two:
The one on the left is Shellshock and the one on the right is Livewire. Both used to be minions of the Psycho-Man. When that villain was defeated both men went to jail.
Having gotten out, they still have the weapons given to them by Psycho-Man. Being unreformed they immediately resume their ellicit activities. That said, they have a reasonable plan: use the weapons to pull off small yet profitable jobs.
Now the first job they want to pull off is to burglarize Alicia's apartment for her expensive sculptures. And here is were it gets stupid. While observing Alicia's place prior to breaking in they realize that she has a relationship with the Thing - the Fantastic Four's powerhouse. At that point they should have just canceled the job. But they didn't. They put themselves on a collision course with the Thing.
So it's moving day at Alicia's and these two disguise themselves as movers. The Thing is very protective of Alicia's property, specially the statues, so he hitches a ride in the back of the moving van - as in sitting right out in the back. Our two ex-cons decide to ditch the Thing.
They move on to the next stage of the plan which is to get the whole truck repainted.
By now the Thing realizes that Alicia has been victimized under his watch. Before he can decide on his next move he sees a the exact same truck he was riding dripping green paint. Ben Grimm does a Captain America and disables the vehicle.
Livewire's electric lariat would have hurt the Thing were it not for Ben's quick reflex action.
Shellshock manages to slow down the Thing but only temporarily.
A jolt from Livewire meets with more success but in the end what gets to the Thing is a hostage situation.
Now the Yancy Street Gang is watching all of this and they are taking it very personally that somebody gets to pick on the Thing instead of them. So they run a little interference.
This gives the Thing the opening he needs to gain the upper hand. No punches are thrown by the Thing - that would be overkill.
Of course, 'thank yous' are in order.
It wouldn't be the Yancy Street Gang if they didn't arrange a little surprise for Ben.
Once in while, it's good to walk the streets of New York with the Thing. Even if the street is Yancy Street.