History ComicBook / TheThingFromAnotherWorld

* RealityEnsues: At the start of ''Climate of Fear'' [=MacReady=] knocks out Agapito with blunt force in order to gun down the sheep which may be infected. After regaining his senses and tranquillizing Mac, Agapito spends the rest of the comic with the top of his head bandaged.

** [[spoiler: This makes Agapito's survival in climate of fear all the more satisfying, especially since he isn't the protagonist or love interest.]]

* ComicBookContinuation: "The Thing From Another World" essentially kickstarted the comic book sequels for the movie which in turned lead into "Climate of Fear" and "Eternal Vows". "Questionable Research" can be see as a stand-alone ContinuityReboot.

''The Thing from Another World'' is a comic series by Creator/DarkHorseComics. Though sharing the same name as the film ''Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld'', in actuality it's a continuation of the storyline of John Carpenter's ''[[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]]'', presumably taking the name of the earlier adaptation to avoid confusion with the Marvel character who shares his name with Carpenter's film.

** Horde in "The Northman Nightmare", at least until his hand regrows...

* OutOfFocus: [=MacReady=] for the first half of ''Climate of Fear'', due to him mentally snapping and then being tranquillized by Agapito. Fortunately, he gets his mojo back for the second half. ''Eternal Vows'' as well, though as mentioned below that's mostly a VillainEpisode.
* ParanoiaFuel: In-universe the Thing is this as much as ever, though oddly enough ''Climate of Fear'' is the only one of the comics that really takes this and runs with it. The first story downplays it, ''Eternal Vows'' only loosely uses it due to it being in a civilian setting where the locals are ignorant of the Thing's existence, and the scientists in ''Questionable Research'' are just TooDumbToLive.

** At the end of ''Eternal Vows'' we see the last remaining piece of the [[spoiler:Jenny-Thing]] transform into a fish to survive, after which it joins a shoal of other fish. On the one hand, it seems to want to carry on its original form's desire to just consume other life-forms to sustain itself... but on the other hand, it's entirely possible that the fish could get caught, infect whoever catches or eats it, and then start the whole mess again.

* VillainDecay: Whereas in the film in the two previous comics the Things were depicted as being eager to infect and assimilate all life on Earth, ''Eternal Vows'' for some unexplained reason just has [[spoiler:Powell and Jenny]] remaining mostly human mentally, and just deciding to stay in one town and consume its residents to sustain themselves. Lessened later on however, after [[spoiler:Jenny]] infects a local CasanovaWannabe and then her co-worker, who immediately start behaving like all the other Things and starts off a new wave of assimilation. Even then however, the newly-created Things take to just attacking everyone in sight during broad daylight, though for what it's worth this is consistent with the comics' portrayal, where Things are capable of transforming their victims in mere seconds.

* WhamEpisode: The second issue of ''Climate of Fear'' is set up to be this, with [[spoiler:[=MacReady=]]] apparently being revealed to be a Thing. In actual fact however, the real WhamEpisode is the third one, where it turns out that [[spoiler:Childs]] is a Thing.

* ContemptibleCover: The cover of ''Eternal Vows'' issue two depicts a Thing breaking up from under the floorboards and attacking Jenny, who of course is wearing lingerie... despite the fact that anyone who had read the first issue probably knows that [[spoiler:Jenny had already been fully transformed into a Thing by the end of the that issue]].

** Late in the first story, [=MacReady=], Childs and the Argentinians chase an escaping Thing as it leaves their base. Several hours later they give up the search for the time being and head back to their base, only for Childs to luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) stumble into a crevasse which the Thing was hiding in.

* CuteMonsterGirl: [[spoiler:Jenny]], and later [[spoiler:Sharon]] from ''Eternal Vows'', which are supposed to be sympathetic and "sexy". Averted with [[spoiler:every female crewmember bar one]] in ''Questionable Research'', and [[spoiler:all the female villagers]] in ''The Northman Nightmare'', which are treated no differently from the male infectees and in the latter's case are meant to invoke creepy shamans.

* MsFanservice: Jenny Campbell from ''Eternal Vows'' spends most of the comic running around in her underwear... though this is somewhat offset by the fact that [[spoiler:tentacles frequently erupt from her torso and kill/infect people]].

* CuteMonsterGirl: [[spoiler:Jenny]], and later [[spoiler:Sharon]] from ''Eternal Vows'', [[spoiler:every female crewmember bar one]] in ''Questionable Research'', and [[spoiler:all the female villagers]] in ''The Northman Nightmare''.

* '''''The Thing from Another World: Questionable Research''''' -- 1993, written by Ed Martin, pencils by Ted Naifeh. Ignoring the three previous stories, an American research team visits the remnants of Outpost 31 and salvages all the surviving Thing biomatter. It turns out that Blair's prediction of how quickly the Thing could assimilate all life on Earth was about twenty times too slow, and predictably Things start thawing out and escaping.

The series comprises four stories:

* '''''The Thing from Another World: Climate of Fear''''' -- 1992, 4 issues, written by John Arcudi, artwork by Jim Somerville and Robert Jones. After an unsuccessful attempt to kill the Thing by drowning it at the end of the previous story, [=MacReady=] is taken to mainland Argentina. Unfortunately, one of the Argentinian party is infected, and [=MacReady=] faces the challenge of stopping the Thing in a much warmer climate.
* '''''The Thing from Another World: Eternal Vows''''' -- 1993, 4 issues, written by David [=DeVries=], artwork by Paul Gulacy and Dan Davis. An American fisherman is infected by a piece of the Thing left over at the end of the first story, and subsequently infects his New Zealander girlfriend, though this time the Things intend to quietly survive together rather than assimilating everything in sight. [=MacReady=] shows up once again to put an end to that plan.
* '''''The Thing from Another World: Questionable Research''''' -- 1993, writer and artist(s) uncredited. Ignoring the three previous stories, an American research team visits the remnants of Outpost 31 and salvages all the surviving Thing biomatter. It turns out that Blair's prediction of how quickly the Thing could assimilate all life on Earth was about twenty times too slow, and predictably Things start thawing out and escaping.

* ArtShift: The first story is done in oil paints, with the following ones all adopting a more traditional inked style. ''Questionable Research'' also inexplicably shifts its art style to a much sketchier one between the second and third issues.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Outside of ''Questionable Research'', we never see a detailed transformation of a female Thing in any of the comics. ''Eternal Vows'' goes to bizarre lengths to play this trope straight, as the [[spoiler:Jenny]]-Thing transforms herself into a copy of [[spoiler:the freighter's captain]], which in turn transforms into a monstrous form when [=MacReady=] works out who the Thing is.

* CuteMonsterGirl: [[spoiler:Jenny]], and later [[spoiler:Sharon]] from ''Eternal Vows'', and [[spoiler:every female crewmember bar one]] in ''Questionable Research''.

* DumbMuscle: Just about all of the American marines seen in the first story, to the point where the lone survivor seemingly changes his mind from page to page as to whether or not the Things actually exist, despite seeing one ''wipe out his unit''. The Argentinian soldiers seen later (and then in ''Climate of Fear'') generally do a much better job of averting this trope.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Kind of inevitable, since the first story has no named female characters at all, while ''Climate of Fear'' has only one, Dr. Viale, ([[spoiler:who ends up being one of only three survivors, along with Agapito and [=MacReady=]]]). Averted by ''Eternal Vows'' and ''Questionable Research'', which have male and female characters being killed/infected in roughly equal measure.

* OffModel: Though ''Climate of Fear'' has undoubtedly the best renditions of the Things in any of the four comics, the artists can't quite seem to decide how they want to draw the human characters, whose appearance tends to differ drastically from panel to panel.

** ''Eternal Vows'' mistakenly identifies the research team that first dug up the Thing as being Swedish, rather than Norwegian.

* TheEndOrIsIt: At the end of ''Eternal Vows'' we see the last remaining piece of the [[spoiler:Jenny-Thing]] transform into a fish to survive, after which it joins a shoal of other fish. On the one hand, it seems to want to carry on its original form's desire to just consume other life-forms to sustain itself... but on the other hand, it's entirely possible that the fish could get caught, infect whoever catches or eats it, and then start the whole mess again.

* OutOfFocus: [=MacReady=] for the first half of ''Climate of Fear'', due to him mentally snapping and then being tranquillized by Agapito. Fortunately, he gets his mojo back for the second half.

* RedShirtArmy: Pretty much every comic -- bar ''Eternal Vows'', which mostly takes place in a civilian setting -- has one. The Americans and Argentinians in the first story, then the mainland Argentinians in ''Climate of Fear'', and then the research team in ''Questionable Research''.

* VillainDecay: Whereas in the film in the two previous comics the Things were depicted as being eager to infect and assimilate all life on Earth, ''Eternal Vows'' for some unexplained reason just has [[spoiler:Powell and Jenny]] remaining mostly human mentally, and just deciding to stay in one town and consume its residents to sustain themselves. Averted later on however, after [[spoiler:Jenny]] infects a local CasanovaWannabe and then her co-worker, who immediately start behaving like all the other Things and starts off a new wave of assimilations.

* '''''The Thing from Another World: Questionable Research''''' -- 1995, writer and artist(s) uncredited. Ignoring the three previous stories, an American research team visits the remnants of Outpost 31 and salvages all the surviving Thing biomatter. It turns out that Blair's prediction of how quickly the Thing could assimilate all life on Earth was about twenty times too slow, and predictably Things start thawing out and escaping.

* ContrivedCoincidence: After completing her transformation into a Thing in ''Eternal Vows'', [[spoiler:Jenny]] lures a man close to her and attempts to consume him, only to discover that the guy just ''happens'' to be [[spoiler:the Powell]]-Thing, who for some bizarre reason decided to kill one of his crewmates, take on his form, and then turn the dead crewmate into a copy of his own body.

* MadScientist: The Argentinian head scientist seen in ''Climate of Fear'' is pretty obviously this, and a major {{Jerkass}} to boot, which eventually culminates in him [[spoiler:provoking Agapito into shooting him dead. Or not, since it actually turns out he's a Thing]].

* VillainDecay: Whereas in the film in the two previous comics the Things were depicted as being eager to infect and assimilate all life on Earth, ''Eternal Vows'' for some unexplained reason just has [[spoiler:Powell and Jenny]] remaining mostly human mentally, and just deciding to stay in one town and consume its residents to sustain themselves. Averted later on however, after [[spoiler:Jenny]] unintentionally infects her co-worker, who immediately starts behaving like all the other Things and starts off a new wave of assimilations.
* VillainEpisode: Unlike the other stories, ''Eternal Vows'' is mostly written from the Things' point of view.

* EvilScientist: The Argentinian head scientist seen in ''Climate of Fear'' is pretty obviously this, and a major {{Jerkass}} to boot, which eventually culminates in him [[spoiler:provoking Agapito into shooting him dead. Or not, since it actually turns out he's a Thing]].

** A borderline case with [=MacReady=] in ''Eternal Vows'', as his arrival ultimately ends up with [[spoiler:the entire town of Wallace being infected and ultimately burned down, apparently killing everyone]]. Odds are everyone would have eventually died from being eaten by the Thing-ified [[spoiler:Powell and Jenny]] anyway, but the former mentions that it would have taken several years to get through them all, so [=MacReady=] certainly sped the process up.

* SuperDrowningSkills: Childs theorizes that this applies to the Thing at the end of the first story, when he floods the submarine in order to kill it. [[spoiler:It doesn't]].

* ZombieInfectee: [[spoiler:Jenny]] in the first issue of ''Eternal Vows'', though she isn't revealed as being such until the end of the issue, when tentacles erupt from her body and consume her pet cat while she's ''still mentally a human''. In the third issue, a woman is attacked and infected by a Thing, but quickly torched by [=MacReady=].

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Childs]] is revealed to be a Thing at the end of the third issue of ''Climate of Fear''... and then is very unceremoniously blown up just a few pages into the fourth issue.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After everything he's been through, [=MacReady=] ''finally'' gets a relatively happy ending in ''Climate of Fear'', and gets to hang onto it in ''Eternal Vows''.

* ZombieInfectee: [[spoiler:Jenny]] in the first issue of ''Eternal Vows'', though she isn't revealed as being such until the end of the issue, when tentacles erupt from her body and consume her pet cat while she's ''still mentally a human''.

* ArtShift: The first story is done in oil paints, with the following ones all adopting a more traditional inked style. ''Questionable Research'' also inexplicably shifts its art style to a much sketchier one between the second and third issues.
* BodyHorror: In spades, with ''Climate of Fear'' being the most graphical of the four comics in this regard.

* MsFanservice: Jenny Campbell from ''Eternal Vows'' spends most of the comic running around in her underwear.

''The Thing from Another World'' is a comic series by Creator/DarkHorseComics. Though sharing the same name as the film ''Film/TheThingFromAnotherWorld'', in actuality it's a continuation of the storyline of the John Carpenter ''[[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]]'', presumably taking the name of the earlier adaptation to avoid confusion with the Marvel character who shares his name with Carpenter's film.

* TooDumbToLive: ''Freaking everyone'' other than [=MacReady=], and Agapito from ''Climate of Fear''.

* OhCrap: Two of surviving research team members have this reaction at the end of the third issue when they discover that all the Thing specimens have escaped. The last survivor has an even bigger moment of this at the end of the comic (see DownerEnding above).