Didja Know... It Happened on Yancy Street

Didja Know digs into the fun facts, strange stories, and divine details that helped build the hallowed halls of the House of Ideas!

Hey youse bums! Lissen up and lissen good! We dunno if the world-famous Yancy Street Gang had anythin’ t’do with the new FANTASTIC FOUR: 4 YANCY STREET #1, but if they did, you can bet it won’t be no revoltin’ development! It’ll be a class act of sophistication and—whattaya call it?—elucidation!

In short, Didja Know’s headin' down to the Lower East Side and youse bums are coming along for the ride, dig? Next stop: Yancy Street!

Didja Know… the real reason the Yancy Street Gang always picked on the Thing?

We all know the Yancy Streeters had a beef with Benjamin J. Grimm—AKA the Thing—since way back in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #15, but it took quite a while for the truth behind the tumult to work its way to the top…and the story turned out to be taut with tension and tribulation.

Seems ol’ Ben was actually the leader of the Gang when he was a kid on Yancy Street, and once a Yancy, always a Yancy, right? Well, in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE (1974) #48, it finally came out that the old gang felt Ben had “sold out” by leaving the neighborhood and makin' somethin’ of himself! The noive of the guy! Test pilot? Phooey! Famous Super Hero? Ree-diculous!

Anyway, they all patched things—pun intended, Punchy—up and Ben later donated an entire recreational center to the kids on Yancy Street in THE THING (2005) #6. At first the Gang turned their broken noses up at it, but when they saw it was named for The Thing’s late brother Daniel, well, that made it all right, see?

Didja Know… what side the Gang was on during the Super Hero Civil War?

When Captain America and a clutch of costumed crimebusters all issued a resounding “No!” to the Superhuman Registration Act, no way was Yancy Street gonna sit on the sidelines when a fight was going down, no way, no how. And so they didn’t.

In FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #538-539, the boys in blue of the NYPD asked the Thing to saunter on down to Yancy Street and talk to his homies and get them to stop a’fussin’ and a’feudin’ about the SRA. Sounds pretty simple, right? Lissen, nothing is ever that simple on Yancy Street, and Ben, who wanted to remain as neutral as Switzerland—look that one up in your Funk & Wagnalls!—knew he’d have a tough time of it.

Long story short again, that dastardly duo of the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker complicated the proceedings even further and Yancy Street broke out in a full-fledged battlezone. A sad day to be sure, True Believers, but the Street prevailed, as it always does.

Didja Know… the Gang once cast their ire on a Thing-imitator?

We’re gonna wrap this one up on a fun note. Remember back when the Fantastic Four took off to traipse around the universe and left the keys to the Fantasti-Car to an ersatz version of the team? It was in FF (2012) #3 when the Yancy Street Gang caught wind of it and schemed their schemes…with a special focus on a certain young lady.

Her name was Darla Deering, a singer of sorts, and the possessor of one of Ben Grimm’s old Thing exo-skeletons. Don’t ask, bunky, just look it up. Anyway, the Gang sent her one of their patented booby-trapped boxes and Darla and Ant-Man were caught in an explosion of whipped cream and sparkles.

Later, when the Yancy Streeters took things—pun still intended—too far, Ant-Man claimed revenge for Darla in FF (2012) #6, and oh, what a sweet revenge it was. Things—no pun intended this time—sorted themselves out then, so much so that Ben’s friends from the ‘hood helped out the team when ol’ Doc Doom got a new case of the vapors and made trouble in town.

The lesson herein? Be careful on Yancy Street! Don’t feed the animals! ‘Nuff said!

Peruse these eye-poppin' publications with Marvel Unlimited right now! Then visit your local comic shop to read FANTASTIC FOUR: 4 YANCY STREET #1 on August 28!