Ricardo Jones

History

Ricardo Jones, jealous of the accolades heaped upon Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, learned from a newspaper article how Ben Grimm, the Thing, had become estranged from the quartet. Luring the Thing to his apartment, Jones drugged him and used a device of his own invention, the biokinetic energy absorber, to transform himself into a duplicate of the Thing. The process was made easier by the slight skeletal resemblance of the two men. Copying Grimm's voice and mannerisms, Jones was able to convince both Reed Richards and Susan Storm, then the Invisible Girl, that he was their teammate. He even managed to persuade them that the powerless Grimm was the actual imposter. Richards and the Thing imposter made the first expedition into the Negative Zone. As events commenced, Jones came to see that Richards' motives were genuinely altruistic and not for personal glory. When Richards' life was in danger, Jones sacrificed himself to save the leader of the Fantastic Four. After Jones apparently died, Ben Grimm's powers and appearance were restored. While the Fantastic Four never knew Jones' identity or motives, they recognized him as a hero in the end.

Some years later, his brother--Armand Jones--successfully replicated his brother's biokenetic energy absorber. Armand Jones blamed the Fantastic Four for his brother's disappearance, but died in a misadventure involving his brother's research, the Hulk and Spider-Man.

Full Circle

In Fantastic Four: Full Circle, Ricardo Jones is revealed to have survived in the Negative Zone. He declines an offer from the Fantastic Four to return to Earth in favor of staying on the Anti-Earth in the Negative Zone.