Yancy Street Gang

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The Yancy Street Gang harrasses the Thing in their first appearance; panels from Fantastic Four #15 (June, 1963).  Art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.  © Marvel Comics.
The Yancy Street Gang harrasses the Thing in their first appearance; panels from Fantastic Four #15 (June, 1963). Art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. © Marvel Comics.

The Yancy Street Gang are a fictional street gang occasionally featured in the Fantastic Four comic book published by Marvel Comics. The gang is depicted as frequenting downtown Manhattan, and serves as a recurring antagonist of the Thing, tormenting him for typically humorous effect. The gang was originally depicted as composed only of youths, but later depictions have both youth members as well as adult members from an earlier generation. The Yancy Street Gang was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Fantastic Four #15 (June, 1963), though mostly off-panel; as in most of their appearances, only their arms are visible as they throw objects at the Thing and yell insults. The gang was previously mentioned in Fantastic Four #6, 8 and 11.

The adult members of the Yancy Street Gang, all apparently blue-collar workers who still live in the neighborhood, are usually seen tormenting the Thing in some way, usually by throwing things at him and shouting abuse whenever he entered Yancy Street. They were also thought to send him booby-trapped parcels, although a retcon in Fantastic Four vol.3, #61, written by Mark Waid, revealed that these packages were actually sent by the Human Torch. Ben Grimm formerly led the gang, and the others, who have retained their loyalty to it even in adulthood, seemingly resent him for having "sold out" and "abandoned" the neighborhood. However, they are generally portrayed as well-meaning at heart, and have occasionally helped the Four if a supervillain threatens the Street itself.

In The Thing #6 (2006 series), the The Thing's relationship with Yancy Street was finally reconciled, after the millionaire (following events in the on-going Fantastic Four comic) Thing donated a state-of-the-art recreational facility to the neighbourhood. It seemed that the pair has settled into a good-natured rivalry.

The adult Yancy Street Gang members are traditionally shown in the comics with their faces obscured by the shadows of their hardhats or other headwear. The younger "next generation" Yancy Streeters, however, have been fully seen, including in one story (Fantastic Four #361 "Miracle On Yancy Street!" by Paul Ryan & Tom DeFalco) which portrayed the Gang with gimmicks and codenames similar to Kirby's DC Comics kid gangs.

  • So far the only known death is that of Cee. The Thing had just met him and cared very deeply about him.

In the unique 1979 Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Fred and Barney Meet the Thing, the Yancy Street Gang (here reimagined as a trio of bikers who like to humiliate the Thing with practical jokes), were recurring, if fairly harmless, antagonists.

The Yancy Street Gang appear as a common street thug gang in the Ultimate Spider-Man video game, where they all get beaten up by Spider-Man. None of the gang's members get actually named, nor is a reference to the Thing made.

The Yancy Street Gang also appear in the Fantastic Four video game, based on the movie, in which they are a gang of vicious looking bikers who capture Alicia Masters in a Thing solo segment.

Yancy Street is named in reference to the real Delancey Street, which extends from The Bowery in Manhattan's Lower East Side eastward to the Williamsburg Bridge. Yancy Street, however, is seen in Fantastic Four #15 (June, 1963) to intersect with 10th Avenue, which is on the west side of Manhattan.

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