About a week or so ago, Marvel announced that it was going to kill off one of the Fantastic Four in their next issue. The time has finally, and we have found out which one will not be returning to the alliteration-less Fantastic Three:
In Fantastic Four Issue #587, Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch and the favorite of many will not live another day. While all four were caught in different battles, it was he that gave his life to save Ben Grimm as he transformed back from human form into The Thing.
Tom Brevoort, senior vice president for publishing at Marvel told The Associated Press that this is the end for the Fantastic Four:
“588 is the final issue of the Fantastic Four. Beyond that, we’re not ready to say exactly what we’re doing. There won’t be an issue 589.”
However, death has come many times before for comic book superheros. In the most famous instance, Superman was killed off by Doomsday, however death also came for Robin, Mr. Fantastic, and The Invisible Woman, among others.ÂÂÂ
Joe Quesada, Marvel’s chief creative officer, recognized that death, while potent, is not necessarily lasting and that the death of a character in comics has turned out “to be very cliche” in plot developments.
“Whether the human torch comes back or not is really a question that will be answered in time…While I will never discount that a character can come back from the dead because it is one of the staples of comic book story telling . I’m not going to tell you if he will, or when he will and if he does, how he will, but I can assure you that it’s going to be very, very interesting and not what anyone expects.”
Here’s a toast to Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch, and what could be found out in time…