FANTASTIC FOUR NO MORE?

Every one of Marvel’s marching minions who cares about such matters now knows that the member of the Fantastic Four who died in issue No. 587 is Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch. Like many perusers  of the four-color fantasies (including all of us here at Rancid Raves), Andrew “Captain Comics” Smith doesn’t think Johnny Storm, the erstwhile Human Torch, will stay dead for long. In fact, as he says in No. 1677 of the Comics Buyer’s Guide (May’s issue), “I doubt there’s a fan out there who really buys a death in comics any more” so frequently are the dead resurrected.

He offers four “reasons” for Storm’s demise in No. 587 of The Fantastic Four (which title itself disappears with No. 588). First, of course, “to shake things up.” Or, to be a bit more precise, “to stimulate newsstand sales.” Which worked: No. 587 was January’s top-selling funnybook. Second, Storm died because he “needed a vacation.” Turns out the Human Torch is the only member of the FF who hasn’t had time off in the title’s five-decade run. Each of the others — the Thing, Reed Richards and his wife Sue — has “been absent for lengthy sabbaticals.” Third, the Human Torch had to die because there are too many Human Torches loose in the Marvelverse. The original Human Torch and his sidekick Toro are lurking around in the background, never having properly died. Finally, saith Smith, Storm was killed off because he was a “full-blown moron,” his career “punctuated by bad decisions, puerile behavior, adolescent temper tantrums, and just plain stupid moves.” The FF would be better off without him. For a while. Until he’s resurrected.