Why The Human Torch Didn't Matter

By now, everyone and their ancient ancestor knows about the death of Johnny Storm, the member of the Fantastic Four known as The Human Torch. If not, you obviously have not read an online comicbook article since late last year. And if that's the case, boy did you pick the wrong blog to choose for your first read.

Personally, I feel his death was empty. Like they killed off that one Skrull on the left of that one panel in that comic. "So?"

Storm's connections within the Marvel U are only within the Fantastic Four. He's a brother, a brother-in-law, uncle and buddy. I suppose he has hung around with Spider-Man a few times, too. But what did his death change?

It changed the FF. It changed... Hmm... It changed that... The people it affected...

Nope, that's it. It changed the Fantastic Four. It affected the object of his taunts and jabs and the two people he relied upon the most.

What if Thing had died? There would have been fallout in a ton of books. New Avengers losing a teammate, the FF losing the brawn, a dozen assorted Marvel characters would have lost a poker buddy, Alicia Masters would have felt bad, Dr Doom would have respected the fact Thing had lived...

What if The Invisible Woman had died? The fallout would have been less noticible, but at least Sue appeared in more than one book over the past 24 months. Storylines revolved around her, she created a charity, she banded together with She-Hulk, Valkerie and others to help people, she's the heart of any team she's part of...

What if Mr Fantastic had died? The science community would have gone nuts. Reed's lab would have been raided. Dr Doom, The Wingless Wizard, The Mad Thinker and others would have gone to war for the chance to plunder Richard's hidden treasures, killing thousands in a battle over Manhattan...

So, as Johnny died? The Fantastic Four have become the Future Foundation and recruited Spider-Man. People were sad for an issue of The Fantastic Four. He had no connections outside of that book.

Lyja, his estranged Skrull wife was left in the Negative Zone I believe, thus unable to mourn him. Not that she would have done so in a non-FF comic. He had no other friends. He did have a child with a normal human, who jumped into the time-stream in a done-in-one story, but again that's a solely FF story.

It's not like Secret Avengers is going to pause for a moment so Steve Rogers can mention "I don't want to lose anyone like the FF lost Johnny Storm...". Storm didn't play poker with Rogers like Ben Grimm. Storm wasn't a big brain like Reed Richards. Storm didn't have empathy like Sue Richards.

When all is said and done - The Death Of The Human Torch may have ended a comic that was going almost-continuously since 1961, but it doesn't actually matter.

Character Deaths

I've been having a lot of thoughts about comicbook character deaths recently. There shouldn't be any spoilers as all of the comics I'll be talking about are at least 3 months old - these things are in the Back Issue Bins.

Also, I want to get the year started how I mean to go on.

But on this topic, it seems Marvel is going to start the year as they mean to go on, too!

The Fantastic Four will lose a member in the first issue of Fantastic Four of 2011. Which will also be the FINAL issue of Fantastic Four. Ever. A perfect finish to it's 50-year run.

It's unknown (until the moment a nerd reads the issue and gets online) who will die and how, but one thing is for certain:

They will be dead for at least a couple of years. They're cancelling the book - bringing them back before that would make Marvel look predictable and boring.

Personally, I think it will be Johnny Storm - the Human Torch. He hasn't had a death that I know about, even in most alternate dimensions. He just gets upgraded in power level... Apart from the fake-out Death Of The Invisible Woman from the previous creative team, the last character to die was Ben Grimm - The Thing. He was brought back by the same creative team, a handful of issues later, so his death and resurrection were obviously planned from the get go. Reed Richards has 'died' several times, as has Sue Richards, but not Johnny! Why the massive love? He does nothing!

Apart from the final 'Three' arc, I highly recommend the entire of Hickman's run as it really is fantastic.

After that, over in the Ultimate Universe, Spider-Man is going to die!

Apparently.

I find it hard to believe that this storyline (going in issue 153 of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and following on into the next issue and Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates) will end in Spider-Man's death. The book began in 2000 (then named only Ultimate Spider-Man) and launched the entire Ultimate line!

Of course, the main thing everyone knows about the Ultimate line is the amount of delay's it's been subject to over the years... Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk took a long time to come out, Ultimates volume 1 & 2 were subject to delays...

So perhaps the 'Biggest shake-up to ever hit the Ultimate U' will be a new Senior Editor, who demands books hit their shelf date... If we've learnt anything from Marvel-616 (main universe), it's that main characters don't die less than 200 issues in. So it might be Chameleon, Kaine (did he survive the Clone Saga...?), Kitty, Gwen (again)... Or he'll just hang up his costume - or dump it in that trash can in that alleyway like Amazing Spider-Man did so many decades ago. They say "We want to do something different", but that's not what they give us... How many Original Characters are there in Ultimate Marvel?

But that's a subject for another post.

Back on the subject of character deaths.

There were a few deaths during the X-Men crossover Second Coming. Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler, was the only major one - faceless Atlanteans and mutants who had only ever been in 6 comics didn't even get a decent death scene. It seems that Nightcrawler is staying dead, but it also seemed like Collosus would stay dead too. Both deaths had meaning in the context of the story - both were from non-English speaking countries. When's the last time an American or British character's death had a decent cause behind it? Foreigners are great, simply.

But with Collosus, of course he didn't stay dead. He was brought back when shock level would be high enough. This up-coming Age Of X cross-over could be an excuse to bring back Kurt, I suppose... It would be a shock. In so much as Hawkeye's resurrection at the hands of Scarlet Witch post-House Of M was a shock.

Captain America and Batman both 'died' about the same time, back in 2009. They were both brought back in a mini-series (one with tie-ins galore, one without) to find someone else in their place - only to decide to take their job up to the next level. These were, if you forgive the videogame lingo, scripted deaths. They had to die at a certain point in a certain story. It wasn't something that came out of the blue, it wasn't something they just decided to do for a sales boost. It was a part of a bigger storyline crafted to tell the tale of a character.

Are these better than being killed off and brought back a few months later? Does it make a difference if it's a major character? Judging by the press on the upcoming Fantastic Four death, it matters a lot.

If the death cancels the book, it's pretty major. Superman, Batman, Fantastic Four - death cancels the book. Well, in the first two cases it was short-term pauses... But all three were reported by the news media.

The only proviso is if the character is too minor. Not something that can be classed as a national institution? No press coverage. Even characters who have been around for decades don't always get press when they die. Thor, for instance, died and took his comic with him for something like 4 years! That's a lasting death. Of course he had to come back, if only to wash out the acrid taste of Clor from fan's mouths...

Another death that lasted, meant something and almost took a book with it, was Hal Jordan. Back when he was Parallax. If he had been the star of Green Lantern, the book may have ended. He was dead for a good long time, before being brought back for no reason...

So - should characters die and stay dead? Wait a while before coming back (like villains are kind enough to do)? If characters stay dead - how will it affect shipping times? Thinking up new characters every single arc will cause hassle.