• Oh, I know. It would still be pretty mind blowing to people if they constantly expected the Torch to come back and he never did. It would set a whole new precedent. Personally, I actually WANT him to come back.

• oh noes, another character that died that would probably come back in an inexplicably idiotic way that would ruin future continuities, if there ever was one in the Marvel universe. whatever will we do? -sarcasm mode-

• Sir, the first rule of Comic Book Death is: never believe a character is gone for good until you see the body...and sometimes not even then.

• Yes, The Vision. I think it was covered in an issue of The Avengers way back in the Seventies...

• I stopped reading FF because the stories and dialogue were shit. I'm a huge FF fan, but this kind of stunt (and the horrible movies) lead me to believe Marvel doesnt give a flip about its legacy.

• Don't we still have the other/original Torch around?

• Hope springs eternal.

• Oh, God, PLEASE let this mess up Tim Story's idea for a third movie.

• This didn't surprise me at all, because I'm reasonably certain that I saw an ad for "3" several months ago that showed Reed, Ben, and Sue.

• Look what they did when the destroyed the old BAXTER BUILDING and ITS CLOBBERIN TIME

• The reason they're reporting it on a Tuesday is because Marvel gave the go ahead to release this issue early.

• It's worse where i live. Not only did they report the death, but they only used photage from the movies. Not only does this have nothing to do with the movies, but any kids that heard about this and only watch the movies are going to flip out. Thank you national news, for making out children cry.

• It's hilarious how Marvel's tendency to bring back dead characters so quickly has made us so jaded to character deaths. I LOVE Cable and Nightcrawler,... two of my fave mutant characters and yet when they died I was just thinking "why are you guys all crying at the funeral, you know they'll be back soon."

• Well . . . in fairness Wonder Woman makes news when she gets a costume change. And Batman and Superman have died too many times to make news anymore :p

• I smell a contest! Whoever calls the comeback issue/method, gets a tshirt!

• It was a good read. And everyone who assumes he'll be back could be proven wrong. Just because people come back IN THE PAST doesn't mean it'll happen this time. Wouldn't THAT blow people's minds??

• CALLED IT! I don't even read this and I called it! Now where's my brother, he owes me a dollar!

• Good fucking riddance!! HT stole The Thing's girlfriend in the 80's- the blind scupltress Alicia Masters (who is the daughter of the Puppet Master, FYI). Alicia Masters was the Thing's girlfriend since like, issue 3 and Johnny comes in and sweeps her off her feet while The Thing is off fighting in the first Secret Wars!! Besides, can you really call yourself a Super-villain these days if you can still get hurt by fire? Please check out my Youtube cartoons @ TalesofStories!! http://www.youtube.com/user/TalesofStories?feature=mhum

• What, they took the one character who was <i>supposed</i> to make useless sparkles, made her a vampire, and <i>took the sparkles away?</i> Madness. I thought you guys were nuts, Marvel, but that's just <i>insane</i>.

• Okay, odds-makers, what the over-under on how long the Torch stay dead before they bring him back? Six months? A year? Or will they go Barry Allen on him and keep him dead for a decade or two before he comes back? And while we're at it, when he does come back, how much will he have changed before he goes back to being exactly he was before he died? Will he split into two people with weird electromagnetic powers? Will he hire somebody to be a replacement Human Torch until the replacement goes psycho and the "real" Human Torch has to stop him? Or will we discover he's got a long-lost son? (God knows he's spread himself around enough to have left a few behind.)

• I was referring to the fact that Chris Evans who played the Human Torch is now Captain America.

• Is it just me, or does "Hickman Epting Mounts" sound like some sort of nasty insult?

• So how useless is Reed Richards gonna be in bringing him back? Anyway, I expected it to be She-Hulk or something like that.

• Hmm! And by the way, did you know that Marvel has stopped making and selling Daredevil comics? Why? What's going on?

• Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to bid farewell, albeit likely temporarily, to an iconic hero, a beloved brother and uncle, and kind of a dick. Ladies in the first through ninth rows, you will miss him for his willingness to bed every one of you. Gentlemen, you can now rest easy at night knowing that your wives, daughters, girlfriends, and sisters are just a wee bit safer now. *Ahem* Sorry, that statement was in his will and required reading here today. However, today is not a day for remembering the faults and foibles of our dear Johnathan Storm. Today is a day to celebrate his heroism in the face of danger, his willingness to be "that guy" on a team of super-heroes, and his kindness to children. And so we bid farewell to this Human Torch. We will miss the joy that he brought to our lives. Go now in peace, Johnny Storm. There is one less star in the sky.

• All I can think of is Doom in a party hat, yo-yoing between juvilation and depression. Couldn't the original 1940's Human Torch stand in for him and NO ONE COULD TELL THE DIFFERENCE? You could set Glen Beck on fire and have him be the Human Torch BECAUSE HIS POWER IS BEING ON FIRE. People always say that the Invisible Woman is the most useless super hero in the Fantastic Four/ever, but really, it's Johnny. At least Susan has force shields. Susan could stop a nuke pluys turn invisible. His power makes him an instant fire hazard, plus he's always the first one to go down in any situation. At least the original Human Torch was a bitchin' robot. Johnny's just a man whore who's too dumb to run with the big heroes. He's basically The Situation dipped in gasoline.

• It had to Johnny. Reed and Ben already "died" and came back. If Sue got killed off, the "Women-In-Refrigerators" crowd would get their armpit hair all tangled up. ("Why do comic writers HATE women so much?1!11"). He'll be back in time for FF#12/#600.

• So, Spider-Man is joining the FF to take the place of the Torch? Weird.

• Steve Rogers is already back. He's running S.H.I.E.L.D., but he's not Captain America anymore. Bucky is. Speaking of . . . it's funny how an axiom in comicdom for years was that Jason Todd and Bucky died and stayed dead, but the 21st century bought both back as rivals of their former partners and then allies and potential replacements. Bucky's Captain America and Jason Todd is . . . well, he's in jail now.

• I think she is a bit too busy being a vampire with no firework powers at this point.

• I can totally see Johnny Storm resurrecting as a Captain America Clone.

• What are you talking about? Joe Quesada HATES gay people...

• I thought it was gonna be some awesome snark like H.E.R.B.I.E. (because let's face it, even though there are only "4" in the Fantastic Four, its "membership" really has extended to HUNDREDS over the decades). But then I remembered we're talking about Marvel with Joe Quesada in charge

• Best exchange this week

• I certainly hope this doesn't mess up Tim Story's plan for the third FF Movie: Descent of The Mole Man!

• He'll be back when the Fantastic Four celebrates their 50th Anniversary. Or a a year or so, but in the mean time I guess they dust off H.E.R.B.I.E. Man the thing and H.E.R.B.I.E. are going to have some crazy adventures.

• I think it's a film plot. They want to reboot the FF films but they needed to get Chris Evans' character (now Captain America) out of the way.

• Lily...don't be suprised if you get a writing job offer from Marvel.

• I was gonna say they should totally ham this up and hold "auditions" where they try and shoehorn any other fire-starting hero in there. The highlight would be the audition of Jubilee, who tries her best to light a pile of newspaper with her fireworks and ends up running off in tears.

• He's died before, they all sacrificed themselves to help stop Onslaught. Then Franklin brought him back, since he can do anything when a writer wants him to.

• Oh geez, noooooooooooooo!!!!!! I guess Marvel forgets how popular Punisher was back in 80/90's and now, he gets his series rebooted every 2-3 years.

• I demand he be called THERMITE. That would be way beyond EXXXXTREEME. He could have a flaming trench coat. And also perhaps be gay.

• They'll replace him with Deadpool. That way that asshole will be in every Marvel comic.

• Which very probably explains the choice to do it.

• I assumed it was going to be johnny once he had that gay tryst with Wolverine's son a few issues back...

• I'm just glad it wasn't Sue Storm...again.

• Hello? Ghost Rider? S´up? Yeah, fine. Yeah. Yeah. Hey listen, I was wondering if you had Mephisto´s number? Seems like Peter´s busy as usual... Yeah yeah... Johnny... No no that´s Ben, Johnny was... the Human Torch...yeah... yeah... well it´s no big deal... ... oh come on! You know I didn´t mean that!

• Its Dyin Time!

• I'm glad someone else thinks that.

• Blame Chris Evans for having 2 superhero acting roles. At least it rules out any F4/Cap America crossover.

• Reminds me of many years ago when DC would do the "in this issue someone dies!" bit and there on the cover would be Superman, Batman and some obscure Golden Age character who hadn't seen the light of day for 30 years. Gee, wonder who it will be...?

• But my daughter she is Deaaaaaaaaaaaaad and now I go and beat up some hobos with a cat. And it's heroin, When I get high I go first class

• I was half expecting it to be Willie Lumpkin.

• They snuffed him - sorry if that was already said - too lazy to read all the comments

• HAR!™ [^_^]

• Isn't Johnny the least important character in the Marvel U? It's like if DC presd released the death of Snapper Carr.

• No, I'm here. I've just been sick. Pneumonia. Again. Wheeeeeeeeee.

• Just change it back to Speedy and stop being stupid, you crack fiend.

• So yeah, we all pretty much guessed this one about a month ago. No big surprise here, see you in a year Johnny.

• Franklin: "Daddy, Where's Uncle Johnny?" Reed: "He is dead." Franklin: "Eh, he'll be back by Christmas."

• what the hell happened to my name?

• RIP ToyFare Magazine :( PS: See you in a couple years Johnny Storm! Enjoy your rest and I look forward to reading your adventures again!

• What if they all died at once?

• This move is so Marvel can bring in there new and grittier team member the Human Incendiary with the new catch phrase "Incinerate On".

• What Spinel said above, heh.

• Yawn. I could fill this page with characters who have 'died' and yet we see monthly alive and well in their comics.

• I have to admit, I'm not the biggest Fantastic Four fan, so I'm not on top of who has died and who hasn't. I kind of like the fact that the media's picking up on comic culture, though.

• Yay! Now is D-Man's time to shine!

• On July 22 he'll reincarnate as Steve Rogers.

• Your first one is always special.

• On July 22 he'll reincarnate as Steve Rogers.

• So H.E.R.B.I.E.'s replacing him, right?

• There were movies?

• H.E.R.B.I.E. will be pleased,or maybe not since he'll have to find someone else to give "<i>the banana</i>".

• I say this as a lifelong FF fan who has dropped the series several times because of drops in readability: Who fucking cares? We all know Johnny'll be back, so what's the big deal?

• Paul is Dead

• maybe the MSM is picking this up and running with it because there were these couple of major motion pictures that did pretty well at the box office (as opposed to most cb based movies) and thus the characters were already in the public consciousness......

• Way to phone it in, Marvel.

• He's already died before. In fact, all the original members have died except the Human Torch. It's his first death. It's kind of a big deal.

• What Juice said. Diamond now ships comics to stores a day in advance so they have more time to shelve them instead of the mad, delay-plagued Wednesday A.M. dash many retailers had to endure for years; Marvel is taking advantage of this by granting retailers special permission to actually sell this issue the day it arrives instead of Wednesday.

• Going to the MSM is the only way to get non-comic people to buy comics. All people have to here is "Fantastic Four" and "death". Everybody's got dollar signs in their eyes, but only one group is gonna make any money off this.

• I'm honestly glad it's hot head. He's the only FF member that doesn't have any kind of protection against the overpowered Gods the FF fights. Thing's nigh indestructible, Sue can make force fields, and Reed is too elastic to hurt. Johnny sets himself ON FIRE. I'm shocked he wasn't dead 40 years ago.

• And apparently, I overshot my load there. Oh well.

• Again, you mean. I wonder if they just borrow Doom's Heaven teleporter once more and ask Jack Kirby/God really nice if they can have another team member back.

• Rob, the comic actually came out today so the news outlets aren't jumping the gun.

• Flame off.

• Third. Also, I'm surprised it wasn't The Thing.

• Ahh yes they kill the one charecter I care about. Bravo marvel....Bravo

• He's not dead. He's in the basement of Impossible Industries.

• I think it would have been funny if they announced one of the Fantastic Four was going to die, got CNN and everyone to cover the story and they killed off someone like Johnny Storms skrull ex-wife.

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