Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic, is trying to save millions of people from perishing as Galactus consumes a planet. His wife Susan Richards, Invisible Woman, is right in the middle of a vicious underwater meeting with old Atlanteans and Namor. And Sue's brother Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm (who's temporarily reverted back to a human condition from his usual monstrous Thing mode) have to save the world and a group of kids when Annihilus and his bug-like army try to escape the Negative Zone.
WARNING: Major Spoilers Ahead! Read no further if you've not read the issue or would rather not find out who dies!
But is in fact the Human Torch who dies in battle, as Johnny sacrifices himself to close the door and fend off the horde as Grimm reverts back to his orange rocky self, too late to help.
Here are some excerpts from the press release which Marvel released earlier today after several news outlets actually leaked the news hours before the issue hits stands in the US.
"We didn't want to give it away," Hickman says.
"It's so impossible to keep it a secret nowadays. Readers are smart enough that if you do too much revealing or foreshadowing, they'll completely pick up on it. There's probably a pretty large segment out there where plenty of people will have guessed it was Johnny. But we left enough confusion that the story's still interesting and a sense of peril to everyone only heightens attention."
"This isn't just bread and circuses for the sake of doing bread and circuses," Brevoort explains.
"This is about a larger transformation of the Fantastic Four — the book, the characters, the franchise, everything."
"By this time next year, it will be something completely different that will still have some of the touchstones and flavor of the current Fantastic Four, but that hopefully it will seem exciting and different and new and modern to people who maybe have taken the FF as a property and a crew of characters for granted because they've been around for so long."
So, why Johnny?
"There were a lot of reasons why Johnny. It wasn't like his time had come or anything like that."
And the future of Johnny Storm?
"Who knows — next year or 10 years from now, it could be an entirely different crop of people going, 'I'd really like to bring the Human Torch back. That'd be fun!' I can't worry about that. What I can worry about is telling the strongest, most touching stories we can."
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