One of the great Fantastic Four members will die in January.The Fantastic Four debuted 50 years ago in the silver age of comics and made heroes what they are today.
Executive editor Tom Brevoort, who oversees the comic book, says plenty of clues have been offered during the course of writer Jonathan Hickman's run, including the current 'Three' story line:
"I think we've given plenty of hints as to who may die - perhaps too many, in that every one of our lead characters is left in a dire, life-threatening situation the month before,' Brevoort told The Associated Press. 'So, hopefully, that will help to heighten the suspense, while preserving the surprise as to which member doesn't make it out alive."
Tom Brevoort also said very clearly: "A core character from the series, whom you've seen in the [2005 and 2007] films, will be no more," he told CNN.
It won't appear on newsstands, either. 'The surprises in this issues - and what comes next - constitute one of the biggest events in Marvel history,' said David Gabriel, senior vice-president for sales and circulation at Marvel.
Jonathan Hickman has said that this plot has been here since he first pitched when he started the current Fantastic Four title:
"Everything has led to this moment," he said. "It serves the story and gets where we want for the Fantastic Four."This wasn't a case where we started with, 'Let's kill a character,' " Brevoort said."[Hickman] had this story, and at one point, he said this character will die. There was never a moment where we said it could be this one or that one. There was only one choice to us as we headed down this series of stories."
Brevoort has also said that the members death will change the Marvel Universe:
"The hook is the fact that one of the four characters will be shuffling off this mortal coil. That's really a small part," he said."What we're actually doing is completely transmogrifying the 'FF' as a thing. At the end of this story, there won't even be a book called 'Fantastic Four' anymore; there will be something new that will be interesting and exciting. Out of this moment, a new thing will be born."
"Mainstream comics have done these 'Death of ...' stories so frequently, never keeping the characters dead, so it's lost all meaning to me as a fan," said Bob Bretall of comicbookpage.com, who nevertheless said he is really enjoying the current "Fantastic Four" story arc. Look no further than the upcoming 'death of Spider-Man.' Of course, it's not the 'real' Spider-Man, it's [the alternate universe] Ultimate Spider-Man."
Comic book reader/iReporter Omekongo Dibinga is also not a fan of characters dying and coming back: "It's like a musician saying they're retiring and they keep coming back, like Jay-Z."
Hickman then stated:
"I wanted to invert [the 'Mad Men' formula], to take a book about adventure and science fiction but inject nostalgia into it. Because that is the way the book feels now, this will resonate," he said. "When you couple that with the fact that all of this was planned in advance and we're working toward a goal, I feel that we will be confident that we did a good job."It's very easy to develop cynicism about the stories we tell," Brevoort added. "The only way to combat and conquer it is to have a story that touches on the humanness of people that has emotional resonance and truth to it. The fact of death is something every human being can relate to. I would argue that a well-told story of a character's demise is not necessarily undone by them coming back later."
Brevoort has stated this:
"We've tightened the screws and had each member in a critical life-or-death situation," he said. "Once you get to [the most recent issue], you hopefully will have absolutely no idea which character will take the fall because there are dire circumstances and threats that make it unlikely that anybody will get out. It's amazing that all three get out alive."
Bretall believes it will be Johnny Storm, a.k.a. the Human Torch, since his death has not even been hinted at in previous stories. (Both the Torch and the Thing are holding down the fort at the team's Baxter Building, which the army of the Anti-priest plans to attack.)
Dibinga is betting that the Thing will be the one to perish. "He is the one who is the easiest to replace. There are not many characters with the powers of the other three," he said. "Plus, he's not a direct part of the family, so he would be the easiest to let go."
(The Thing will be featured in the Fear Itself event,so...)
Invisible Woman seemed headed for danger, having told her family that she was leaving to "referee a harmless meeting" about New Atlantis, which has turned out to be anything but. Bretall points out another clue, though: "On the cover of 'FF #1' they have three hexagons, two filled in & one clear, which I'm guessing represents Sue."
And the fearless team leader,Mr.Fantastic, is dealing with none other than the planet eater himself Galactus.
"It will come sealed in a bag," Brevoort said. "I cavalierly called it the 'death shroud.' " The black bag with the "Fantastic Four" logo and a number three has been compared --- even by Brevoort --- to the bag that carried the "Death of Superman" issue."In this modern-day internet era, it's very difficult to keep any surprise a surprise," he said. "Another predilection of our core constituency is they like to keep their books pristine. It will cause someone real pain to ruin the story and scan it."
Marvel is not telling us who will be the one to die until issue #587(January 26th),and Marvel dosn't want it any time sooner.
I think Marvel is killing off too many characters(Sabertooth,Abomination,Doc Sampson,Nightcrawler,Cable)and changing theircharacters and their universe too much(Civil War,House of M,Wolverine's memories returning,Winter Soldier's arrival,all of the Hulk's kids,actually everything involving the Hulks,etc.). I was thinking,what if this isn't really happening? What if after House of M Scarlet Witch made another new reality, but based off the old one,what if in 2011 eleven this big secret event I was reading about turns out to be the return of the Scarlet Witch and the old reality?
Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I have a feeling though that this is fake like Captain America's death, and Superman's death, plus Mr.Fantastic,The Thing,and Sue Storm have all been thought to be dead before so.