By now, you’ve all surely heard about the upcoming death in the Fantastic 4 series. As you may have gathered from the title of this post, one of Marvel’s First Family is going down. And that’s cool and all… I mean, after almost 600 issues, you’d think that one of them should have died by now. And it’s not as if it’s never been foreshadowed. In just about every future timeline, the F4 have always suffered permanent losses to the team. Let’s add to the fact that a variety of “off-brand” heroes have also been apart of the 4 since it’s inception, usually because someone quit or lost their powers. But here, with the coming of issue 587, it would appear that for the time being, there will be no tryouts to fill in the missing position. The Fantastic 4 becomes the Fantastic 3… which sounds awful. Maybe they’ll change their name to something like the Terrific 3 or the Tantalizing 3… Something that starts with a “T” will do.

Now, there aren’t that many comic book deaths left that can make a reader raise her or her eyebrow with interest. I feel that the breaking point for most readers came with the recent revivals of Barry Allen (Flash) and Captain America. Now, for Barry, Flash logic suggests that it would be possible for him to come back. That’s fine, I suppose. Lazy, but fine. But with Cap? As big a fan of Steve Rogers that I am, Marvel did a good thing with having him being replaced by his old sidekick. It worked. But then they had to go and pull a resurrection, probably due to there being a Steve Rogers movie coming out… But are you telling me, that the best idea they could come up with was “Quantum Leap Bullets”? I refuse to elaborate further on that regard. And hell, even with the “death” of Bruce Wayne, why is his return filled with time travel? Anyway, I’m off topic. The point I’m trying to raise is this; who cares about comic book deaths anymore?

Well, I’ve got to say, since Marvel started teasing the big “3″ logo, this has been a topic that people seem alright about. The general consensus seems to be that we will be losing the beloved Mr. Ben Grimm (The Thing). However, I don’t agree with that, and here’s why. Killing The Thing is just too easy. His death doesn’t really affect much. His death equates to one less person who can take a punch from The Hulk. Big Whoop. I personally feel that Johnny Storm (Human Torch) is the one going down. However, I can’t give you much of a reason why though, outside of there being a bunch of other fire people being in the current Marvel status quo. But then there is Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Woman… Most folks feel that Reed Richards is safe from death. His brain being too much of a good thing to just be killed off. I’d think a lot of folks would cry foul if he were axed. As for Sue Richards, that’d be a pretty bold move to kill off the mother of two kids. Especially seeing as the father is almost a bit of an absentee father… I don’t think that sends the right message. But in the end, I wouldn’t be too surprised if Reed was the one who bit the dust. I won’t like it, but it would be a major death indeed.

Which brings me to death gimmicks. Do you remember the death of Superman? The year was 1992. There was news coverage for days…weeks, even. When the day came, there were lines outside of every comic book store, eagerly awaiting the issue that started to change the way comics were viewed in the 90s. When the first printing was released, the comic was released in a black sealed bag with a bloody “S” shield on the cover. Which essentially forced die-hards to purchase at least 2 copies of the book. One to read and one to keep for the eventual resale 30 or 40 years down the road. There was also the black armband that was released so that you would always remember the Man of Tomorrow. Which I personally thought was pretty sweet. This gimmick was a brilliant money making idea, and it did exactly that. It made DC a $#!?load of money. Marvel looks to be following suit with the “death bag” fun with the release of F4 #587. Which I’m totally fine with. Originally, it seems the black bag was pitched as a joke, but it’s also being seen a deterrent to folks who intend to leak the results of the death online before the book can be sold in stores. Which seems like a good idea to me. Remember back at the end of last year, when the the details of Blackest Night #6 were revealed a week before the issue dropped? A lot of folks had to quit the internet for awhile. But that’s about all I have left in me. See ya nest time.

-Fleet

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