10 Brutal Times The Fantastic Four Lost
7. Reed Died - Fantastic Four #254 (1981)
While exploring The Negative Zone, the Fantastic Four landed on the world of Mantracora, where they encountered a being called Taranith Gestal, who crash-landed there years ago. Because Taranith's ship is fuelled by thought-waves, he needed the mind of an exceptionally bright person to power it. Detecting Reed's genius, Taranith kidnapped him and prepared to use his brain to activate his ship.
After Reed's teammates broke out of their cells, they dashed towards Taranith's base to stop his evil scheme. Sadly, Sue, Johnny, and Ben were too late, as Taranith had already drained Mister Fantastic's brain of every thought. Devastated, Sue clung her husband's lifeless body, wailing to the heavens.
Luckily, Reed is so fricking smart, he was able to use his thoughts to override Taranith's ship and return his mind to his body. (It doesn't make a lick of sense but it's pretty standard in the world of comics.) Even though Reed was back to normal in the following issue, he was clinically dead for a while, making Taranith the first person to kill the leader of the Fantastic Four.