5 Marvel Resurrections Done Right And 5 That Sucked

5 That Sucked...

5. Johnny Storm/Human Torch

As the youngest member of Marvel€™s €œfirst family,€ the Fantastic Four, Johnny Torch, aka Human Torch, has long been portrayed as an immature showoff €“ the superhero equivalent of Peter Pan, the boy who wouldn€™t grow up. During his acclaimed run on Fantastic Four in the late 2000s, writer Jonathan Hickman finally forced Johnny to grow up. In Fantastic Four #587, Johnny sacrifices himself and protects his teammates from a wave of invading aliens and is presumed dead. Storm is revived eight months later in Fantastic Four #600. In this issue, we learn that Johnny was kept alive by insect-like creatures that were implanted in his body by the villain Annihilus as means to open up a portal to the Negative Zone. Johnny€™s resurrection wasn€™t poorly conceived as much as it was painfully obvious and anti-climatic. It came at a point where Marvel was seemingly killing off and reviving a new character every month. Additionally, because Fantastic Four €œended€ at issue #588 and a new series, FF, took its place, many readers assumed something related to Johnny would happen within 12 issues in time for FF to be renumbered as Fantastic Four #600. It made the whole storyline come across as a cynical stunt by Marvel to rekindle interest in the Fantastic Four franchise.