Guess I have to do this one before they're the Fantastic Three:

"They Saved Doom's Face!" continues next week!

From Blog@Newsarama, there is a link to Emanata's piece on Jonathan Hickman's upcoming Fantastic Four storyline, "The End of the Fantastic." Emanata seems to think the Invisible Woman is a lock to be killed off, and putting aside any annoyance at more "death," Sue does seem like the choice that would offer the most drama. (There's some debate in the comments on who will be killed, or even if the character will "die" or something else to be written out.)

I thought about it, on my walk this afternoon: killing off Reed has been done before, and aside from everyone mourning him, the only (likely) storytelling possibilities are Namor hitting on Sue twenty minutes after the funeral, and the FF have to bring in another scientist-hero to take care of Reed's machines, mind the Negative Zone, keep the lights on, etc. It might be fun to see "Scientist Supreme" Henry Pym have to nut up and do Reed's job...I could see Hickman killing off Reed, since he's been doing some work with him, and it has to be tough to write Reed as working to make the world a better place without getting into ridiculous wish-fulfillment.

If Johnny dies, eh, sad funeral, new member. Ben dying would probably gut the team. But Sue's death...I hate to say this, because I don't want it to be considered "fridge-ing" her, but Sue's death would open possibilities. The first would probably be trying to keep Reed from killing himself. There's an old What If? that suggests that, and I believe it, even if Reed still had two kids to take care of.

Ben would be the pillar of strength for his friends, and Johnny may finally have to grow up and be less of a slackass; but if Reed manages to give suicide a miss, then what? How much would Reed care about "a better world" without Sue? The idea of Reed later dating is weirdly amusing, but what I'd love to see is Reed absolutely convinced Sue would be coming back. While in terms of the Marvel Universe, Reed would be right; but everyone would think Reed is in serious denial, if not outright insane.

Scene: Johnny and Ben, in black suits, for Sue's funeral. Both look terrible. They open the door to Reed's lab...

A clean-shaven, cheerful Reed, in FF uniform and labcoat, enjoys a cup of coffee while working on some project. Ben asks why Reed's not dressed for the funeral, and Reed point-blank says he's not going, Sue will be back. Reed turns back to his work, calmly whistling "We'll Meet Again."

Mmm. That only works, if you can somehow get across what song he's whistling on a comic page. Tough one.

Well, I'm curious to see where Hickman goes with this. Will I cough up the cash? ...maybe.