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The Fantastic Four have traversed the entirety of creation in the Marvel Universe, exploring parallel worlds and working alongside (and against) plenty of variants of themselves. But their missions also introduced a surprisingly dour take on one of their most iconic members, who hints at a dark fate in store for the hero.
The Old Man Johnny version of Human Torch was a surprisingly tragic riff the classic hero, giving the Fantastic Four their own version of Old Man Logan in the most somber way possible. On top of being a sad take on the classic hero, it also quietly hinted that Human Torch might be fated for a short life.
Introduced in Fantastic Four #2 (by Matt Fraction, Mike Allred, Laura Allred, and VC’s Clayton Cowles), the Human Torch of Earth-13266 (otherwise known as the Doomed Universe) had the distinction of being the last surviving member of his Fantastic Four, as well as the brother of his world’s Mister Fantastic instead of Invisible Woman. In his timeline — which was further explored in Fantastic Four #13 (by Matt Fraction, Karl Kesel, Mark Bagley, Joe Rubinstein, Paul Mounts, and VC’s Clayton Cowles)– the Fantastic Four returned from a cosmic adventure to discover Doctor Doom had forged an alliance with Kang and Annihilus. With their power behind him, Doom was able to take over the planet with relative ease.
The Fantastic Four did their best to contend with Doom’s plans. However, their plan was for naught, and Johnny was the only person to escape Doom’s wraith. Johnny didn’t escape unscathed, however, as he lost an eye and was left with a massive scar across his face as one final insult from Doctor Doom. This Human Torch eventually made his way to Earth-616, where he worked with the Ant-Man-led Fantastic Four before venturing off into the cosmos to work alongside his Earth-616 counterpart’s team. Together, the group confronted Doom’s forces once again, even getting the chance to rewrite his history and save his teammates. But in the process of stopping Doom by causing a massive explosion with his powers, Old Man Johnny was confronted and killed.
The concept of an older Human Torch is something that has been approached in the past — but only rarely. It’s only in a handful of timelines, like the MC2 universe, where Human Torch is confirmed to survive into old age. In many others, Human Torch is a casualty of the villainous forces winning (such as in the Age of Apocalypse or Days of Future Past timelines). Numerous What If…? stories ended with Human Torch among the casualties of numerous conflicts, whereas variants of him in stories like Fantastic Four: Life Story go out in heroic blazes of glory.
This even matches his Earth-616 counterpart, who infamously suffered a famous death fighting the hordes of Annihulus during the build-up to Future Foundation. Reed Richards even speaks to Uatu in Fantastic Four #16 — the issue featuring Old Man Johnny’s death — and reveals his fear that tragic fate was one of the better possibilities for Human Torch’s fate, hinting he’s seen few versions of Human Torch survive. Old Man Johnny highlighted why that makes sense, given the character’s bombastic attitude and habit of flying headfirst into danger.
The only reason this Human Torch wasn’t the first causality of the battle against his Doom was that version of Victor Von Doom was cruel enough to want to torture the vain hero by destroying him physically and mentally first. Of the whole Fantastic Four, Human Torch is possibly the least likely to make it in the long-run, so seeing any version fo the character who not only outlived his family but did so by decades is a tragic look. This was a Human Torch who mourned his lost family so much he set out on a multiversal quest to fix it — and it cost him everything to accomplish it.
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