New 'Avengers' Preview Confirms Death of SPOILER

A preview of this week's new chapter in the Avengers: No Surrender saga confirms the death of one member of the Avengers family.

SPOILERS follow.

Avengers: No Surrender so far has seen the planet Earth stolen from its place in orbit around our sun. This turns out to all be part of some competition involving the Elder of the Universe known as the Grandmaster.

Once the Earth was taken, Grandmaster placed cosmic objects called Pyramoids on the planet and sent the Lethal Legion and the Black Order planetside to compete for the objects. The Pyramoids began wreaking havoc on the Earth's weather patterns and so the Avengers split into teams to respond.

One of these teams included the Human Torch, the former Fantastic Four member who had been a part of Rogue's Unity Squad. Torch's team headed to Peru to capture the Pyramoid there. The Human Torch was unfortunately successful in laying hands on the Pyramoid. Last week's issue of Avengers ended on a cliffhanger as the Torch began to suffer the painful effects of coming into contact with a Pyramoid.

Avengers #679 picks up right where the previous issue left off. Both the Grandmaster and the Avengers observe the effects of the Pyramoid on the Human Torch. The Black Order and the Lethal Legion take their leave of their battlefields, the Legion showing a newfound respect for their human opponents while the Black Order sees them as not worth the time to kill.

It is the Avengers, specifically Synapse, who confirms that the Human Torch is indeed dead. Take a look at the attached gallery.

Avengers #679 Gallery

Exactly how dead the Human Torch isn't clear. He is still appearing alongside fellow Fantastic Four member the Thing in Marvel Two-in-One. Both Human Torch and the Thing will be guest starring in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur as part of the "Fantastic Three." That's all to say that the last time Marvel killed the Human Torch they made it a major event, while this time the Marvel Universe doesn't seem to have noticed.

It seems likely that whatever deaths take place during the Grandmaster's game will be reversed by the time the Earth is ultimately returned to its normal place in the galaxy. Either that or the Human Torch simply isn't as dead as Synapse believes.

Avengers #679 goes on sale February 7th.