Two Marvel Heroes Are Losing Their Powers

Last week’s Marvel Two-in-One #3 revealed that its title stars — former Fantastic Four members Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm — are losing their powers.

The series centers on Grimm and Storm — better known as The Thing and the Human Torch — searching for the lost Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, the other two members of the Four.

With Johnny’s powers acting up, the pair went to a specialist to check him out. What she found is that both of the heroes were slowly losing their powers — and would continue to do so as long as they were separated from Reed and Sue, a byproduct of the cosmic radiation that had given the four of them their powers being somehow linked.

In order to persuade Johnny to remain active following the loss of his sister Sue and her husband, Ben has concocted a story that they need to search the multiverse to figure out where the other heroes have gone.

Ben believes them to be dead, but Reed’s “last request” was that he not let the team’s legacy fade or Johnny descend into sorrow. In order to get Johnny to join up with him, he lied about Reed’s “death,” although it appears likely that Reed and Sue are not dead at all.

“I don’t think the series as a whole is meant to be dark, but certainly the personal journey that Ben and Johnny find themselves on is not going to be an easy one emotionally for them,” said longtime Marvel editor Tom Brevoort. “And things are certainly not going to get any easier as it goes along — in no small part because Ben is (SPOILERS) hiding a pretty crucial bit of information about their journey from Johnny, and that’s going to keep things lively on a personal level.”

“Ben is lying, let’s make no mistake about that. The fact that we, as omniscient observers of the wider Marvel Universe are aware that, somewhere out in the multiverse Reed, Sue, and the kids are still completing the work of re-creating everything doesn’t change the fact that, as far as Ben knows, his family gave their lives to stave off the final Secret Wars incursion,” Brevoort added. “But he’s coming at his lie from the best-intended place in the world—he can see that Johnny isn’t dealing with his grief and loss in a meaningful way, and he’s almost on the verge of self-harm. That said, Ben also doesn’t seem to have much of an overall plan, he’s just making things up as he goes, Yancy Street-style, so there’s a whole house of cards waiting to fall down upon his head once the Torch finds out.”

You can get Marvel Two-in-One #3 at your local comic shop or buy it digitally on ComiXology or the Marvel app.