A New MCU Hero Almost Copied Their Deep Cut Comic Book Destiny (& It Isn’t Too Late)

Life is good on Earth-828 at the start of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Petty crime isn’t much of a problem because Reed Richards tracks all criminal activity and alerts the cops before anyone gets hurt. Even more serious bad guys, such as Mole Man and Red Ghost, don’t have much chance of success because the Fantastic Four is ready to thwart whatever plan they come up with. Marvel’s First Family is so good at what they do that Invisible Woman brokers a peace deal with Mole Man, ensuring that he doesn’t force the entire surface world to join Subterranea. Unfortunately, the team deals with some turbulence when the Silver Surfer visits the planet.

Galactus’ herald informs all of humanity that they’re end is near. She doesn’t provide a lot of details, but it’s clear that her boss is planning to wipe Earth off the map. Almost immediately, Mister Fantastic begins to try to solve the galactic-sized problem with the tools at his disposal. Another member of the team takes a different approach, though, and it leads them to nearly follow in the footsteps of their comic book counterpart.

First Steps‘ Johnny Storm Is Willing to Give It All Up for His Nephew

As the Silver Surfer tries to leave the planet after dropping the Galactus bombshell, Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, follows her. He wants to know more about the threat he and his family are about to face, but he can’t get anything out of her except a phrase in an alien language. It doesn’t take Johnny long to realize that he’s heard the words before, in a transmission that Reed stumbled upon in the Baxter Building. After the team confronts Galactus again, he gets a little more information about the Silver Surfer’s language and begins to translate it. That comes in handy because, while the Earth’s population is working to move the planet using Reed’s bridges, the Silver Surfer arrives once again and destroys them all. The next step in her plan is to kidnap Franklin Richards, who Galactus sees as a candidate to replace him.

Before the Silver Surfer can get to the child, Johnny intercepts her and plays the recordings, which turn out to be messages from people on her world. They want to thank her for her sacrifice, but Johnny flips the script when he plays transmissions from the planets that Galactus destroyed. While the Silver Surfer decides to fall back after hearing the cries for help, she doesn’t have any words of encouragement for Johnny. The Devourer of Worlds wants the child, and nothing will stop him. In a last-ditch effort to protect his family, Johnny offers to take Franklin’s place. He doesn’t care what Galactus does to him as long as everyone is safe. The Silver Surfer doesn’t entertain the idea, but it’s not totally out of left field, as the Human Torch has worked for Galactus before.

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The Human Torch Is a Former Herald of Galactus

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Galactus ticks off enough aliens by destroying their planets that they build a device that allows them to cloak planets, ensuring the Devourer of Worlds can’t find them. It all sounds great, but the aliens catch wind of the existence of Invisible Woman, whose powers would make the technology useless. To avoid Galactus using the hero against them, they travel to Earth to kill her. The Fantastic Four aren’t going to let that happen, so Reed pulls a fast one and switches Johnny and Sue’s powers, making the Invisible Woman appear different than her description. Despite avoiding that threat, another one arrives in the form of Galactus, who takes Johnny and makes him his herald because he wants to use his new powers to strike back at the aliens gunning for him.

Johnny isn’t really cut out for the life of a herald of Galactus, though, spending his entire tenure figuring out a way to defeat the villain. The Fantastic Four and Quasar team up to get the job done, and by the time they’re done with the Devourer of Worlds, he’s back in his humanoid form, unable to fight back. The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Johnny probably would have taken a similar approach if Galactus had brought him into the fold, but it wasn’t meant to be. The only chance the big-screen Human Torch has of becoming a herald now is if Galactus returns to Earth-828 at a later point and wants revenge on the Fantastic Four.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in theaters.

Were you surprised that the Human Torch offered to join Galactus? Would you like to see him become a herald in the MCU at some point? Let us know in the comments below!