Spoilers below for Fantastic Four #26!
The Human Torch has had the most romantic partners of anyone in the Fantastic Four, but he's the worst at relationships. Johnny Storm is infamous in the Marvel Universe for serial dating and has had flings with everyone from The Thing's wife to a Skrull spy. Marvel's hottest bachelor seemed to finally settle down last year when he entered an arranged life partnership with an alien superhero... but in Fantastic Four #26, the Human Torch shows that he has a long way to go before he can make that commitment work.
Fantastic Four #26 is written by Dan Slott with art by R.B. Silva, color from Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Caramagna's letters. The Human Torch plotline continues from Fantastic Four's earlier arc Point of Origin, which sent the heroes to a distant planet full of people who had been mutated by the same cosmic rays that had given the Fantastic Four their own powers. One of these alien superhumans was Kaila, a winged hero who can fly and talk to birds. Sky worked for the authoritarian Overseer, who believed that romantic relationships were a matter of pairing off cosmic soul mates using metal armbands. He ordained Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman as soul mates, then joined up Sky with the Human Torch. Since the pair were "soul-bound", Sky hitched a ride with the Fantastic Four back to Earth and joined the team. She proved herself soon after when she discovered that her bird communication power extended even to dinosaurs.
She and Johnny Storm were getting along well until Fantastic Four #26. The story is set in the aftermath of issue 25, when Valeria's invention the Forever Gate is drawing in both new and familiar aliens from across the universe. That includes the Fantastic Four spin-off the Future Foundation and their stowaway Lyja the Lazerfist, the latter just happening to be the Skrull spy that Johnny Storm used to be involved with. Sky is appalled to learn that Johnny had other partners before her, something that is unheard of on her home planet Spyre. The Human Torch decides to come clean about his romantic history... something which the narration clocks in at "many excruciating hours".
Stark cultural differences are naturally going to make a relationship rocky, especially one with a lifelong commitment between strangers. But that isn't the mistake Johnny makes that puts his soul-bond into jeopardy. It's only when Sky begins to question how viable their partnership really is when she notices that he isn't wearing their wedding band. Johnny's excuse is so bad it requires sci-fi technology: for reasons he doesn't explain, he had Mister Fantastic turn it invisible. Sky considered it a grave insult, something most newlyweds would agree with.
What's in the future for the cosmic soul mates? Since Sky's belief in the institution of soul-bonding is the reason she's in this situation, it's unlikely that she'll dump Johnny Storm. Breakups are a new concept to her. But in issue 26's opening scene, Sky finds out that she can use Mister Fantastic's spaceship to travel back to her homeworld anytime she likes. Chances are good that Sky is going to move back in with her parents for a little while to figure things out... and maybe never come back, given Fantastic Four's recent love of sudden plot reversals.
Fantastic Four #26 is available now from local comics stores, Marvel Comics, and Comixology.
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