Fantastic Four No. 25 is heartwarming and heartbreaking

Ryan North’s Fantastic Four has been a huge surprise. Marvel’s First Family usually produces quality content, but this series has been special. It’s focused more on the emotions of the team and the family dynamic as they go on their normal wild and universe-shattering adventures. After twenty-four issues of sweet and loving moments, I should have known that something heartbreaking was about to happen in the comic series. And it did in issue No. 25.

The 25th issue is a milestone. Some comics get canceled before they get to a year. Others before they reach printing. So when a creative team gets to No. 25, they should do something extraordinary. Or, in this case, fantastic. Writer Ryan North decided to bring Reed, Johnny, Sue, and Ben to another planet so the Human Torch could fall in love with one of the aliens, Angelica of the Shore.

""We got to live it, Johnny, our impossible love." "

- Angelica of the Shore

Johnny has never discriminated when it comes to love. However, the other women he’s been with usually look humanoid (Crystal, Lyja, Medusa, etc.). The ones on this planet resemble bugs. Nevertheless, while Reed looked for a way to return to Earth, Johnny and Angelica of the Shore continued to get close. They even found ways around their anatomical differences. It was beautiful until disaster struck.

Reed discovers they’re actually on Earth. An incident on the Fantastic Four's Earth (accidentally caused by nuclear bombs sent by the U.S. at Dr. Doom) made their Earth vanish. Only one Earth could remain. It was an impossible decision the Fantastic Four and Angelica of the Shore had to make. The fate of the two species was in their hands and Johnny was furious.

Johnny couldn’t kill Angelica and her people. The Fantastic Four didn’t want to either. But Reed, Sue, and Ben have family to worry about too. In the end, Reed finds a way for both universes to exist. Unfortunately, this meant that Johnny and Angelica couldn’t be together. Their worlds would collapse if they stayed with each other or visited one another. 

He couldn't believe it. For the first time, Johnny said he found someone and "wasn’t screwing it up." It hurt, but Angelica said something beautiful to comfort Johnny: “Most people’s love, most people’s relationships–they only save them. But ours–ours saved everyone.” As Reed's device sets things right, Johnny and Angelica hug and kiss one last time. When the Fantastic Four arrive on their home planet Johnny is left hugging the place Angelica was.

Johnny is quiet on the way home. Ben offers a shoulder to lean on, but he declines. After a pause, Johnny says he’d take a movie night full of drinking and junk food. Ben said he wouldn’t miss it.

The last thing we see is Johnny looking at the moon. Earlier in the issue, he showed Angelica the moon for the first time. She thought it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. I can’t imagine what was going through Johnny’s head as the Fantasticar flew by it at the end.