Human Torch Fact — November 2, 2026

Today's Fact

A wedding in issue #300, a best man nursing a broken heart, and a bride hiding an entire species.

JOHNNY STORM MARRIED ALICIA MASTERS — AND SHE TURNED OUT TO BE A SKRULL SPY NAMED LYJA!

The Featured Fact

Johnny Storm fell for Alicia Masters while her longtime love Ben Grimm was stranded on Battleworld during Secret Wars, and the romance moved fast enough to end at an altar. In Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #300 (1987), Johnny and Alicia married, with the Thing himself standing beside Johnny as best man.

The bride at that wedding was not Alicia at all. The genuine Alicia had been kidnapped by the Skrulls around Fantastic Four #265, and the woman who took her place was Lyja, a Skrull operative sent to infiltrate the Fantastic Four who redirected her mission toward Johnny when Ben stayed away — and then genuinely fell in love with the man she was assigned to deceive.

The masquerade survived for years of publication before collapsing in Fantastic Four #357–358 (1991), when the Thing forced Lyja to drop her disguise in front of a flaming, furious Johnny. The marriage fell apart, yet Lyja kept returning to his orbit as an ally and on-again flame until the Onslaught crisis scattered the team.

Why It's Obscure

Plenty of heroes have married impostors in retcons. Johnny's case stayed in print, in the open, for four years.

1987

Issue #300 — The wedding issue presents the marriage as a milestone for Marvel's first family, complete with Ben Grimm swallowing his pain to serve as best man.

Circa #265

The swap — Lyja replaced Alicia during the confusion surrounding the original Secret Wars, so every Alicia appearance in that stretch reads differently once the reveal lands.

1991

The unmasking — Fantastic Four #357–358 exposes Lyja's green Skrull form and confirms the real Alicia spent those years as a captive.

The writers' room

It began as a joke — Editors kidded that Alicia must be a Skrull; years later writer Tom DeFalco turned that throwaway gag into the actual plot.

Gallery

Johnny in full flame, plus Lyja — the Skrull bride named in today's fact — in disguise and revealed.

Human Torch flaming on a Fantastic Four cover — **Johnny, front and center**Johnny Storm wreathed in flame on a Fantastic Four cover — the groom whose wedding hid the longest-running impostor plot on the team.

Lyja with Johnny Storm in Marvel comics — **The bride and the Torch**Lyja alongside Johnny during their later returns to each other's lives, long after the marriage built on her disguise had ended.

Lyja revealed as a Skrull confronting a flaming Johnny Storm — **The reveal, in her true form**Lyja shown in her green Skrull form while a furious, flaming Johnny demands to know what happened to Alicia — the disguise from today's fact, dropped at last.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

A Fantastic Four Wedding Retrospective — Marvel.comMarvel's own wedding history confirms the Fantastic Four #300 marriage and the later reveal that Johnny's wife was Lyja the Lazerfist, with the real Alicia held captive by the Skrulls.
How a Joke Led to Alicia Masters Becoming a Skrull — CBRCBR traces the swap to Fantastic Four #265, the exposure in #357, Lyja's confession in #358, and the editorial joke that inspired the retcon.
Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #298 — Marvel DatabaseThe Marvel Database continuity notes identify the Alicia of this era as Lyja in disguise and record the proposal leading into the #300 wedding.