Mister Fantastic's "Death" Is Still Secret Invasion's Bleakest Moment

screenrant.com:

The repeated «death» ofMister Fantastic at the hands of the Skrulls during Marvel’s Secret Invasion is still the blockbuster crossover’s bleakest moment. This horrifying fate for a version of Reed Richards can be found in New Avengers #44. It was illustrated by Billy Tan and written by Brian Michael Bendis, who orchestrated the entire Secret Invasion event.

Early in the history Marvel universe, a group of its top heroes met in secret to dictate the future of the superhero community. Its members included Professor X, Iron Man, Namor of Atlantis, the Inhuman Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and the Fantastic Four’s Mister Fantastic. After the Kree-Skrull War, the group, known as the Illuminati, confronted the Skrulls on their home world to tell them Earth was off limits. It did not go well. The group was captured, tortured, and experimented on. They eventually escaped, but not before the Skrulls collected enough genetic material to clone them.

Related: The Thing Series Adds More Headaches To Marvel's Timeline

These clones eventually gave the Skrulls the information needed to perform their secret invasion of Earth. In order to accomplish this, the Skrulls needed a way for their shape shifting abilities to become virtually undetectable. Reed Richards held the key, so the Skrulls continually cloned him in order to extract the process from his mind. Using a Truman Show-like illusion, the Skrulls repeatedly tried to trick Reed into giving up the information. They had him waking up in the hospital, meeting the other members of the Illuminati, and even submitted him to torture while executing those he loved in front of him. Nothing worked until they tried to coerce Reed to come up with the process of his own accord. They did this by