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Human Torch

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This article is on the Silver/Modern Age Human Torch, Johnny Storm. For the Golden Age version, see Human Torch (Golden Age).

The Human Torch (Johnny Storm) is a Marvel Comics superhero, a member of the Fantastic Four. He first appeared in Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961 and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, although he was based on the Golden Age character of the same name, created by Carl Burgos.

Like the rest of the Fantastic Four, the Human Torch gained his powers on a spacecraft bombarded by cosmic rays. He can fly, control fire and safely surround himself in flames.

The youngest of the group, he is brash and thrill-seeking when compared to the more cautious Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman, his brother-in-law and sister, and grumbling Thing.

In the early 1960s, he was the first member of the team cast in a series of solo adventures, published in Strange Tales. He is also a frequent partner of Spider-Man.

Contents

Biography

Growing up in suburban Glenville, Johnny Storm was drawn to automobiles despite his mother's death in a car accident, and became quite a mechanic at a young age. While still a teenager, he selflessly rescued two of his friends from a burning building. No stranger to adventure, Johnny-son of famous doctor and infamous criminal Franklin Storm was nearly chosen as the human host of the demonic Zarathos, the Ghost Rider, and was attacked by the legendary St. Germaine, who sought the power for himself. Johnny escaped the lure of Zarathos with the help of archeologist Max Parrish, the uncle of Cammy Brandeis, on whom Johnny had a bit of a crush. Following his sister, Sue, Johnny joined Reed Richards' crew in a space flight. Riddled with cosmic radiation, Johnny transformed into a flaming monster when the flight crashed back to earth. Calling himself Human Torch in tribute to the World War II era hero of the same name, the youthful Johnny found new adventure as part of the Fantastic Four, proving to be an invaluable if somewhat volatile member of the team. Falling out with his teammates after a battle with the Miracle Man, Johnny left the group and encountered amnesiac World War II hero Namor the Sub-Mariner. Recognizing Namor from comic books, Johnny dropped him into the sea, hoping to restore his memory. The plan worked, but after Namor found Atlantis in ruins, he declared war on humanity. Johnny rejoined the FF and they drove Namor off. The immature Johnny again considered quitting the Fantastic Four, this time to join his cousin Bones' circus, but quickly returned to the team.

Though a member of the world-famous Fantastic Four, Johnny was still a teenage Glenville High student, albeit one who regularly clashed with super-powered menaces. Johnny even tried to conceal his dual identity from most of the locals at first, though this soon proved futile (the true identities of all four FF founders being widely known almost from the start). In solo action, he fought the communist Destroyer (Charles Stanton) and Rabble Rouser; the Wizard (born Bentley Wittman); Zemu, Warlord of the 5th Dimension; Paste-Pot Pete; Acrobat (Carl Zante); Vilhelm von Vile, the enigmatic Painter of 1000 Perils; the Sorcerer of Glenville Woods; the Asbestos Man (Orson Kasloff); the Eel (Leopold Stryke); the Plantman; modern-day pirate Captain Barracuda, whom Johnny defeated in the first of several team-ups with his super-heroic opposite number Iceman; and the Terrible Trio.

Super-villains, however, weren't Johnny's only rivals. Mike Snow, a member of the Glenville High wrestling squad, bullied Johnny until an accidental flare-up of the Torch's powers scarred Snow's face. Despite their animosity, Snow concealed the incident, blaming the injuries on a prank gone wrong and maintaining that Johnny had actually saved his life that night by flying him to the hospital. While Mike tried to move on with his life, Johnny did the same, dating fellow student Dorrie Evans, although she eventually grew tired of his constant disappearances and broke it off. Johnny met another teenage hero, Spider-Man, who broke into the Baxter Building hoping to impress the FF. Despite their early misunderstandings, the Torch and Spider-Man eventually became good friends, and Spider-Man recently chose to share his secret identity with Storm.

When the Super-Skrull (Kl’rt), possessing the combined powers of the Fantastic Four, attacked the team, the Human Torch managed to trap him inside a cave, but the Super-Skrull escaped and impersonated Franklin Storm. The Four exposed the Super-Skrull, but the Skrulls strapped a bomb to the real Franklin's chest, and Franklin sacrificed his own life to save his children. A trip to the Skrull homeworld and the death of Warlord Morrat, the Skrull who authorized Franklin's murder, brought some measure of revenge, but this was not the last time the Skrulls would interfere in Johnny's life.

After graduating high school, Johnny enrolled in Metro College, where he befriended his roommate, Wyatt Wingfoot. Wyatt joined Johnny and the Fantastic Four on a trip to Wakanda, where they first encountered the Black Panther and helped him defeat Klaw. Around this time, Johnny met the young Inhuman Crystal. It was love at first sight, and Johnny, along with the rest of the FF, helped her overthrow the mad Inhuman prince Maximus. Their love was passionate but short-lived, as Crystal returned to Attilan and married Quicksilver, the son of Magneto, eventually bearing his child. Johnny was crushed, but tried to move on. Hoping to catch up on old times with Dorrie Evans, he found that she had married and had two kids since they had broken up. Despite dropping out of Metro U, Johnny remained friends with Wyatt, who often participated in the Fantastic Four's adventures and was later romantically linked to the She-Hulk. When Johnny's sister Sue and her husband Reed were separated, Johnny joined the Thing, Medusa and Thundra in a staged battle against the rehabilitated Namor in an effort to bring the couple back together. Their ploy worked, and Sue and Reed patched things up for good. Seeking direction in his life, Johnny was tricked into attending the high-class Security College, a front for the Monocle, an agent of the megalomaniacal Enclave, who used him to steal top-secret high-tech weapons. Spider-Man broke the Monocle's control of the Torch. Johnny then joined the rest of the FF in space, where they helped the Champions of Xandar against the invading Skrulls. When Johnny's teammates were dying from a Skrull aging ray, Johnny destroyed the robotic assassin Skrull X, allowing the infirm Reed to use his weapon to reverse the aging.

Hearing of the execution of David George Munson, his former high school classmate, Johnny helped the NYPD clear his name and nabbed several leading members of the Maggia criminal organization, including Hammerhead. After a brief relationship with auto mechanic Lorrie Melton, Johnny fell for Frankie Raye, a woman desperately afraid of his flames. Frankie eventually discovered that her pyrophobia stemmed from being hypnotized by her late stepfather, Phineas Horton (creator of the android Human Torch), into forgetting that he had accidentally given her flame powers of her own. Johnny helped Frankie adjust to her rediscovered powers as their relationship blossomed, but when Galactus returned to Earth, Frankie agreed to follow him into space as his new herald, Nova. Distraught, Johnny was comforted by Frankie's former roommate, Julie Angel, and began to have feelings for her. Confusing matters further, Julie's friend, Sharon Selleck, had a crush on Johnny. Julie eventually moved to California to continue her acting career, and nothing came of Sharon's crush.

Johnny was briefly abducted by agents of the Messiah (Alden Maas) in his mad plot to expand the Earth by super-heating its core. Brought to Battleworld by the Beyonder and forced to battle various super-villains, Johnny met and was healed by Zsaji, a native of the planet. Physically but not emotionally attracted to Zsaji, Johnny found an unlikely rival in Colossus (Peter Rasputin), who fell in love with the healer. Although Zsaji returned Johnny's affection at first, she eventually chose Colossus over the Torch, but then sacrificed her own life to rescue several dying heroes. Johnny returned to Earth, where he found himself drawn to Alicia Masters, longtime girlfriend of Johnny's then-absent FF teammate, the Thing. Johnny and Alicia's romance helped estrange the Thing from the FF for a lengthy period. Johnny hit his lowest point when Tommy Hanson, a young fan of his, set himself on fire in an attempt to be more like his hero. Hearing of the boy's death, Johnny considered retiring as the Human Torch, but the Beyonder managed to talk him out of it. Eventually Johnny married Alicia, but a jealous Thing offered a spot in the Fantastic Four to Crystal, who was separated from Quicksilver at the time. Johnny's old feelings for Crystal slowly returned, but his love for Alicia enabled him to resist temptation, and Crystal eventually left the team.

Despite their long and intimate relationship, Johnny was horrified to discover that the Alicia he loved and married was not the true Alicia Masters, but a Skrull imposter named Lyja. Originally sent to infiltrate and destroy the Fantastic Four, Lyja truly fell in love with Johnny, and joined the Fantastic Four in confronting Paibok, the Skrull who had kidnapped the real Alicia. Lyja seemingly sacrificed her life to protect Johnny, but her former lover Paibok nursed her back to health. Trying to move on from yet another failed relationship, Johnny enrolled at Empire State University; but Devos, Paibok and even Lyja attacked Johnny at ESU, forcing his powers to go nova, burning down a large section of the campus. Johnny briefly became a fugitive until Reed agreed to sell some of his patents to pay for the damages. Lyja returned to Johnny's life again, tricking him into believing she was carrying his baby. When this proved a lie as well, Johnny left her again.

Johnny briefly joined his nephew Franklin's Fantastic Force team, where he battled his virtually omnipotent extra-dimensional counterpart Vangaard (formerly Gaard), convincing him to abandon his mission of eliminating redundant realities by showing him the hero he could become. Lyja posed as student Laura Green and dated Johnny to stay close to him; Johnny recognized her when they kissed though he didn't share this until later, but the two never had the chance to explore their true feelings. After Franklin Richards created his Counter-Earth and rescued the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and several other heroes from death at the hands of Onslaught, Roma deemed Franklin too powerful to ignore, and sent the Technet and the (Captain Britain) Corps to retrieve him. The Human Torch convinced Roma that Franklin's family, the Fantastic Four, would be able to nurture him so that he would not grow up to be a danger to the Omniverse.

While the rest of the Fantastic Four battled the Gideon Trust and Annihilus in the Negative Zone, Johnny was forced to recruit a temporary FF team consisting of Ant-Man (Scott Lang)Johnny's on-and-off girlfriend Namorita (Namor's cousin), and the She-Hulk, who battled the Gideon Trust on Earth. When the cosmic entity Abraxas came to Earth-616, Johnny teamed with an extra-dimensional version of the now-deceased Frankie Raye to retrieve the Ultimate Nullifier, a weapon powerful enough to destroy Abraxas. This Nova betrayed Johnny and gave the Nullifier to her master, Abraxas, but even that couldn't save Abraxas after Galactus joined the fight. Following the battle, Susan found herself pregnant again, and, with Reed off battling the Hidden Ones, Johnny was forced to seek help from Dr. Doom when problems with the pregnancy threatened Sue's life. Doom saved both Sue and her daughter, Valeria.

Seeking an acting career, Johnny was cast as the Rawhide Kid in a summer blockbuster; but it was eventually decided he wasn't ready for the role, which was given to Lon Zelig (actually the Super-Skrull). Johnny also spent some time as a firefighter at the behest of his former classmate, Mike Snow; but when Snow moved away after his wife turned out to be a psychotic arsonist and seemingly died, Johnny left the job (though he later returned to the profession during a period when the FF was short on cash). Sick of her brother's directionless life, Sue forced him to take a job as the Chief Financial Officer for Fantastic Four, Inc. Although initially in over his head, Johnny was able to stop a manufacturer from stealing the secret of Reed's Unstable Molecule suits, and began to warm up to both the job and his co-worker, Jian Fetta.

Unfortunately, after a major battle with Doom, Reed attempted to claim Latveria for the Fantastic Four, an act that turned the United States government against them. To escape trial, the group was forced to sell many of their patents and holdings to the government, which left Johnny's wallet much emptier than usual and sent his popularity plummeting. Seeking help from the least popular person he could think of, Johnny contacted Spider-Man, who tried to cheer Johnny up by bringing him to a water park, where they were attacked by Hydro-Man. Easily defeating the villain and rescuing the park's popular mascot, Johnny found his popularity rising once more. Johnny also began to converse with a new girl over the internet, and hit it off when he finally met her. This girl, Cole, turned out to be the daughter of one of Johnny's oldest enemies, the Wizard; but although she was sent to trick the FF, Cole actually helped lead them to the Wizard's lair, where they battled him and his new Frightful Four. The Wizard escaped and took Cole with him, but Johnny remained hopeful about meeting her again.

Recently, an alien named Zius came to Earth, the location of the one being in the universe who could nullify his Galactus-proof planet-cloaking invisibility shield, Susan Richards. Zius threatened to destroy the planet if Sue did not sacrifice herself, but Reed used his power gun to switch her powers with Johnny's and tricked Zius into leaving the planet. As he left orbit, Galactus destroyed Zius's spaceship and claimed Johnny as his new Herald. Unwilling to lead Galactus to populated worlds, Johnny used his new powers to analyze Galactus and, with the help of the FF and Quasar, managed to transform Galactus back into humanoid form. Johnny's power cosmic faded, but during Reed's subsequent efforts to reverse Sue and Johnny's power switch, a remnant of the power caused a flare-up that temporarily sent the FF's powers into four random New Yorkers.

Civil War

When the New Warriors were busy fighting the villain known as Nitro in Stamford, the battle resulted in Nitro using his powers to create an huge explosion which caused the entire neighborhood to blow up, killing all but one member of the New Warriors, all villians except Nitro, and innocent people including kids. The other super-heroes were all blamed for this disaster. Johnny was among those blamed as well. When on a night out with one of his dates, Johnny was beaten up in front of a nightclub by local people, because of the incident in Stamford. Johnny is rumored to choose the side of Iron Man during the Civil War fighting with a government proposed super-human registration act, although due to his injuries he could be incapacitated for the early going of the war.

Romance

The Torch has been involved in various romantic relationships throughout the years including but not limited to the Inhuman Crystal, member-in-training and future Galactus herald Frankie Raye, the Skrull agent Lyja disguised as Alicia Masters, and the Atlantean Namorita. Crystal dissolved her relationship with him due to the adverse effects of pollution within population centers of Homo sapiens. Frankie Raye ended her relationship with him when she accepted Galactus' offer to become his newest herald. Lyja while in the disguise of the Thing's former girlfriend Alicia Masters carried on a longterm relationship including marriage with the Torch until it was revealed that her true nature was as a Skrull double agent. Although the two attempted reconciliation as it was learned that their "child" was actually an implanted weapon to be used against the Four, they ultimately parted on less than favorable terms. Torch's relationship with Namorita lasted briefly until her ex-boyfriend Nova returned to her life. Other relationships with civilians have also occurred through his early twenties.

Powers and abilities

The Torch's primary power is to envelop himself in, and manipulate fire. The Human Torch can direct this flame as a blast of superheated plasma, or manipulate it for various shapes, temperatures, or effects. He can absorb flame into his body, or extinguish ambient flame at will. The Torch has the ability to fly at nearly the speed of sound, and has sufficient ambient heat to vaporize projectiles that approach him. The Torch has been observed to vaporize rocks, bottles, bullets, and even steel girders in fractions of a second; yet this ambient heat does not extend beyond his body, or ignite objects in proximity to him. The uppermost level of The Human Torch's power is his "Nova Flame," which is usually released omni-directionally and reaches temperatures of 1,000,000 degrees. Any level lower than this cannot burn him. The Human Torch can also direct beams of "Nova Heat" as an offensive weapon for very brief periods of time before his heat energy gives out.

The Torch is limited by the quantity of oxygen in his environment, and has been extinguished by sufficient quantities of water, flame retardant foam, and vacuum environments. He can re-ignite instantly once oxygen is returned, with no ill effects.

His protection from fire doesn't seem to apply to hellfire, although it is unknown whether this is because the hellfire is mystical in nature, or if it's simply that much hotter than his own form can protect.

Trivia

Ultimate Human Torch

In the Ultimate Universe, Johnny Storm is the youngest child of Franklin Storm, but is not as intelligent as his sister and father. He went to high school at P.S 440. He spent time at the Baxter Building but his rebellious nature meant that he learned little from his time spent there.

He was present at Reed Richard's test of the N-Zone Teleportation Device in the Nevada Desert. After a malfunction in the device he woke up in France in a hospital bed. He found himself uncontrollably bursting into flames until he learned he could control his burst by saying "Flame On" to burst into flames and "Flame Off" to return to a normal state. When Mole Man's creatures attacked Johnny found out he could fly while on fire. It was explained by Reed that Johnny's spontanious combustion made him lighter than air. Johnny has a microscopic thin film made of little transparent plates covering his entire body that makes him impervious to flame. When he activates his powers fat cells beneath his skin create clean nuclear fusion and jet out between the plates as plasma which then ignites on contact with air. Periodically Johhny enters a hybernation where his old layer of skin peels off as ash while a new layer forms underneath. However, unlike the mainstream Human Torch, Ultimate Johnny's power sometimes has detrimental effects on his health, specifically causing unhealthy levels of weight loss and exhaustion.

In issues 68 and 69 of Ultimate Spider-Man, Johnny meets Spider-Man when his sister says he has to finish high school. Johnny picks a school in Queens which happens to be Midtown High. He quickly meets and becomes friends with Peter Parker, Mary Jane and Liz Allen. At a bonfire he catches fire and scares off Liz Allen. He arranges to meet Liz Allen but she does not show up.

Encouraged by Mary Jane, Spider-Man shows up instead and gives Johnny a heart-to-heart talk about great power and great responsibility. Together, they save people from a burning building when Johnny absorbs the flames.

Spider-man shows Johnny that they will not always be appreciated by the public.

Appearances in other media

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In the first Fantastic Four film, produced on a low budget in 1994 and left unreleased, Jay Underwood played Johnny Storm/Human torch.. The Torch is played by Chris Evans in the big budget 2005 movie. He is a playable character, also voiced by Evans, in the video game based on the movie.

Torch was a regular in the Fantastic Four animated series of the 1990s and in 1960s. He never appeared in the 1978 series and was replaced with a robot called H.E.R.B.I.E.. An urban myth states that this was because the producers were afraid that children would immtate the Torch by setting themselves on fire. In fact, the rights to the Human Torch had been separately licensed, although never actually used, for a film and this prevented the use of the Torch in the series. For the same reason, the Human Torch was supposed to be one of the main characters on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, but Firestar was created in his place.

The Ultimate version of Human Torch appeared in the Ultimate Spiderman game as a mini-game in which you had to race him all over New York for bonuses.

References in pop culture

External links

 

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