Human Torch

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The Human Torch (Jonathan "Johnny" Storm) is a fictional character and superhero of the Marvel Comics universe. He is a member of the Fantastic Four who first appeared in Fantastic Four #1 November 1961. The writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, first created him, although he was based on the Golden Age character of the same name which was 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. "Flame on!", which the Torch customarily shouts when activating his full-body flame effect, has become his catchphrase.

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 the grumbling Thing.

In the early 1960s, he became 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.

[edit] Fictional character biography

[edit] Early life

Growing up in suburban Glenville, New York, Johnny Storm suffered in his young life. He lost his mother in a car accident whereas his father, Franklin Storm, a talented surgeon, managed to escape from the accident unharmed. Despite his professional skills, he was unable to save his wife's life and spiraled into alcoholism and financial ruin. After killing a loan shark in self defense, Franklin was sent to jail and Johnny and his sister Susan had to live with relatives.

Despite the dramatic manner of his mother's death, Johnny was drawn to automobiles and became quite the mechanic at a young age. While still a teenager, he selflessly rescued two of his friends from a burning building. No stranger to adventure, he was nearly chosen as the human host of the demonic Zarathos, the Ghost Rider. He was attacked by the legendary St. Germaine, who sought the power for himself. Johnny escaped the lure of Zarathos with the help of archaeologist Max Parrish, the uncle of Cammy Brandeis, who Johnny had a bit of a crush on. This was an example of his normal life, until the life altering rocket ride into space.

[edit] Becoming the Human Torch

A panel from Fantastic Four #1 (Nov, 1961) (above, left) shows the Human Torch as he was drawn in his first adventure. The original art was altered when the story was reprinted in Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963) (above, right), to conform to how the Human Torch was depicted in Fantastic Four #3 onward. Art by Jack Kirby. © Marvel Comics.

Following his sister Sue, a now-16 year old 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 Fantastic Four 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.

[edit] High School

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 Fantastic Four founders being widely known almost from the start). Eventually, he decided that it would be impossible to do so and embraced the public attention and his powers. 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. Sometimes the Thing helped Johnny to fight against enemies like Kang the Conqueror and the Mad Thinker.

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 Fantastic Four. Despite their early misunderstandings, the Torch and Spider-Man eventually became good friends, and Spider-Man, feeling the Torch was reliable, 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 home-world 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.

[edit] College

The Human Torch adopts a red and gold costume in Fantastic Four #132-159, in emulation of the Golden Age Human Torch. Panel from Fantastic Four #132 (Mar, 1970), art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. © Marvel Comics.

After graduating from 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, Africa, 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 Fantastic Four, 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 Fantastic Four 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.

[edit] Franklin, Onslaught, and other adventures

In X-Factor Annual #5, Johnny greeted his power-counterpart Iceman and, along with many other superheroes, fought against the time-traveling Ahab. During the Infinity War, Johnny went out for a personal fly and was attacked by evil doubles of the X-Men and his own self. He later found it hard to fight by the side of visages he had just incinerated. Later during the Infinity Crusade, a deeper, religious side of Johnny was revealed. After realizing his sister had been brainwashed because of her religious beliefs, Johnny experienced a crisis of faith, because he thought his beliefs were just as strong.

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 Fantastic Four 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. Johnny appealed to his vanity, tempting him with the offer to do something that Reed would not be able to do. Doom saved both Sue and her daughter, Valeria, whom he got to name as compensation for saving them.

Consequences from this incident would later lead to the Fantastic Four being captured. Doom tortured Johnny with a painful version of Reed's powers.

[edit] Getting a real job

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). After working mostly in a few television shows, 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 Fantastic Four was short on cash). Sick of her brother's directionless life and near disastrous pranks, Sue forced him to take a job as the Chief Financial Officer for the Fantastic Four, Inc. Johnny was shown to use his power to further harass Ben and slack off, although it soon turned serious. Infighting and betrayal resulted in the patented unstable molecules threatening most of the world, a threat ended with Johnny's leadership of the franchise.

Unfortunately, after a major battle with Doom, Reed attempted to claim Latveria for the Fantastic Four, an act that turned the United States government and his own team against them. This led to Ben Grimm's death and the subsequent break-up of the rest of the team. Johnny took to fixing cars for a living and hallucinating heavily that Ben was still alive. Of course, Ben's death did not last long. Johnny and his family actually traveled to heaven, where they met God himself, who looked like Jack Kirby.

Later stabilization and other factors left the Fantastic Four's popularity in the gutter. 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. An unfortunate misunderstanding with Hydro-Man led to a horrible fight, where Johnny was assumed to be threatening the park-goers. 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 Fantastic Four, 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.

An alien named Zius came to Earth,^{[issue # needed]} the location of the one being in the universe who could nullify his Galactus-proof planet-cloaking invisibility shield, Susan Storm. 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. The cosmic power he was imbued with let him understand whatever he analyzed, leading him to a new appreciation and love for his family. Not wanting to lead Galactus to populated worlds, the Fantastic Four and Quasar managed to make Galactus human for a time. Johnny's power cosmic faded, though a remnant of it caused the Fantastic Four's powers to be temporarily transferred to four random New York citizens.

[edit] House Of M

Johnny Storm is a contestant on sapien death match; his power armor has a 'flame on' ability.

[edit] Civil War

See also: Civil War (comics)

With the events leading up to Civil War, public perception of superheroes was at an all time low. Johnny felt unaffected by the issue, and went to a nightclub with his girlfriend. Johnny was attacked and beaten severely. When he finally awoke none of his Fantastic Four teammates were there to greet him. Reed and Sue were too deeply involved with various crises (and someone had to watch the kids). Thing had left for France, there to be involved in adventures of his own. After the death of Bill Foster during a battle between the two factions, he went with his sister, Sue, to join Captain America's "Secret Avengers". The Storm siblings narrowly escaped a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents bent on their capture, and subsequently met with the Secret Avengers. Through Nick Fury's connections, the two were given new identities as husband and wife, which they accepted (with understandable reluctance). At the beginning of Civil War #7, he made an attempt to sneak attack Iron Man from behind, but was deflected by his fist quite easily. At the end of the Civil War, his sister Susan has since returned to her husband. Johnny and the Thing are now part of the team again, but this time with the Black Panther and his new wife Storm. During the World War Hulk miniseries, Johnny attempts to take on the Hulk, but after a failed attack, the Hulk beats and captures him.

Johnny has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book Avengers: The Initiative #1. ^[1]

[edit] Romance

Ever since his teenage years, 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 long-term 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 he pursued a career in Hollywood. They later parted more formally. Other relationships with civilians have also occurred through his early twenties, where he stands at now.

[edit] Powers and abilities

The Torch's primary power is to envelop himself in, and manipulate fire. He can also manipulate smoke such as to turn into his fiery form. 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 in excess of 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 Celsius thus allowing him to be faster than sound; any level lower than this cannot burn him. This effect can occur spontaneously when he absorbs an excessive amount of heat into his body although he can momentarily suppress the release when necessary with considerable effort. 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. Once, when his power was briefly increased by his nephew Franklin Richards, the Torch's Nova Flame "rivaled the heat of a main sequence star".

Johnny has been shown on numerous occasions to have surprisingly high control over his powers, allowing him to destroy the engine of a getaway car without harming its occupants. This control is likely due to the extreme amount of discipline Johnny practices, due to his own personal fear of his powers. When his sister, Susan Storm, switched powers with him she was almost incapable of controlling her new powers, constantly spilling out ambient heat and often setting nearby objects aflame without realizing it. Comparatively, Johnny has demonstrated enough control that he can hold a person while in his flame form without his passenger feeling the slightest bit of heat. His knowledge extends to general information about fire as well, supported by regular visits to fire safety lectures at various firehouses in New York.

The Torch was once 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. Based on the distinct speech bubbles that accompany Human Torch whenever he is aflame, his voice apparently changes whenever he is using his powers.

Johnny also briefly had his powers switched with his sister The Invisible Woman, and thus became the Invisible Man. During this time Galactus took Johnny and made him his herald, augmenting his invisible powers with the Power Cosmic. As a Herald of Galactus, Johnny had all of The Invisible Woman's powers augmented to a cosmic degree, as well as being able to see past all concealments and illusions into the primal truths. This power allowed Johnny to see Galactus as he really is. Johnny exhausted the power cosmic from his body when he used it to separate the cosmic Galactus energy from Galan (Galactus' humanoid origin). Recently Johnny was re-powered with the Power Cosmic, during a battle with the Silver Surfer, and jokingly dubbed himself the Cosmic Torch. It is yet to be seen if he will retain the Power Cosmic, although at the end of the issue he still appeared to be cosmically powered.

Very early in his career (i.e., Fantastic Four #1 and 2) the Torch was depicted as transforming his body itself into living flame; in all subsequent appearances his power consists in the generation of a flaming aura.

[edit] Other versions

[edit] 98

In Earth-98 universe, Johnny married Crystal and has a daughter named Luna.

[edit] 1602

In the Marvel 1602 universe, Jon Storm was a young hothead who had to leave London following a duel. Along with his sister, who was escaping a man she did not love, he joined Sir Richard Reed on his explorations, and was caught in the radiation of the Anomaly, turning him into a Human Torch. The Four continued their explorations until they were captured by Otto von Doom prior to the original 1602 miniseries.

At the start of the miniseries 1602: Fantastick Four, Jon has rejoined high society, and once more finds himself embroiled in a duel, this time with Lord Wingfoot, who is betrothed to the 1602 version of Doris Evans. When he is called upon to battle Otto von Doom, he kidnaps Doris and takes her with them, believing this is for her own good.

[edit] Heroes Reborn

In the altered history of the Marvel Universe, created after a battle with Onslaught, Johnny is an owner of a popular casino and part financial backer of Reed Richard's plan to go into space. His handprint is one of two, the other's being his sister, needed for launch. His rivalry with Ben Grimm now extends into much more dangerous areas, such as a potentially deadly game of 'chicken' without thought to the life of the woman in his passenger seat.

After being attacked by agents of Doctor Doom, Johnny ends up going up into space on Reed's spacecraft prototype as he really had nowhere else to go. The entire launch base had been overtaken by enemy forces and it was miles to civilization. It is during the flight a cosmic anomaly imbues him and the others with their powers.

After the crash of the prototype, Johnny would prove more reliable, recovering Reed Richards and leading the charge to rescue his sister, who was then in danger.

[edit] Marvel Mangaverse

In the Marvel Mangaverse comics, the Human Torch is portrayed by two separate characters spanning two very different continuities. The first character is a member of the Megascale Metatalent Response Team Fantastic Four on Earth-2301a and the mirror opposite of Earth-616's Johnny Storm in terms of personality. The team uses power-packs to boost their talents to manifest at mecha-sized levels in order to combat Godzilla-sized monsters that seem to constantly attack Earth. In volume two of Mangaverse, which takes place on Earth-2301b, the character of Johnny Storm has been replaced with a young woman named Jonatha Storm, who is the half-sister of Sioux Storm. Jonatha is quite a hotheaded; sometimes riding into battle singing "I am the Goddess of Hellfire." She denies being impulsive, saying she can only be described that way in comparison to her "neurotic" teammates. In New Mangaverse Jonatha is slightly redesigned too look a few years younger than she did in volume one of Mangaverse, and no longer wears her hair in multiple braids, instead sporting two pigtails on each side of her head. After witnessing the murder of the other Fantastic 4 members by supernatural assassins, she joins (Spider-Man, Spider-Woman (Mary Jane Watson), Black Cat, Wolverine, and Iron Man), in hopes of getting revenge.

[edit] MC2

In the MC2 alternate future Johnny leads the Fantastic Five. He is married to Lyja and they have a son Torus Storm (who calls himself "Torch" when role-playing as a hero). Torus has inherited both his father's flame powers and his mother's stretching / shapeshifting powers.

[edit] Ultimate Human Torch

The Ultimate Human Torch. by Stuart Immnonen.

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 spontaneous 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 Johnny enters a hibernation 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.

In issue 98 of Ultimate Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four learn Spider-Man's identity, and Johnny recognizes Peter. In issue 101, Nick Fury and a regiment of Spider Slayers are trying to arrest Peter when Johnny and the rest of the Fantastic Four arrive. Johnny tells Fury "I have like, three friends in the world. You're not doing this to one of them."

Johnny also makes an appearance in the Ultimate Spider-Man video game, in which he challenges Spider-Man to a series of races.

[edit] Amalgam Comics

In Amalgam Comics, Johnny is combined with Red Ryan to form Red Storm, and with the Scrapper-Trooperclone to form Johnny Stormtrooper.

[edit] In other media

[edit] Films

[edit] Unreleased film

In the first Fantastic Four film, produced on a low budget in 1994 and left unreleased, Jay Underwood played Johnny Storm/Human Torch; however, due to lack of funds, the single sequence where the Torch fully "flamed on" was done with hand-drawn animation, a glaring anomaly in a live-action film.

[edit] 2005 Film

The Human Torch/Johnny Storm is played by Chris Evans in the big budget 2005 movie Fantastic Four. In the film, he is an intelligent (although not nearly as much as Reed, or even his own sister), arrogant young man in his late teens who loves extreme sports, living on the edge, and is the brother of the beautiful Susan Storm, who works in the Von Doom Industries as Victor von Doom's chief of the Science Department. His arrogance is explained in the novelization by saying that what he was after came to Johnny so easily that he never properly matured to cope with it. He apparently excelled in physics, math, and auto-mechanics in school that he became a pilot for Von Doom Industries still fresh out of high school. After Reed Richards, Susan's former boyfriend, and Victor von Doom plan an expedition to observe the cosmic energy clouds in the space, he is recruited as the maverick pilot. But when the quintet, conformed by Susan, Reed, Victor, Ben and himself, are in the space, they are zapped by the cloud's vast energies. When they return home, they seem to be alright, but suddenly they develop their characteristic powers. Johnny discovers he can become a "living torch" and can also fly and begins to bother Ben, who he calls the Thing, because of his appearance. Initially Johnny uses his powers solely to attract attention, such as participating in a daredevil motorbike contest and bursting into flames as he leaps off the bike (He also gives the team their 'codenames' at this point, much to the dislike of the others). When he is finally confronted about his irresponsible use of his powers, he becomes more mature, risking his life to draw a heat-seeking missile away from the Baxter Building. He then works with the rest of the Fantastic Four to defeat Victor, who now is Doctor Doom. When he takes Doctor Doom down, Mr. Fantastic tells Johnny to go super-nova.

[edit] Rise of the Silver Surfer

Screen shot of the Human Torch from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Chris Evans would return to his role in 2005 Fantastic Four film's sequel, named Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Johnny now wants to be called "John" as it is starting to feel young. When his sister's wedding is interrupted by the Silver Surfer, Johnny flies after him and is choked by the Surfer by being pulled up into space but he manages to flame on quick enough to survive the fall. Due to his contact with the Surfer, he is able to switch powers with any of his teammates through contact. This becomes a running gag throughout the film. Interestingly, when his powers have been switched with the Invisible Woman's, he unknowingly shouts "Flame On!" and he immediately becomes invisible, leading one to believe that the phrase is more a reflex rather than how his power is activated. At the climax of the movie, the rest of the four channel their powers into Johnny giving him the powers of all of the four (similar to Super-Skrull) in order to defeat Doom who has control over the Surfer's cosmic surfboard. After helping the Surfer fly into Galactus by thrusting his surfboard, he loses the power to switch powers with the rest of the four. When Sue later throws the bouquet, it appears it would be caught by Frankie Raye, Johnny's 'date'. She is disappointed when it is torched in mid-air, out of 'reflex'.

Contrary to the comics showing Johnny with blonde hair, Evans' character seems to have sandy/dirty blonde/brownish hair. In an interview, he explained that the special effects crew had trouble with installing CGI to his hair. They considered putting a blond wig on him, but he chose to leave it short. In the teaser trailer for Rise of the Silver Surfer, his hair was longer, and more closely resembles the comic book incarnation.

[edit] Television

• Johnny was a regular in the 1967 Fantastic Four series voiced by Jack Flounders.

• Significantly, Johnny did not appear 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 imitate the Torch by setting themselves on fire. This legend was propagated by Marvel themselves as well: It was directly mentioned in a couple of issues of the magazine Marvel Age as being the cause of his omission, as well as being dramatically depicted in an issue of The Fantastic Four in which a child does set himself on fire to emulate the Torch, leaving the Torch with doubts about his appropriateness as a role model. 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 Human Torch appears in the 1995 Fantastic Four TV series voiced by Brian Austin Green in the first season and by Quinton Flynn in the second.

• The Human Torch and the rest of the Fantastic Four appeared in the Secret Wars episodes of the 1990s Spider-Man animated series. Quinton Flynn reprises his role here.

Human Torch in the 2006 animated series

• Johnny now appears in the 2006 Fantastic Four TV series voiced by Christopher Jacot. In the series, his name is Jonathan Spencer Storm.

[edit] Video games

• The Human Torch makes a guest appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for the Game Boy.

• The Human Torch (along with the rest of the Fantastic Four) has a cameo in Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage for the SNES and Sega Genesis systems.

• The Human Torch is one of the Fantastic Four members who make an appearance in Spider-Man for the SNES.

• The Human Torch featured prominently in the 2000 Spider-Man video game. The Torch makes numerous appearances in cut-scenes throughout the game, and is last seen dancing with the Black Cat.

• Johnny is a playable character, voiced by Evans, in the video games based on the 2005 and 2007 movies: Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

• The Ultimate version of the Human Torch appeared in the 2005 Ultimate Spider-Man game. The player, as Spider-Man, had to race the Torch through New York. He was voiced by David Kaufman.
• The Torch also appeared as a playable character in the Electronic Arts-produced title Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.

Human Torch as he appears in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, with Spider-Man behind him.

• Human Torch appears as a playable character in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance voiced by Josh Keaton. His classic, Ultimate, original, and modern costumes are available. A simulation disk has Human Torch fighting Paibok. He has special dialogue with Crystal, Uatu, Wyatt Wingfoot, and Black Bolt.

[edit] Toys

• Human Torch has appeared in the Marvel Legends toy line, in series 2, in the three version of the Fantastic Four box set ( the ordinary, variant and the Wal-Mart special).
• Though it a different character, the Inhuman Torch (Kristoff Vernard) appeared in the House of M box set.

[edit] References in popular culture

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In a famed Saturday Night Live skit, aired on December 11, 1976, Dan Aykroyd played a sleazy toy manufacturer selling a variety of dangerous toys, one of which was "Johnny Human Torch," a Human Torch costume consisting of "oily rags and lighter."
• The Beastie Boys song "Body Movin" contains a reference to the Human Torch with the line: "Flame On! I'm gone!"
• The Frankie Goes to Hollywood song "The Power Of Love" contains the lyrics "Flame on burn desire/Love with tongues of fire"
• A parody of the Human Torch appeared in The Venture Bros., as a man who becomes completely enveloped in flames upon contact with oxygen. He is unfortunately, not immune to the pain being covered in fire would cause, and is seen comically screaming "It burns!" whenever he appears.
• The Human Torch has a resembling to Ben 10 Omnitrix form, Heatblast.
• In Transformers Cybertron episode 26 "Revelation", Scourge uses his flame breath to slow the comet he was riding, prompting Crumplezone to comment "Whoa, Flame On".
• In an episode of Scrubs, Dr. Cox tells JD that he would enjoy being granted the powers of the Human Torch, solely so he could burn down the hospital they both work at. JD then admits that he always wanted to be the Silver Surfer.
• In an unaired episode of Clerks: The Animated Series, Walt the fanboy attends a costume party as Johnny Storm.
• The Human Torch was mentioned briefly in the opening credits of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The false headline was "The Human Torch was denied a bank loan."
• In the movie Sky High, Warren Peace has pyrokinesis similar to Johnny Storm. Although while Johnny Storm has fire enveloped all around his body, Warren only had fire on his hands and arms.
• An episode titled "Three" in the Night Stalker television series alludes to Johnny Storm when Jain and Kolchak investigate a burnt house: Jain makes the analogy that the house had burst into flames similarly to the Human Torch combusting, to which Kolchak casually replies, "Flame On."
• In CSI Vegas ##117 - Face Lift, Sara and Warrick were investigating a woman who burned to ashes, Sara's theory was Spontaneous Combustion, but Warrick said that The Human Torch is not real, Sara said Human Torch is cool.
• In the Robot Chicken "Junk in the Trunk," the Human Torch (voiced by Dax Shepard) visits the doctor and quotes, "Um, it burns when I pee." Optimus Prime then pops up and asks, "what did I just tell you?," referencing his previous segment where Optimus suffered prostate cancer.

[edit] External links

• The Human Torch on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
• MDP: Human Torch (Marvel Database Project)
• Official Marvel Picture site
• The Religion of the Human Torch
• The New Human Torches

[edit] References