When Does the Human Torch – aka Johnny Storm – Come Out? - Walt's Comic Shop

F4F: Johnny Storm a.k.a. Human Torch

It's the second week of our Fantastic Four month, and the temperatures are getting higher (at least in this part of Germany! How's it over there where you are, Matt?) You know what that means – this week, we're taking a closer look at Johnny Storm – the Human Torch!

(Also getting hot here, Petar. Although, I will probably not be able to go back to Brazil after classifying 16° as hot.)

Burning Bright with Johnny Storm

Maybe you didnt know this, but Johnny wasnt the first Human Torch in the Marvel universe that honor belongs to Jim Hammond of Marvel Comics #1 all the way back in 1939. However, hes not the one were talking about (today).

Johnny Storm is fire and thats not just power, but a personality. Everything is big with this man emotions, ego and heart. He will be quick to argue and yell FLAME ON, but also quick to forgive and forget.

Hes a man whos surrounded by brilliance Reeds mind, Sues strength, Bens resilience and instead of trying to outshine them, he chose to follow his own path! He is wild, hes reckless, but underneath it all, hes sincere and heartfelt.

And while he was trapped in the comic tropes all teens used to suffer from back in the 60s, he was luckily given room to grow and mature into a great young man. But dont let me yap about it too much – Ill give Matheus the stage to share with you some shining moments of Johnnys life, before I hit you with his two best friends!

Flame (and bad judgement) On! - by Matheus

If Reed can be a very misunderstood character, I feel like Johnny is deeply simplified most of the time. Blame the film adaptations or not, but Johnny has always been interpreted as this womanizing, inconsequential, spoiled kid. And don't get me wrong, he can be those things, but it's simply not that simple of a characterization. He is a guy consumed with fire, both in the physical visual sense (of course, in superhero comics) and in a metaphorical way. He feels very intensely, he loves his family, loves the heroes they have become, and will not stop himself in any way to protect them, or to be honest, will not stop for anything if it means he's helping anyone.

He got a burden of responsibility, a consuming responsibility, when he was very young. And who among us, with that level of power, at that age, wouldn't end up with the "inconsequential brat" label at some point or another? It's a kid with an open heart ready to be taken. And more often than not, people do take advantage of that.

Human Torch by Karl Kesel & Skottie Young

I want to start commenting a bit about his solo 2000s run (that's being reprinted this April) by Karl Kesel and later to-be superstar Skottie Young! It comes at a very interesting time for the team, right after they are stripped of their money and influence, when, in our real world, they're about to headline their first big-budget movie.

And here we are again, 20 years later, they are about to be in the front stage again with their much awaited proper MCU debut and seem to be given the spotlight as well in the comics with One World Under Doom.

So who is Johnny without his family and without his money and fame?

In this run, Kesel and Young peel back the loudness, the heat, and the swagger to show us something more raw. A young man chasing his place in the world. The flame is still there, but the fire takes a different shape; it's about the fuel instead of the flame (can't avoid the puns). What they do is basically a coming-of-age story tucked into superhero clothing.

Kesel writes with heart and humor, never mocking Johnny's excesses but contextualizing them, showing us a kid who's trying, really trying, to figure out how to matter when the world isn't watching.

And Skottie Young's early art, even in its pre-iconic form, brings a kinetic sincerity that totally vibes with Johnny's energy. The art's bold messiness perfectly captures Johnny's essence. Not to fight villains but to fight for independence, friendship, and at least a shot at being his own hero. And what's so interesting is how earnest it all is.

He gets a job, he tries to be a mentor, all of it's painfully human, and yet, there's that little small spark in the air and the potential to go nova (not that one). The danger of being a good guy with too much power and no emotional firewall. What is good about Johnny is that even failing, he will always fail with the best intentions.

And I didn't even talk about the motif of this whole run, because I don't want to ruin it for you, but it's about asking how you deal with mistakes and take responsibility for them even if it was not your intention.

Johnny Storm is often misunderstood as a womanizer

Now onto the other misunderstanding, the womanizer part. Let's look at it from a different perspective. Reed has Sue. Ben has Alicia. What about Johnny? That is the key to understanding this guy's instant chase for love. He is the only single member of the group. Not the playboy we remember from the Chris Evans version but always the seeker for something. And ok, he's a kid, but time does go on in the Marvel universe (although very slowly) and he still can't seem to find his match.

There's Crystal, but she has duties to the Inhumans. There's Lyja, but she has played him since the start (maybe let's not get into this right now).

(Ok maybe let's get into this).

Lyja is a Skrull who was sent to infiltrate the Fantastic Four by impersonating Alicia Masters. And in doing so, she ended up marrying Johnny and actually falling in love with him. That's the gut-punch of it. Johnny didn't just fall for a mask; he fell for someone who lied to him but also loved him, someone who, just like him, was trying to reconcile who she was expected to be with who she really was.

The tragedy isn't just that she deceived him, it's that even after the mask came off, there was still something real there. That relationship was messy, complicated, deeply sci-fi soap opera, yes, but it was also honest in a way most of Johnny's romances haven't been. He wasn't dating a celebrity or chasing some thrill, he trusted her. And that trust got broken.

So what does that do to a guy like Johnny, whose entire being is built on instinct and heart and loyalty? It leaves scars. And it makes every fast fling afterward look like proof of immaturity when, in reality, it might just be fear. A defense mechanism. He's chasing connection but he's terrified to hold onto it. Because what if it's all fake again?

Star-Crossed - by Matheus

Fantastic Four by Ryan North

This is all to talk about what I think is the most brilliant issue Marvel has had in the last ten years, one that is already deep into a run full of other most brilliant issues of the decade. And that's Ryan North's recent run. Let's talk Fantastic Four #25. In it the Fantastic Four are trapped into a mysterious alien world and have to find their way back to their reality (well, color me speechless).

The arc here is a love-letter to Johnny. He falls in love with this alien, Angelica of the Shore, and she does not look like a human at all. This can be interpreted with a simple "well, Johnny will kiss anything," and Ryan certainly jokes about that, but that's not what this issue is. It is pure tragedy.

Johnny feels very deeply and he sees and loves people for who they are. To think of the Fantastic Four as people who would judge and see others as only conforming physical beings is such an outdated perspective. They are cosmonauts; they always have been.

I don't want to spoil this and ruin it for you, but it's brilliant and it's everything you will ever need to understand this character. Johnny is a romantic in the truest sense of the word. He is someone who falls in love but also someone who believes in love, chases it across stars, across realities, across timelines where it might never work but still tries.

When the Fantastic Four are staring at the unknown, while Reed asks "What is this?" Johnny will say, "Who is this? And how can I know them better?" with an outside chance of "And are they hot?" of course. To quote our new Sue, Johnny is Johnny. Oh, I'm gonna love this movie, won't I?

You can get Fantastic Four #25, or even better, get the whole run as Trade Paperback. It's going to be seen as one of the best ever, and you can hop on board now:

Also, they're continuing the run with a renumbered issue 1 this July, and you can pre-order that on Manage Comics and embark on this ride while we hop into the next phase of this story.

They Were Just Roommates! - by Petar

Jokey title aside, the friendship of Johnny Storm and Peter Parker is one of the coolest, warmest relationships in all of comics. They are the best of friends, and they rely on each other, but it wasn't always like this.

Both Johnny and Peter were... not the nicest people at the start. What's more, they were pretty rude – especially to each other! They first met on the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #1 when Peter wanted to apply to join the Fantastic Four. The way he did it was... less than conventional.

He decided to demonstrate his strength and skills by breaking into the Baxter Building. That, of course, does not fly so well. Their paths would keep crossing in and out of costumes. Johnny appeared only two issues later in Peter's school, holding a little inspirational speech and lifting Peter's spirits to fight with Doc Ock. However, throughout it all, they would annoy each other and bicker like the young teenagers that they were – or at least how young teens were seen in the 60s.

There's always been a connection between them, though. Peter and Johnny were the original teenage heroes, so it was only natural to play them off against each other and have them get into different shenanigans and pranks. But even then, there was mutual respect and trust between them. In Amazing Spider-Man #18, Peter avoided fighting Sandman because Aunt May was ill. While everyone was doubting Spider-Man, it was Johnny who believed in his intentions and defended him.

Later, Johnny would visit the Statue of Liberty – where the pair met for a discussion during Strange Tales Annual #2 – and wait for Spidey the whole day for an explanation. This would become their "usual place" to meet up – to the point where they developed a tradition of meeting there on Christmas morning.

A great exploration of their friendship came in 2005 when author Dan Slott wrote the Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries (collected in the Thing And Human Torch by Dan Slott). The series goes back to the beginning and tracks their friendship through wacky situations. There is also a fantastic scene where they admit to each other how much they envied the other person, gaining new appreciation for their friendship.

Throughout all of their adventures, Peter has become a part of Johnny Storm's life – and a part of their family. When Dr. Strange erases Peter's identity from everyone's memory in the wake of the  Brand New Day, nobody is hurt more than Johnny. He realizes he doesn't remember who one of his best friends is.

Also, the scene where Pete reveals his identity to the team in The Amazing Spider-Man #591 always makes me tear up. I can't wait for the BND Vol. 2 to come out and have this moment on a bigger page 😢.

Another tear-jerker in their relationship (big spoiler for Hickman's FF ahead!) comes smack in the middle of Jonathan Hickman's run on Fantastic Four. In order to prevent the Annihilation Army from entering the Baxter Building from the Negative Zone, Johnny stays behind and is left for dead. This tragic moment shakes up the team and has long-lasting implications for the run (as you have already read in Matt's part of the article!)

In the (pardon my pun) fantastic issue #588 of Fantastic Four (which is the silent issue masterfully drawn by Nick Dragotta, dealing with the mourning of Johnny's family), the only scene with dialogue is the epilogue story. Drawn by Mark Brooks, it features Peter coming to comfort Franklin Richards about his uncle's passing.

"Uncles" is a story about dealing with grief after losing a loved one, wondering if there was anything one could have done to stop it. Peter passes on his lesson of power and responsibility to Franklin (whether some love that for a kid or not is another question entirely). It ends on a poignant note of remembrance.

How much this friendship means to the men is shown by the fact that Johnny left his spot in the team to Peter, demonstrating his trust in his friend. But of course, this is comics and only a few people stay dead forever, so Johnny eventually came back. After a quick stint as roommates, the two men went back to their usual ways soon after (though that FF #17 is hilarious, and I will never get the image of Annihilus on the toilet out of my head).

After Secret Wars, Johnny was left a bit aimless – Reed, Sue and the kids were gone, Ben was with the Guardians in space, and it was Peter who now bought the Baxter Building and turned it into Parker Industries. You can bet that came as quite a nasty surprise – until Johnny realized why Peter had done that. This became another moment that will always be a great reminder of why he is part of their family.

Recently, things haven't been the best between the Fantastic Four and the Wall-Crawler. However, Ryan North is fixing that in  One World Under Doom! The event sees Doom take control of the world (once more), and the witty banter between Johnny and Peter seems to be back too – and I couldn't be happier!

No Friend Like Ben - by Petar

When Fantastic Four launched, its novelty was a simple promise this is not a team, this is a family. And if Reed and Sue were the patriarch and the matriarch of this unit, then Ben and Johnny take the role of the chaotic, squabbling siblings.

There is something magical between the grumpy, rough Ben Grimm and the jokey, fun-loving Johnny Storm. One of the best examples of this energy comes from their legendary prank war, which was a cornerstone of many hilarious moments throughout the publication of Fantastic Four. Truth be told, it was more present in the early days, when the boys were a tad younger and less mature.

However, this is not mean-spirited – the boys are deeply connected and close to each other. While they might bicker, they will also jump to one another's side when push comes to shove.

Furthermore, their competitiveness pushes them to be better people. In the recent North Run (which is absolutely hilarious and everyone should read it), issue #20, they get jobs at a supermarket. Of course, they compete to see who will do the job better. They create an even bigger mess in their competition; however, the issue encapsulates their relationship fantastically!

And of course, Hickman's run had some stellar moments too. In a very poignant moment and a show of maturity, after taking care of the Future Foundation, Ben asks Johnny if he wants kids, to which the younger man replies, "More than anything." Just a few moments later, he sacrifices himself to save those same kids in a moment that still makes me sob every time.

Theirs is a brotherly love that's fun, compelling, and endlessly touching. Beneath all the jabs and pranks, there is compassion, respect, and family. They might annoy each other – but you can bet that Ben will clobber anyone who dares touch Johnny (other than him) – and Johnny will do the same!

The whole Hickman run was collected in a series of four paperbacks:

Or two Omibus: 

Behind every great man stands a wise older sister

Petar, I received the name for next week's article, but I can't seem to be able to read anything. The page is completely blank, almost like it's invisible or something. (Very Stan Lee joke of mine, minus the "by golly, what sort of wonder will that Kirby draw next!").

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