Month: August 2025

Flame On!

We’re at Day Four of this year’s Jack Kir­by Trib­ute Month (curat­ed by Howard Simp­son), this time all Fan­tas­tic Four-themed. And com­plet­ing our Four is John­ny Storm, the Human Torch!

The pow­ers John­ny gained in their flight through the cos­mic rays were arguably the flashiest of the group, and actu­al­ly fit­ting his char­ac­ter (espe­cial­ly as the youngest mem­ber). He flew high and burned hot, much like his emo­tions some­times did in those ear­ly adven­tures. In those ear­ly days, some­times he would go beyond his lim­its and lose his pow­ers until he could rest and recov­er them.

Over the course of Jack and Stan’s orig­i­nal Fan­tas­tic Four run, John­ny grew and went through a lot. Some of which we’ll even­tu­al­ly get to in a lat­er post.

Well, that’s our Four! Who comes next, now that we’ve done them? Tune in tomor­row to see!

“What a Revoltin’ Development!”

It’s now Day Three of this year’s Jack Kir­by Trib­ute Month, focused on Fan­tas­tic Four-relat­ed char­ac­ters. And today’s prompt is none oth­er than the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing himself!

It’s been said that every super­hero group needs a super-strong char­ac­ter. And Ben Grimm def­i­nite­ly fills that bill. But he’s more than that. His pow­ers came with an obvi­ous cost, and there’s a sad­ness and regret that peri­od­i­cal­ly come out (some­thing that some lat­er writ­ers have tend­ed to for­get or neglect over the years). He’s got a rough exte­ri­or (lit­er­al­ly!), but a big heart. Strong as he is, some­times the Thing would be in sit­u­a­tions where he was beyond his lim­its. But he nev­er would stop try­ing. And in a tough sit­u­a­tion, he’s def­i­nite­ly the sort of per­son you would want back­ing you up.

One more mem­ber of the group to go tomorrow!

It’s the Ones You Don’t See That You Gotta Look out For!

Day Two of this year’s Jack Kir­by Trib­ute Month (curat­ed by Howard Simp­son), and the whole month is ded­i­cat­ed to Fan­tas­tic Four-relat­ed char­ac­ters. Today’s prompt is Sue Storm Richards, the Invis­i­ble Woman!

Sue has a unique role in the Fan­tas­tic Four. She kind of acts as the emo­tion­al cen­ter or heart of the group. When Reed Richards would get too car­ried away in his head with his own thoughts, she could bring him back to earth and ground him. And he always trust­ed her to do that. When Ben Grimm would some­times get angry or depressed, she knew what to say to bring him back again. And when her younger broth­er John­ny would get hot-head­ed or too out-of-con­trol, she knew how to rein him in also. It’s kind of a sub­tle role, but an impor­tant one.

Ini­tial­ly after their flight through the cos­mic rays, Sue only had the pow­er of invis­i­bil­i­ty. But I think Jack and Stan soon real­ized that was­n’t enough for their nar­ra­tive needs, and gave her the sec­ondary pow­er to gen­er­ate force fields. Often those pow­ers have been used in large­ly a defen­sive way, but dur­ing John Byrne’s run on Fan­tas­tic Four, he came up with some inno­v­a­tive uses for her pow­ers that showed once and for all that she could hold her own with any­one else.

Feel free to come by tomor­row to see who’s next!

“That’s Just Too Fantastic!”

It’s August, which means it’s Jack Kir­by Trib­ute Month again! Cre­at­ed by Howard Simp­son, this year’s prompts are all Fan­tas­tic Four-relat­ed. And things are kick­ing off with none oth­er than Mr. Fan­tas­tic himself!

Trans­formed like the oth­er mem­bers of the quar­tet by an encounter with cos­mic rays on a rock­et trip into orbit, Reed Richards is the leader of the Fan­tas­tic Four, and one of the most bril­liant minds in the Mar­vel Comics Uni­verse. He took the stretch­ing pow­ers he gained and found inno­v­a­tive ways to use them, not just in deal­ing with men­aces encoun­tered by the Fan­tas­tic Four, but even in his every­day work in his lab. Not hav­ing his unique abil­i­ties, most sci­en­tists would prob­a­bly find it phys­i­cal­ly dif­fi­cult to work on some of the equip­ment he designed.

Tune in again tomor­row to see who’s next!