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!
Your comment about “young Johnny” growing has got me guessing about how that is going about with your interpretation. In the early years, Johnny was my least favorite of the 4. The personality he arrived with was immensely important to carry out the depth of emotion in the team as a collective unit. I got to know more about this Torch, then his synthetic literary grandfather as the Golden Age versions were not easy to acquire even when I started looking for Golden Age books in the mid-60’s. I like your interpretation here today. It seems as though Johnny might be escaping something, or he could be looking back from something he has burned through. I suspect we will know by the end of the month. Thanks again for another fantastic fix of fun.
Glad you’re liking it all so far!
With referencing all of these Four, I’ve sort of tended to focus around the mid-way point of Jack and Stan’s run, “The Galactus Trilogy” and adjacent issues. In my mind, that’s sort of “prime” FF. The book was arguably pretty much fully developed and hitting on all cylinders by that point, and I’d say those visuals are what most people see in their minds when they think of these characters.
The younger Johnny we met in the early issues might not have been able to make his hand white hot in order to burn through something, but later on, he would occasionally do things like this.
I wanted to show him doing something other than just flying. Not because that isn’t cool or interesting, but because I did that last time, and I wanted to be a bit creative and do something else with him this time.