Storm, Jonathon

Jonathan "Johnny" Storm a.k.a. the Human Torch is an American superpowered adventurer. He was a high school student before he was exposed to high levels of cosmic radiation when his older sister Sue Storm's boyfriend, scientist Dr. Reed Richards, took them and pilot Ben Grimm into space in the stolen rocket Marvel-1. The radiation mutated the group, transforming Johnny's entire body into a fiery, plasma-like state. Together they became the Fantastic Four, a team of adventurers who explored space, time and alternate dimensions and saved the world along the way from science-based threats.
== History ==
=== Early Years ===
Johnny Storm and his older sister, Sue, lived uneventfully on Long Island until their mother, Mary Storm, died in an automobile accident. Their father, Franklin Storm, a doctor, failed to save her. Despondent, Franklin descended into booze and gambling, eventually winding up in a penitentiary for murder. Sue led Johnny to believe that their father had died rather than let him know that Franklin was in jail. The children went to live with their aunt Marygay. 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. Sue spent much of her time looking after Johnny, and while Johnny was a constant source of grief, Johnny cared for his sister and saw her as a surrogate mother.
=== Amulet of Zarathos ===
At the age of 15, Johnny's life took a strange turn when Harry Brandeis, a professor of religious studies (and father of Sue's friend Cammie, Johnny boyhood crush), was slain while examining the Amulet of Zarathos. Shortly after his death, Johnny sneaked into the Brandeis house to snoop around the crime scene and came into contact with the amulet, and it bonded to him as the demon Zarathos sought to make Johnny his Spirit of Vengeance. This made Johnny the target of St. Germaine who sought to claim the amulet for his master Dracula who was trapped in his Transylvanian castle with a stake in his heart. At Henry's funeral, St. Germaine and his minions went after Johnny, but he was saved thanks to Sue and Henry's brother-in-law Max Parrish, who sought to solve the mystery surrounding his brother-in-law's death. As they sought to learn the secrets behind the Amulet, they were pursued by St. Germaine and his minions still, while also being secretly pushed toward the truth by the spirit of Zarathos. Since the Amulet would teleport into Johnny's possession whenever it was taken away from him, the quartet used this to their advantage to keep it away from St. Germaine. However, Sue and Cammy were cornered while trying to escape from their foe. At that point, Zarathos appeared before Johnny and told him of his intentions to make him the new Spirit of Vengeance. In order to save Sue and Cammy's lives, Johnny agreed to become the vessel for Zarathos, but before he could be possessed by the demon, Max grabbed the amulet becoming the Ghost Rider instead. As Ghost Rider, Max destroyed St. Germaine, and struggled for control over Zarathos until Johnny ripped the Amulet from his make-shift motorcycle, restoring Max to normal. They then tossed the Amulet in a junk yard where they hoped it would not be found. After this adventure, Sue decided to go to Hollywood and pursue a career in acting.
Johnny spent his high school years attending Glenville High, during his junior year Johnny was briefly tormented by David George Munson. Johnny also attempted to use his prowess with mechanics to build a hot rod to try and gain popularity. However, his attempts to pick up girls was thwarted by the athletic Mike Snow, the schools star wrestler. Johnny was frequently in trouble with school administration who feared that he didn't take his education seriously.
=== Fantastic 4 ===
Following his sister, Johnny became acquainted with her boyfriend, scientist Reed Richards. Reed planned to embark on a mission on the first faster-than-light rocketship to reach an Earthlike planet called Spyre located 44 lightyears away. After looking through the advanced scanner that Reed used to find this planet, Johnny was overcome by an impulse to join the mission, feeling that something was waiting for him out there. Unbeknownst to Johnny, a denizen of Spyre named Kaila had also become affected by a similar sensation when she looked into the Earth from a similar device. Johnny pushed himself through strenuous training and became the youngest pilot in NASA.
While originally enlisted as backup pilot, Johnny joined Reed, Sue and fellow pilot Ben Grimm on an unauthorized space flight aboard the Marvel-1. After take-off, the ship passed through a storm of cosmic rays that caused the vessel to crash back to Earth. All four passengers were transformed by the radiation, with Johnny gaining the ability to envelop his body on fire. 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 together they drove Namor back into the sea. Later, the immature Johnny again considered quitting the Fantastic Four, this time to joining 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 proved futile as the true identities of all four Fantastic Four founders were widely known almost from the start. In solo action (and sometimes assisted by his teammate the Thing or his sister), he fought the communist Destroyer and Rabble Rouser; the Wizard; Zemu, Warlord of the 5th Dimension; Paste Pot Pete; Acrobat; Wilhelm van Vile, the enigmatic Painter of 1000 Perils; the Sorcerer of Glenville Woods; the Asbestos Man; the original Eel; the Plant Man; the Sandman; the Puppet Master, the modern-day pirate Captain Barracuda, whom Johnny defeated in the first of several team-ups with his super-heroic elemental opposite Iceman; the Terrible Trio, and the Beetle.
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. They clashed when the Fox framed Spider-Man for stealing a Da Vinci painting. Despite their early misunderstandings, the Torch had great respect for Spider-Man and the two eventually became good friends.
When the Super-Skrull, 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 would not be the last time the Skrulls would interfere in Johnny's life.
=== College ===
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 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.[citation needed]
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 megalomaniac 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.
=== Frankie Raye ===
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 who was 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.
=== Marriage ===
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 during the Secret Wars 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, 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.[citation needed]
Johnny returned to Earth, where he found himself drawn to Alicia Masters, the long-time girlfriend of Johnny's then-absent Fantastic Four teammate, the Thing. Johnny and Alicia's romance helped estrange the Thing from the Fantastic Four 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.[citation needed]
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.
=== Further Adventures ===
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 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 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.