Human Torch
- This article is about the Silver/Modern Age Human Torch, Johnny Storm. For the Golden Age version, see Human Torch (android).
| Human Torch | |
|---|---|
| File:Htorch.PNG The Human Torch Art by Adi Granov | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Fantastic Four #1 |
| Created by | Stan Lee Jack Kirby |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm |
| Team affiliations | Fantastic Four, Fantastic Force, Herald of Galactus |
| Notable aliases | The Torch, Invisible Man |
| Abilities | Fire manipulation, flight, absorption of heat energy. |
The Human Torch (Johnny Storm) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero who is a member of the Fantastic Four. First appearing in Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961, he was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, although he was based on the Golden Age character of the same name, 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 was 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.
Biography
Early life
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. While still a teenager, he selflessly rescued two of his friends from a burning building. No stranger to adventure, Johnny-son of famous doctor and infamous criminal Franklin Storm was nearly chosen as the human host of the demonic Zarathos, the Ghost Rider, and 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, on whom Johnny had a bit of a crush.
Becoming the Human Torch
Following his sister, Sue, 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 FF 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.
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 FF founders being widely known almost from the start). 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.
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 FF. Despite their early misunderstandings, the Torch and Spider-Man eventually became good friends, and Spider-Man 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 homeworld 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.
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 FF, 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 FF 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.
After college
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 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.
Johnny was briefly abducted by agents of the Messiah (Alden Maas) in his mad plot to expand the Earth by super-heating its core. When he was later brought to Battleworld by the Beyonder and forced to battle various super-villains, Johnny met and was healed by Zsaji, a native of the planet. Johnny was physically but not emotionally attracted to Zsaji, who returned his affections. Colossus (Peter Rasputin) had also fallen in love with the healer but was unwilling to come between her and Johnny. After the entire planet was rocked by earthquakes and both Zsaji and Reed were injured, Colossus informed Johnny of Zsaji's condition. His response--"I've got no time for a chippie now! Reed's hurt! I'll send her a card later!"--angered Colussus and convinced him that Johnny didn't truly care about Zsaji. This caused Colossus to make his feelings known to Zsaji, which she welcomed. Zsaji and Colossus were briefly lovers before she sacrificed her own life to rescue several dying heroes. Johnny returned to Earth, where he found himself drawn to Alicia Masters, longtime girlfriend of Johnny's then-absent FF teammate, the Thing. Johnny and Alicia's romance helped estrange the Thing from the FF 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.
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.
Franklin and Onslaught
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 FF 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. Doom saved both Sue and her daughter, Valeria.
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). 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 FF was short on cash). Sick of her brother's directionless life, Sue forced him to take a job as the Chief Financial Officer for Fantastic Four, Inc. Although initially in over his head, Johnny was able to stop a manufacturer from stealing the secret of Reed's Unstable Molecule suits, and began to warm up to both the job and his co-worker, Jian Fetta.
Unfortunately, after a major battle with Doom, Reed attempted to claim Latveria for the Fantastic Four, an act that turned the United States government against them. To escape trial, the group was forced to sell many of their patents and holdings to the government, which left Johnny's wallet much emptier than usual and sent his popularity plummeting. 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, where they were attacked by Hydro-Man. Easily defeating the villain and rescuing the park's popular mascot, Johnny found his popularity rising once more. 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 FF, 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,[volume & issue needed] the location of the one being in the universe who could nullify his Galactus-proof planet-cloaking invisibility shield, Susan Richards. 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. Unwilling to lead Galactus to populated worlds, Johnny used his new powers to analyze Galactus and, with the help of the FF and Quasar, managed to transform Galactus back into humanoid form. Johnny's power cosmic faded, but during Reed's subsequent efforts to reverse Sue and Johnny's power switch, a remnant of the power caused a flare-up that temporarily sent the FF's powers into four random New Yorkers.
Civil War
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. Because of his celebrity status, the bouncer opened the door for Johnny the moment he arrived, much to the resentment of those who had been waiting in line for hours to get inside. Johnny told one of them that they could have his free pass when they saved the world from Galactus, alienating the crowd further and prompting one of them to shout "What about the next time you blow up a school, jackass?" Johnny argued, with his characteristic lack of diplomacy, that he wasn't connected to the New Warriors (despite his prior romantic involvement with Namorita). But at that point the people weren't interested in hearing anything he had to say. One of them snuck up behind Johnny and smashed a glass bottle over his head, knocking him senseless and allowing the rest of the crowd to beat him into a coma. When he finally awoke none of his FF teammates were there to greet him, possibly because of their duties helping Iron Man's pro-registration faction. 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).
Romance
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 longterm 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 her ex-boyfriend Nova returned to her life. Other relationships with civilians have also occurred through his early twenties.
Powers and abilities
The Torch's primary power is to envelop himself in, and manipulate fire. 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. 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.
The Torch is 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, although it is unknown whether this is because the hellfire is mystical in nature, or if it's simply that much hotter than his own form can protect.
Trivia
- Johnny is the only member of the Fantastic Four not to have been a member of The Avengers. Reed and Sue were members of the East Coast Avengers, and Ben was a member of the West Coast Avengers.
Alternate Versions
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 "Superstorm" when roleplaying as a hero). Torus has inherited both his father's flame powers and his mother's stretching / shapeshifting powers.
Marvel Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse comics, the Human Torch is a young woman named Jonatha Storm, who is the half-sister of Sioux Storm. She is a member of the Megascale Metatalent Response Team Fantastic Four. The team uses powerpacks to boost their talents to manifest at mecha-sized levels. Jonatha is quite a hothead; she rides 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. The team fights Godzilla-sized monsters from alien cultures that attack Earth for performing experiments which endanger all of reality. In New Mangaverse Jonatha is retconned and is a young kid. After witnessing the murder of her entire family by ninja assassins, she joins the other surviving heroes, (Spider-man, Spider-woman (Mary Jane Watson), Black Cat, Wolverine, and Iron Man), in hopes of revenge.
Ultimate Human Torch
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 recognises 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.
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.
Appearances in other media
Films
- 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.
- The Human Torch/Johnny Storm is played by Chris Evans in the big budget 2005 movie Fantastic Four. In the film, he is an arrogant young man who loves the extreme sports and the brother of the beautiful Susan Storm, who works in the Von Doom Companies as Victor von Doom's right hand (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). 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.
- Chris Evans would return to his role in 2005 Fantastic Four film's sequel, named Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Television
- Johnny was a regular in the Fantastic Four animated series of the 1990s and in 1960s.
- He never appeared 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.
- Johnny now appears in the latest Fantastic Four animated series. In it his name is Jonathan Spencer Storm.
Video games
- Being portrayed as a friend of Spider-man, The Human Torch has made numerous cameos in Spider-man games. Most predominantly in the 2000 Spider-Man video game. He appears in two clips to the game where Spider-Man is telling Johnny everything he experienced so far; first, Spider-Man was framed for stealing Dr. Octopus' machine. Second; the police are now after him. Third; the Rhino had wounded the Black Cat before the battle between Spider-Man and Rhino. And fourth; Venom has kidnapped Spider-Man's wife, Mary Jane Parker. The Torch comforts Spider-Man by explaining that Spider-Man will either find Venom or let Venom find him. He gives him faith on finding Mary Jane and flies off. In the last clip to the game, after Spider-Man has been proven framed, Doc Ock's plan of combining humans and symbiotes has been foiled and Scorpion, Rhino, Mysterio and Ock are incarcerated, the Human Torch is last seen dancing with the Black Cat.
- Johnny also has a cameo appearance in the Spider-Man game based on his 1990's animated series for Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. By collecting reaching certain levels of the game, the Human Torch can be called a limited number of times for assistance.
- Johnny is a playable character, voiced by Evans, in the video game based on the 2005 film.
- The Ultimate version of Human Torch appeared in the 2005 Ultimate Spider-Man video game game as a mini-game in which you had to race him all over New York for bonuses. He was voiced by David Kaufman.
- He also appeared in the EA's Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.
- Human Torch appears as a playable character in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, alongside the other Fantastic Four members.
References in pop culture
- In a famed Saturday Night Live skit, aired on December 20, 1975, 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!"
- 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.
- 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 to JD that he would enjoy being granted the powers of the Human Torch, solely to 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.