Where would a girl go to get hooked up with all the best canon Johnny whump?
This is a tall order, anon, because the Johnny whump really is basically nonstop (is it really a Fantastic Four story if Johnny doesn’t get choked) but I’ll try to pull some favorites for you:
Strange Tales #112: I’m actually going to blanket rec Johnny’s stint on Strange Tales #101-134, because they all follow a very specific formula: teen Johnny Storm, America’s sweetheart, takes on the case of the week, ends up glue gunned to a rocket, tied to a porpoise, handcuffed by fake Captain America, almost dropped in a shark tank, etc. I love it’s, it’s great, and it’s getting a new collected edition released later this year. I’m singling out #112 because do you know that genre of fanfic where the author’s chosen woobie is so misunderstood, everyone is against them, the whole town hates them for something that isn’t their fault, and then Chosen Woobie does something so noble and selfless, probably risking their life, and everyone realizes that they’re the Best Person Ever and HOW could they ever have treated them like that?! That’s this, but an actual comic book written and published in 1963. In The Threat of the Living Bomb, a local newscaster has turned on Johnny, basically accusing him of being a millennial long before there were millennials, and public opinion has followed. When a new supervillain named the Eel steals an atomic device, Johnny nearly dies disarming it.
Another blanket recommendation: Fantastic Four volume 3 (1998), especially #11-12, where Johnny, Sue, and Ben are bodyswapped with locals and Johnny’s powers are weaponized, #19 where Johnny’s forced to wait tables for a bunch of horny aliens while the Fantastic Four are trapped in the Negative Zone, and #20, where he’s “deliciously pretty.”
But the whole run loves its Johnny whump.
Fantastic Four #31-32: The story of Sue and Johnny’s father revealed. This isn’t that heavy on the individual Johnny whump, but I do feel it opens up potential for a lot of it, which is why I’m recommending it. (You can also check out the 90s cartoon adaptation of this, Behold a Distant Star, which I’ve always been fond of because Johnny gets to confront Sue about some things/Franklin’s prison break has a reason behind it.)
Fantastic Four #244: When Johnny’s girlfriend at the time, Frankie Raye, becomes Galactus’ new herald, Johnny is extremely distraught. (Johnny would later briefly serve as Galactus’ herald himself in Fantastic Four #519-524 – it’s not very heavy on the whump for a Johnny-focused story, but it is VERY good.)
Fantastic Four #263-264: Johnny’s kidnapped by a billionaire who wants to use his powers for his own agenda; Ben and the Mole Man have to team up to rescue him.
There’s not one but two, count ‘em, two different comics wherein a child dies by self-immolation in Johnny’s image and Johnny, traumatized with guilt and grief, tries to give up being the Torch. The first, Fantastic Four #285, is I think all around the better issue – a lonely, bullied little boy with a crush on Johnny attempts to be like him the only way he knows how.
The second, Fantastic Four #342, features a teen suicide cult, and oh my god does it go hard on the whump:
(And this one has Spideytorch at the end.)
Fantastic Four v3 #69: Johnny’s burned by hellfire while trying to rescue Franklin. #501 sees the Fantastic Four recovering from their recent face-off with Doom (there’s a renumbering in here, so this happens within issues of each other).
(That stutter’s popped up from time to time over the decades, usually when he’s super emotional.)
In Fantastic Four #508, Doom possesses Ben and nearly kills Johnny, before Ben dies to stop it. #509 sees Johnny imagining conversations with Ben “to get through the day.” (Ben’s resurrection is in #510-511.)
Fantastic Four #526 reveals Johnny’s reoccurring nightmare about burning someone close to him. (In Uncanny Avengers #19, the Red Skull makes Johnny live out that fear in a hallucination, and in Marvel Knights 4 #12, Pyscho Man causes Johnny to imagine his parents in a similar situation.)
Fantastic Four #600′s Whatever Happened to Johnny Storm? recounts what happened to Johnny after his initial death in the Negative Zone. Fantastic Four #587-588 (his initial death and the reaction to it) are also worth a read, as is Amazing Spider-Man #657.
Fantastic Four v4 (2013) #14: The Fantastic Four have lost control of their powers, which would be bad enough, if Johnny wasn’t bleeding out while on fire. Emergency field surgery!
ROBINSON’S RUN Fantastic Four volume 5 (2014) is PURE Johnny whump, starting off with him losing his powers, being separated from his family, and ending up on a downward party boy depression spiral after a disastrous fight with Ben, also he looks very beautiful, thanks Leonard Kirk:
While it’s not a rec-rec, as it’s not so much good as “a bad comic I enjoy immensely” and “a thing I enjoy watching other people read and popcorn.gif about”, Ultimate Fantastic Four loves it’s Johnny whump. LOVES it.
It’s actually impressive how they managed to cram an equivalent amount of misery into a 60 issue run. Be sure to check out Ultimate Fantastic Four Requiem for Johnny’s guilt over not being able to save his father, combined with his powers being used against his will. Oh, and later he tries to save kids, ends up in mutant torture camp where he suffered “horrific and sustained” torture and then was kidnapped from the hospital to be used as Evil Ultimate Reed’s heat proof drone. Thanks, Ultimate Marvel.
One final rec: if you haven’t been reading the new Marvel Two-In-One, it’s definitely delivering here.
