JOHNNY STORM / THE HUMAN TORCH !
name ― jonathan lowell spencer storm alias ― the human torch ! age ― 23 gender / pronouns ― cis man / he/him faceclaim ― evan roderick occupation ― celebrity superhero & man about town affiliation ― the fantastic four ! canon― 616 based, a wide range of the comics, probably with particular influence from hickman’s run ??? we live in fear of mcu fantastic four
what was your character's life like in 2024 ?
a superhero since he was sixteen, johnny never wanted any other life. then again, he barely actually knew any other life. it was sue and him, on their own, until they met reed richards & ben grimm, went to space and then bam: overnight, everyone in the world knew his name. for a lonely teenager, it was intoxicating. johnny never learnt how to put the brakes on, and his life was always all about excess. more fame, more parties, more clothes, more cars, more danger. he wanted it all. and then, before he knew it, he was thirty years old.
johnny always joked he’d consider his life over at 30, but he didn’t know how right he’d be. it wasn’t long after his thirtieth birthday that he made his final stand. alone, against the annihilation wave of the negative zone, all to prevent an invasion of earth. the invasion was stopped, but johnny storm was dead.
or was he? in the negative zone, life and death weren’t so simple. johnny was resurrected and forced to fight to the death in the zone’s gladiatorial ring. over and over and over again. two years passed for him until he made his escape, all to prevent a second invasion of earth. it’d been only two months for the rest of the world.
it’s a wake up call to be stuck in an endless cycle of death and resurrection, only to come back to safety and feel just as trapped, just as stagnant. who was johnny storm? the fourth-rater of the fantastic four. his sister, reed, ben, they had partners, they had careers, they had children: they’d done something with their lives. johnny’d spent his life being mediocre, and he had nothing to show for it but a string of failures. every time he’d tried to strike out on his own he’d come back, having crashed and burned, classic johnny storm style. it was a question he’d been asked over and over again from friends, from family, and especially from significant others: johnny, what do you really want? johnny, i like you, but i don’t think you know what you really want. in the negative zone, he had time to think about it. two years thinking about the opportunities he’d missed, the things he’d never done, all the potential he’d wasted. he was going to do better, be better, now that he was back, but then... blipped out for five years. and then ... back to a world that had come undone and reset.
does your character have any memories from 2024 or their past ?
johnny has flashes, mostly in his nightmares. memories of being torn apart and put back together by the resurrection bugs of the negative zone, horrifying dreams of dying, of fighting in the ring, of killing, of using his powers to burn and destroy. no one stayed dead long, but the smell of burning flesh is still all around him until he wakes back up again, heart pounding in his chest, terrified by a sense of a lack of control that hasn’t felt this bad since he was sixteen years old and went up in flames for the first time. he doesn’t understand any of it, and is afraid to even try. fortunately, he’s got a lot of practice in ignoring his problems and pretending to be fine, so he’s trying to not even think about it. if there’s anything left behind, it’s the burning desire to be more, to actually make something of himself.
what are they doing in the year 2012 ?
really, johnny’s doing pretty good. the fantastic four are at the height of their fame, the world’s premier superhero team (and the us government has finally dropped all charges after they, y’ know, maybe stole a rocket ship. johnny, hands in the air, innocent smile: that was all reed’s idea, i swear). so johnny’s at the peak of his rising star and he doesn’t really know what it feels like to burn out yet. sure, he might have flunked out of college a few years back, he might have taken a few breakups a bit too hard, but he’s famous, he’s gorgeous, and oh yeah... he has superpowers. life’s hot! kinda like he is! it might have been years since he tagged along with his sister, her boyfriend and his best friend on an illegal ride to space, but he loves it as much as ever. being the human torch of the fantastic four is the best part of his life, the only thing johnny’s sure he’s good at. every day’s a new adventure, a new place to explore, to save the day. the ff are more likely found saving the galaxy lightyears away than on the streets, but they’re still a fixture of new york, part of the skyline. johnny currently lives in the baxter building, along with the rest of the ff, and has no intentions of leaving. as ever, they’re one not-so-big happy co-dependent messed up family.
right now, johnny wants to make it in hollywood. he’s used to being tabloid fodder, splashed all over social media, but he wants to be a movie star. it’d be better if he could actually act, of course, but he’s going to see how far a famous for being famous name can take him...
EXTRA:
really just this tweet:
see also: pinterest | playlist | bio (coming soon)
