Marvel’s Human Torch Gets CREEPY About His Sister’s Power

Johnny Storm, the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch, has a reputation for being a womanizer and an incurable flirt. Equal parts charming and unapologetic, Johnny seems to know exactly what he wants out of the superhero life. However, even he once admitted he had discovered something… unusual about himself during one of the team’s goofier adventures. And possibly his feelings towards his own sister?

At the end of Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo’s celebrated run on Fantastic Four, both Johnny and his sister Sue had just survived a weird adventure. Earlier, aliens had come to attack Sue, believing the world devourer Galactus would soon make the Invisible Woman his new herald and employ her power to see shielded planets to find and devour their world. Rather than fight the aliens directly, Reed Richards used a machine that apparently erased Sue’s superpowers, causing the aliens to leave. In actuality, Reed had swapped Sue and Johnny’s powers – allowing Sue to flame on and Johnny to turn invisible (oddly, a similar scenario happened in the film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer). Unfortunately, Galactus still tracked down Sue’s powers and – sensing they now resided in Johnny – magnified them with the Power Cosmic and made him his new herald.

As the cosmically-enhanced “Invisible Man,” Johnny discovered he could use Sue’s powers in undreamt of ways. Not only could he generate larger and more powerful forcefields, he could see the usually invisible aspects of a person’s character by detecting lies and seeing who they were at their core. He used this power to defeat Galactus by appealing to the World Devourer’s submerged human side – and later got to see all the hidden aspects of his teammates, making him admire them even more. However, Johnny should have used that power to look into his own character – because when it came time to restore Johnny and Sue’s powers, something unexpected happened. Instead of going into the rightful bodies, all the members of the Fantastic Four lost their abilities as their powers began leapfrogging around New York City, empowering ordinary citizens. As the FF rushes to track down their powers and reclaim them before they do any real harm, Johnny wanders into a very strange situation.

It seemed that Sue’s power had empowered a stripper in a gentlemen’s club, leaving her body invisible and causing her dollar bill-stuffed G-string to simply float in midair. As the customers left in disgust, Johnny entered the club, sat down at the dancer’s table and commented to the oblivious stripper that he had just found something new about himself as he found the sight, “weirdly erotic.”

Admittedly it was an offhand comment and Johnny tried to help the stripper (who freaked out when she saw what had happened to her). However, considering that Johnny had basically admitted he was turned on by a disembodied stripper using his sister’s invisibility powers was disturbing to say the least. Fortunately, the story ended with the Fantastic Four reacquiring their abilities and Sue (hopefully) did not hear Johnny’s observation, leaving only the Human Torch aware of his bizarre new fetish.

About The Author

Michael Jung
(700 Articles Published)

Michael Jung is a mild-mannered freelance writer-for-hire, actor, and professional storyteller with a keen interest in pop culture, education, nonprofit organizations, and unusual side hustles. His work has been featured in Screen Rant, ASU Now, Sell Books Fast, Study.com, and Free Arts among others. A graduate of Arizona State University with a PhD in 20^th Century American Literature, Michael has written novels, short stories, stage plays, screenplays, and how-to manuals.

Michael’s background in storytelling draws him to find the most fascinating aspects of any topic and transform them into a narrative that informs and entertains the reader. Thanks to a life spent immersed in comic books and movies, Michael is always ready to infuse his articles with offbeat bits of trivia for an extra layer of fun. In his spare time, you can find him entertaining kids as Spider-Man or Darth Vader at birthday parties or scaring the heck out of them at haunted houses.

See also  Gossip Girl: 5 Times Serena And Blair's Friendship Was Toxic (And 5 Times It Was The Sweetest)

Visit Michael Jung’s website for information on how to hire him, follow him on Twitter Michael50834213, or contact him directly: michael(at)michaeljungwriter(dot)com.

More From Michael Jung