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Fantastic Four #35 peels back the layer on one of the members of Marvel’s First Family, revealing that his powers are more horrific than fantastic.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Fantastic Four #35, available now from Marvel Comics.
It has been six decades since the Fantastic Four first stepped into the Marvel Universe and enthralled readers with their high flying adventures across space and time. While Marvel’s First Family is best known as a bright and smiling beacon of hope, they have been through their share of gut-wrenching moments over the years, and one of the worst was the experience of the Human Torch during the team’s origin.
Although the origin story of the Fantastic Four is pretty well known, there are always new layers of the story waiting to be uncovered. In the case of “Stars” (by Mark Waid, Paul Renaud, and VC’s Joe Caramagna from Fantastic Four #35), the First Family’s origin is depicted as more of a tragedy than anything else.
During a celebration of the heroes on Fantastic Four Day, Reed Richards is the guest of honor for an interview. As he looks back on the moment when he and his teammates gained their powers, he recalls how frightened they were by the changes their bodies were going through. Johnny was the most terrified member of the four, overwhelmed by the flames that engulfed his body. As Reed tells it, Johnny was in an absolute panic for hours. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come.
Even after the the blaze had gone out and the team returned home, Johnny Storm was left mentally traumatized by the experience. When Reed visits him, Johnny demands to be left alone, completely convinced that he will harm anyone who comes near him. He begins ranting about all of the things he will never do again, from being near vehicles to even leaving the safety of the room he is in, and as his temper flares so do the flames that burn within him. Reed is able to talk him down again, but it is a long road from that heartbreaking moment to the jovial hero that Johnny Storm would eventually become.
Much like his run on the series in the early 2000s, Mark Waid weaves this horrifying thread into the Fantastic Four’s backstory in a seamless, organic manner, much the same way that he turns the team’s rise to stardom on its head. Rather than becoming celebrity superheroes out of a Silver Age sense of optimism, the Fantastic Four are made famous in a cold, calculated way by Reed. As soon as the depths of what had happened sunk in, he knew that he had to be the one to lead the charge towards something bigger if he wanted to avoid his friends and family becoming lab rats at best.
It’s a brilliant turn, and one that ultimately helps to pull Johnny from the depths of his self-loathing and depression. This isn’t exactly new territory, as the same subject has been touched on before.
Still, this is one of the few times that Johnny’s transformation and its side effects been given such a meaningful focus. The fact that Johnny Storm, let alone any of the Fantastic Four managed to come through the other side of what happened to them as the heroes they are today is just further testament to how fantastic they really are.
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