Elegy For Johnny Storm

Researching for a comics blog tends to take you all over the place in terms of getting the details right, but, given the general time frame of posts appearing in the PPC, it's a rare day when I'll find myself flipping through stories that are dated in the years following 2010, well after the point that I'd stopped collecting comics or even browsing new stories on the racks. Yet I recall a mental note I made following a previous post that attempted to piece together the reboots and refits of Fantastic Four that took place during the years between the mid-1990s through 2014, before the book began an indefinite hiatus--with one of those refits taking the form of the Future Foundation, established following the death of the Human Torch. It was at that point that I stumbled across an issue featuring an informal wake at which the remaining team members, along with Spider-Man, shared reminiscences of Johnny Storm--a story that I could only give a cursory glance to at the time, but which I intended to revisit, given the closure it was meant to provide (as well as the pivotal groundwork it laid for a certain wall-crawler).

Yet now well after the fact, you may find like myself that it's also held up well as a story of affirmation for the FF, even if taking place in an issue of Amazing Spider-Man. A story aptly titled:

Those of you still shaking your heads at having to reach into your wallets for a five-dollar bill to pay for a single comic book in 2020 are probably the same people who thought twice about forking over $4.00 in 2011 to read this issue. There are of course rising costs associated with getting a comic book to press, to say nothing of those associated with publishing and distribution--but the eye-opener in this case is perhaps the excess manpower brought on board to produce a single story:

Four artists. Four colorists. Outsourcing to a "virtual calligraphy" company for the lettering. Two editors. Add to that a check for the writer, and in your mind's eye you can practically see all of them lining up at the register and broadly smiling in your direction as you approach.

But there is a mixture of smiles and sadness in our story, as Ben Grimm and the Richardses commiserate with Peter Parker over the loss of Johnny, while also remembering the incidences when Johnny and Peter both found cause for laughter when spending time with the Fantastic Four.

If you recognize the framed wall picture leading to the FF's kitchen area, but can't put your finger on when you first saw it, let's return briefly to August of 1965 where it was featured in a sales ad:

In '65, you would have had to only fork over $1.50 to get this T-shirt, a price which also covered postage--wotta deal! (I wonder if anyone decided to just bag one of these unworn, as a collectors' item?)

As for Sue's embarrassment, it goes back to a day when Spider-Man pulled a public prank on the Torch--and it happens to, er, catch on.

Given that she's incriminated herself, Sue isn't exactly out of the woods here.

(I suppose if I were in Sue's place, I would have reminded Spider-Man that he can hardly claim any high ground here since he started all the trouble in the first place, by committing the same offense.)

While Spider-Man is of course a presence in these recollections, each member of the FF receives some quality time in their own scenes that they will one day have to fondly look back on. (Reed's segment especially stands out.) But when all is said--or almost all, in this case--there is one member of the FF who has his own words for Peter, in a moving scene which brings an end to this story.

Johnny's death, as well as this recent development, sets the stage for the premiere of the Future Foundation, which both Spider-Man and the FF would debut in their respective titles (along with new uniforms--pants and all).