.APP.

[fulminants]

( PLAYER ★ INFORMATION )

NAME: Qing
AGE: 27
CONTACT: queen_qing @ plurk
CURRENT CHARACTERS & LATEST AC: n/a

RESERVATION LINK: here.

( CHARACTER ★ INFORMATION )

DOES THIS CHARACTER MEET SKELETAL BASICS? More or less, where MCU is concerned. For the purposes of this app, it will be supplemented by material from the Marvel comics, since the movie doesn't extensively go into his history.
NAME & AGE: Jonathan "Johnny" Lowell Spencer Storm, in his 20s.
CANON & CANON POINT: Post Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer.
CANON INFORMATION: here, supplemented by info here. More canon write up here and here, and the Fantastic Four novelisation.

PERSONALITY:

"I don't fly coach."

Johnny Storm is the spoiled younger brother of Susan Storm, and has a personality that's a polar opposite to hers. At face value, he appears to be a shallow casanova, having a smooth way with the ladies, effortlessly picking them up and moving on to the next when he's had enough fun with them (one prime example is his encounter with the hot nurse at Victor's private hospital -- from temperature-taking, extreme snowboarding, and right to a pretty cozy time together with Johnny). It's also obvious when he's shown with more than four, five different women throughout the course of the two movies.

However, there's more to than that meets the eye. Johnny is self-assured, and has an unmistakable zest for life and all that it brings. He's an outgoing thrill-seeker, an adrenaline-junkie who loves dangerous stunts and the attention that he gets. For all of his showiness, Johnny is also very good at what he does. He's a competent test pilot at Von Doom Industries, and was given the task of piloting the ship out where Victor and Reed and the others can study the effects of the cosmic storm.

In the novelisation of the Fantastic Four movie, it was said that Johnny Storm was intellectually gifted from an early age but thanks to his fun-loving, impetuous nature, he lacked the discipline to cultivate more from his gift. He's also the kind of guy you don't take home to your mother (especially if she's a MILF), but the kind of guy who can show you a damn good time; he just doesn't stick around for any longer than that.

"Trouble is my middle name."

He's confident to the point of arrogance, cocky and reckless, irresponsible and outgoing, charming when he sets his mind to it. He's also a practical joker, a flirtatious skirt-chaser who enjoys the finer things in life. And this is before he gets his powers. Things don't change much when he does obtain them, except for the fact that he revels in his powers and enjoys showing off and performing to a crowd (see: his dangerous antics at the dirt bike rally where the emcee goaded him into showing them 'something new'), lacking the restraint of his other teammates. Johnny naturally sees the positive side to everything, adapts and clearly makes the most of it, excited by the appearance of his newfound abilities.

"What, you mean we won't be able to turn (our powers) it off either? That would save time, ha!"
"You don't really want to walk around on fire for the rest of your life, do you?"
"Is that a trick question?"
"Grow up, Johnny."
"Come on, am I the only one who thinks this is cool?"

Despite the fact that his mother had died in an automobile accident, Johnny is a daredevil, hopelessly drawn to fast cars, bikes, and indulging in extreme sports like dangerous dirt bike stunts, loving the thrill that it gives him as much as he loves showing off. It's almost as if he's out to defy/challenge the circumstances that caused his mother's death. This can evidently be seen in the first few minutes of the movie, where he's introduced speeding down an empty road with his flavor of the week, and midway through the movie where he drives a cherry-red sports car to a dirt bike rally, happy to be at the center of attention once more.

He's later seen entertaining questions by the press amidst a group of pretty hangers-on, at ease with all the coverage he's getting, thriving on the praise and adoration and very clearly milking it for all he's worth.

"I'm the Human Torch. Ladies call me Torch."

Johnny's always been flashy, driving a hot red sports car with a vanity plate that reads 'TORCH'D'; he's the kind of person who gets off on being the life of the party, and loves the new and extraordinary, despising dull, regular routines because they very obviously cramp his style. Evidently, when faced with aforementioned dull, regular routines, he simply creates his own brand of entertainment. This is seen when the Fantastic Four are on lockdown while Reed figures out a way to fix them. While he endures that for awhile, soon, Johnny's back to pranking Ben and sneaking out to the abovementioned bike rally for no other reason than he can. It's clear that he doesn't deal well with boredom at all. He's the kind of guy who thrives on the praise and adoration of the masses, accustomed to being a star -- staying on lockdown is akin to a death sentence for a guy like Johnny.

Also, never insult his sister or Ben; the last time someone did that, Johnny melted the perpetrator's tires off. Despite the fact that he and Sue don't see eye to eye and argue about many things, it's clear that he cares about his sister and is protective of her, taking her side when Sue and Reed broke up. Johnny makes his ambivalent feelings about Reed (and the fact that Johnny's more perceptive than he lets on) clear in his conversation with Ben near the beginning of the movie.

"Please tell me your guy's not trying to rekindle things with my sister again."
"Of course not, it's strictly business."
"Yes, well. His eyes say differently, don't they?"
"Hey, two hearts got busted last time. Maybe she's not over it either."
"Wow, Dr. Phil, that's deep. Let's think about that: you got Victor, more money than God, stud of the year, and you got Reed, world's dumbest smart guy, worth less than a postage stamp, that's a real toss-up."

However, things with Reed have improved from then onwards, with Johnny taking Reed to a strip club in the second movie, and even giving his sister away to him during their wedding ceremony.

Ben's and Johnny's relationship seems antagonistic much of the time; while he doesn't shun Ben when he turned into the Thing, he can also be quite an asshole to him. He's tactless and insensitive, going as far as to ask Ben: "Where are your ears?" after he first sees his mutated form on the bridge. He has a wicked, snarky sense of humor combined with that, when he ends up giving his other teammates names. 'Invisible Girl' for Sue, 'The Thing' for Ben, and commented that Reed's always been 'a little limp' when asked about Reed's powers.

Johnny doesn't think before he speaks/acts most of the time, much to his sister's chagrin. He's naturally hotheaded and very much a dick, reacting to any situation he faces with action instead of careful thought. One example is when he hits on a girl at a bar and finds out she has a boyfriend: when the boyfriend slights him, Johnny sets the boyfriend's drink on fire in an instant, and evidently doesn't give a shit about whether he'd get hurt. Johnny also tends to have a fiery temper; he doesn't think twice about getting into a very public fight with Ben when the latter crumples up his car and and tosses it in front of him. "You think this is funny, Pebbles?" And what he says later is further exacerbated by Reed telling him that his powers might be temporary.

"What if I don't want to be normal? I didn't turn into a monster!"

Here, it's shown that Johnny's averse to being normal and just like everyone else. He wants to stand out and make something of himself, to be extraordinary, even if his response is cutting to Ben. However, Ben and Johnny gradually grow to become close friends -- Johnny might tease him now and then, especially about Alicia and his looks, but they both share a friendly moment together at the bar before the showdown with Victor and Galactus begins.

For all of those less-than-savory traits, Johnny doesn't mean any harm, nor is he a particularly bad person. While he can be too too caught up in himself and be very self-centered, he's never too self-absorbed to help anyone who needs it, and this is seen in the way Johnny instinctively goes to the rescue of a little girl on the bridge before she can get roasted by an explosion. After that, of course, he's eager to answer the media's questions, declaring himself as the leader of the Fantastic Four (that's just awesome); of course, the whole Johnny-as-a-leader thing gets shot down, but Johnny doesn't seem to mind letting Reed and Sue take the lead.

Still, Johnny is quite the showman and his ego practically knows no boundaries. He is, as quoted by one of the women he'd been interested in,

"You're confident, reckless, irresponsible, self-obsessed, bordering on narcissism."
"Okay, so you do know me."
"All I see is a guy who almost got his team killed."
"Okay, I've been a little off my game lately."
"This is not a game."

Which sums up a lot of what he is and how he sees his calling as a part of the Fantastic Four; that in some way this is a game to him. He takes these words to heart, and the way he gracefully accepts this scathing assessment of him also indicates that he's also very self-aware, and isn't entirely blind to his own strengths and weaknesses. Johnny doesn't make excuses for his screw-ups, but he works to move on from it instead of dwelling. On a deeper level, however, some of his antics tend to be a cover for his own insecurities. He acknowledges that he's "not a very deep person", and outwardly wonders if he's "a complete screwup". He's a fun-loving free spirit who can be quite destructive. Case in point: he'd washed out of NASA because he brought two underwear into a restricted area at NASA (ostensibly to impress them), and crashed a flight simulator.

It's clear that Johnny is inherently impatient, and doesn't think about consequences; it reflects in everything that he does thus far. He also doesn't take the Fantastic Four thing as seriously as he should aside from the press attention that the Fantastic Four (more specifically, Johnny) get. His intentions and his feelings on his own powers are also quite obvious in the following exchange between Reed and himself.

"You need to control yourself. Think before you act."
"You see, that's your problem, you always think, you never act! What if we got these powers for a reason? What if it's some higher calling?"
"A higher calling, like getting girls and making money?"
"Is there any higher?"

True to his nature, Johnny's the one who makes use of their fame to get endorsements (because why not, right?). He's the first one to embrace the fact that there are action figures based on them, and is clearly open to openly endorse products. He even makes use of Reed's and Sue's marriage to auction off their wedding photos to the highest bidder. He's also found plenty of creative ways to make use of his powers aside from thwarting evil: one of which is him riding the Baxter Building's elevator all day, raising the temperature whenever a pretty girl stepped in so that she'd take her clothes off. What can he say, really? He does love the pretty ladies.

While he's poised towards heroism and his heart is in the right place most of the time, Johnny can be pretty immature for his age, often allowing his emotions to get the better of him. This can be seen in the way he reacts after he overhears his sister and Reed planning to leave the Fantastic Four, letting his anger get the better of him while they're on a mission to investigate the damage created by the Silver Surfer. Johnny lashes out at Reed during the helicopter ride to the site:

"He's too fast to be contained. When I see Silver, I'm hittin' him."
"Wait, you can't do that. You've gotta stick to the plan and work as a team."
"Oh, so we're a team now? That's news to me."

He's evidently sore about it, and later, he recklessly chases after the Silver Surfer, but thanks to his unstable powers caused by the latter, he makes things worse for his teammates by accidentally swapping his abilities with Reed's.

Still, Johnny does display a slightly deeper level of thoughtfulness in the second movie, revealing that he's at least grown up a little more from when he'd first received his powers. He's seen asking Ben about how he'd want to spend his last few minutes before the end of the world -- he shows a different side of himself when he observes that it would be nice to have somebody, shedding light, possibly, into the fact that Johnny would like to have someone of his own to spend his last few minutes with, too.

However, it has to be said that while he can be an ass (and a pervert), he's got a pretty good heart. Despite his penchant for cash, fame and babes, Johnny doesn't think twice about going to his friends'/family's rescue when they need it, standing his against Victor and Galactus even if it could mean their deaths. Johnny doesn't back down from fights; he's bold, courageous, and tends to think quickly on his feet -- and this is seen in the fights that he engages in against Victor.

Despite a few power-oriented screwups that is more the Silver Surfer's doing than his own, Johnny comes through for the people that he cares about. Later in the movie, he shows that he's become more responsible, more selfless and more of a team player and taking his role as the Human Torch seriously as he and the others work to stop Galactus from devouring their planet. This can be shown in the following conversation between Reed and Johnny, when Johnny decides to take on all their powers, seriously risking his life thanks to his unstable powers just to stop Victor.

"It's going to take all of us (to stop Victor)."
"Or maybe just one of us."
"Johnny, we don't know what it could do to you."
"Let's not make this about me."

He proceeds to absorb their powers and to kick Victor's ass. Even though Johnny doesn't undergo a 180-degree character evolution through both movies, he does mature a little, adjusting better to his role as the Human Torch while obviously still enjoying the 'prestige' and fame that comes with being a part of the Fantastic Four. He shows a little more emotional depth and maturity towards the end of the second movie compared to the start of the first. He does still have commitment issues (as seen by the fact that he'd set his sister's wedding bouquet on fire before Frankie can catch it).

COURT ALLIANCE & REASONING:

That's easy, which side has the hottest chicks? He's on that side.

Unseelie, for the reasons outlined in his personality. Johnny Storm is impulsive, reckless, hotheaded, preferring passion to reason. He thrives on the attention of others and enjoys his powers. While Johnny doesn't despise those weaker than himself, he's adapts very well to change in many ways, hating to stay still.

His thrill-seeking nature shows that he prizes freedom and wildness; what's the point of being caged in? That's boring, and change is awesome! Change, to him, means that it's better than the ordinary, and to be ordinary is to be dull. While Johnny doesn't have an inclination to take over the world, it's shown that he won't hesitate to use violence where needed, and thinks that stagnation is a terribly tedious thing to endure. He's not interested in following tradition or being repressed, preferring to take matters into his own hands.

Johnny lacks discipline, and he doesn't respond well to authority, preferring to take the path that he thinks is right because of his own beliefs, not because anyone told him to. Johnny's not interested in customs or following order for its own sake -- man, that just sucks, and they all know that the boring good guys never get the hot girls. Exciting good guys, though... that's another story entirely.

ABILITIES:

- Able to engulf himself in flame, and use that to fly without hurting himself
- Johnny Storm in his fire form is made out of plasma
- Able to fly at high altitudes and for long distances, able to also outfly missiles, and actually keep up with the Silver Surfer at high speeds
- Immunity to other sources of fire, ability to absorb fire
- Having a much higher temperature than usual
- Physically more hardy and durable than before (he jumped off a roof and landed pretty roughly, but was otherwise uninjured)
- Able to start, control & manipulate fire
- Able to create walls/circles of flame
- Able to pretty much incinerate the entire world (this power is definitely null and void for the purposes of the game.)
- Isn't hurt when his flames are put out by fire extinguishers, water, lack of air, etc
- The fire surrounding his body is hot enough to melt nearly every object that's headed towards him
- Able to use fire as a projectile weapon
- Able to use Nova flame, and with practice, will be able to go Nova

INVENTORY: The FF blue suit that he's wearing.