Franklin Storm

Franklin Storm's History

One of the greatest surgeons in the United States, Dr. Franklin Storm was the father of two children, Susan and Jonathan ('Johnny'. While Dr. Storm was driving himself and his wife Mary to a dinner being held in his honor, one of the tires on his car suffered a blowout. As a result, the car swerved off the road and crashed, fatally injuring Mary Storm. Unscathed himself, Dr. Storm operated on Mary in a desperate attempt to save her life, but to no avail. Franklin Storm blamed himself for her death. He gave up his medical career and turned to excessive gambling, eventually having to borrow money from an underworld loan shark. When Storm proved unable to repay the loan in time, a criminal in the employ of the loan shark confronted Storm, and threatened to kill Storm and his children. Storm grappled with the criminal, and during the fight, the criminal shot himself. Storm was charged with manslaughter, and, still tormented by guilt over Mary's death, refused to say anything in his defense during his trial. Hence, Storm was sentenced to twenty years to life imprisonment. Wishing to spare his children further distress, Dr. Storm asked his daughter not to visit him in prison and to tell Jonathan he was dead. Susan and Jonathan Storm later gained superhuman powers and became known as the Invisible Girl (later Invisible Woman) and the Human Torch, respectively, both of whom were members of the team of adventurers called the Fantastic Four. Franklin Storm finally escaped prison shortly before the Fantastic Four once again encountered their enemy, the Mole Man. While the Fantastic Four escaped from the Mole Man's underground realm, Susan Storm was critically injured by a piece of shrapnel in an explosion. Franklin Storm emerged from hiding upon hearing of his daughter's injury and successfully operated upon her, saving her life. After completing the operation on Sue, Dr. Storm was taken back to prison. Shortly afterwards, Dr. Storm was confronted in his cell by the alien Super-Skrull, who used his shape-changing powers to assume Storm's physical appearance. Storm was then teleported to the Skrull throneworld, where he was held captive. As Dr. Storm, the Super-Skrull claimed that he had given himself superhuman powers. After breaking out of prison, the false Dr. Storm, calling himself 'the Invincible Man,' battled the Fantastic Four. The Skrull leaders hoped that thinking that the Super-Skrull was Dr. Storm would handicap the Fantastic Four in fighting him. But Reed Richards, leader of the Fantastic Four, realized who the Invincible Man really was and forced the Skrull leaders to exchange the real Dr. Storm for the Super-Skrull. However, the Skrull warlord Morrat had a concussive energy beam projector strapped to Dr. Storm's chest before returning him. The projector was set to fire as soon as Dr. Storm saw the Fantastic Four. Seeing the team members, Storm warned them away and then rolled over so that the projector would fire its deadly blast at the floor. As a result, Franklin Storm himself took the full force of the concussive blast and was mortally injured. He died in the presence of the son and daughter he so loved. Susan Storm later married Reed Richards, and they named their son Franklin in memory of Dr. Storm (see Franklin Richards).