Sue's fiancé, aeronautical engineer Reed Richards, had designed and fabricated an experimental interstellar spaceship. When the government had threatened to cut off the funding of the project, Richards had chosen to test his spaceship with best friend and roommate Ben Grimm as his pilot, and Sue and Johnny as the two remaining member of the four-person crew required to operate the ship.

While in space, the ship unexpectedly encountered intense radiation, causing them to abort the flight and crash-land back on Earth. Although they all survived the crash, they discovered the cosmic rays they had been subjected to had mutagenically altered their bodies. Sue could now turn invisible at will, Reed had gained the ability to elasticized his entire body, while Johnny had gained the ability to envelop his body in fiery plasma. The most shocking transformation was Ben's; the radiation transformed him into an orange-colored, thick-skinned, heavily muscled, superhumanly strong "thing". Reed convinced his comrades to join forces with him to form a group of super-heroes and use their unique powers to benefit humanity. They all agreed and became the "Fantastic Four".

Although Johnny and Sue tried to return to their quiet life on Long Island, it became extremely difficult to conceal their respective identities from the townspeople and they soon had to move back to the Fantastic Four Baxter Building Headquarters in New York City.

As the Human Torch, Johnny has the mental ability to control ambient heat energy and transform his body into a living flame upon command. In this state, he can fly and expel bolts of fire in varying degrees of intensity, the highest degree being a super-charged nova blast. His uniform and any pieces of clothing he usually wears are fabricated with unstable molecules, which enable him to "flame on" without damaging them in any way.

Despite an early rivalry, Spider-Man and the Human Torch have become close friends over the years. Recently the Torch though the Hornet (one of the four identities Spider-Man adopted during the Identity Crisis storyline) might have attacked Spider-Man unaware that the Hornet was indeed Spider-Man in disguise.