Woodclaw wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 2:46 pm
For those who don't know, during the "Point of Origin" storyline (a soft reboot of the origin of the F4), Johnny met Sky, an alien superhero with avian-based powers. It turned out that when Reed's original probe scouted her world, she mind-linked to Johnny and they became "intended", soul-matched partners. Apparently, this is the reason behind Johnny's pretty disastrous love-life, he was searching for "reflections" of Sky in every woman he met.
I hate stuff like this, right along with there needing to be a "reason" why Iceman had so many failed relationships. It's couldn't just be that both were horny young men who easily got attached to attractive women, and who gradually over time became more mature. No, it's got to be that one of them was in the closet (IE, Jean Grey imprinted her own yaoi fanfiction onto Bobby), and that the other was soul-bound to an alien as his one true love.
It's just a pointless retcon to create equally pointless drama in the least organic way possible.
This was mostly played for laugh, with family and friends poking fun at Johnny, who seemed genuinly freaked out but also commited to this new relationship. During the entire time, Sue became pretty much a "helicopter sister", constantly following Johnny around trying first to push the lovebirds apart, later trying to "save" Johnny from another heartbreak... because this isn't creepy at all right!
This reminds me of several times where male heroes have been been taken advantage of and it was treated like a joke, rather than a serious issue. Northstar getting mind controlled by Purple Girl to be her boy toy, Thor getting mind controlled by Moon Dragon to be her sex slave, Nightwing being tricked by Mirage into having sex with her by posing as Starfire, even Johnny getting tricked into marrying and sleeping with Lyja when she was pretending to be Alicia.
The latter situation was the only one treated with any real seriousness, but the issue there was more that Alicia had been kidnapped and that Lyja had lied to Johnny, rather than Johnny basically being a victim of long term emotional manipulation and essentially rape.
I mean, you flip the genders in any of these situations and they becomes a deeply uncomfortable quickly.
So the fact that Johnny's friends and family, the folks who are supposed to have his back, laugh about Reed essentially forcing a relationship on Johnny via a probe is just honestly kind of heartbreaking. The idea that Sue, generally the most mature and responsible of the Four alongside Reed, would interfere with her younger brother's love life like that, is kind of disgusting.
Anyway, when Reed and Val managed to bring the Future Foundation back to Earth, Lyja the Skrull came back with it, prompting a series of very awkward moments. Johnny told Sky about all his relationships and she was pretty pissed that he had been so busy while she waited for him all the way.
Moreover, Lyja was apparently still holding the torch (pun intended) and tried to get in bed with Johnny five minutes later, only for him to slam the door in her face, telling that there was never love between them just her mission. This is a classic Slott moment, when he tries to force his personal interpretation of a past event (for reference, look at his interpretation of the first encounter between She-Hulk and Titania during Secret Wars).
So, Johnny seemed at least very commited... or not. During a soiree at the Latverian embassy, Lyja arrived posing as Sky, only to run into the real one halfway through. Before they could lash at each other, a superhero battle ensued and Victorious (Doom's right hand woman, or Herald) joining the fray alongside the three love-stuck idiots. During the battle, Lyja struck the right buttons, pushing Sky to doubt herself, pretty much telling that Johnny was an explorer first, so it was dumb to think he would fall for a girl from a planet or recluses and xenophobes.
In the aftermath, Sky left telling Johnny she needed some time away from him. Lyja tried to push her agenda, but as soon as Johnny said no she had a change of heart and disappeared (the truth however is that Alicia Masters was controlling her with a bit of her dad's clay, because Slott is really pushing the idea that Lyja is like...Alicia's nemesis or something).
So what was Johnny going to do?
Apparently, he decided that a one-night stand with Victorious (with who he flirted unreciprocated a couple of times) was the solution. So Johnny Storm is now a cheater.
WHAT. IN. THE. ACTUAL. F***?!?!
I just . . . Holy Moley, this is insane.
You're right about the retcon of Johnny and Lyja and Slott forcing his own opinion on past events. Like you said, him changing Titania's first encounter with She-Hulk to give her some kind of complex, rather than Jen being one of Titania's first opponents and one of the strongest women in Marvel, so Titania's desire to show she's the strongest was a natural thing.
Lyja and Johnny's relationship was complicated. They both did love each other, but the relationship was built on a major deception that naturally created friction (IE, drama). This could be seen as Johnny trying to justify why he won't get back together with her, a lie he is telling himself, but it could just as easily be Slott's interpretation of events.
Slott having Alicia being so willing to use Mind Control Clay on people is . . . troubling. I don't think Slott understands what a morally questionable act this is for someone who is intended to be pretty wise, compassionate, understanding and wholesome. Mind Control is not something done lightly, and there's a reason most telepathic heroes shy away from, or at least used to when superheroes (and the writers) had stronger moral codes.
The real thing is the idea that Johnny would not only cheat, but cheat with someone he had zero personal history with is just insane (and no, flirting with a villain is not personal history, Johnny is an incorrigible flirt). Johnny is a lot of things, but one thing he's never been is a cheater. He flirts because he's someone desperately looking for love, and in every relationship he's been in, he's been extremely devoted to his partner. One of the worst things about his break up with Crystal was that she did so by cheating on Johnny with Quicksilver. Later, when Crystal tried to get Johnny to cheat on Alicia/Lyja, Johnny shut her down because that wasn't the kind of man he was.
Johnny Storm is NOT a cheater.
The fact that Dan Slott would nmake Johnny a cheater shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the character. The fact that he naturally made Johnny cheat with one of Slott's own creations just comes off as bad fanfiction. Granted, Slott had Johnny cheat on one of his creations with a different creation, so it's basically a fanfiction trifecta.
This whole piece is a bit one-sided, I know, but I'd like to point out one thing: Johnny Storm has never been portrayed as a genius, but he was always pretty serious about his crushes and, as far as I know, never cheated except under some kind of weird circumstances. His biggest problem was that he was star-struck every day of the week, twice on holidays.
Moreover, even if he's not a genius, Johnny is emotionally intelligent enough to know right from wrong, so I really doubt that he would cheat on a woman that he's mind-linked with or another that knew him so well to be able to get under his skin three times (as Alicia, Bridget O'Neil and Laura Green).
Agreed. I don't know if Slott is just trying to generate melodrama, but I've found that for every good aspect of his series, there's at least one bad aspect to counter it. And now it sounds like those bad aspects are starting to pile up.