History
Unlike his Earth-616 counterpart, Jonathan Storm of Earth-A never took the space flight that would transform him into the Human Torch. Instead, only Ben Grimm and Reed Richards took the flight, the former receiving stretching and flaming powers and the latter becoming the Thing.[1] Instead, Johnny went off to war in East Asia and was wounded in battle.[2]
Gaard[]
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Johnny Storm as Gaard
Arkon and I.T. scientists found the injured Johnny Storm, erased his memories, and restructured his mind so that he could serve as Gaard, the guardian of the nexus between Earth-616, Earth-721, and the Fifth Dimension. Gaard was a key player in Arkon's scheme to start a war between the three worlds.[3] The Fantastic Four, with the help of Reed Richards of Earth-721, discovered the plan and the Thing of Earth-616 was sent to battle Gaard and destroy the nexus. During the battle, the Thing and Gaard engaged in a hockey-style shootout, with Gaard playing the role of the goalie. The Thing won by throwing a puck shaped device into the nexus to destroy it. Once the nexus was destroyed, Gaard skated off into the void.[2]
Vangaard[]
Gaard was transformed into Vangaard by the void and acquired the ability to destroy realities. He felt he had a new purpose now: travel into different realities and destroy timelines he felt were redundant.[4]
During his travels, he arrived in Elsewhen, a realm derived from the reality Earth-6311 that was the center of a group of dimensions called the Chosen Realities, ruled by the warlord Kargul. Vangaard planned to destroy Elsewhen and was opposed by Kargul and his armies. Kargul was supported by the Fantastic Force and Psi-Lord. At first, Vangaard appeared to be unbeatable. Psi-Lord removed his energy-dampening exoskeleton to unleash his full power to fight Vangaard, but their combined powers were so powerful that they threaten to rip the space-time continuum apart. When the Human Torch of Earth-616 flamed off, Vangaard was surprised by this. He realized that the heroic Human Torch of Earth-616 could have been him, causing him to have a crisis of conscience. Vangaard decided to end his destruction of timelines and instead help other timelines find closure.[5]Attributes
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Powers
As normal human:
- Peak Human Strength: could lift up to 800 pounds
As Gaard:
- Superhuman Strength: exceeds 100 tons
- Superhuman Speed
- Superhuman Reflexes
- Superhuman Durability
- Energy Manipulation
- Teleportation
As Vangaard: retains the powers he had as Gaard and gains new ones:
- Greater Energy Manipulation
- Reality Manipulation
- Reality Destruction: he has the power to destroy realities.
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Hockey Goalie Equipment: Gaard used a goalie's glove, mask, stick, and skates to defend the nexus. His skates allowed him to maneuver quickly in the area around the nexus.
- Body Armor: Vangaard wears a metallic suit of armor with horns.
Weapons
- Scepter: Gaard used the scepter to block the Thing from throwing the puck device into the nexus and discharge blasts. As Vangaard, the scepter was more like a blade.
See Also
- 4 appearance(s) of Jonathan Storm (Earth-721)
- 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Jonathan Storm (Earth-721)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Jonathan Storm (Earth-721)
- 5 image(s) of Jonathan Storm (Earth-721)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Jonathan Storm (Earth-721)