Season 1.5 of Marvel Rivals was a moment many fans had been waiting for—The Thing and The Human Torch finally dropped into the roster, bringing the whole Fantastic Four gang together. It was a huge deal back in early 2025, and even now in 2026, the meta still feels the heat from that update. NetEase established a rhythm of dropping new heroes every forty-five days, but season one was a four-course meal with the entire First Family arriving at once. While The Thing gave Vanguards a proper bruiser who can brawl on the frontline, it was Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, who really set the skies on fire—especially when paired with a certain wind-riding mutant.
Now, at first glance, the Human Torch seems like a flashy cousin to Storm. He can fly, he throws flames around to lock down entire zones, and his damage output is absolutely bonkers. The catch? Hitscan gunners like Hela or Punisher can swat him out of the sky if you aren’t careful. But Johnny has something Storm doesn’t: better mobility with his slam and faster flight, plus a team-up that’s straight-up game-wrecking. That team-up with Storm isn’t just a neat bonus—it’s the kind of synergy that makes Strategist mains reconsider their life choices.
The Team-Up That Haunts Every Support Player’s Dreams
The Human Torch comes with two team-ups in Rivals. One gives him a shield when rolling with the Fantastic Four family. The other? It’s the one with Storm, and it’s the stuff of nightmares for anyone standing behind the tank. When Johnny pops his Supernova ultimate, he can set Storm’s Omega Hurricane ablaze. Let that sink in. Her already devastating hurricane transforms into a swirling inferno that melts faces faster than you can say “group up.”
Here’s the kicker: Strategist healing ultimates normally bail the team out of almost any disaster. We’re talking Luna Snow’s twelve-second concert of invincibility, Mantis’s Soul Resurgence, or Cloak and Dagger’s stacking heals. But since Season 1.5, those healing ults need more charge, meaning you won’t have them in your back pocket every minute. And the Storm-Human Torch combo? It doesn’t care. It deals so much damage that even a perfectly timed support ult often can’t keep up. The raw damage would be bad enough, but the duration is the real gut punch.
Storm’s Omega Hurricane normally lasts five seconds. But for every fire tornado Johnny throws into her path, she gets an extra two seconds added to her ult, capping out at a terrifying eleven seconds. Most support ults clock in at eight seconds. Even Luna’s marathon twelve-second party can feel like a band-aid on a bullet wound when flames are raining down. It’s no wonder this pairing became an almost mandatory ban in Diamond rank and above.
Why Storm Was Already a Priority Ban, and Johnny Poured Gas on the Fire
Storm’s glow-up in Season 1 was no joke. She went from one of the weakest Duelists in Season 0 to a near-essential pick at high elo. Her damage, ult charge speed, and area denial made her a menace, and the only real answers were cracked hitscan players who could punish her floating. But bring Johnny into the mix, and she’s practically unstoppable. The unboosted Omega Hurricane was manageable—any support ult could shrug it off. Add a damage boost from Rocket or Mantis, and it starts to sweat. Add a flame tornado from the Human Torch, and it’s often a guaranteed team wipe unless you stack multiple support ults, which is a massive resource sink.
In 2026, the ban meta still feels the echoes of this. Higher ranks where bans are available will often send Storm packing, not just for her own power but because her team-up with Johnny is that oppressive. It’s the same reason Hulk used to eat a ban—the team-up value is through the roof. Down in the lower ranks though, where no bans exist, you’ll still see a parade of Storms and Human Torches feasting on uncoordinated teams. They fly, bypass the frontline, and nuke the backline Strategists who are already struggling with the healing cooldown nerfs.
Johnny’s Still Got Tricks Up His Sleeve
One thing that makes this combo eternally spicy is that players keep discovering crazier ways to use the Human Torch. Shortly after his release, players found out you could stack Blazing Blast and slam into the enemy team right at spawn to rack up early picks. There’s no doubt that over time, the community’s mastery of Johnny only grew. He might not always out-damage Storm on the scoreboard, but his disruptive potential and synergy with her keep him relevant. And because balance patches roll every forty-five days or so, NetEase lets the chaos simmer long enough for players to cook up wild strategies.
Is this whole situation a bad thing? Well, if you’re a Strategist main, it can feel like a personal attack. But for the broader health of the game, it was a much-needed wrench in the triple-support meta that had everyone groaning about too much healing. The Storm-Human Torch wombo combo became a legit counter to that. And if the damage got too out of hand, NetEase has shown they’re listening. The devs have been quick to tweak overpowered synergies in the past, so if the fiery duo ever reached truly absurd levels, you can bet they’d get toned down. Still, stepping into a match in 2026 and hearing that hurricane roar with flames licking the edges tells you one thing: the heat isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
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