Why doesnt Johnny Storm have cancer?

[U.N. Owen]

This is where suspension of disbelief kicks in.

[pageturner]

Reading the older Fantastic Four I notice that Johnny is surrounded by asbestos. Asbestos Furniture, Clothes you name it. So why doesnt he have cancer? Would have been cool to do a storyline where all that asbestos made him sick.

He is buds with Black Panther he has a cure for cancer so there you go.

[DanMad1977]

I laughed hard when I read that issue a while ago, where Jonny stays in his home and says something like: I am so happy that Reed build me a home completely made of asbestos!

Reed, you super genius

[Triniking1234]

Because it's a comic book.

Geezus Christus.

[Michael Watkins]

Johnny is a cancer

[pageturner]

Johnny is a cancer

hot take
what a burn

[PCN24454]

Ignorance

The harmful effects of Asbestos weren’t well known when Lee was writing all those asbestos villains

I’m sure they’ve all been retconned into being some other substance by now.

[pageturner]

Ignorance

The harmful effects of Asbestos weren’t well known when Lee was writing all those asbestos villains

I’m sure they’ve all been retconned into being some other substance by now.

I think unstable molecules that Reed uses covers a lot of that.

[Jody Garland]

Ignorance

The harmful effects of Asbestos weren’t well known when Lee was writing all those asbestos villains

I’m sure they’ve all been retconned into being some other substance by now.

Not the Asbestos Man or Lady, who both died from using their suits.

[Blunt Guy]

In ASM 76 & 77, Spidey is trying to capture the Lizard without hurting him, and along comes Johnny Storm, who tries to help. This pisses Spidey off because Torch won't listen to him and his webbing burns up when he tries using it. Lizard gets away, Spidey and Johhny have words, and split mad at each other. He goes back to his apartment to prepare for a rematch, and makes a batch of asbestos webbing and insulates his suit with asbestos, too. At the time, asbestos was the only fireproof substance anybody knew about. Nobody realized it could cause health problems later, so it was common everywhere.

[Vegan Daddy]

Asbestos? The cosmic radiation should have killed them all!

But that's not something we want to read about.

Speak for yourself. I’d love to read about the Fantastic Four slowly dying of radiation poisoning.

[Rosebunse]

Speak for yourself. I’d love to read about the Fantastic Four slowly dying of radiation poisoning.

I don't know, it feels like an edgy thing writers do try and do when they're trying to make an edgy satire on superhero comics.

[Marvell2100]

Speak for yourself. I’d love to read about the Fantastic Four slowly dying of radiation poisoning.

Ok. 10 char and all.

[MyriVerse]

probably for the same reason Spider-Man shoots webs from his wrists and not his butt

Technically, Spider-Man has no spider abilities whatsoever.

[Tulku]

Nobody realized it could cause health problems later, so it was common everywhere.

I wouldn't say "nobody." The link between asbestos and asbestosis was known by the medical community in the 1930s. And court cases have found that the asbestos industry knew of this in the 1930s and concealed the dangers from the public. A decent Wikipedia entry on the subject