Our 4 Favorite Marvel Elementals

There are a number of apparent themes within the Marvel Comics Universe, but few are as exciting and interesting as elements and elementals. In the comic book world, elementals are individuals with the abilities to control Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Wood or sometimes a combination, though atom and matter manipulation also fall under this bracket occasionally. There are plenty of elemental heroes in the Marvel world, so we thought we’d find out favorites.

Storm

As we’re sure you know, or at least can guess from her name, this iconic member of the X-Men can control the weather. Lightning, rain, wind; whatever the weather, our favorite white-haired witch controls it all. What could be more elemental than that? It’s no surprise at all that she continues to appear in movies and almost every X-Men game to this day.


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Storm was first introduced into the world of Marvel Comics back in 1975 when she traveled from Cairo, Egypt to work at the Xavier Academy as a professor and X-Men member after losing her parents. It took Storm a good few years to truly control her mutant abilities but, sure enough, she has become the most powerful weather elemental in the entire Marvel world. Except for maybe Thor, but he’s literally a god.

The Human Torch

How could we ever write a list about Marvelementals without mentioning Marvel’s first family and The Human Torch? Published in 1961, The Fantastic Four was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s first superhero comic ever and featured Reed Richards as Mr. Fantastic, Susan Storm as The Invisible Woman, Ben Grimm as The Thing and, of course, Johnny Storm as The Human Torch.

Johnny can set himself ablaze with ease, enabling him to cause chaos while flying around as well as protect himself and his family. His good buddy The Thing could also be classed as an elemental as he is made entirely of rock, plus he’s probably the best character in The Fantastic Four movies. This is likely to be down to the fact that the actor, Jamie Bell, is a veteran of the industry, having starred in ‘Billy Elliot’ as a child. That movie placed at #11 on Lottoland’s recent list of inspirational movies that can change your life, along with classics like ‘Goodwill Hunting’ and ‘Rocky.’

Alas, though the movies based on The Fantastic Four may not be particularly great, The Human Torch is perhaps the greatest fire elemental in the comic book world.

Ice Man

In fact, The Human Torch was so incredible that Lee and Kirby decided to create another character based on him but with the opposite powers. Enter Robert “Bobby” Drake, otherwise known as founding member of the X-Men Ice Man. Considering both The Human Torch and Ice Man are the wild cards and comic relief of their respective groups, we’d love to see them together at some point. Alas, for now, we’ll have to play games like Lego Marvel Superheroes. We can all have dreams.

Anyway, Ice Man is able to freeze water wherever it may be and can transform his body into ice. More recently, the comics have shown Bobby creating ice clones of himself as well as ice monsters, which he then went on to use to scare his peers at the Jean Grey Academy.

Groot

Finally, we have our favorite plant-based life form of all time: Groot. Back at the beginning of Marvel Comics, Groot first appeared as an evil monster in Tales to Astonish #13 before eventually joining up with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

As film fans will know, he is only able to say “I am Groot” and yet manages to be one of the most likable, funny and adorable characters in comic books. He shares the abilities of Earth-based plants and can grow new bark at will, exude spores and even create leaves from time to time. Thankfully, he can also regenerate, which means there will hopefully be a never-ending cycle of baby Groots and big Groots that we can watch forever.

Let us know who your favorite elemental Marvel characters are, and tell us if we’ve missed someone out. For now, let’s all just continue to hail baby Groot!

Don Draper
Don Draper
Donald Francis "Don" Draper is a founding partner and the Creative Director at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Advertising Agency in Manhattan, NY. Prior to that position, he was the Director of the Creative Department at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. He is regarded among his colleagues as the best to ever pitch copy.