Johnny Thunder

Johnny Thunder
Johnny Thunder and Thunderbolt on the cover of All-American Comics #1 (May 1999)
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Flash Comics #1 (January 1940)
Created by	John Wentworth Stan Aschmeier
In-story information
Alter ego	John "Johnny" L. Thunder
Team affiliations	Justice Society of America All-Star Squadron United States Navy
Notable aliases	Johnny Thunderbolt
Abilities	The Thunderbolt, uncannily lucky.

Johnny Thunder is the name of three fictional characters in comics published by DC Comics. A fourth character has the variant name Jonni Thunder. The first, second, and fourth characters are superheroes, while the third character is a supervillain.

Johnny Thunder first appeared in Flash Comics #1 and was created by John Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier.

John L. Thunder is the seventh son of a seventh son, born at 7 a.m. on Saturday, July 7, the seventh day of the week, the seventh day of the seventh month in 1917. This causes him to be kidnapped and sold to a group of men from the fictional country of Badhnesia who had been looking for someone born at this time on this day. As an infant, Johnny is given possession of the genie-like "Thunderbolt" named Yz during a mystic ritual on his seventh birthday, which was intended to allow the Badhnesians to use Johnny to rule the world. However, the plan is soon aborted after an attack from a neighboring country. Johnny eventually returns to the United States and lives an ordinary life until one day, while washing windows, he inadvertently summons the Thunderbolt with the magic words cei-u (pronounced "say you") when he calls for someone to throw him a sponge, which he accidentally uses to become a successful boxer. Johnny underwent several adventures (each time inadvertently summoning the Thunderbolt via the use of "say, you" in his day-to-day conversation, never realizing the Thunderbolt was responsible for the extraordinary events that befell him) before finally learning of the Thunderbolt's existence. In the first few issues of Flash Comics the title of the feature was Johnny Thunderbolt.

Johnny's appearances with the Justice Society and in his own solo adventures tended to be quite comedic, as Johnny's main personality trait was being fairly dim-witted, which prompts his much-smarter Thunderbolt to possess a sarcastic (if patient) attitude toward his "boss." He accidentally joined, when saying he felt the Justice Society should have let him join, and was then taken to their meeting. Despite recurring impatience with his stupidity, his fellow JSAers genuinely valued Johnny's good-heartedness and dedication and considered him a friend. Furthermore, the Thunderbolt's vast power may have contributed to Johnny's continued JSA membership, his frequent blunders notwithstanding, since the more competent heroes doubtlessly thought it wise to keep an eye on the pair whenever possible. He finally became a member after the Flash left and the group told him to capture Mister X, which he succeeded in accidentally. Like most of the JSA members, he had his aging factor greatly slowed during an encounter with the villain Ian Karkull.