Pyrokinesis

"Flame on!"

- The Human Torch

Pyrokinesis is the ability to generate, project and/or manipulate volumes of super-heated plasma in the form of fire. It is an application of thermokinesis. Pyrokinesis is found in many different forms of speculative fiction and has a wide variety of forms, intensity and usage.

In comics, pyrokinesis is often used as a superpower found amongst various costumed superheroes and villains. In titles published by Marvel Comics, two characters who have held the name Human Torch possess this ability. The original Human Torch, who was an android named Jim Hammond possessed photoelectric cells in the pores of his epidermis that enabled him to ignite his body in a caul of flame. He could generate thermal updrafts that allowed him to fly and could generate and hurl balls of fire for a seemingly inexhaustible period of time. During the 1940s, Jim Hammond partnered himself with a teenage mutant named Toro, who possessed all of the same abilities as his mentor, but his powers were generated naturally.

Hammond's successor, Johnny Storm of the superhero team, the Fantastic Four, was a mutated human who possessed the same abilities as the original human torch, but could burn a lot hotter and for longer periods of time. He could maintain sustainable streams of fire for limited periods of time. If the situation required it, Johnny could increase the intensity of his flame projection to such a degree that he could literally go super nova.

Another Marvel character with pyrokinesis was the aptly named Pyro, aka St. John Allerdyce. John could manipulate flame that was present in his immediate area, even forging it's patterns into various shapes, but could not generate it himself. Thus he required some form of artificial accelerant, which he usually wore as a pair of gauntlets affixed with cable lines.