So... I guess everybody remembers the page where Forge possessed Johnny. It makes him a medium, right? But will he become a spectral? If so, when will it happen probably? In this chapter or even later?

I wish it'll be soon because I'd love to see his reaction for spirits, ghosts etc. ... (he'd probably punch them)

Johnny is my favorite character actually so I'd like to know more about him (his backstory for example) and that what's gonna happen. What might happen.

The best explanation so far I think are the tweets Zach posted when the page went up:

Johnny is not a spectral atm, if a spirit posseses a normal person it needs time to convert them via Exposure to Supernatural Stuff
That's why he can pass back through the barrier, bcuz he's functionally a tool/possessed object rn

That makes it sound like becoming a spectral is likely to me, but WHO KNOWS.

Oh, that's great! Hope he'll really become a spectral

Oh also, I was re-reading some pages last night, and yeah Johnny falls exactly under Isaac's definition of a medium. Page for reference: 113

Relating to Johnny being a medium, I don't know if it's been explained in or out of comic how long exactly it takes a possessed person to become a spectral. Isaac hasn't exactly clued us in on that and there's not really much in comic to show thus far.

It seems like the amount of time it takes for people in the shades phase to become full spectrals is less than a day(from when Max first saw PJ before he fell asleep to after school when he became a full spectral with the bat), however because we have only seen how long it took Max, there's no way of knowing how different it is for every different spectral, especially that we don't even know what caused Max to be a spectral in the first place.

So far it seems like Johnny hasn't really shown any signs of seeing shades, so it might be a couple days before his powers come through. Or maybe it'll be hours from the current time in comic? Maybe even during the hitball game! Probably not. But maybe.

I would have put this in a more recently discussed topic, but this one seems to be the most related to what I'm asking/stating.

I'd think it'd take a while but given that the chapter 5 title page shows a hand holding a ball and having grey spectral energy it seems to hint at Johhny becoming a spectral during the hitball game. Maybe when a spirit directly possesses you, the process goes a lot quicker...
Or maybe the image is more of an artistic license thing than something to be taken literally... It does make me believe that the spectral Johnny thing is almost certainly happening in this chapter.

I'd like to think that Johnny becomes a spectral in chapter 5 because not only am I excited to see how he reacts or what happens when he gains abilities from Forge's power(and also he's my fav but that's irrelevant) and looking at it myself it looks like spectral energy sort of? It follows the same wispy-ness of the spectral energy on the other side but it seems to fade out a little, maybe trying to make it seem like it's dust or something to signify Jeff's terrifying throws.

Or maybe Zack's trying to mess with us. Either way I'm very excited to find out what happens when Johnny becomes a spectral but also scared, going back to when Spender said "Most in our young friend's situation begin their foray into the supernatural by blowing up buildings or worse." (chapter 1 page 61, it looks like I'm not allowed to use links oops) So it'll probably be pretty chaotic, especially because it's Johnny that's getting these new spectral abilities.

Definitely looks like spectral energy to me...

I can imagine someone with Johnny's personality suddenly getting fire powers could be pretty disastrous, especially in a massive room full of other kids. Though I doubt paranatural would take such a grim turn... It'll likely just be completely hilarious somehow...
Though maybe it's metalbending powers instead? Forge seemed to have both fire powers and the ability to shape metal... Sure, fire melts metal and makes it more maleable but his metal manipulation seemed to go beyond just that...

I don't think we've seen a spirit with multiple, distinct powers, have we? The closest we have is Isaac's spirit, who can control multiple types of weather. I think Johnny would be able to use both powers - possibly to a lesser extent than other spectrals, but hey, Forge seems pretty powerful, anyways.

I don't think they'd take the "burning kids" approach (well, for more than one kid at a time, a one-off moment is possible), but a serious moment where everyone has to evacuate due to Johnny going out of control is possible.

Max's baseball bat is metal, isn't it? If Johnny has the ability to shape metal once becoming a spectral, I could see him stealing the bat with much more success this time around. The bat is aluminum, though, and Forge/Future Johnny's powers might not extend to that.

Maybe Forge's powers aren't specifically fire and/or metal, but just having to do with smithing as a concept... Like weather being a concept that encompasses several distinct elements like wind, rain, lightning etc.

He could... melt the bat maybe? Could be an interesting way to show what happens to a spirit if the tool gets broken but I doubt it'd be anything good and poor magnetic snake/dragon spirit thing then.

INTERESTING UPDATE!
Aug. 14th's page did show Forge--he's ostensibly still possessing Johnny, meaning that it's entirely possible that everyone's favorite redhead could become a spectral!
*END OF UPDATE*

Speaking of Johnny and being possessed by Forge, we should also ask if at this point Forge has become a grudge... Now, many people have said earlier that because Forge seemed to accept his death, he wouldn't become a grudge. While this seems likely, Forge still looks extremely ominous. This also could be just him without his armor, though. Thoughts?

Welp, I remember a theory that Forge was possessing Johnny's coat because based on the angle it would make sense, but this recent development disproves that theory. At least Johnny hasn't gone nuclear yet.

I like the idea that we're seeing Forge without armor. I hadn't even thought about him wearing armor, I just assumed armor was part of his natural appearance, but it makes sense that he would make himself armor, and this is how he looks normally. Like some kind of fiery bone dragon. Pretty cool stuff.

Hm, I hadn't even considered Forge maybe being a grudge... He wasn't before he got weakened. Can spirits even become grudges after possessing something/someone or is it a physical transformation that needs the spirit to be free... If he was a grudge, would he have backed down after the danger passed or just lash out anyway?

I think I like the idea of it just being him without his armor better. He definitely looks more skeletal. Then again, since that would be mostly a mental projection, it could signify that he feels vulnerabel...
He's an old spirit who, despite his temper, would probably be composed enough not to go grudge so easily. Eventhough he's weakened, he still has a purpose and he managed to get into Mayview. The controlled grudgification of the frogwhale spirit seems to suggest spirits can become grudges without completely losing control but I feel it would still hinder Forge in progressing towards his goal...
Also, I feel like if this was a thing that happened, it would've at least been shown in comic in some way other than just a design change. Though I guess it could still come up later.

Anyway, it's still a really interesting idea...