Human Torch (Golden Age)
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Template:Superherobox The Human Torch is a comic book character. Created by Carl Burgos, he first appeared Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939).
The "Human" Torch was actually an android created by a mad scientist. He possessed the ability to surround himself with fire and control flames. In his earliest adventures, he was portrayed as a sort of science fiction monstrosity but later became a proper superhero.
Along with the Sub-Mariner, the Torch’s off-and-on foe, and Captain America, he was one of the three trademark characters of Timely Comics, which would blossom into Marvel Comics. Like many superheroes, he fell into obscurity in the 1950s and Marvel recycled his name and powers into a new, unrelated Human Torch in 1961. Although, the original has made sporadic appearances in various silver age and subsequent Marvel Comics, he is still, unlike the Sub-Mariner and Captain America, closely identified with the golden age.
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In the Golden Age of comics
Not to be confused with the later Human Torch (Johnny Storm, a member of the Fantastic Four), this Human Torch was an android created by Professor Phineas T. Horton for scientific purposes. At a press-conference unveiling, however, Horton's creation burst into flames when exposed to oxygen, and, with human-like sentience, personality, and awareness, rebelled against his creator. Public outcry led to the Torch's being sealed in concrete, though he escaped due to a crack that let oxygen seep in. While the Torch then inadverently caused parts of New York City to burn, he eventually learned to control his flame and vowed to help humanity.
The Human Torch was part of the first major crossover in comic book history, a two-issue battle between the Torch and Namor the Sub-Mariner that appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics #8-9.
He would join other heroes as war broke out in Europe, and later in the Pacific, to fight the Axis powers. Continuing to be featured in Marvel Mystery, the Torch was also quickly spun-off into his own title, Human Torch Comics (no cover date, but premiering Fall 1940 with issue #2, having taken over the numbering of the unsuccessful Red Raven #1). In his first issue, he acquired a young partner, Thomas "Toro" Raymond. Toro was the mutant son of two nuclear scientists whose exposure to radiation gave him the ability to control fire. The Human Torch also joined the police force as part of his "human cover" under the name James "Jim" Hammond. He would later drop the human name and serve the police force outright as the Human Torch, fighting villains and his off-and-on foe, the Sub-Mariner.
1950s revival
After appearing in a wide variety of comics during the 1940s, the Human Torch fell victim to a general slump in the superhero market and disappeared for most of the 1950s. He was revived during a short-lived attempt by Atlas Comics, Marvel's 1950s predecessor, beginning with Young Men #24 (Dec. 1953), which also brought back Captain America and the Sub-Mariner.
Here, it was revealed that the Torch had been placed in deactivation sleep in the Mojave Desert; an atomic bomb test awoke him. Learning that Toro had been captured by the Soviets and brainwashed, the Torch rescued his old partner and learned that the nuclear bomb's radiation had made his powers both much stronger and more unstable. After five issues, fearing he would become a danger to those around him, the Torch flew back out into the desert and went nova, using up his energy reserve and effectively deactivating himself.
The Torch's stories during this period were mostly drawn by Dick Ayers, though initially some panels featuring the Torch were redrawn by Burgos for style consistency.
Present-day continuity
The Torch was found by the Fantastic Four in The Fantastic Four Annual #4 (1966), having been reactivated by the Mad Thinker and then destroyed at his command when the Torch refused to kill the heroes. A copy of his body was created by the time traveler Immortus; this copy was obtained by the villainous android Ultron, who used it to create the Vision, an android who went on to join the Avengers.
The Torch would be revived one final time in John Byrne's Avengers West Coast by the Scarlet Witch — who was searching for answers about her husband, the Vision — and Ann Raymond, wife of Tom "Toro" Raymond. He served the Avengers for many issues before losing his powers to save the former superheroine Spitfire in the pages of the 1990s series Namor. His powers gone, he decided to settle down with Ann Raymond.
He would appear later as the CEO of Oracle, Inc., a company run by Namor. In there, he served as "boss" to the mercenary team Heroes for Hire. When the group disbanded, he went off on his own, before being asked to become the head of Citizen V's V-Battalion upon the retirement of Roger Aubrey, the Destroyer.
Recently, while on leave from the V-Battalion as field leader of the New Invaders, he became attached to Tara, a recently-constructed female android based on him, whom he came to regard as a daughter of sorts, and struck up a renewed acquaintance with Spitfire to the dismay of her beau (the current Union Jack), while beginning to show signs that his powers were regenerating.
Unfortunately, Tara was revealed to be a plant, created by the Red Skull, with overrides on her developing personality allowing the Invaders' enemies, the Axis Mundi, to use her as a weapon against the team. Refusing to believe that she was truly gone, he found himself able to flame on again, and tried to channel the heat from her system to shut her down before she overloaded and killed all the Invaders, herself included. While he was able to stop her meltdown, his own systems could not handle the sheer heat, and he flew high into the atmosphere before detonating.
Physiology
The android Human Torch's anatomy has been used in these and other ways:
- A "blood" transfusion gave Spitfire her powers, and a second transfusion decades later saved her life and restored her youth.
- While travelling inside The Human Torch in miniturized form, Ant-Man (Scott Lang) temporarily gained a version of the Torch's powers after coming in contact with one of the cells that powers the Torch (an homage to a similar incident in which Ant Man (Henry Pym) entered the Vision's body and was temporarily rendered intangible).
- The Pyronanos, a type of nanomachine-based robots, were created using cells secretly extracted from Jim Hammond.