Human Torch (android)
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- This article is about the Golden Age Human Torch. For Silver/Modern Age Human Torch, Johnny Storm, see Human Torch.
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The Human Torch is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics-owned superhero. Created by writer-artist Carl Burgos, he first appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939), published by Marvel's predecessor, Timely Comics.
The "Human" Torch was actually an android created by a scientist. He possessed the ability to surround himself with fire and control flames. In his earliest appearances, he was portrayed as a science fiction monstrosity, but quickly became a hero.
The Human Torch was one of Timely Comics' three signature characters, along with Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Like many superheroes, the Human Torch fell into obscurity by the 1950s. In 1961, Marvel recycled his name and powers into a new, unrelated Human Torch, a member of the Fantastic Four (who, among other things, actually was human). Unlike Captain America and the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch has had only a small presence in the post-1950s Marvel comic books and is closely associated with the Golden Age.
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[edit] Publication history
Following his debut in the hit Marvel Comics #1,[1] the Human Torch proved popular enough that he soon became one of the first superheroes to headline a solo title. Through the 1940s, the Torch starred or was featured in Marvel Mystery Comics (the book's title beginning with issue #2), The Human Torch (premiering with issue #2, Fall 1940, having taken over the numbering of the defunct Red Raven Comics), and Captain America Comics #19, 21-67, 69, 76 & 77, as well as appearing in several issues of All Select Comics, All Winners Comics, Daring Comics, Mystic Comics, and 'Young Allies Comics.
Seeing a natural "fire and water" theme, Timely was responsible for comic books' first major crossover, with a two-issue battle between the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner that spanned Marvel Mystery Comics #8-9 — telling the same story from the two characters' different perspectives.
Marvel Mystery Comics ended its run with #92 (June 1949), and The Human Torch with #35 (March 1949), as superheroes in general faded in popularity. Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman — who by the early 1950s had transitioned the company to its next iteration, as Atlas Comics — attempted to revive superheroes with the anthology comic Young Men #24-28 (Dec. 1953 - June 1954), starring the Human Torch (art by Syd Shores and Dick Ayers, variously, with covers and initially some panels featuring the Torch redrawn by Burgos for style consistency), along with the Sub-Mariner and Captain America. The solo title The Human Torch returned for issues #36-38 (April-Aug. 1954) before again being canceled. The Torch also appeared in stories in the briefly revived Captain America Comics and Sub-Mariner Comics, and in the anthology Men's Adventures #28 (July 1954).
The original Human Torch debuted in present-day Marvel Comics continuity in Fantastic Four Annual #4 (Nov. 1966).
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Early life
The 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 being sealed in concrete, though he escaped due to a crack that let oxygen seep in. While the Torch then inadvertently caused parts of New York City to burn, he eventually learned to control his flame and vowed to help humanity.
He would join other heroes as war broke out in Europe, and later in the Pacific, to fight the Axis powers. In his solo title's debut issue, he acquired a young partner, Thomas "Toro" Raymond, 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.
Both the Torch and the Sub-Mariner joined with Captain America as the core of the superhero team The Invaders, fighting Nazis during World War II (in retcon stories that premiered in 1970s comics). Those three heroes and others banded together in post-war America in a subsequent super-team, the All-Winners Squad. In Marvel continuity, the Human Torch was responsible for the death of Adolf Hitler. When the Russians were invading Berlin, the Torch and Toro broke into Hitler's bunker just as he was about to commit suicide, to offer him the chance to surrender himself to the Americans, rather than the Russians. Hitler turned his pistol and opened fire. In return, the Human Torch blasted fire at Hitler, burning him alive.
Sometime afterward, the Torch was 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.
In order to keep Toro a young boy, the writers retconned (altered the history of) the character slightly, claiming the Torch met Toro after World War II rather than at the beginning. The revival lasted five issues. Later writers explained how 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.
[edit] Present-day
In modern-day continuity, the supervillain the Mad Thinker reactivated the Torch to have him battle the Fantastic Four, deactivating him when the Torch refused to kill the heroes.[2] A storyline in The Avengers, dealing with the secret background of its android member, the Vision, gradually revealed that the Torch's body had been found by a renegade robot named Ultron 5 and modified to become the Vision, his mind wiped of past memories and his powers altered with the coerced help of the Human Torch's original creator, Phineas Horton. The seed of this idea was planted by artist Neal Adams and worked out in detail in The Avengers #133-135 by writer Steve Englehart.
A later story by Roy Thomas in What If? Vol. 1, #4 (Aug. 1977), planted the suggestion that the Vision was actually made from a second android created by Horton, named Adam II. This freed up the Human Torch for a possible revival. This was followed up by John Byrne, who had the Scarlet Witch revive the Torch in Avengers West Coast, seeking answers about her husband, the Vision, and to help Ann Raymond, wife of Tom "Toro" Raymond. The Torch served the Avengers for many issues before losing his powers to save the former superheroine Spitfire in the 1990s series Namor. His powers gone, the Torch settled down with Ann Raymond.
He would appear later as CEO of Oracle, Inc., a company run by Namor. There he ran the mercenary team Heroes for Hire, and his mysterious connection to the Vision was furthered when Ant-Man (Scott Lang) discovered that his internal mechanisms were not merely similar, but identical to the Vision's. During a time-travel adventure, the Avengers subsequently discovered Immortus, the custodian of Limbo, had used a device called the Forever Crystal to diverge the Torch's personal timeline while keeping the two outcomes concurrent. Hence, the Human Torch is the Vision, but also continues to exist as himself.
When Oracle Inc. was closed down and Heroes for Hire disbanded, Hammond was soon asked to head Citizen V's V-Battalion upon the retirement of Roger Aubrey, the Destroyer. While on leave from the V-Battalion as field leader of the New Invaders, he became attached to Tara, a female android based on him, whom he came to regard as a daughter of sorts. He also renewed acquaintances with Spitfire, to the dismay of her beau, Union Jack (Joey Chapman). Tara was revealed to have been created by the Red Skull; overrides on her developing personality allowed the Invaders' enemies, the Axis Mundi, to use her as a weapon against the team. As Tara heated toward overload to kill the Invaders, the Torch channeled her heat in order to prevent her meltdown. With his own systems then overloading, he flew high into the atmosphere, away from where he could cause harm, and detonated.
The superhuman training camp created in the aftermath of the Civil War is named Camp Hammond, in the Torch's honor. A statue of Hammond on the grounds bears the inscription "JIM HAMMOND, THE FIRST OF THE MARVELS: He showed us that heroes can be made".[3]
[edit] Physiology
Earlier writers portrayed the Torch's body as anatomically identical to human, but made out of synthetic materials (such as ceramic bone). Correspondingly, the Torch was shown to have human needs and human weaknesses; he has been felled by drugs, poison gas, and telepathic attacks in both Golden-Age stories and the Invaders series from the 1970s. The Torch has also been shown sleeping, eating, and drinking on more than one occasion.
After the Mad Thinker's reactivation of the Torch, writers began to portray him as clearly mechanical, containing circuits, relays, and motors, much like a traditional robot. The reconciliation of these two different interpretations of the Torch's physiology remains an unresolved issue.
Of particular note is the Torch's synthetic blood, which in addition to being a universal blood type has been shown to have remarkable restorative properties:
- A "blood" transfusion gave Spitfire her powers, and a second transfusion decades later saved her life and restored her youth. Aware of this transformation, the Hyena obtained a blood specimen from the Torch in the hopes of creating an army of Nazi speedsters. A similar transfusion to Warrior Woman reversed much of her brain damage and restored her health and power.
- While traveling inside The Human Torch in miniaturized form, Scott Lang temporarily gained a version of the Torch's powers after coming in contact with one of the cells that powers the Torch (a homage to a similar incident in which 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.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] Amalgam Comics
In Amalgam Comics, the Human Torch is combined with Alan Scott to form the Human Lantern.
[edit] Other media
[edit] Fantastic Four
This Human Torch was mentioned in the episode "When Calls Galactus" when Reed Richards found out why Frankie had Jonny Storm's powers.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Per researcher Keif Fromm in Alter Ego #49, p. 4 (caption), that initial comic, cover-dated October 1939, quickly sold out 80,000 copies. Goodman immediately produced a second printing, cover-dated November 1939 and identical except for a black bar in the inside-front-cover indicia over the October date, and the November date added at the end. That sold approximately 800,000 copies.
- ^ Fantastic Four Annual #4
- ^ Avengers: The Initiative #2 (June 2007)
