The Human Torch
Release: August 31, 1939
Cover: October, 1939
Price: $0.10
Credits: Carl Burgos
16 pages
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| POSTLUDE | Marvels #0 | |
| Fantastic Four #1 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #2 |
My main goal is to read the Marvel Universe as a series of comics which began with Fantastic Four #1. But the company had 22 years of comics prior to that, some of which have bearing on the stories. I’ll occasionally peek at those. As we just met the new Human Torch, reading the origin of the original Human Torch seems relevant.
It’s a great cover. Well-remembered for being the first cover of the company that would eventually take on the comic’s name. I like how the melting steel and bullet just radiate heat.
This is a good science fiction tale. Plenty of good plot elements and character here. Professor Horton is a genius; he’s created a near-perfect synthetic man– but the man bursts uncontrollably into flame when exposed to oxygen; hence, the Human Torch. Horton is convinced to seal the Torch away until the condition can be cured. Time passes, and the Torch escapes. A mobster tries to control him for an extortion racket. But the plan backfires and the mobster dies in battle with the Torch. Through exposure to nitrogen, the Torch at last gains control of his flame and straightens things out with the police. He is ready to return to Professor Horton until we learn Horton also just wants to exploit him for profit. The Human Torch goes off to carve out his own destiny.
Great story, not so well told. I feel bad sitting smugly in judgment of an 80-year old comic from the medium’s earliest days. The medium has learned a lot about storytelling since then– the medium learned a lot from comics like this. But the flaws are glaring: some sketchiness to the drawing; overuse of arrows to guide through badly arranged panels. And the worst offense to me is the passage of time between the Torch’s imprisonment and escape– these things happen in adjacent panels. But we are to believe much time has passed because the narration tells us so. At least they are on different pages. A single panel showing time where the Torch was a prisoner would have gone a long way.
I have some confusion regarding how grown-up the Human Torch is. He’s really only minutes old– but he’s artificial. So a lot of knowledge and cunning could have been programmed in. The comic is unclear on these points. He sometimes seems childlike, enjoying the sound of bells; however, he also recognizes a complicated racketeering and extortion scam when he sees it, and can competently explain the situation to law enforcement.
This panel seems notable. I’ve seen very similar images elsewhere in comics and film. Bullets breaking off Superman or Captain Marvel’s head. Or bullets near a forehead being controlled by Magneto.
Professor Horton would like to state for the record that he has never heard a who and is sick of being asked about it.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 58/100
The issue’s significance is high. This is basically the first Marvel comic and this story introduces the Human Torch. The art and storytelling is crude, but the medium is new. The plot itself is strong. I really like the character of Professor Horton, that he’s just after money in the end.
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Marvel Comics vol. 1.
Characters:
- Professor Horton
- Human Torch
- Sargo
Minor characters:
- Red (Sargo’s henchman)
- Mr. Harris (owner of Acmen Warehouses Inc.; Sargo’s target)
Some notes:
- First comic from Timely, the company that would become Marvel
- Human Torch has no civilian name in this comic.
- Some online sources suggest the unnamed police captain is John Wilson
- Sargo is introduced and killed in this issue. Red is his henchman
- Human Torch doesn’t fly in the comic. The last panel shows him take a large leap, but the narration says he “sails through space like a comet.” Perhaps implying he can fly.
- 10 cents is the same price as FF #1 some 22 years later. But this issue gave more pages and stories for your dime.
- Context: This is the first of the Marvel superhero comics. But Superman was going strong, appearing in two titles. And earlier that month, Detective Comics #31 introduced the fifth Batman story, and one of his most iconic and most imitated covers.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| POSTLUDE | Marvels #0 | |
| Fantastic Four #1 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #2 |
Compare this art to what Hal Foster was doing on Prince Valiant or Alex Raymond on Flash Gordon during the same period, or over in Europe Herge had been drawing Tintin for about 10 years by that point with a mastery of storytelling that was unmatched. I always wondered why standards standards for this era were so disparate. Were readers so eager for new material that they overlooked the crude art and the simplistic plots?