Featuring: Human Torch
Release: March 17, 1942
Cover: May 1942
10 cents
By Carl Burgos
12 pages
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| Marvel Mystery Comics #17 | PRELUDE | Human Torch #8 |
| Fantastic Four #56 | Reading order | Fantastic Four Annual 4 |
That was for Pearl Harbor!
The heroes have been defending America from German and Japanese spies, saboteurs, and invasions for a couple years now. But now America is at war, and the heroes are ready to take the fight to them.
This comic was released about 3 months after Pearl Harbor, about as soon as a story could react to it and get to print.
“Remember Pearl Harbor” reads the cover.
I will note that Burgos’ art isn’t especially racist. The script refers to the Japanese as “Japs” or “Jap-rats”, but that is probably an accurate capturing of how American soldiers referred to them at the time. What’s inexcusable and dehumanizing is the Al Gabriele art on the cover, with Japanese people depicted with yellow skin and sharp teeth.
Writing a letter to Marvel could win you a defense bond. These comics will start promoting defense bonds heavily as a way ordinary people can help with the war effort and show their patriotism.
Burgos delivers a very abstracted and artistic rendition of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
24 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese reached my hometown of San Francisco. But the Torch and Toro were there to save the city.
Next, they track down the aircraft carrier the attack took off from.
And ultimately sink the carrier in a Japanese harbor. “That was for Pearl Harbor!” shouts the Torch.
The next stop is to free captured US Marines from a Japanese concentration camp.
Next up is melting steel the Japanese need for the war effort.
The Torch notes that US companies were selling steel to Japan before the war. Maybe we should stop selling things to countries that intend to use those things to commit war crimes.
Finally, the Torch destroys several civilians’ houses. He notes this was to deal with snipers located in some of them. That seems like overkill to me, and possibly a war crime itself, the disproportionate murder of civilians. The Torch does note that he “hated to do it”.
This issue also contains stories featuring the Vision, the Patriot, Terry Vance the School Boy Sleuth, Jimmy Jupiter, and the Angel.
Burgos only got out a few more issues of the Human Torch. Soon enough, it was his time to go to war himself. He returned to the title briefly after the war for a couple issues in 1947, and then was around for its short 1954 revival. But mostly he was pursuing other career options.
There’s one more wartime Human Torch story that seems important before moving on to his adventures later in the 1940s.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 50/100
I read this story in Timely’s Greatest: The Golden Age Human Torch by Carl Burgos Omnibus.
Characters:
- Human Torch
- Toro
- Nodope
- Fooey
Story notes:
- 24 hours after Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes approaching San Francisco.
- Toro burns up his clothes because there is no time to change.
- Torch and Toro fly from New York to San Francisco in minutes.
- Battle cry: “Scuttle the Japs!”
- Aerial combat over San Francisco between flaming heroes and Japanese planes.
- Torch and Toro find the aircraft carrier at sea that launched the attack– the Yoka. Human Torch and Toro sink the Yoka in a Japanese harbor.
- They then find the captured Marine troopship and look for the concentration camp.
- Torch and Toro free Marines, then seek arms on Nodope Hill, which seems to be the nickname for the Hill after the officer.
- Another officer named Fooey.
- Torch melts steel to drown the Japanese Marines.
- Torch destroys several civilian houses to deal with snipers.
- Torch leaves a flaming V and a message for the Japanese.
- Readers are encouraged to by US bonds and stamps.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Marvel Mystery Comics #17 | PRELUDE | Human Torch #8 |
| Fantastic Four #56 | Reading order | Fantastic Four Annual 4 |
