Featuring: Human Torch
Release: September 25, 1940
Cover: Fall 1940
10 cents
By Carl Burgos
19 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Marvel Mystery Comics #4 | PRELUDE | Marvel Mystery Comics #17 |
| Fantastic Four #56 | Reading order | Fantastic Four Annual 4 |
Looks like I’ve found a miniature Human Torch!
After appearing in 13 issues of Marvel Mystery Comics, Human Torch gets his own self-titled magazine.
This is the first issue. Except that it’s Human Torch #2.
The numbering seems to continue from the otherwise unrelated Red Raven Comics #1.
I’m not an expert on why comics were so against first issues back in the day. I’ve heard it was a way of dodging some postal fees for starting a new periodical to distributed. I’ve also heard marketing at the time thought people wouldn’t buy first issues of titles because they were “unproven”. Marvel marketing in the 2000s would feel the opposite, and started restarting titles with a new #1 every year or so, feeling that first issues sell better than later issues.
Maybe market comics based on their content and just number things sensibly.
Some modern online sources refer to this issue as Human Torch #1, so it gets a bit confusing. Some online sources call the series Human Torch Comics. aligning the GCD, which says it’s titled simply The Human Torch.
The numbering of this series only gets more confusing from here. We’ll discuss the numbering and title confusion in more detail in a later post.
Let’s talk Batman for a moment. One of the most enduringly popular superheroes of all time. (After Spider-Man, of course.) But what made Batman so popular? In concept, he wasn’t that different from the Shadow or the Phantom or characters going back to Zorro. In fact, he was rather similar to the Black Bat. What did Batman have that these characters didn’t that gave him such staying power?
Perhaps it’s aspects of his look designed by Bill Finger, the cool gloves or cowl, the cape that flowed in the wind to look like wings. But that’s not my theory.
The thing that made Batman unique? The thing that made Batman great? The thing that made Batman endure?
I claim it’s Robin. Introduced a year into Batman’s adventures, Batman gained a kid sidekick. And it’s Batman and Robin that was the unique concept, that was popular and enduring.
Robin would be well-imitated.
Toro is the first significant imitation of Robin, introduced about 6 months after. A few months later, Marvel would introduce Captain America and Bucky. Some months later, DC would introduce Green Arrow and Speedy, and Sandman would get his partner Sandy.
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