Featuring: Human Torch
Release: September 11, 1953
Cover: December 1953
10 cents
9 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Marvel Mystery Comics #92 | PRELUDE | Human Torch #38, Story D |
| Fantastic Four #56 | Reading order | Fantastic Four Annual 4 |
…And that’s why I came here… from my grave!
The Human Torch returns!
Carl Burgos is on hand for the cover and draws the figure of the Human Torch on the opening page, but Russ Heath does most of the art for the issue. Notice Heath gives the Torch eyes and a mouth. Roy Thomas speculates that Heath had drawn the Torch on the first page, but an editor, perhaps Stan Lee, wasn’t happy and covered it with a Burgos drawing.
You can definitely see the difference as Heath gives the Human Torch weird eyes and a creepy smile instead of the blank face.
Burgos will return for the next 3 appearances of Human Torch in the pages of Young Men.
Young Men, there’s no need to feel down…
The GCD credits the script to Hank Chapman.
It has been almost 5 years since the Human Torch last appeared and Marvel ended its superhero line. This issue it revives its 3 most popular superheroes, along with Captain America and Sub-Mariner. We’ve explored the revival of the two other characters before. Namor’s return lasted the longest, a bit over a year. Captain America got his own series back for 3 issues. Human Torch will do the same.
The last we saw the Human Torch, he was mourning the death of his creator or flying to Venus. The comic will explain why he’s been absent these 4 years. Criminals finally got the better of him, and used chemicals to douse his flame, then buried him in the desert.
The Human Torch recaps his origin… and boy is it different from the last two times we heard it.
First, he says he was created during World War II. Maybe that’s true, but it was before the US was involved with the war, as he was created in 1939.
Immediately after his creation, the professor instructed him to fight against evil and for liberty. They leave out the professor burying him in concrete, and that the professor wanted to make money off his creation. It was only later that the Torch got it in his head to fight crime.
Then we get an interesting detail. The Human Torch killed Hitler by burning him alive. With his dying breath, Hitler instructed aides to tell the world he committed suicide rather than the truth.
That’s a pretty cool addition to the story.
Then we learn he met Toro in 1949, when it was actually 1940. It was plainly before the US entered the war, and Toro himself fought the Axis powers a lot. So this is a huge push to the future. The thinking is to have Toro still be young in the 1950s. Otherwise he’d be an adult already. This is an early example of what Marvel would come to call the sliding timescale. A concept I loathe.
The Human Torch’s desert burial was in Yucca Flat, and an atomic bomb is what brought him back to life. But what became of Toro?
The Human Torch finds Toro in Korea fighting for the Reds, who had brainwashed him. Interestingly, a writer 50 years later will reveal this was also the fate of Captain America’s sidekick Bucky.
The Human Torch rescues Toro and frees him of the brainwashing. They team up to deal with criminals who captured the Chief’s daughter. As best I can tell, they proceed to murder the criminals.
The Human Torch and Toro recommit to fighting evil… at least for a few months.
As mentioned, shortly after this, Human Torch’s self-titled series is revived… for 3 issues. I’d like to go ahead and skip to the end, to see how the character again disappears from the newsstands.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 50/100
Minus points for the poor continuity. Plus points for burning Hitler alive. Washes out at an even 50.
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes vol. 1.
Characters:
- Human Torch
- Chief Wilson
- Adolf Hitler
- Toro
- Mary Wilson
- Butcher
Story notes:
- Narrator notes Torch has been long absent. Criminal claims to have buried Torch in desert 4 years ago.
- Criminals use Solution X-R to try to douse flame. They had used it successfully 4 years earlier, but it doesn’t work now.
- Human Torch reminds us of powers: turn flame on and off, toss fireballs, shoot flames from finger tips, zoom through the air, and hit hard.
- Green solution covers the Torch and puts out his flame.
- Human Torch tells his origin with many changes.
- Torch is the one who killed Hitler, burning him alive. Hitler says to tell the world he died by suicide. That is a scene not previously seen.
- Torch describes fighting spy rings and crime rackets after war.
- Torch describes meeting Toro in 1949.
- Torch and Toro take out Murder Inc. gang.
- Chief Wilson remembers some of Torch and Toro’s exploits.
- Torch disappeared in 1949, same year he apparently met Toro.
- Atomic explosion awakened and freed the Torch, gifting him greater power.
- Torch was buried in Yucca Flat in Nevada.
- A Communist country had provided the X-R. They were provided Toro in exchange.
- Officer notes soldiers in Korea have seen mysterious streaks of fire.
- Torch finds Toro in Korea fighting for the Reds. Torch knocks Toro out and takes him home.
- Doctors revealed Toro has been brainwashed by the Reds.
- Chief Wilson’s daughter Mary is kidnapped by the Butcher. Torch to surrender himself in exchange. Torch to climb into metal casket on Knob Hill.
- In helicopter, Butcher picks up box, and drops it at sea.
- Toro is free of the brainwashing and rescues the Torch.
- Torch and Toro free Mary, then heave fireballs and the escaping helicopter, destroying it and presumably killing 3 criminals, including the Butcher.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Marvel Mystery Comics #92 | PRELUDE | Human Torch #38, Story D |
| Fantastic Four #56 | Reading order | Fantastic Four Annual 4 |
The funny thing is that the “Human Torch burned Hitler alive” thing is still considered canon, and it’s mentioned in modern comics like Secret Avengers… Although I suppose it would have seemed odd in the ’60s, because Hitler didn’t die, but instead became the Hate Monger and fought the Fantastic Four. We’ll have to wait until the ’70s to find an explanation with a certain Nazi scientist created by Jack Kirby.
I probably should have mentioned the Hate Monger. But Fantastic Four #21 already left it open that might not have been the real Hitler. Reed notes Hitler was reported to have many doubles, so they’ll never know if this was the real Hitler.
That possibility applies in both directions. Perhaps Human Torch killed one of the doubles Reed referred to. Perhaps either or neither was the real Hitler.