This article contains spoilers for VisionQuestseason 1 episode 7.
In the MCU, the first superhero is effectively Iron Man. Sure, Nick Fury tells him he isn’t the first at the end of the 2008 movie, and we know thatCaptain Marvel, the Eternals, and others predate him. But for all intents and purposes, it starts with Tony Stark. In Marvel Comics, however, it starts with the Human Torch, a flaming android who appears on the cover of 1939’s Marvel Comics #1.
Now the MCU has finally caught up, with the Human Torch officially debuting in the latest episode of VisionQuest, “Immolation.” But as anyone familiar with the Fantastic Four has already realized, the history of the Human Torch is complicated, and his insertion into the VisionQuest storyline only makes things more so.
Created by Carl Burgos, the Human Torch was a mainstay of Golden Age comics published by Timely, the company that would eventually become Marvel. One of the company’s first breakout stars, the Human Torch not only moved quickly into his own (admittedly, short-lived) solo series in 1940, but he regularly appeared in other anthologies and team-up books, including Marvel Mystery Comics, All Winners, Young Allies, and Young Men. Like most Golden Age heroes, he initially fought gangsters and racketeers before shifting to Nazis and other Axis soldiers, battling them at home and abroad.
It was in that latter capacity that the Human Torch helped form Marvel’s first superhero team, the All-Winners Squad, later renamed the Invaders. Alongside his teen sidekick Toro, a circus fire-eater who learned to also how to set his body ablaze, the Human Torch joined Captain America and Bucky, Namor, Miss America, and a yellow-clad hero called Whizzer (really) to battle against Axis powers wherever they found them. In fact, canonically, the Human Torch is the one who killed Hitler, burning the Nazi leader alive.
That last point highlights the most interesting thing about the Human Torch and his position within the Marvel Universe. Ask any casual comic fan, and they’ll tell you that Marvel heroes have feet of clay, in contrast to the godlike icons of the DC Universe. Yet, most think of that distinction occurring when Timely, and its immediate predecessor Atlas, became Marvel Comics in the 1960s, with the birth of reluctant heroes such as the Hulk and Spider-Man. Captain America, with his blond hair and lantern jaw, seemed more like a classic DC-style hero in the Golden Age.
But the Human Torch’s first appearance in Marvel Comics #1 undermines that assumption, proving that Marvel was interested in monsters even before it was Marvel. The first Human Torch story is very much a Frankenstein tale, complete with a mad scientist who fears his creation. The first half of the story follows scientist Phineas Horton as he seeks help in controlling his creation, a synthetic man whose skin goes ablaze whenever exposed to oxygen. With the help of some other scientists, he comes up with a stop-gap solution, putting the Torch in an airtight container and burying it in concrete, until he figures out how to fix the problem.
However, some air does get into the Torch’s container, eventually allowing him to catch fire again and break free. From there, the innocent Torch goes around town, accidentally setting things ablaze. That is, until a gangster meets the Torch and tricks him into working a protection racket, burning the steel factories of owners who won’t pay up. When the Torch realizes his mistake, he turns against the gangster, who kills himself fighting against his lackey. Along the way, the Torch learns how to control his flame, turning it off at will and creating fireballs he can throw.
So while that first story does end with him becoming a hero, and eventually establishing the civilian name “Jim Hammond,” the Human Torch began life as a misunderstood monster, someone who didn’t want the responsibility foisted upon him—just like Spider-Man, the Hulk, and most members of the Fantastic Four. Most, but not all. Johnny Storm is the one member of the Fantastic Four who didn’t hate the powers he gained, and, ironically, he took his codename from Jim Hammond (at that point long decommissioned) becoming the second Human Torch.
Since the 1960s, the Human Torch has multiple times been revived. One of his bodies was used by Ultron to become the Vision, and the Torch has served as an agent of SHIELD and as an Avenger. He has reunited with Captain America, Namor, and Bucky (Miss America and Whizzer have long since retired, not because of the latter’s name) as the Invaders. And when Jocasta and other synths get involved in robot wars, the Human Torch isn’t far behind.
Which is only fitting, because every Marvel hero comes from him, in some way. And now, thanks to VisionQuest, the MCU has finally caught up.
VisionQuest streams new episodes every Tuesday on Disney+.
