Early life The Human Torch was an
android created by Professor Phineas Horton in his lab in
Brooklyn,
New York for "scientific" purposes. At a press-conference unveiling, however, Horton's creation burst into flames when exposed to oxygen. The android showed human-like sentience, personality, and awareness, but the spectators feared that he posed a safety threat. Public outcry led to the Torch being sealed in concrete, though he escaped due to a crack that let oxygen seep in. The Torch then inadvertently set parts of New York City on fire and, after dealing with a mobster who wanted to gain advantage of his abilities for fire insurance (and accidentally causing the mobster's death in an explosion), he eventually learned to control his flame, rebelled against his creator, and vowed to help humanity. The Torch later first encountered and battled
Namor the Sub-Mariner. He would join other heroes as war broke out in Europe, and later in the Pacific, to fight the
Axis powers. In his solo title's debut issue, he acquired a young partner, Thomas "
Toro" Raymond, the
mutant son of two nuclear scientists whose exposure to radiation gave him the ability to control fire. The Human Torch also joined the New York City police force as part of his "human cover" under the name James "Jim" Hammond. He would later drop the human name and serve the police force outright as the Human Torch, fighting villains and his off-and-on foe, the Sub-Mariner. Both the Torch and the Sub-Mariner joined with Captain America and his partner
Bucky as the core of the superhero team the
Invaders, fighting
Nazis during
World War II (in
retcon stories that premiered in 1970s comics). With the Invaders, he was soon brainwashed by the
Red Skull and battled the
Liberty Legion. He later gave a blood transfusion to Jacqueline Falsworth, giving her superhuman powers to become
Spitfire. The Torch, the Sub-Mariner, Captain America, and Bucky banded together with the
Whizzer, and
Miss America in post-war America in a subsequent super-team, the
All-Winners Squad (the original Captain America and Bucky's membership were later retconned as having been the second
Captain America and
Bucky). In Marvel continuity, the Human Torch was responsible for the death of
Adolf Hitler. When
the Russians were invading Berlin, the Torch and Toro broke into
Hitler's bunker just as he was about to commit suicide, to offer him the chance to surrender himself to the Americans rather than the Russians. Hitler lunged for a red switch, presumed by the Torch to be a bomb. In return, the Human Torch blasted fire at Hitler, burning him alive. Sometime afterward, the Torch was placed in deactivation sleep in the
Mojave Desert; an
atomic bomb test awoke him. Learning that Toro had been captured by the
Soviets and brainwashed, the Torch rescued his old partner and learned that the nuclear bomb's radiation had made his powers both much stronger and more unstable. To keep Toro a young boy, the writers
retconned the character slightly, claiming the Torch met him after World War II rather than at the beginning of the war. The revival lasted five issues. Later writers explained how fearing he would become a danger to those around him, the Torch flew back out into the desert and went nova, using up his energy reserve and effectively deactivating himself.
Reactivation and joining Avengers West Coast 's cover to
Avengers West Coast #50 In modern-day continuity, the
Mad Thinker reactivated the Torch to have him battle the
Fantastic Four, deactivating him when the Torch refused to kill the heroes. In a storyline in the
Avengers that dealt with the secret background of its
android member, the
Vision revealed that the Torch's body had been found by a renegade robot named
Ultron 5, and modified to become the Vision, his mind wiped of past memories and his powers altered with the coerced help of the Human Torch's original creator, Phineas Horton. The seed of this idea was planted by artist
Neal Adams and worked out in detail in
The Avengers #133–135 (May–June 1975) by writer
Steve Englehart. A later story by
Roy Thomas in
What If? #4 (Aug. 1977), planted the suggestion that the Vision was actually made from a second android created by Horton, named
Adam II. This freed up the Human Torch for a possible revival. This was followed up by
John Byrne, who had the
Scarlet Witch revive the Torch in
Avengers West Coast, seeking answers about her husband, the Vision, and to help Ann Raymond, wife of Tom "
Toro" Raymond. In these stories, it was determined that the Vision had been made by Ultron out of the Torch's spare parts, which explained their physical similarities. The Torch served the Avengers for many issues before losing his powers to save the former superheroine
Spitfire in the 1990s series
Namor. His powers gone, the Torch settled down with Ann Raymond. He became the Chief of Security for Oracle, Inc., and would appear later as the CEO of Oracle, Inc., a company run by Namor. There he ran the mercenary team
Heroes for Hire, and his mysterious connection to the Vision was furthered when
Ant-Man (Scott Lang) declared that his internal mechanisms were identical to the Vision's despite the differences in their appearance and powers. During the time-travel adventure
Avengers Forever, the Avengers subsequently discovered
Immortus, the custodian of Limbo, had used a device called the Forever Crystal to diverge the Torch's personal timeline while keeping the two outcomes concurrent. According to this explanation, the Human Torch
is the Vision, but also continues to exist as himself. When Oracle, Inc., was closed down and Heroes for Hire disbanded, Hammond was soon asked to head
Citizen V's V-Battalion upon the retirement of Roger Aubrey, the
Destroyer. While on leave from the V-Battalion as field leader of the
New Invaders, he became attached to
Tara, a female android based on him, whom he came to regard as a daughter of sorts. He also renewed acquaintances with Spitfire, to the dismay of her beau,
Union Jack (Joey Chapman). Tara was revealed to have been created by the
Red Skull; overrides on her developing personality allowed the Invaders' enemies, the Axis Mundi, to use her as a weapon against the team. As Tara heated toward overload to kill the Invaders, the Torch channeled her heat to prevent her meltdown. With his own systems then overloading, he flew high into the atmosphere, away from where he could cause harm, and detonated. The Torch's remains were recovered by the United Nations and sequestered for research. They were subsequently stolen by professor Zhang Chin, who used the Torch's chemistry to create a virus weapon that caused infected persons to immolate. Captain America (Barnes) and the Sub-Mariner stopped the attack, and were able to pressure the U.S. Government into burying the Torch with full military honors. The superhuman training camp created in the aftermath of the Civil War is named
Camp Hammond, in the Torch's honor. A statue of Hammond on the grounds bears the inscription "JIM HAMMOND, THE FIRST OF THE MARVELS: He showed us that heroes can be made". When the camp was shut down by
Norman Osborn, an angry mob tore down the statue.
Avengers/Invaders The original Human Torch appears in the
Avengers/Invaders maxi-series alongside his fellow Invaders when an incident takes them from the battlefields of
World War II to the present
Marvel Universe, where they encounter both the
New Avengers and
Mighty Avengers. During his time in the future, the Torch briefly attempts to 'lead' S.H.I.E.L.D.'s
Life Model Decoys against the organization in the belief that they are sentient machines that have been enslaved by the agency, but it is revealed that he has been deceived by
Ultron, who had infiltrated the Helicarrier.
Weaponization Some time after his destruction, the pieces of his body are gathered and reassembled in a secret
UN lab, until stolen by a squad of mercenaries led by
Batroc the Leaper, at the behest of the Chinese science-villain Professor Pandemic. As a young boy, the Professor was rescued from Japanese authorities by the Invaders, and was fascinated by the Torch. Now, he intends to use the technology to further his goals.
Captain America (James Barnes),
Black Widow, and the Sub-Mariner race to prevent this from happening. The Professor used the Torch's chemistry and cell structure to create an airborne virus that can spontaneously kill people. The Professor plans to use this virus to eradicate half of Earth's population. Luckily, Cap is able to stop this and made sure that Jim received a proper burial.
The Torch At the beginning of the "
Dark Reign" storyline, the recently resurrected
Toro is captured by
A.I.M. during an attempt to kill the
Mad Thinker. Initial experimentation on Toro makes the Mad Thinker realize that he can reconstruct the Torch. A.I.M. steals the Torch's body from Arlington National Cemetery for experimentation. After the Mad Thinker and A.I.M. spend months experimenting on the Torch's corpse and on the captive Toro they are able to resurrect the Torch, but his memories have disappeared. The Mad Thinker gains control of the Torch using "Compound D", a synthetic molecule he adapted from the Torch's cells (H42N2C2O6), which he dubs "Horton cells". Meanwhile, Toro's powers begin to manifest themselves again and a startling discovery proves that Toro's mutation may have been created as a result of his mother working for Horton. The Thinker uses the Torch as a weapon of mass destruction to destroy an Estonian town. An escape attempt by Toro damages the control mechanism and sets the Torch free. He returns to the A.I.M. carrier and begins murdering everyone in sight. The Mad Thinker reveals that he has managed to synthesize more of the Compound D which can interact with living organisms and control them. As he teleports to safety the compound pours into the ocean. It reaches an Atlantean settlement below, as it was being visited by
Namor, and infects the population. As the Compound D infection spreads through New York, the Torch battles an infected Sub-Mariner and learns the nature of Compound D after Sub-Mariner attempts to infect him. Sub-Mariner is defeated and while Reed Richards can create an antidote, he cannot create enough of it fast enough. The Torch, Toro, and Johnny Storm team up and attack the Mad Thinker's base and the Thinker at first refuses to cooperate until the Torch threatens that he will scorch the Earth clean, starting with the Thinker. The Thinker realizes the Torch's memories are returning, and provides the antidote before teleporting away. The antidote is released and all infected victims are cured, but Reed Richards determines that the antidote breaks down all Horton cells, not just Compound D and that the Torch has only a few days before he is destroyed. Toro attempts to investigate his past to learn of his parents' association with Professor Horton and learns that some Horton cell prototypes were stolen long ago. The Torch is visited by the Golden Age Vision who advises him to seek out Toro and aid him while he still can. Their quest takes them to an underground society called "New Berlin", where the population has been taught that the Axis powers won WW2; people who leave the underground city are incinerated. The leader of the colony lures the Mad Thinker to it and then holds him captive to coerce him to cooperate. It is revealed that all citizens of New Berlin are in fact androids created from the unstable prototype Horton cells and that the atmosphere of the colony is saturated with anti-combustion chemicals to keep the citizens intact; this also prevents Toro and the Torch from using their powers and they are captured. The Thinker stabilizes the New Berlin leader's weapon so that it can function without destroying itself. The Thinker also frees the Torch and Toro. Despite the Torch still dying from the Compound D antidote, he engages the Inhuman Torch in battle. The Inhuman Torch can absorb and manipulate all flame and siphons the flame from the Torch and Toro. The Torch manages to reignite himself and engages the Inhuman Torch in a final fight. By channeling his fire into a nova flame the Torch overload the Inhuman Torch, fusing it into an inert statue. A side effect of the Torch using the nova flame deactivates the enzyme in his body, saving his life. They bid farewell to New Berlin and the Golden Age Vision takes them back to New York. The Thinker reveals that the leader of "New Berlin" is himself an android. Unwilling to believe this, the leader attempts to leave New Berlin and is incinerated.
Secret Avengers The Torch is later offered membership in the
Secret Avengers by Captain America after
Hawkeye takes over as the team's leader. During his first mission with the group, the Secret Avengers travel to the Core, a subterranean city inhabited by an advanced race of robots called Descendants. The Torch finds that he is worshiped by the Descendants, who respectfully refer to him as "Grandfather". During an encounter with a cyborg resembling the original
Miss America, the Torch learns that the city was created by a man known as the Father, who created the Descendants back in the 1940s as part of a failed attempt to replicate Professor Horton's work. The Torch is badly damaged during the Avengers' escape from the Core, and is placed in stasis until his body can be repaired.
Black Ant later frees the Torch and teleports him back to the Core, where he is repaired by Father. There, the Torch sides with the Descendants, realizing that he never quite fit in with humans. He then leads an army of robots during a raid on New York City, with the goal of forcibly assimilating the human race through the use of
nanotechnology. The Torch eventually realizes that he had been brainwashed, and destroys the Orb of Necromancy, the mystical artifact that granted life to the descendants. Although the human race is saved, the Descendants are all killed as a result. Distraught, the Torch quits the Avengers and flies off to parts unknown.
All-New Invaders A number of months after his resignation from the Avengers, Hammond is shown living in a small town called Blaketon, now working as a mechanic. He is forced to abandon his new life after being attacked by a squadron of
Kree soldiers, resuming his identity as the Human Torch once again. After being saved by the intervention of Captain America and the
Winter Soldier, the Torch joins the newly reformed Invaders. When the Fantastic Four are declared to be unfit guardians for the children of the
Future Foundation, Hammond offers to take custody of the children to provide a guardian that the FF can trust who they know will do all that he can to reunite them with their parents, even threatening to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. if he is forced to make a choice between the agency and his promise to protect the children. During the final confrontation with the forces of
Counter-Earth – unleashed by the mysterious Quiet Man as part of his plan against the Fantastic Four –
Sleepwalker revealed that Hammond had a soul despite his artificial origin. ==Physiology==