Marvel Created One of Its Greatest Heroes First, Then Never Figured Out What to Do With Him

Marvel Comics is one of the premiere publishers of superhero stories, with some interesting ideas popping up about the House of Ideas by Johnny come lately MCU fans. Marvel wasn’t always the pinnacle of superheroes; they were just following the winds of change that blew through the comic industry because of Superman. The Man of Steel’s success was a clarion call for comic companies and everyone tried to replicate DC’s success, including the company known then as Timely. In 1939, after DC had struck again with the creation of Batman, with Timely joining the superhero arms race mere months later with Marvel Comics #1, an anthology book that starred various characters, with the first Marvel superhero emblazoned on its cover – the Human Torch.

Nowadays, when we talk about the Human Torch, we’re usually talking about Johnny Storm, the youngest member of the Fantastic Four. However, we really should be talking about Jim Hammond. If you love Marvel in any way, any portion of the company – be it the comics, the MCU, the video games – you have Jim to thank. While DC has been riding its first superhero to the bank since his debut, Marvel has rarely if ever done anything important with the original Human Torch. However, this is the hero who killed Hitler (that’s right and it’s awesome); he should be one of the most popular superheroes of all time.

The Human Torch’s History Shows Just How Different Marvel Was From Their Distinguished Competition

Superman and Batman had set the bar very high for superhero comics in the Golden Age, but Marvel Comics #1 was ready to challenge them for dominance. The cover to the book, by artist Frank Paul, is in its own way as important as that of Action Comics #1. It’s an amazing scene of superheroics that you couldn’t really get from any other medium at the time, as the Human Torch melts his way through a heavy metal vault door with a thug shooting him, the bullet melting away. It’s one of those images that strikes something deep inside you.

The Human Torch was a robot named Jim Hammond, created by Professor Horton. When he was exposed to oxygen, he burst into flames. Everyone wanted the robot destroyed, but Horton decided to prove to them that the robot didn’t have to be destructive. He would battle against the mob, becoming the first hero in New York City. Marvel Comics #1 would also introduce his arch-foe, Namor the Sub-Mariner, an anti-hero who hated the surface world. Human Torch battled Namor, but the debut of Captain America would completely change the course of the Marvel Universe. He vaulted in popularity over Human Torch and Namor, although they would both join him in battling the Nazis, with Human Torch joined by a new sidekick, Toro. Torch would end up killing Hitler and soon faded away with the rest of Timely’s Golden Age superheroes.

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought back Marvel superheroes, they paid homage to the original Marvel hero with Johnny Storm, but we wouldn’t see Jim for years. In fact, it wouldn’t be until Golden Age superhero fan Roy Thomas becoming important at Marvel that we got more of Hammond. Thomas was aces at retelling Marvel history with The Invaders, a book that starred Golden Age Marvel characters and characters introduced in the then modern day, telling the story of the battle against the Nazis. Human Torch and Toro were two of the most important characters in the book. Thomas made him popular again and Marvel did their best to try to incorporate him into things, once positing that the Vision was made out of his body, something that has been retconned out of existence. He had a brief comeback in Avengers West Coast and more recently in The Ultimates (Vol. 3), but the character never really catches fire with fans.

The rise of Captain America was the turning point for Marvel and it spelled disaster for Human Torch and Namor as major Marvel heroes. They became also-rans for the Sentinel of Liberty. It didn’t help that Lee and Kirby seemingly had no interest in the character other than as a name they could use for a new version. Thomas was able to remind readers why he was cool, but the problem was that he was stuck in the past. No one really felt like they wanted to do anything cool with the character in the modern day. At best, he was a piece of the Vision and at worst, he was an old school character with barely any personality. This is a character who should be an easy sell in the 21st century. However, other than his brief comeback in the now defunct second Ultimate Universe, Marvel continues to fumble their first superhero.

The Original Human Torch Will Always Be One of Marvel’s Biggest Missed Opportunities

In 2026, the original Human Torch is a beloved Marvel character that, in reality, no one really cares about. One gets the feeling that his inclusion in the new Ultimate Universe was mostly because of his place in Marvel history and the fact that he killed Hitler. Everyone wants to see Hitler burn to death. However, other than Roy Thomas back in the day, no one has ever really had any idea what to do with the character. In a lot of ways, Jim Hammond is a proto-Silver Age Marvel character – someone desperately trying to be human, all while fighting evil and protecting the innocent. However, fans weren’t really for that kind of character in a prominent role in the ’40s and by the time they were, Marvel had created better characters.

One can look at Lee and Kirby’s Marvel more as the child of Hammond than of the original Captain America comics. The original Human Torch was an example of using science to make the world a better place, something Silver Age Marvel was all about. His early stories dealt with him trying to convince the world that he was a human and that they could trust him, which is again something Lee and Kirby excelled with. While Marvel Comics has never actually known what to do with the character, they understood his legacy. So, sure, the Human Torch is a massive missed opportunity, but he also helped birth the modern superhero, so it’s not all bad.

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