Burnin' for You - Thoughts on The Torch Limited Series 1-8

The Torch - collects The Torch #s 1-8 (2010)(covers by Alex Ross)
Alex Ross/Mike Carey/Jim Krueger-Patrick Berkenkotter

Doug: If you're like me, you occasionally wile away some time searching the graphic novels and trade collections on sites like Amazon.com. A couple of years ago I stumbled across a trade that collected a series that piqued my interest. I saw this before I'd agreed to surrender my principles and embrace the Brubaker/Epting Captain America material. Going back to the Bronze Age, I've always been an Original Human Torch fan. Despite the art, I generally liked the Invaders mag, and got a big kick out of the Torch's role in the "Celestial Madonna" arc in the Avengers. I'll admit it -- despite what John Byrne did to the Vision in the pages of West Coast Avengers, I was excited for the return of the Torch. And unlike Gwen Stacy or James Buchanan Barnes, the Torch's revival was one that made sense. Well, made sense if he wasn't the Vision... Thank goodness for the sensibilities of Kurt Busiek's Avengers Forever in helping us get through the trauma. Anyway, to bring my mind back, on Easter Sunday I was in Indiana visiting our younger son. Before I left town to come back home, I'd noticed that the LCS was actually open. Since the proprietor always has a killer selection of trades/hardcovers at half off MSRP, I stopped in. Success! I scored the second volume hardcover of the Spider-Man newspaper strips, the tpb for "Batman: Year Two", and today's subject. All for $32. Happy Easter, indeed.

Doug: How about some background on this project, from Newsarama.com --

Alex Ross will team with writer Mike Carey for a Human Torch limited series which will return this Golden Age hero to prominence in the modern Marvel Universe. (NOTE: I'd argue that it's Tom Raymond, Toro, who is actually the protagonist of this story. -Doug)

According to Marvel and Dynamite, Ross conceived of the series, and will be co-plotting with Carey and providing covers. The eight-issue miniseries is slated to begin in September (2009). An interior artist was not named.

The miniseries, which will be packaged by Dynamite Entertainment (like the soon-to-conclude Avengers/Invaders limited series), is part of Marvel’s year-long 70th anniversary celebration. It’s only fitting for the original Torch to get a spotlight, as the character first appeared in 1939’s Marvel Comics #1, as an android created by Dr. Phineas Horton.

Ross’ path has intersected with that of the Torch in a couple of notable projects over the course of his career, first off, teamed with Kurt Busiek in Marvels #0, where the Torch narrated his own creation and origin in a haunting tale; and more recently, in the above-mentioned Avengers/Invaders, where the original Marvel hero (along with his sidekick Toro) found himself in the modern Marvel Universe, along with other members of the original Invaders. 

In the modern Marvel Universe, the original Human Torch (who took on the name “Jim Hammond” after returning to the modern era in the pages of West Coast Avengers) is “dead” – well, as dead as an android can be, having exploded while saving his teammates in New Invaders. Aside from his appearance in Avengers/Invaders, one of the Torch’s last appearances was as a memorial statue at The Initiative’s Camp Hammond, with the inscription: JIM HAMMOND, THE FIRST OF THE MARVELS: He showed us that heroes can be made. In Avengers: The Initiative #23, the statue was torn down by a mob after SHIELD and Tony Stark fell from grace, and Norman Osborn took over the camp (Accessed 30 March 2016).

Doug: Let me just add an editorial comment that aside from my acceptance of the returns of Bucky Barnes, the Original Human Torch, and Toro (we'll get to that in a minute), I cannot abide the fact that Norman Osborn again exists in the flesh. I know... hypocrite. Sue me.

Doug: The last appearance of Toro before the events of the Avengers/Invaders limited series was way back in 1969 in the pages of Sub-Mariner #14 and was presented by Roy Thomas, Marie Severin, and Mike Esposito. Here's the gist of that tale, in (you guessed it) a 100-Word Review: 

Namor emerges from the Pacific Ocean, only to be attacked by the Original Human Torch. The Torch is under the control of the Mad Thinker, which Namor quickly deduces. We find that the Thinker is allied with the Puppet Master and Egghead in a bid to conquer the world by negating all mechanical and electrical apparatus. The Torch frees himself from the Thinker’s control, but in an effort to foil the master plan, we find that the Torch is really Toro, brainwashed to think he was the Torch. The Thinker tries to kill Namor, but Toro gives the ultimate sacrifice.

Toro, to the best information I could find, did not appear in any story that was not set in or referencing World War II until the revival of the Original Human Torch in 1989. From there, and it's difficult for me to testify as I didn't read any of the books that allegedly feature the character, Toro appeared or was at least referenced somewhat regularly. Then (and I'll let some fan from Wikipedia report):

Toro appears in the Avengers/Invaders maxi-series alongside his fellow Invaders when an incident takes them from the battlefields of WWII  to the present Marvel Universe, where they encounter both the New Avengers and Mighty Avengers and the Thunderbolts.^[4] An examination of him by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents reveals that Toro is a mutant. In Avengers/Invaders #12, Toro was revived from the dead by the Cosmic Cube thanks to a wish made by James "Bucky" Barnes, and met as he rises from his grave by the Golden Age Vision. Bucky was careful to manage the wish so Toro's revival does not upset the time stream, Toro only coming to life after the Invaders have returned to the past. Toro is the same age he was when he died.^[5]

And then someone had to go and do this (also from Wikipedia):

Following the Infinity story, when Terrigen Mists were scattered around the world, Toro was subjected to Terrigenesis and engulfed in a cocoon. Being unknowingly an Inhuman descendant, Toro was now theorized that his powers had been the consequence of his recessive Inhuman genes.^[9]

What the?!? Oh boy... I'm gonna leave that lay right there.

 

Doug: The Mad Thinker is the villain in The Torch mini-series, and I have to say this is one of those times where a writer catches lightning in a bottle. Called simply the Thinker (no "Mad", and no Awesome Android here), Alex Ross and Mike Carey chose to drop the "X will happen in 3.57 seconds" schtick and make him a truly formidable adversary. I felt when I was reading this story that the Thinker was a major player -- that he could actually pull off his scheme. His personality was perfect -- over-intelligent, haughty, rude, and overall malevolent. Obviously the character had a history with both the Original Human Torch (FF Annual #4) and Toro (see above), and this sort of forms a third and final act if you will. Yes... I think viewed through that lens it makes a really nice triptych of stories.

Doug: Here's the basic plot of the story --

1. The Thinker is hired by AIM to create a WMD -- a big WMD.
2. Tom Raymond, Toro, shepherded by the Golden Age Vision in a sort of Spectre role, thinks revival sucks -- especially when he sees his wife Ann with a new husband.
3. Toro decides the only thing worth doing would be killing the man who killed him -- the Thinker. But after the Vision spirits him to the Thinker's lab, Toro finds that his flame is immediately spent.
4. Toro is captured by the Thinker and "examined" -- tissue is extracted from various parts of his anatomy. The Thinker determines that Toro was exposed to "Horton cells" -- carbon/polymer strands of artificial "DNA" that Phineas Horton used in the creation of the Human Torch. This is a breakthrough for the Thinker's WMD creation.
5. The Thinker has the Torch's body exhumed from Arlington National Cemetery. He begins to cultivate the Horton cells he has isolated and restore the damages to the Torch's body. 
6. Toro learns that his mother was not an office assistant as he had known, but had worked closely with Phineas Horton in the years prior to the creation of the Torch. It is possible that the Horton cells were introduced to Tom's physiognomy by his mother's contact with the cells.We also learn that Toro's X-gene only gave him an immunity to fire; it was actual contact with the Torch that allowed Tom Raymond to ignite and become a flaming youth (KISS reference there, you know).
7. In a scene ripped from your favorite Frankenstein flick, the Thinker re-animates the Torch by positioning his body high in the sky, suspended from a metal post in the middle of a lightning storm. The Torch comes back to life, but has no mind of his own.
8. Using Compound D, his own variation on the Horton cells, the Thinker subverts the Torch's will and forces him to be his WMD, first ordering the Torch to attack and destroy a Scandinavian ship, and then later a gas main running beneath a village in Estonia. Both missions are successful, with property destruction and loss of life.
9. With the Torch reactivated, Toro's control of his own flame returns. The two torches indeed share a symbiotic relationship, as the Thinker hypothesized.
10. But what the Thinker had not counted was that the Torch's humanity derives from existing in the presence of human cells, human DNA -- specifically Tom Raymond's cells. The Torch's mind returned...

Doug: I don't want to give anything else away, because I'd really like to encourage you to seek out this trade or the actual comics. The outline above covers most of the first three issues. If you are like Karen and I and felt that Brubaker's Winter Soldier epic was well handled, then you are going to enjoy this story. I thought the characters were handled with a reverence, such that the creators had a story to tell that involved the present. That these dead creatures should be resurrected was handled in a manner that did not require me to suspend my disbelief past what I'd usually expect. The comic book science was "sold" to me in a straightforward way, and I never doubted for an instant that in the Marvel Universe these things could happen. And let's face it -- anything involving the Cosmic Cube (used to resurrect Toro) is basically magic anyway.

Doug: The eight issues go on to include the Sub-Mariner and some Atlanteans, the Fantastic Four (there's a great team-up where we actually get to see three Torches in action!), Nazis, and a setting in the last few issues that echoes Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tour. de. Force.

Doug: Lastly, I've included below some samples of the interior art. Whenever I see that Alex Ross is doing covers for a project, I immediately want to see the interiors to see if they are up to the standards of the outer package. In this case I think you'll find that Patrick Berkenkotter is every bit as able to handle these characters as Steve Epting was to show us Bucky's return. Like I did when I first sat down to read the Captain America: Winter Soldier collection, I read this baby cover-to-cover in one sitting. It was a page turner, and I felt satisfied when I got to the end of it. It was just as much fun on the re-read for the writing of this review. Go ye forth, then, and seek! Find this tome! And then let me know if you also had a good time.

All the Young Dudes

Doug: Today I'm going to ask you to think like a 12-year old. For many of us, that's not all too difficult. What I'm looking for is a mental trip back to your formative years, about the time you started "collecting" comics -- that era when you became not only aware of what books and characters you liked, but why you liked them.

Doug: It's long been know around here that I was (and am, I guess) a team book guy. So it's pretty logical that Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes would be one of my monthly go-to's. And while I thought it was really cool that it was a club of super-powered teenagers, by the time I was reading it Mike Grell and James Sherman were doing the art chores. I hate to say it (boy, do I hate to say it!), but I wasn't going to junior high school with any young ladies that looked like Saturn Girl or Princess Projectra! Nor did I have any friends whose older sisters looked like that! So my point is, although the characters were supposed to be "my age" or slightly older, I didn't identify with them as such. I can say the same thing about Johnny Storm, Peter Parker, and the X-Men (granted, the All-New, All-Different team was supposed to be in their early 20s).

Doug: Now what about you? When you were a kid did you gravitate to the youngsters? Were Bucky and Toro favorites of yours in the Invaders? How about Robin (probably close to 19 or 20 by the time most of us were reading Batman Family)? Did you buy Nova because he was a teen, or because he had a cool costume? Was the inclusion of characters specifically designed to appeal to youngsters a spot-on marketing strategy from the Big Two?

What's So Golden (or Silver) About... Young Men 25?

Young Men #25 (February 1954) -- cover by Joe Maneely or Carl Burgos
"The Return of the Human Torch" -- Hank Chapman-Carl Burgos
"Top Secret" -- Scripter Unknown-John Romita, Sr.
"The Shark People" -- Scripter Unknown-Bill Everett

Doug: Did any of our readers secure the wonderful package of reprints that were for sale through the JC Penney Christmas catalog back in 1994? I actually snagged this set in a comics/sports memorabilia store in Anderson, IN maybe a year or so after that. From the Grand Comics Database, and speaking specifically of today's issue:

One of the 1994 JC Penney Marvel Vintage Pack reprints. These are second printings of Marvel comics from the 50's-70's. There are a total of 15 different comics in the set:

Amazing Adult Fantasy #13; Amazing Spider-Man Special [Annual] #5; Avengers #88; Captain America #109; Fantastic Four #66 & #67; Incredible Hulk #140; Sgt. Fury #13; Sub-Mariner #8; Thor Special [Annual] #2; Tomb of Dracula #25; X-Men #28, #62 #63; and Young Men #25.

Three issues are reprinted from reprints: Fantastic Four #66 is reprinted from Marvel's Greatest Comics #49; Sgt. Fury #13 is reprinted from Special Marvel Edition #11; and X-Men #28 is reprinted from X-Men #76.

This set of 15 comics was available through the 1994 JC Penney Christmas Catalog, for $14.99 plus shipping. The front covers of these comics look exactly like the originals, but inside, contain advertisements from 1994, except for Young Men #25, which has all the original inside ads. All of these reprints have the same back cover Stridex ad. "Second Printing" appears at the end of the indicia.

[Publication information from Roger Perez, STL COMICS web site, http://stlcomics.com/gallery/jcpenney_stridex/]

I'd strongly encourage you to visit the link just above. There were actually two other reprint sets of this nature, but the one we're dealing with today is by far the coolest (in this Bronze Age Baby's opinion).

Doug: It's strange how the creator credits for Young Men #25 are so sketchy, even down to the cover of the book. But nowhere could I find any hint that Stan Lee was the writer on any of the three stories we're going to examine. But it would be year's before readers could get their eyes on the names of those who crafted our favorite books. So armed with the limited information we have -- and I'm thankful we at least know who the pencilers were -- let's trudge ahead. But first, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is this: whenever I pick these decades-old books for some old school fun, it's usually with a Frederic Wertham-like sensationalism in mind. But as this issue would have seen print on the cusp of the DC Comics Silver Age, I think it behooves us to see if these three tales are more one-foot-in-WWII, or one-foot-in-the-Cold-War.

Doug: First up in the book is an 8-pager featuring the Human Torch and Toro. Of the three stories, this was probably most like the Golden Age stories. The artist is Carl Burgos, creator of the Torch, so I thought that was nice that after around a decade he was called back for the revival of Timely's Big Three (we'll see Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett on the art chores in our third story).  Burgos's art had certainly evolved by the time this saw print, although I couldn't help but feel that this story was just an extension of what we'd seen in the Torch's first appearance. This is a gangster story, mashed right into an episode of The Twilight Zone (which would not premiere on American television for another five years!). There's been a spate of robberies around "the big city", all carried out by very young thugs. In fact, after some investigation, it turns out that all of the bad guys are 20 years old! The Torch and Toro arrive on the scene mid-crime and create a little havoc. After some gunplay and a little flame-spitting (has Johnny Storm ever done that?), one of the goons grabs a dame (Golden Age talk, you know) and puts his piece to her head. The Torches are forced to comply with an order to get into the bank's safe. The bad guys figure that since it's soundproof it must be air proof. And, since it's on a timed lock, the Torches will suffocate and that will be the end of them. By the way, no mention was ever made in this story that the Torch is an android -- a storyline that was abandoned not long into the character's run, from what I understand.

Doug: Of course the Torches flame their way out of the safe by melting through the thick door. A hasty pursuit later and the good guys have the bad guys corralled and dropped off at the local precinct. But the chief tells the Torch that he almost has no room for all of the young criminals. And he can't figure it out -- they are all young, none are professional gangsters, and they all seem to like being in jail! The Torches have no answers, so head back out on patrol. Flying through the night skies, they pass over a senior living home, where Toro's Uncle Julius was staying. But as they get closer, they see that it is boarded up. A quick investigation shows that it had to close for business due to no new old people! What?? The Torches do some further fact-finding and note that there don't seem to be very many old people in town anymore. This is going to require some undercover work.

Doug: Back at the police station, our heroes are outfitted in "old guy" clothes and some make-up and hit the streets. It isn't long before a young man stops the two "oldsters" and asks them if they'd like to be young. The fact is, he says, he was 70 years old only last week -- and now he's 20! The disguised Torches want to know more, so go along with their new ally. Soon they are on the outskirts of town in a large mansion. A Doctor Markov (gotta love that Soviet bloc-sounding name in these Cold War years) tells the assemblage -- mostly older men -- that he can give them the vitality of a young man. In exchange, all they have to do is promise to rob and steal for him, and be willing to go to jail. The benefit of this scheme is, they are told, that as first-time offenders they won't be sentenced to more than five years behind bars. Once released, they will have the life of a 25-year old ahead of them! The old men begin to clamor to be first. Among those present is Toro's uncle. A few of the men go through the transformation, and then it's the Torches turns. Jim Hammond allows himself to be strapped into the machine, but right before the switch is thrown, he flames on and goes for the doctor while Toro moves against the young hood who brought them to the mansion. But as Toro flames on, the goon calls him his nephew! The guy they'd met on the street is Uncle Julius! The Torch binds Markov into the machine and threatens to do the switch on him, unless he fesses up to why he wants the guys to do the crime. Turns out that the men will only be 20 years old for 30 days -- after that, they turn to dust! Upon hearing that, Toro's uncle loses it and fires his gun. Despite a warning to stop unless he hits the high-voltage machine, one more bullet is fired -- and the place goes up. And up and away go the Human Torch and Toro, safely removed from the explosion.

Doug: The Captain America story was the weakest of the three, but seems a novelty due to the pencils of John Romita. The Jazzy One wasn't all that jazzy here, but you can see some flashes of the sort of work he'd do on Amazing Spider-Man a little over a decade hence. This iteration of Captain America is of course that of the commie-smasher. The gist of this story is that the Americans have developed an atomic cannon, and they need to keep its secrets from falling into the hands of spies. Bucky tells "Prof." Steve Rogers that Captain America is being paged through the newspapers, so Cap and his young sidekick enter our story in an effort to thwart the so-called Executioner (no, not that big Asgardian oaf). Top scientist Jim Slade is the only guy who knows the secrets of the firing pin for the cannon. After a greeting with Cap and Bucky, Slade declares that he's off to Las Vegas to meet his girl. After his departure, Cap is shown a picture of the lady -- and immediately recognizes her as Lupa Lupoff, Red spy!

Doug: Our heroes head to Vegas to stop the shenanigans that they know are coming. Trouble is, they're too late, as Lupoff and her assistant have drugged Slade. The good guys arrive to find Slade being driven away. They attack, but a little gunplay ensures that Slade is lost to them at this time. Cap beats up a couple of toughs, and they remark to each other how they fear for their lives at the hands of the Executioner, because they've failed to stop Cap. But, just down the street there's a booby trap, and two other guys are able to detonate a bomb, potentially killing the Star-Spangled (not yet) Avenger! We cut then to the desert, near where an A-bomb test is about to go off. Slade's strapped to a cactus, while Lupoff and her dude-friend interrogate him for the firing pin secret. He basically tells them to take a flying leap. But then they, too, begin to worry about the Executioner should they fail to extract the secret from Slade. But just then Bucky arrives and takes out the dude. But Lupa's having none of it, and pistol whips James Barnes.

 

Doug: Now tied up with Slade, it looks like it's curtains -- until Captain America arrives to save the day! Turns out his shield had saved him from the blast. Cap tears into Lupa's man, and then in the melee Lupa turns her gun on the guy and kills him! With his dying breath he looks at his woman and says that she is the Executioner! And she is -- punishing those who fail, including herself as she takes her own bullet. With the threat now ended, the boys regroup to watch the A-bomb test. Cap says, "A glorious sight... when it's on our side in the struggle for world peace!"

 

Doug: Bill Everett's art in the Sub-Mariner feature is the most sophisticated in this book -- it's just beautiful. The crime set-up is that people are jumping into or falling into the ocean, with many bodies washed ashore horribly mutilated. It looks to be shark attacks. We see a crowd scene, where the denizens of Battery Park await the Staten Island ferry. Suddenly a woman pushes through the crowd and leaps into the water. A man goes in after her, but surfaces with nothing but her clothes -- no other sign of the woman. The police are dumbfounded, as this has become a trend. In an apartment on the East side, Betty Dean and Namor, the Sub-Mariner, read the papers. Betty tells Namor of the goings on. Namor decides, because it doesn't all fit, that he will investigate.

Doug: Later that evening, Namor is down on the docks by the river. He finds a bum, badly disfigured. Namor calls the authorities (there is no sign in this story of Namor's past problems with the surface world) and talks to the detective that shows up. The guy insists that a shark did it. Namor dives into the water to check it out, but decides that the water is too cold for sharks. However, out in the ocean a small pleasure vessel is capsized -- and the men aboard are eaten alive. Later, a Coast Guard boat picks up the wreckage, and later after that several bodies are found on shore. Namor is there again to investigate, but says he's still stymied. A weird-looking guy on the beach offers a hypothesis about the sharks, but Namor casts it away. That night, Namor walks the beach, looking for any clue he can muster. Suddenly the same strange man from that afternoon appears, removes his clothes, and walks into the ocean. Too offbeat for the Avenging Son, Namor dives in after him. Namor finds no sign of the man beneath the waves, but he very soon encounters a Great White shark. The beast bears down on Namor, but the crown prince is too fast -- he grabs the lower jaw of the fish and breaks it, King Kong style! You might have guessed -- soon after, the police find the body of a man washed ashore, his jaw horribly disfigured. I had to chuckle a bit, as the cop on the beach remarked about the horrible death the guy must have had. Namor says that before they call it a murder, there should be some further investigation. But later in the same panel, Namor suggests that they can file it as a homicide. Strange doings -- was the Sub-Mariner indicting himself in the man's/shark's demise?

Doug: Later in the week, Namor is again on the beach at night looking for clues. A woman suddenly emerges from the waters. She's startled when she sees Namor, who hints at a theory he's developed about these strange goings-on. She's way too apprehensive, though, and turns on Namor. She lunges for him, but he evades and pins her to the ground. Letting her back up, she then narrates (in a whole lot of words) the explanation for our mystery, followed by its resolution -- you can find these panels at the bottom of the post. Too many art samples today, and to be honest -- I just couldn't get them to fit nicely together!

Doug: So where does this fit into this gray area between the Golden and Silver Ages? There are many elements of the 1940's -- teen sidekicks, lots of gunplay, and some serious violence (a woman is pistol-whipped in the Human Torch story). But the science fiction angles in both the Torch and Sub-Mariner tales place this a bit more toward the Silver Age. Of course, Cap's Red Scare-centered adventure falls right in between. I'd say this, though -- compared to the first few DC stories, including the Flash revival and subsequent stories, there's a lot more EC-type storytelling in Young Men #25 than we'll see only a short time later. Maybe that's why the revival of the Timely super-heroes didn't take off -- what is told here (and I'll have to assume in the other magazines that bore these new adventures) really doesn't require the presence of super-heroes for any resolution. The mad scientist in the first story could have just as easily been defeated by a Dick Tracy-type of character, and that holds true for the Cap tale. Namor, of the three, seemed most integral to the actual yarn that was spun. And what of the Comics Code Authority? Well look very closely back up at the cover -- notice the tiny star near the top left side of the book. In that little shape it says, "Conforms to the Comics Code". I guess as long as we don't have zombies or werewolves, we're good...

Face-Off: Kid Invaders Taking On Teen Titans!

 

Doug: Simple one today, friends.  In the battle of sidekicks, who would win a tussle between Robin, the Boy Wonder, and Bucky Barnes?  And, does this junior fire vs. water brouhaha live up to battles seen by the older generation?  Who ya got?  And, if you decide you'd like to delve further into match-ups involving Golden Girl or the Human Top (c'mon -- you remember the Kid Commandos, don't you?), feel free!