Early life

The Human Torch escapes from his captivity in Timely Comics' Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939) by Carl Burgos.

Alex Ross' cover of Marvel Comics' Marvels #1 (Jan. 1994), which pays homage to Burgos's 1939 interior sequence depicting the Torch's debut

The Human Torch was a humanoid 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 caused parts of New York City to burn 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.^[4]

The Torch later first encountered and battled Namor the Sub-Mariner.^[5]

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.^[6] 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).^[7] With the Invaders, he was soon brainwashed by the Red Skull and battled the Liberty Legion.^[8] He later gave a blood transfusion to Jacqueline Falsworth, giving her superhuman powers to become Spitfire.^[9]

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).^[10] 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.^[11]

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

John Byrne's cover to Avengers West Coast #50

In modern-day continuity, the supervillain the Mad Thinker reactivated the Torch to have him battle the Fantastic Four, deactivating him when the Torch refused to kill the heroes.^[12] 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.,^[13] and would appear later as the CEO of Oracle, Inc., a company run by Namor.^[14] 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 not merely similar, but identical to the Vision's, despite the profound differences in their appearance and powers.^[15] 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.^[16]

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).^[17] 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.^[18]

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.^[19]

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".^[20] When the camp was shut down by Norman Osborn, an angry mob tore down the statue.^[21]

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.^[22]

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.^[23] The Professor used the Torch's chemistry and cell structure to create an airborne virus that can spontaneously kill people.^[24] 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.^[25]

The Torch

At the beginning of Dark Reign, 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.^[26]

After the Mad Thinker and A.I.M. spent months experimenting on the Torch's corpse and on the captive Toro they are able to resurrect the Torch, but it seems all memories of his past have disappeared. The Mad Thinker gains complete 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.^[27]

Torch is now a weapon of mass destruction, and quickly reduces an entire town to debris, killing everyone and everything in sight after destroying several Estonian air force jets. An escape attempt by Toro damages the control mechanism and sets the Torch free. He immediately returns to the A.I.M. carrier and he begins murdering everyone in sight (again). 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 from the Torch killing spree the compound starts pouring into the ocean. It reaches an Atlantean settlement below, as it was being visited by Namor, and infects the population.^[28]

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 to defeat Compound D, starting with the Thinker. The Thinker realizes that the Torch is telling the truth as the Torch's emotions, memories, and humanity are still recovering from his recent demise and restoration and provides the antidote but warns them of it and teleports 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.^[29]

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 across the world to where an underground society called "New Berlin" exists and the population is educated under the premise that the Axis powers won WW2; people who leave the underground city burst into flames and are incinerated. The leader of this 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, however this also prevents Toro and the Torch from using their powers and they are captured.

The Thinker helps stabilize the New Berlin leader's weapon, the android Inhuman Torch so that it can function without destroying itself due to the prototype Horton cells. However the Thinker also aids in freeing the Torch and Toro, and despite the Torch still dying from the Compound D antidote engages the Inhuman Torch in battle. The Inhuman Torch however can easily control, absorb, and manipulate all flame and siphons the flame from the Torch and Toro. However the Torch bids Toro farewell and reignites himself and engages the Inhuman Torch in a final fight. The Torch at first offers to aid the Inhuman Torch in learning about itself and humanity but it refuses and the Torch then channels his nova flame into the Inhuman Torch which overloads it and renders it a fused and inert statue, however a side effect of using his nova flame this time was that it deactivated the enzyme that breaks down Horton cells and thus the Torch's life is saved. They bid farewell to New Berlin and the Golden Age Vision takes them back to New York. The Thinker escapes and reveals that the leader of "New Berlin" is himself an android due to the actual founder of the city being unable to have children of his own. The leader of New Berlin didn't believe this until he left the city and exploded into flame and was incinerated.^[30]

Secret Avengers

The Torch is later offered membership in the Secret Avengers by Captain America after Hawkeye takes over as the team's leader.^[31] 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".^[32] 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.^[33]

Black Ant later frees the Torch and teleports him back to the Core, where he is repaired by Father.^[34] There, the Torch sides with the Descendants,^[35] 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.^[36] 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.^[37]

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.^[38] After being saved by the intervention of Captain America and the Winter Soldier, the Torch joins the newly reformed Invaders.^[39]

When the Fantastic Four are declared to be unfit guardians for the children of the Future Foundation,^[40] 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,^[41] 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.^[42] During the final confrontation with the forces of Counter-Earth – unleashed by the mysterious Quiet Man as part of his plan against the FF – Sleepwalker revealed that Hammond had a soul despite his artificial origin.^[43]

Film

The android Human Torch makes a cameo appearance in Captain America: The First Avenger as a synthezoid dubbed the "Synthetic Man" on display at the 1943 Stark Expo.^[62]

Video games

• Jim Hammond appears in Lego Marvel's Avengers, voiced by Sam Riegel.
• Jim Hammond appears as a playable character in Marvel Puzzle Quest.^[63]