Original Human Torch
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For the Fantastic Four member of the same name, see Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
The original Human Torch is a fictional character who was created in 1938 by Carl Burgos for Timely Comics' first comic book, titled Marvel Comics.
Not to be confused with the later Human Torch (Johnny Storm, a member of the Fantastic Four), this Human Torch was an android, a mechanical being created by Professor Phineas T. Horton in hopes of creating a more perfect human. He failed in his efforts. Not only did his creation burst into flame when exposed to oxygen, but he rebelled against his creator, not wanting to become a slave to someone who cared about recognition more than his "child's" own well-being. The public, fearing that he would escape, sealed the Torch in concrete. He escaped due to a convenient crack that let oxygen seep in. New York burned. It was a long while before the Torch learned to control his flame, but when he did, he vowed to never use it to do evil.
The Human Torch was one half of the first major crossover in comic book history, a two-issue battle between the Torch and Namor the Sub-Mariner that appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics #8-9.
He would join other heroes as war broke out in Europe, and later in the Pacific, to fight the Axis powers. Within a year, he'd acquired a young partner, Thomas "Toro" Raymond. Toro was the mutant son of two nuclear scientists whose exposure to radiation gave him the ability to control fire. He'd also joined the police force as part of his "human cover" under the name Jim Hammond. He would later drop the human name and serve the police force outright as the Human Torch, fighting villians and his off-and-on-again foe, the Sub-Mariner.
After appearing in a wide variety of comics during the 1940s, the Human Torch fell victim to a general slump in the superhero market and disappeared for most of the 1950s.
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He was found once by the Fantastic Four, reactivated, then shut down once again by the crazed android Quasimodo's "Destructo-Eye" when he refused to kill the heroes. A copy of his body was created by the time traveler Immortus; this copy was obtained by the villainous android Ultron, who used it to create the Vision, an android who went on to join the Avengers.
He would be revived one final time in John Byrne's Avengers West Coast by the Scarlet Witch, who was searching for answers about her husband, the Vision, and Ann Raymond, Tom "Toro" Raymond's wife. He served the Avengers for many issues before losing his powers to save the former superheroine, Spitfire, in the pages of Namor. His powers gone, he decided to settle down with Ann Raymond.
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Recently, while on leave from the V-Battalion as field leader of the New Invaders, he became attached to Tara a recently-contructed female android based on him, who he came to regard as a daughter of sorts, and struck up a renewed acquaintance with Spitfire to the dismay of her beau (the current Union Jack), while beginning to show signs that his powers were regenerating.
Unfortunately, Tara was revealed to be a plant, created by the Red Skull, with overrides on her developing personality allowing the Invaders' enemies, the Axis Mundi, to use her as a weapon against the team. Refusing to believe that she was truly gone, he found himself able to flame on again, and tried to channel the heat from her system to shut her down before she overloaded and killed all the Invaders, herself included. While he was able to stop her meltdown, his own systems could not handle the sheer heat, and he flew high into the atmosphere before detonating.