As an 8-year-old, I wasn’t aware that the Human Torch had a famous prior history when the character was spun off to headline his own feature in 1962. But I was all for the Torch’s solo series anyway. He was my favorite member of the Fantastic Four.
And why not? Johnny Storm could fly, he could burn things and he was a vivid, attractive red — all pluses in my book. And he was intriguingly blank-faced when in “Flame On!” form. That held the same mysterious appeal for me here as it did in DC’s Strange Adventures stories involving the Faceless Hunter from Saturn.
I certainly was happier to see Strange Tales 101 (Oct. 1962) showcasing the Torch than, say, the garrulous Mr. Fantastic, whose stretching power offered fewer possibilities for wish fulfillment.
The Invisible Girl? Even the FF comic itself was constantly apologizing for her ineffectuality.
The Thing was a more likely candidate, but then he already had his own spinoff title, in a way. For what was The Incredible Hulk, then in his third issue, but a reworking of the tragic super-strong man-monster theme pioneered by Ben Grimm?
“Wisely, Marvel decided to give the Torch’s solo stories a unique flavor by furnishing Johnny with a hitherto-unseen apartment in the suburb of Glenville, New York. (So the FF doesn’t live at the Baxter Building quite yet?),” observed comics historian Don Alsafi. “Bizarrely, they also endeavored to give him a secret identity — despite the fame the FF has been seen to possess on any number of occasions. The thinking is so convoluted that it’s a miracle they kept it up for as long as they would…”
After showing us the superhero HQ goodies in his apartment (star charts, undersea maps, super-criminal case histories, video surveillance, and asbestos wallpaper), the Torch stopped the pulp-ish masked villain the Wrecker from sabotaging an amusement park. That same busy month that the Fantastic Four thwarted the threat of the Master of Planet X (Fantastic Four 7, Oct. 1962).
Larry Leiber’s and Robert Bernstein’s writing on the Human Torch stories in Strange Tales wasn’t up to the Stan Lee standard — but nevertheless, who could resist that Jack Kirby art? And eight issues in, when Kirby departed the title, something else arrived — a Steve Ditko backup feature called Dr. Strange. My comic book reading tastes in July 1962 — the month this issue hit the stands — foreshadowed something for the industry. That month, I recall that I bought not just Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and Strange Tales, but also Journey Into Mystery 84 (featuring Thor), Tales to Astonish 36 (featuring Ant-Man), and even a Marvel monster title, the first Strange Tales Annual. That must have put quite a dent in the monthly dollar I got to spend on comic books, most of which had previously gone to DC.
The Human Torch feature made Strange Tales Marvel’s sixth superhero title, and the second to star a teenager. Johnny Storm was handsome, popular, well-off, and celebrated, a “winner.” But Marvel’s other teenage superhero, who’d debuted in the dying title Amazing Fantasy only the month before, would be poor, unlucky, and infamous, a “loser.” And that dramatic recipe would result in an iconic character who would leave his mark on American popular culture.
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