STRANGE TALES 101 (1962)
by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby
A new mini-retrospective! Let’s take a look at the Human Torch serial.
With Spider-Man proving immensely popular, it made perfect sense for Marvel to try something with its other teenage superhero.
The premise is bizarre enough: while in the Fantastic Four series everyone in the team is treated like a world-famous celebrity, in THIS series the Human Torch has a secret identity.
In this era asbestos was treated like Kryptonite for fire-based heroes, and it’s going to show up A LOT in this series.
“For the technical-minded reader”, here’s Johnny’s bedroom:
And here’s Johnny going to bed. He looks more like Don Blake, Thor’s secret identity. Only lamer.
On his way to school (have we EVER seen him attend high school in Fantastic Four?), Johnny passes a roller coaster right when a local newspaper receives a threat from “the Destroyer”.
It’s very odd to see Johnny Storm worry about his secret identity.
Also he demonstrates the same power of X-Men villain Pyro.
Well that was necessary. Couldn’t he just run to the nearest alley like any other superhero!?
Apparently roller coaster accidents were incredibly common in the 1960s.
Johnny’s second attempt to turn into the Human Torch without attracting attention is… something.
Nobody was looking at you BEFORE you created those fireballs, Johnny!!!
He then saves the customers of another attraction, while doing THIS to divert attention from himself:
The Torch’s ability to create fire duplicates is one of the coolest applications of his power, but why doesn’t he do THIS to divert attention instead of anything else?
Then for some reason the Destroyer challenges the Human Torch.
The Thing shows up to offer his help, but the Torch refuses.
The Torch’s cunning plan is to go directly where the Destroyer told him to go.
And it turns out it’s a trap. YOU DON’T SAY!
It turns out that having a secret identity can be an advantage. As is the power to make the background disappear.
The Torch feels understandably down, but then he thinks about a clue: the Destroyer has been targeting only tall targets.
And that’s enough to deduce that communist spies are behind this!
THIS IS LITERALLY THE NEXT PANEL.
The Human Torch’s REAL power is to be unrealistically lucky.
And the Destroyer turns out to be… the newspaper publisher. Who was sending threats to himself.
Because he was afraid people on the roller coaster would discover his communist submarine.
Sounds legit.
Historical significance: 0/10
Amazingly, the Destroyer won’t become a regular Fantastic Four villain. This is his only appearance.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
On the Marvel scale, mostly based on that unbelievable ending.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
If the idea was to have another Spider-Man, it didn’t work out. Johnny displays almost no personality, the story is very bland and makes absolutely no sense, and the creative team seems to be phoning it in… even Kirby isn’t as spectacular as you’d expect, even in this early period.
Obviously the idea of a Human Torch with a secret identity won’t be used much after this series, but it had SOME potential. Too bad this story isn’t interested in exploring it.
Cancer count: 4
Asbestos wallpaper
Asbestos bedspread
Asbestos carpet
Asbestos bed