Biography of the Human Torch, 1965

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The following is a biography of the Human Torch for the year of 1965.

Biography

The mutant misunderstanding

While lounging around the Baxter Building, Torch and Thing saw an alert on the news warning of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, whose images had been released by the X-Men for the first time: Magneto, Mastermind, Toad, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch. Not long after, the last two of these mutants—a pair of siblings—arrived at the Baxter Building. They were seeking the help of the Fantastic Four to escape Magneto's abusive grasp, but Johnny and Ben jumped to conclusions and attacked. Tensions flared, and the two duos fought. The mutants soon became frustrated that humans would attack them without provocation, and left without further conflict.[1] Also around this time, the Fantastic Four were thrown into brief disarray by the billionaire Gregory Gideon, but managed to overcome his plot.[2]

Girl problems with Spider-Man and the Beetle

While out on a date with Doris, Johnny learned of the Beetle's release from prison, just a few months after his initial incarceration. Johnny knew that the Beetle would seek revenge, and searched the city for him. The search turned up nothing, and Johnny returned to Doris. Doris was upset that Johnny had flamed on and ditched her on their date, and said that he'd leave him unless he could resist activating his powers for 24 hours. The next day (before that timer was up), Doris met a boy named Peter Parker, who helped her with her shopping and spent some time with her at her home. Johnny learned of this and confronted Peter on the street while Peter was with his girlfriend, Betty Brant. Betty stormed off upon hearing that Peter had been with another girl, and Peter shot back at Johnny. The two separated, and Johnny returned home. He received a call from Doris claiming to be in danger, and asking him to come over as the Torch to handle it. Johnny laughed it off, assuming she was joking to try to get him to fail the bet. He went over later and found the house ransacked, with Doris nowhere to be found. He flamed on and searched the city, soon finding Spider-Man moving quickly through the skies. Torch assumed he was responsible, and attacked. But Spider-Man was able to flee long enough to catch up with the real culprit, the Beetle, who flew through the skies with Doris under his arm. The two heroes confronted Beetle on the roof of a condemned building, and were able to overpower him before long. Johnny and Doris remained unconvinced that Spider-Man hadn't had something to do with Doris's kidnapping, and the frustrated webslinger fled before any more fighting could occur.[3]

Thing trounces the Trio

While out on a golfing date with Doris, Johnny heard from Thing over the radio that the Terrible Trio—Harry Phillips, Yogi Dakor, and Bull Brogin—had escaped from prison. Much to Doris's chagrin, Torch immediately set out to find them. Unfortunately, the three were wise to Torch's aerial pursuit, outsmarted him, and jumped him when he eventually landed. Though Torch fought valiantly, the Trio's combined efforts and their element of surprise left Torch in a compromising position, stuck with his foot in a train track. Torch managed to let out a signal flare before Bull knocked him unconscious, and Thing soon arrived as backup. Before he could help his partner, Thing was attacked by the Terrible Trio, and Bull managed to tie him to the train track as well (using another train track to hold him tight). Thing managed to stop the incoming train with his legs however, and break free, free the Torch, and defeat and apprehend the Trio.[4] Also around this time, the Fantastic Four fended off Diablo and his Dragon Man construct from an attack on State University.[5] Torch and Thing also took down a trio of small-time criminals who had stolen the payroll from a concert hall where The Beatles were performing.[6]

The Mad Thinker's baleful ball

Torch and Thing received an invitation to the dedication ceremony for a new dam. Upon their arrival, an explosion rocked the dam, creating a crack in its surface. The two were also attacked by a strange, flying, metallic ball, which they soon found to be utterly impervious to their fire- and impact-based attacks. Eventually, Thing was able to knock the ball high into the sky, where Torch struck it with his near-nova heat blast. He succeeded in destroying the ball, and fell helpless into Thing's arms. The engineer of the dam shut off the main valve, ceasing the threat of danger until he could properly repair it. Returning to the Baxter Building, the heroes spoke to Reed, who correctly supposed that this event sounded like one of the Mad Thinker's plots—indeed, at that moment, the Thinker cursed his latest failure from a remote laboratory.[7] Around this time, the Fantastic Four faced off against the Frightful Four,[8] and traveled to the Skrull homeworld to get revenge on Morrat, the killer of Franklin Storm.[9]

Professor Jack's magnetic mayhem

One day, a scientist named Pearson from NASA came to the Fantastic Four with a request for assistance in a launch they were set to conduct. They were launching a capsule to deliver "giant space magnets" into orbit to help calibrate their satellites. One of the project designers, "Professor Jack," had been declared a security risk, and they needed someone who could occupy the capsule as well as handle any threat that might arise. Thing was ruled too heavy, Mr. Fantastic was kept behind as a liaison, and Pearson didn't want Invisible Girl on the job on account of her sex, so Human Torch was chosen to do it, and agreed. He went with Pearson to the NASA laboratory and met Jack under the alias of "Doug Brown." Meanwhile, against Pearson's orders, Thing arrived at the lab to keep an eye on Johnny. There, Johnny was nearly crushed by a falling water tower, but Thing saved him in time. The event drew the attention of Jack and Pearson, and Pearson covered for the heavily cloaked Thing, identifying him as "Dr. Josiah Verpoorten." The next morning, after the launch, Thing snuck around the lab trying to dig up dirt on Jack, but fell into a trap and was held in place by a large claw machine. Once the magnets were placed—granting Jack an unspecified power—Jack triggered an acid-based dismantling of the capsule as it began re-entry. As the capsule dissolved, Torch entered the atmosphere and got enough oxygen to flame on and safely return to Earth. Thing escaped his bonds, and the two easily took down Jack. NASA had enough video footage to prosecute Jack, and he was brought to justice.[10]

The new face of the Puppet Master

Johnny, Ben, Doris, and Alicia went to the mall together, where they saw an exceptionally lifelike mannequin. They were accosted by a strange man, who invited them to meet him in the sub-basement later to see his sculpted artwork. Alicia was especially interested, and the men reluctantly agreed. While their girlfriends explored the other galleries, Johnny and Ben went to the basement, and soon found that the artist was in fact the Puppet Master, having undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance. The duo took the fight to him, but Thing was soon trapped in a huge, powerful metallic clamp machine, and Torch was disabled by an "ice queen" statue that Puppet Master designed to blast freezing air at him. Since his last defeat, Puppet Master had shifted his focus from using puppets to control humans to instead simply animating and controlling the puppets themselves. Johnny and Ben put their heads together and managed to escape their predicament, causing the frightened Puppet Master to back into his puppet-making device, turning himself into a mannequin. Thing called up the police and left Puppet Master for their retrieval.[11]

King Kang's Court and the X-Men

Torch and Thing were approached at the Baxter Building by Uatu, the Watcher, who had an urgent task for the Fantastic Four. Reed and Sue were out that day, and Uatu settled for just Johnny and Ben in their absence. He told them that Kang had traveled back in time to medieval England and usurped the throne from King Arthur, defeating and imprisoning Arthur's wizard mentor Merlin along the way. Uatu used his great power as a Watcher to send the heroes to Arthur's time, where they fought Kang's army and worked to free Merlin. Torch successfully rescued the sorcerer, and the three forced Kang to retreat and flee back through time before he could cause sufficient change to alter future events. Uatu returned the heroes back to their own time and commended them for their valiance.[12] Some time afterward, while minding his own civilian business, Torch received a vague, unexpected mental signal from Professor X of the X-Men. He was wary of this message being a trap from one of his foes, but Xavier contacted him once more later on and asked for his help fighting a powerful foe known as the Juggernaut. Dismissing his fears, Torch followed Xavier's telepathic guidance to the X-Men's mansion in Westchester and helped the X-Men battle the hulking villain, who sought a kind of revenge against his long-lost stepbrother Xavier. Torch and the X-Men teamed up to remove Juggernaut's psionic helmet, allowing Xavier to knock him out telepathically. Professor X was grateful for Torch's help, but wiped his memory of the incident to preserve the mutants' secrecy.[13]

Daredevil and Doctor Doom

Later, the Fantastic Four found themselves the victims of a vengeful plot constructed by the Frightful Four, who lured the team to a remote Pacific atoll and caught them in a huge "Q-bomb" explosion. Invisible Girl managed to protect them with her forcefield, but the Four were knocked unconscious by the blast.[14] As a result of the explosion, the Fantastic Four had lost their powers. They returned home, but the recovered Doctor Doom took over the Baxter Building with his advanced technological prowess. With help from Daredevil (secretly the team's lawyer, Matt Murdock), the Fantastic Four returned to the Baxter and reached the power-stimulating ray they had used on the Skrull homeworld. Reed used it to reinvigorate the team and fight off Doctor Doom, who retreated. Ben was frustrated by his perceived lack of input into the team's strategy, and especially with rebecoming the Thing.[15][16]

Further Fantastic Four adventures

The Thing wandered in a depression and was captured by the Frightful Four. The Wizard brainwashed him and used him to combat his former allies, proving more than formidable, but the remaining members of the Fantastic Four rescued Ben and ultimately brought the villains to custody—with the exception of Medusa, who escaped without a trace. Ben apologized for storming off and humbly rejoined the team.[17][18][19] Reed and Sue were united in marriage in a heavily publicized and, as it turned out, harrowing wedding: Doctor Doom used an "emotion machine" to influence and coerce villains from around the world to converge on the Baxter Building and attack the Fantastic Four. Many heroes were in attendance to help fight them off, including the Avengers and X-Men. With help from Uatu, Reed activated a special Watcher device that transported all of the culprits back into the recent past with no memory of what had transpired—even Doom in his home Latveria. Reed and Sue were thus successfully and peacefully married.[20] Doom did not remain quiet for long however, as he took the Avengers captive in Latveria. The Fantastic Four tried to intervene, but representatives from Washington kept their hands tied lest they produce an international incident. The Avengers managed to escape and flee Latveria on their own.[21]

The Inhumans and Galactus

Medusa of the Frightful Four soon reemerged, being chased by a hulking hoofed humanoid named Gorgon. She coerced help from Johnny, who drove her far from the city to the lake near State University where the Fantastic Four had fought Dragon Man. Dragon Man too appeared, and he mindlessly fought with the pursuing Gorgon. Eventually, the fight brought these four and the rest of the Fantastic Four to a Manhattan rooftop, where Gorgon caused considerable damage with his strong hooves. He escaped with Medusa while the Fantastic Four made peace with Dragon Man, and Reed began making an enclosure in the Baxter Building for him to live in. Later, Johnny met a girl named Crystal, beginning in earnest the complex interaction between the Fantastic Four and the Inhuman Royal Family: the family led by Black Bolt who rightly ruled an offshoot race of humanity known as Inhumans. The family were in the midst of a tumultuous exile from their home city of Attilan brought on by Black Bolt's brother Maximus. Soon the rest of the Fantastic Four got roped into a confrontation with the Inhumans, who were hiding out underground. Maximus had sent the Seeker to capture and imprison the family and secure his rule over Attilan. Ultimately, the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans came face to face with Maximus in Attilan, stopping a plan he had devised to swiftly destroy all of humanity. An enraged Maximus established a thick zone of antimatter around the city, thoroughly blocking passage into and out of Attilan. Johnny and Crystal by this point had fallen deeply in love, and were distraught at being separated as their respective families kept them on their appropriate sides of the barrier.[22][23][24][25]

The Fantastic Four returned to New York in time for the coming of the Silver Surfer, the Herald of Galactus. Uatu informed them that Galactus was a nigh-omnipotent cosmic being who consumes the energy of worlds, leaving them dead and empty, and the Surfer was here to scout the planet and notify the population of Galactus's arrival. The Four, especially the Thing, were aggressive toward the Surfer, and beat him across the rooftops of the city. Soon Galactus himself arrived and the Fantastic Four proved no match for him in direct combat. He began to build the device that would facilitate his consumption of Earth's energy. Uatu provided the team with the knowledge of a device known as the Ultimate Nullifier that would allow them to fend off Galactus. Only Johnny would be capable of retrieving it, and Uatu sent him to a point in time and space for which "your language holds no words [to] describe." Uatu accompanied Johnny mentally and led him to the Worldship, a space station the size of a star system wherein lay the Ultimate Nullifier. Meanwhile, the beaten Surfer fell through the skylight of Alicia Masters, who convinced him that Galactus's hunger did not overrule the countless innocent lives of those he would consume. The Surfer helped impede Galactus as the Torch returned with the Ultimate Nullifier: the boy was left in shock from traveling through the cosmos, and Reed took the device from him. Reed and Uatu negotiated for Earth's release, and Galactus agreed to move on in exchange for the Nullifier itself. However, he stripped the Silver Surfer of his herald position and of his ability to travel through the stars. Soon after, unable to get Crystal off of his mind, Johnny suddenly enrolled in Metro College. Visiting the campus, he met with Dean Asher as well as fellow incoming freshman Wyatt Wingfoot. The two became fast friends and even roommates, even as Johnny wondered if he could adjust to college life after being exposed to the immensity of the universe.[26][27][28]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Strange Tales #128a: "Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch." (January 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Ayers, Dick (p), Ray, Frank (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  2. ↑ Fantastic Four #34: "A House Divided!" (January 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  3. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #21: "Where Flies the Beetle...!" (February 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Ditko, Steve (art), Rosen, Sam (let).
  4. ↑ Strange Tales #129a: "The Terrible Trio!" (February 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Ayers, Dick (p), Ray, Frankie (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  5. ↑ Fantastic Four #35: "Calamity on the Campus!" (February 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  6. ↑ Strange Tales #130a: "Meet the Beatles!" (March 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Powell, Bob (p), Stone, Chic (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  7. ↑ Strange Tales #131a: "The Bouncing Ball of Doom!" (April 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Powell, Bob (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  8. ↑ Fantastic Four #36: "The Frightful Four!" (March 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  9. ↑ Fantastic Four #37: "Behold! A Distant Star!" (April 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  10. ↑ Strange Tales #132a: "The Sinister Space Trap!" (May 1965) Ivie, Larry (w), Powell, Bob (p), Esposito, Mike (i), Rosen, Sam (let), Lee, Stan (ed).
  11. ↑ Strange Tales #133a: "The Terrible Toys!" (June 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Powell, Bob (p), Esposito, Mike (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  12. ↑ Strange Tales #134a: "The Challenge of...the Watcher!" (July 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Powell, Bob (p), Wood, Wallace (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  13. ↑ The X-Men #13: "Where Walks the Juggernaut!" (September 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (art), Roth, Werner (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  14. ↑ Fantastic Four #38: "Defeated by the Frightful Four!" (May 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  15. ↑ Fantastic Four #39: "A Blind Man Shall Lead Them!" (June 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ray, Frank (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  16. ↑ Fantastic Four #40: "The Battle of the Baxter Building." (July 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  17. ↑ Fantastic Four #41: "The Brutal Betrayal of Ben Grimm!" (August 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  18. ↑ Fantastic Four #42: "To Save You, Why Must I Kill You?" (September 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  19. ↑ Fantastic Four #43: "Lo, There Shall Be an Ending!" (October 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  20. ↑ Fantastic Four Annual #3a: "Bedlam at the Baxter Building!" (October 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Colletta, Vince (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  21. ↑ The Avengers #25: "Enter...Dr. Doom!" (February 1966) Lee, Stan (w), Heck, Don (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  22. ↑ Fantastic Four #44: "The Gentleman's Name Is Gorgon!" (November 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  23. ↑ Fantastic Four #45: "Among Us Hide...the Inhumans." (December 1965) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  24. ↑ Fantastic Four #46: "Those Who Would Destroy Us!" (January 1966) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  25. ↑ Fantastic Four #47: "Beware the Hidden Land!" (February 1966) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  26. ↑ Fantastic Four #48: "The Coming of Galactus!" (March 1966) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  27. ↑ Fantastic Four #49: "If This Be Doomsday!" (April 1966) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  28. ↑ Fantastic Four #50: "The Startling Saga of the Silver Surfer!" (May 1966) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
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