The Torch That Was!

While Reed, Sue, and Ben read over some fan mail, they are suddenly startled when Lockjaw transports Johnny and Wyatt into the Baxter Building. While elsewhere, the Mad Thinker (with the help of his computer Quasimodo which he promises to provide a human body in exchange for help) recover the body of the original Human Torch and begin repairing it.

While Reed is examining Lockjaw's teleportation powers, Johnny travels out to the desert to try to find a way with his own power to break through the Negative Zone sealing off the Hidden Land of the Inhumans. There he is attacked by the original Human Torch. The battle is eventually broken up with the arrival of the rest of the Fantastic Four and Wyatt when they are transported there by Lockjaw.

Separating the two, the original Torch gets back under control. When they are teleported into the Mad Thinker's lab, the Thinker has Quasimodo activate a device which causes the original Torch to destruct, allowing the Mad Thinker to escape. When Lockjaw begins teleporting Johnny and Wyatt leap onto the beast being transported away. In the aftermath the rest of the Fantastic Four depart as well, leaving Quasimodo with his dreams of being human crushed.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Wyatt Wingfoot, Mad Thinker, Quasimodo, Human Torch (android), Lockjaw

Continuity Notes

• Johnny and Wyatt were trying to utilize Lockjaw to teleport them beyond the Negative Zone barrier that trapped the Inhumans, as seen in Fantastic Four #56. The continue on their journey in this issue following into Fantastic Four #57.

• This marks the return of the original android Human Torch from the 1940s who was last seen in Sub-Mariner Comics #35. His origins explained here are an abridged retelling of his origin in Marvel Comics #1. Saga of the Original Human Torch #4 explains what happened to the Torch between his last appearance in 1955 and the Mad Thinker reviving him: That his powers flared out of control and he seemingly perished in the Nevada Desert.

• Following his deactivation here the android Torch's body was part of a long standing scheme to manipulate the Avengers by the time traveller known as Immortus. Using his powers over time he made a chronal duplicate of the Human Torch's body as revealed in Avengers Forever #8. One copy of the body was later taken by the Mad Thinker and used to lure the Torch's former partner Toro into a trap, as seen in Sub-Mariner #14. This body was buried in a cemetery as seen in Avengers West Coast #50 where it remained buried for years before being reactivated by the Avengers West Coast. The other duplicate was recovered by the robot known as Ultron who forced the Torch's creator Phineas Horton in assisting him to rebuild the Torch's body into the android known as the Vision, as seen in Giant-Size Avengers #3.

• Quasimodo was trapped in the Mad Thinker's hideout until he was given a physical body by the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four Annual #5