Jim Hammond

The Human Torch was an android created by Professor Phineas T. Horton for scientific purposes. At a press-conference unveiling, however, Horton's creation burst into flames when exposed to oxygen, and, with human-like sentience, personality, and awareness, rebelled against his creator. Public outcry led to the Torch's being sealed in concrete, which Horton did until he could find a way to control the android's flames, though he eventually escaped due to a crack that let oxygen seep in. While the Torch then inadvertently caused parts of New York City to burn, he eventually learned to control his flame and vowed to help humanity.

He would join other heroes as war broke out in Europe, and later in the Pacific, to fight the Axis powers. During this time he 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. The Human Torch 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 villains and his off-and-on foe, the Sub-Mariner. During World War II Jim helped allied forces and the Invaders fight the Axis powers. Near the end of the war, Jim came face-to-face with Adolf Hitler and killed him with his bare hands.

After the war the Torch was placed in deactivation sleep in the Mojave Desert; an atomic bomb test awoke him. Learning that Toro had been captured by the Soviets and brainwashed, the Torch rescued his old partner and learned that the nuclear bomb's radiation had made his powers both much stronger and more unstable. Eventually, fearing he would become a danger to those around him, the Torch flew back out into the desert and went nova, using up his energy reserve and effectively deactivating himself. The Mad Thinker later rebuilt the Torch, restraining his flame and editing his memory so he would forget having been a hero, then sent him after the Fantastic Four. Jim soon fought with the new Human Torch at the Thinker's behest, though he was loathe to actually murder him. But the rest of the four soon appeared, along with Wyatt Wingfoot, and captured him, transporting him back to the Thinker's lab with Lockjaw's help. There, the original Torch rebelled against the Thinker, refusing to be a party to murder, and the Thinker used his computer, Quasimodo, to fire a ray that shut off the invisible coating of protective nitrogen cells, which kept his flame in check, and he burned himself out.