Essential Human Torch Volume 1 TPB [Paperback]

Stan Lee (Author)

Book Description

Series: Essential | Publication Date: August 25, 2003

The Fantastic Four's Human Torch earliest solo sagas are collected in their entirety in a single volume, some reprinted for the first time ever! See the Torch battle the Wizard, Paste-Pot Pete, Zemu, the Acrobat, the Sub-Mariner, the Asbestos Man, the Eel, Plantman, the Puppet Master, the Beetle and Kang, and team up with Spider-Man, the Thing, and Iceman! This is the last remaining classic Marvel super hero series to be reprinted in the ESSENTIAL format. Collects Strange Tales #101-134 and Annual #2

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (August 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785113096
• ISBN-13: 978-0785113096
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #251,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Carrying the torch for the Golden Age., June 28, 2005

By 

J. A. Hazelwood "TheSynapZe" (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Human Torch Volume 1 TPB (Paperback)

A couple of weeks ago, I took a long look at my bookshelf and my complete collection of Marvel Essentials and I felt so many memories wash over me. I remembered when the Avengers blasted off into space to stop the Kree-Skrull War. I remembered when Mariko died in Wolverine's arms. I remembered when Howard the Duck ran against Jimmy Carter. I remembered how the first fight between Daredevil and Stilt-Man ended when ol' Longlegs accidentally shrank himself to the size of an atom and then the second time they fought Hornhead realized he could just push him over. And then I looked at my copy of the Essential Human Torch and my first thought was "Did I read this? I don't remember a thing!"

After I cracked it open and gave myself a few more seconds of introspection, it started to come back to me. I had read it last summer, but few of the stories had really stuck in my mind. I did some research on-line about the Human Torch stories in Strange Tales and I deduced that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby intended them to be a safety net of sorts. The Man and the King knew that their ideas about adding more realistic elements to whiz-bang superhero yarns were risky and untested (A husband-wife team, a blind man, and a working-class high school kid as superheroes, in New York City! Who'd read that?). Therefore, a year after the first Fantastic Four comic, they put the youngest FF member (who happened to share the name of the flaming android hero of the 1940's) into his own comic where he faced simple, old-fashioned comic mag predicaments as a way to keep traditional fans interested in their new lineup. However, with almost 45 years of hindsight, modern comic fans are likely to think that, against Marvel's deserved reputation as an innovator of the literary medium, those Human Torch tales are really, well ... old-fashioned.

The first things that you're bound to notice in Torchy's Strange Tales outings are the conflicts, specifically how anemic they are. Johnny Storm is an interesting character, certainly (he's a hot-headed thrill-seeking teen who's at times a reluctant hero, no matter how cool having superpowers is), but the same could rarely be said about his foes. While Marvel's other books featured villains like Dr. Doom, Magneto, or the Red Skull who had honestly sympathetic facets to their biographies and understandable, though sinister, reasons to do what they do, Torch could only find the kind of nogoodniks that were all like "With the matchless power of my magic paint/slippery rubber suit/tuning fork-shaped thing that can make plants intelligent somehow/paste gun, I could rob that bank/win the respect of Communists everywhere/rule the world! Muahahahaha!". Oh, I suppose I should also mention the Asbestos Man, an evil analytical chemist who built himself a suit of armor made out of solid asbestos. He never made another appearance after that one issue. I can think of at least two possible reasons why.

After a long run of retro and pretty-darn-close-to-embarassing imbroglios, the Torch was paired with the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing full-time. Having Ben as Johnny's partner punched up the proceedings a bit and certainly increased the power level of the stories' enemies as high-tier menaces like the Puppet Master and Kang started stopping by. Although, I began to wonder if this made the mag seem too similar to the FF mag in the eyes of comic fans of the times. If I were a kid in the early 60's, would I have spent my 12 cents to watch all four of the Four take on the Mad Thinker or just two of them? As such, it was in July of 1965, while most comic readers were very much on board Marvel's other flagship titles, that Strange Tales discontinued its Human Torch stories after 34 issues and one annual (but not before Ben and Johnny met the Beatles, another foursome of some merit).

On its own, the series doesn't reach the same plateau of any other Marvel series of its time, but there is still some fun to be had. The high points in this volume come from some inspired team-ups: Torch and the mutant Iceman (the teenage masters of heat and cold, a natural fit), the monumental first meeting with Spider-Man (the first friendly meeting anyway), and a real blast from the past with Captain America (who was actually an imposter, but its been said that positive feedback from that story resulted in the Avengers finding the frozen form of a certain WWII hero in the north Atlantic). Plus these issues introduced two of the founding members of the Frightful Four (among my favorite villain teams), the Wizard (as mad scientists go, he was able to stand out) and the Trapster (the crook formerly known as Paste-Pot Pete).

Ol' Matchstick's solo adventures were pretty goofy but they still served as a foundation for the rich tapestry that is today's Marvel Universe. This is why I decided to reread the Essential Human Torch (which, of course, contains all the issues in one inexpensive volume). Those Golden Age by-way-of Stan Lee stories are rather passe, but they still aught to be remembered.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE TORCH GOES SOLO, December 28, 2004

By 

Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Human Torch Volume 1 TPB (Paperback)

I've always found it strange that the Human Torch was among the first Marvel Characters to get his own solo adventures, even if it wasn't completely his own title. Appearing in Strange Tales 101 in November of 1962, this was not even a year after the debut of Fantastic Four #1. I guess Stan must have really liked the Torch since he was a holdover from the Golden Age even though it's not the SAME character.

These very early Marvel stories from the early to mid-1960's are pretty simplistic and crude. The Torch battles a fairly ridiculous array of villians like The Beetle, Paste-Pot pete, The Eel, Plantman, etc...but there were still some interesting team-ups that included his teammate The Thing, Spider-man and Iceman.

This Volume which collects Strange Tales 101 - 134 collects all of the 12 page stories that appeared in those pages as well as Annual #2. The Stories are by Stan Lee, Pencilled by the Great Jack Kirby and inked by his long-time partner Dick Ayers. These are marvel comics of a simpler time...owing more to the Golden Age than to the revolutionary comics that Marvel would be making in just a few year.

Great nostalgic fun!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not entirely essential, February 10, 2005

By 

N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Human Torch Volume 1 TPB (Paperback)

Collecting Strange Tales #101-134 and the Annual #2, Essential Human Torch revolves around some solo adventures of the Fantastic Four member as he goes up against an array of lower tier villains, and naturally has some team up's with Spider-Man, Iceman, and his FF colleague the Thing. Written by Stan Lee, the stories collected here are pretty simplistic, and are a far cry from the stories Lee would weave later on that would make Marvel Comics a force to be reckoned with. Still, with the legendary pencils Jack "King" Kirby and his longtime partner, inker Dick Ayers, you can't really go wrong with this Essential collection, even though it isn't entirely essential.