Jim Hammond | Percival Henry: The Fantastic Four and more

Tags

1966, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four Annual 4, jack Kirby, Jim Hammond, Joe Sinnott, mad Thinker, Quasimodo, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four Annual 4
“The Torch That Was!”
Published: August 1966
Story: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Kirby and Sinnott

(Note: Fantastic Four Annual 4 came out a week before FF 56, but follows it chronologically, which is why I’m writing about after issue 56. The annual also included reprints of FF 25 and 26).

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four’s fourth annual opens like many issues, with the FF hanging around the Baxter Building reading fan mail. The Human Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot suddenly appear, teleported by Lockjaw from the Himalayas, where they had sought to rescue Crystal and the Inhumans. Johnny, despondent that his efforts to find Crystal failed, flies to the desert to experiment with his powers.

Meanwhile the Mad Thinker, last seen in issue 28, has a new scheme: reviving the original Human Torch, the android knows as Jim Hammond. Threatening him with destruction via Quasimodo, a sentient computer, the Thinker sends the original Torch to battle the Johnny Storm. The two fight to a standstill when the rest of the FF arrive, teleported by Lockjaw. Lockjaw then teleports them all to the Thinker’s lair, where the original Torch turns on the Thinker and is rendered inert by Quasimodo. The Thinker escapes and Lockjaw teleports Johnny and Wyatt back to find the Inhumans.

What’s going on here?

The story in FF Annual 4 isn’t particularly momentous—it’s not a wedding or birth issue, like many annuals—but it does feature the return of a Marvel golden age character. Similar to Stan and Jack’s revival of the Sub-Mariner, way back in FF 4, they retroactively insert Jim Hammond into the Marvel universe, tying the golden age to the present.

While Jim Hammond never plays as prominent a role as Namor, he occupies an interesting place in Marvel continuity.

He first appeared in Marvel Comics 1, in 1939, as one of the earliest super heroes. Stan and Jack recap his origin in the annual, and are fairly faithful to Carl Burgos’s original version. Here Burgos describes his invention by Prof. Phineas Horton:

Here it is as told by Stan and Jack:

As drawn by Kirby, Jim Hammond looks like a Greek god (and I guess why not, since he’s a robot, he can look like anything).

The Human Torch fought crime and Nazis in the 1940s and essentially disappears after the golden age. He was later ret-conned into the Invaders, a WWII era super hero team, along with his sidekick, Toro.

*Invaders 1 (1975, by Thomas,Robbins and Colletta).*

After his appearance and apparent destruction in FF Annual 4, it was generally established that the Human Torch’s body was used by the robot Ultron and transformed into the Vision.

*Avengers 135 (1975, by Englehart, Tuska and Chiarmonte)*

That chronology got muddled when John Byrne revived the Human Torch in West Coast Avengers 50, suggesting that he never became the Vision, but that the Vision was assembled from Horton’s spare parts.

*West Coast Avengers 50 (1989 Byrne/Machlan)*

It’s all cleared up (sort of) in Avengers Forever, a limited series that tried to untangle some continuity, albeit in a very confusing way. As described by Kurt Busiek, Immortus, the tame-manipulating villain, split the Human Torch into two timelines, one of which became the Vision, the other of which remained the Human Torch. Hopefully that clears everything up.

Avengers Forever 8 (1998, Busiek, Pacheco and Merino)

The Jim Hammond Torch has resurfaced over the years, but never as a major character.

Quasimodo

Avengers Annual 4 also marks the first appearance of Quasimodo, a third-tier villain who shares only a name with the Victor Hugo character. Apparently the name is derived from “Quasi-Motivational Destruct Organ,” whatever that means. He, too, reappears on occasion, but never as a major villain.

Everybody plays the fool

I get the story-telling purpose of Ben not knowing there was another Human Torch, but it’s a little hard to swallow. Ben did serve in World War II as well.