I open my look at Marvel’s earliest heroes with the ones who really caught on and started making regular appearances in multiple titles.

Major Heroes

The Human Torch (Jim Hammond)

First appearance: Marvel Comics #1
Created by Carl Burgos

The original Human Torch was not human, but an android. His first story had him unable to control his flames, but he got that under control pretty quickly with some comic book science. After that, he fought crime on his own for a bit, then took up a human identity and became a police officer.

Sub-Mariner (Namor Mackenzie)

First appearance: Marvel Comics #11Namor technically first appeared in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, but that comic was never circulated and exists only in a few proof copies.
Created by Bill Everett

Namor is the son of an American soldier and an Atlantean2It wasn’t called Atlantis in these early comics, but that’s what it is and using the name is easier than trying to work around it. princess. His father’s comrades were less kind to the Atlanteans than he was, and Namor first came to the surface looking for revenge.

I’m pretty sure when Bill Everett wrote a new Namor story, he flipped a coin to decide whether Namor was going to be a good guy or bad guy that month. Song of Ice and Fire kidding aside, the first few issues make sense: Namor attacks New York, Namor is convinced not all surface-dwellers are like the ones who hurt his people, the New Yorkers decide they can’t let his earlier attacks go and try to execute him, Namor doesn’t like that and reverts to his original state, Human Torch fights him to a standstill and he retreats back to his home.

Then came the saga of Luther Robinson and Lynne Harris. They attack Atlantis. Namor captures them, but helps them escape. Then he goes after them again, apparently intent on making Lynne marry him. They escape, but after a few issues he goes after them again. This goes on for a few more issues. He also fights Human Torch a couple more times, including one where his head is clouded by his Lady Macbeth girlfriend where things get so destructive it’s hard to believe he could be forgiven.

Eventually things settled with Namor fighting the Axis powers. Namor gets to fight surface-dwellers but they’re bad surface-dwellers so everyone’s happy. Well, except the Nazis and Japanese, I guess.

Angel

First appearance: Marvel Comics #1
Created by Paul Gustavson

Of the big early Marvel stars, Angel is the one I’d never heard of before picking up Marvel Comics #1. While costumed detectives with no powers are common in these early comics, Angel manages to stand tallest by continuing to hold a spot in Marvel Mystery Comics, plus getting the undercard in Sub-Mariner Comics and appearing in the first issue of All Winners Comics. He may not have his own title like the Torch, Namor, or Cap, but it’s clear he was an important character.

Angel is an interesting case in that his civilian identity and life are barely, if ever, touched on in the comics. Sources that can look at 80+ years of history give his real name as Thomas Halloway, but I’m not sure that’s ever been mentioned in these early comics themselves, and pretty much everybody calls him Angel whether he’s in his costume or not. The stories focus on his career as a costumed detective, and what he’s up to when he’s “off the clock” isn’t dwelt on at all.

Captain America (Steve Rogers)

First appearance: Captain America Comics #1
Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

A year and a half after Marvel Comics #1, Marvel launched Captain America Comics. They believed strongly in the title character – the title was a monthly from the start, came out before Namor got his own title, and, like the Human Torch/Sub-Mariner books, Cap carried the majority of the book with multiple stories. There was also the Sentinels of LIberty fan club, which Cap was the face of. Their push paid off: Cap has remained one of Marvel’s stars and icons for most of the last 80+ years, becoming a core Avenger on page and screen.

That first issue shows Cap’s familiar origin story – rejected as unfit for Army service, Steve Rogers instead volunteered to be a test subject for a super-soldier project. Rogers is the first subject to undergo the procedure, but before more can be made a Nazi saboteur ruins the project.

One thing I was not expecting was how bad a soldier Steve Rogers is. Rogers and Barnes are the jokes of their unit, constantly in trouble with Sergeant Duffy. To be fair, some of this is because they’re always off solving mysteries as superheroes at the expense of their duties to the unit, which makes them unreliable at best and AWOL at worst. But it goes beyond that – if anything goes wrong, it will be at Rogers’ and Barnes’ expense, or if not, it’ll look like they caused it and it’ll be Duffy who gets the worst of it. This is probably deliberate to hide the fact that they’re actually superheroes (although how no one puts together unit mascot Bucky and Cap’s sidekick Bucky are the same person, and from there, Barnes is always with Rogers, I’m not sure), but seriously, as many times as they end up in trouble, probably the only reason they haven’t been drummed out for incompetence is that their dual identity gives them protection from on high.

Toro (Thomas Raymond), Bucky (Bucky Barnes), and the Young Allies (see below)

First appearance: The Human Torch #2 (Toro), Captain America Comics #1 (Bucky), Young Allies Comics #1 (Young Allies)
Toro created by Carl Burgos
Bucky created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Young Allies created by Stan Lee and Charles Nicholas

In April 1940, the Distinguished Competition gave Batman a kid sidekick, who got popular, so a couple of Marvel’s characters got sidekicks as well. Toro’s even an orphan from the circus. Toro has powers like the Torch’s but is a human. Bucky doesn’t have powers – he’s the Camp Lehigh mascot, who stumbled across Steve changing into the Captain America outfit and was punished by making him Cap’s sidekick.

In addition to their sidekick appearances, Toro and Bucky lead the Young Allies, a Sentinels of Liberty group. The other members are:

• Percival Aloysius “Knuckles” O’Toole, Irish-American lout
• Jefferson Worthington Sanderbilt, preppy nerd
• Whitewash Jones, minstrel show-esque caricature
• Henry “Tubby” Tinkle, big eater

All four of them are caricatures, not just Whitewash, but racism has become a lot less acceptable nowadays than what the other three got. It’s telling that when Marvel introduced the “real characters” behind what we saw in Young Allies Comics, Knuckles, Geoff, and Hank still have the traits that the comics exaggerated, but Wash is nothing like his counterpart.

Bucky and Toro are solid additions to Captain America and Human Torch stories, and they do their best to carry the Young Allies, but the Young Allies have deep issues. In addition to the problems of the the supporting cast, the stories stretch belief – yes, in a world with Atlanteans and flaming robots; if you take the stories at face value, it’s hard to believe the war lasted long enough for Pearl Harbor to happen. And both Young Allies stories have ended with the kids in over their heads and Cap and the Torch saving the day.

Next: As many of the filler heroes as I can fit in a single post.