The Human Torch Burned Hitler To Death In The Marvel Universe

Captain America may be famous for punching Adolf Hitler in the face, but it was Marvel’s own Human Torch that outright killed the dictator once and for all – by burning him alive. The event is so famous in the Marvel Universe that it was documented in not one, but two different comic stories. The deed wasn’t done by Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four, but by the original Human Torch: an android named Jim Hammond.

Jim Hammond’s life began in 1939 when he was created by Professor Phineas Horton. The android, taking the name Jim Hammond, can spontaneously combust when in the presence of oxygen, but he eventually gained the ability to control his flames. He became a champion of justice and arguably one of Marvel’s very first superheroes; he joined the American Invaders super-team during World War II along with Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Toro (the Torch’s sidekick with similar powers) and Namor the Sub-Mariner. On April 30th, 1945, the Torch and Toro charged into Berlin, seeking to end Hitler’s reign once and for all.

Hitler sits in his bunker next to an already-dead Eva Braun, and commands Otto Günsche – Hitler’s bodyguard in real life – to burn his body as soon as he’s shot himself. The Human Torch bursts into the bunker and attempts to make Hitler an American prisoner, thus saving him from the wrath of the Soviet army. Hitler tries to blow up Hammond and his sidekick with a bomb – forcing the Torch to turn up the heat and burn Hitler alive. “Don’t let the world know how I died!” Hitler pleads to Otto as the fire consumes him. “Tell them I committed suicide..!” Hitler dies and the Torch morosely comments “Lying with his dying breath!”

The entire morbid affair was chronicled in Marvel’s What If? #4: What if the Invaders Had Stayed Together After World War Two?, but Hitler’s death was not a what-if scenario. What If #4’s prologue is a retelling of an event that actually happened (as far as Marvel comics continuity is concerned) in Young Men #24 in 1953. The Torch still burns Hitler, although Toro isn’t present (and the Watcher doesn’t provide his all-knowing narration). This event is so well-known in the Marvel Universe that when Bucky Barnes later claims he killed Hitler after freeing himself from the Winter Soldier persona, no one believes him.

The 1940s and 50s were rife with patriotic superheroes utterly destroying Axis enemies, so it’s odd that the Human Torch would be the character to finally kill Hitler before Captain America, et al would get the chance. Perhaps the writers believed Steve Rogers too morally pure to murder Hitler where he stood, but they believed an android would have no regrets (even though it’s established that Jim Hammond does have emotions). Whatever the case, this could be the reason for the massive proliferation of superheroes in the Marvel Universe: the ultimate evil man meeting his end at the hands of the heroic and supremely powerful Human Torch.