After crash landing in the English
Channel, the Invaders (Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Sub-Mariner,
Human Torch, Toro, Spitfire) with Lord Falsworth, Dyna-Mite, and
Union Jack are picked up by a British vessel. As they accompany the
gravely wounded Toro to London by plane, Spitfire wonders why the
Nazi drugs had a stronger effect on Namor and Toro. Torch relates
Toro's history, how the boy was a circus fire-eater who spontaneously
burst into flame when the Torch passed overhead, leading Torch to
adopt him as a sidekick. Torch explains that, like Namor, Toro is
only partly human. Spitfire says that everyone knows how Toro come to
join the circus: he was in a train wreck where he lost his parents
and, discovering that the fire did not hurt him, a fire-eating team
adopted him for their act....
Torch fills in the real history of
Toro: Torch visited his creator Professor
Phineas T. Horton and met
fireproofing expert Frederick Raymond, who was ill from exposure to
asbestos. Fred married Nora Jones, who was sick from exposure to
radium, and they had a son Toro. A villainess named Asbestos Lady
wanted to kidnap Fred to aid her in creating a more fireproof arsenal
and Human Torch came to the rescue, driving off Lady and her
henchmen. He discovered that Toro was a mutant, immune to fire. When
Nora was dying, the family went on that fated trip and the train
wrecked due to the machinations of Asbestos Lady. Later, when Toro
was in the news, Torch and Lady raced to get to him first, Torch
defeating the gang in a fight and proceeding to the circus where he
caused Toro to flame on. And now Toro might die and it's all Torch's
fault....