Though the big development for the Human Torch in 1941 is of course the fact that he gets a sidekick in the person of Toro, there are one or two other things worth noting about that year in his history:

In Marvel Mystery Comics v1 016, the very non-La Guardia Mayor of NYC forms a new, anti-fifth column law enforcement department, calls it the Suicide Squad, and places the Human Torch in charge of it. The Suicide Squad does not come up again in this story or in any subsequent ones, most likely because it was forgotten, or perhaps because of the word “Suicide” acting as a real limiter on applications to join up with them. Whichever it was it was not great loss to comics history, seeing as the Mayor’s talk about there being “no political drag or red tape…” means that the idea behind it was to depict policing without due process and that always sets my teeth on edge.

Marvel Mystery Comics v1 017 marks the first Human Torch/ Sub-Mariner team-up as they foil an attempted Axis invasion of the United States. Their initial meeting being a conflict means that they have an insult-driven banter that sets the tone for all their future interactions.