Toro may be the forgotten child of the Golden Age today, but let’s see what exciting developments occurred in his life c. 1941.

Marvel Mystery Comics v1 019: Toro is severely wounded in a deathtrap set by the Hag and requires a “flame transfusion” to recover. This process leaves him canonically just a little less cool and powerful than the Human Torch, which seems like a very deliberate move on the part of Carl Burgos to draw a distinction between the two and introduce situations where the Torch has to rescue or help his junior partner.

This weakness is referenced in Marvel Mystery Comics v1 020, in which it basically renders Toro useless in a fire emergency.

Perhaps because of this, the weakness is “fixed” at some point between the previous issue and Human Torch v1 004 and never really referenced again.

Finally, and I haven’t read far enough into the 1942 adventures of the Torch and Toro to say if this continues, but for a lot of 1941 the Human Torch is an incredible asshole to Toro. My least favourite part of this, at least aesthetically, is that he makes fun of Toro’s youth by referring to him as a “diaper,” as seen here in a panel from Marvel Mystery Comics v1 023. And “flaming diaper” is, if anything, even worse! Fingers crossed for a little more wholesome mentor/mentee language in the future.