The Human Torch 1974 #1 - 4.0 - $6.00

In Glenville, Johnny lives with his sister Sue. While she's known as a member of the Fantastic Four, he tries to keep a low profile. We get to see the house, much of which is chemically fire-resistant, and equipped with various crime-fighting equipment. But even in the suburbs danger lurks, as someone called The Destroyer is hell-bent on wrecking a local amusement park nearing completion.

Ben shows up, but Johnny refuses help, saying it's his fight. After another encounter with The Destroyer, Johnny gets a hunch when he realizes the targets so far have been the roller coaster and the parachute jump. Atop the coaster, he looks out to sea and spots a Commie sub! The Destroyer turns out to be Charles Stanton, publisher of the town's newspaper, who'd been smuggling info to the Reds until the building of the amusement park increased the risk that the submarine might be seen.

A hotel is terrorized by a "man-killing beast," sending tenants fleeing. But when The Torch investigates, it seems almost no one has actually seen the monster. The "monster" turns out to be the work of a revenge-crazed madman who'd been fired by the hotel for thievery.

On-sale date from 1974 Periodicals, Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

• Flaming First Issue! - Symbolic cover; scene does not appear in the comic, but suggestive of Torch-Torch battle from Fantastic Four Annual #4 (November 1966). Cover pencil credits from Nick Caputo (April 5, 2004). Pencil originally credited to Sal Buscema. Sinnott inks per Nick Caputo, Feb 2011. Former indexer listed John Romita.
• Johnny Storm, the Human Torch - Part 1 of 2. Contains diagram of Sue and Johnny's house and a very brief recap of the Fantastic Four's origin. Page 3 cut, last panel of page 2 replaced by a Fantastic Four stat by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. On splash page, "Starring...America's Favorite Superhero:" replaced with "Johnny Storm." Plot, script and art credits added for reprint; original had no credits. splash slightly reformatted with new intro and page numbers removed for this reprint.
• Part 2: "The Flaming Fury Strikes Back!!" - Part 2 of 2. Destroyer no relation to the Stan Lee character from Mystic Comics #6 (October 1941), the Lee-Kirby character from Journey Into Mystery #118 (July 1965) or the Jim Starlin character from Iron Man #55 (February 1973).
• Horror Hotel! - The Human Torch created by Carl Burgos (1939). New introduction and outro by Roy Thomas. Job Number from the Atlas Tales website. Rico script and Walton pencils per original pencil stats sold at Heritage Auctions in 2019. This reprint is either heavily reinked, or was traced from an original. Background elements are missing, or inked as black blobs, losing a lot of detail. It was completely recolored, and the lettering and word balloons are different.