Marvel Database
Register
Advertisement

History

Fred Raymond was an expert in asbestos who began working with Dr. Phineas Horton before the creation of the Human Torch. While working with Dr. Horton, Fred began to feel the effects of longtime exposure to asbestoes and left Dr. Horton's employ due to failing health. At some point after this he married, Nora and they had a child together Thomas whom they nicknamed "Toro" in memory of their Mexican honeymoon.[2] Whilst raising Toro, the family were attacked by the Asbestos Lady who wanted to kidnap Fred to use his knowledge of asbestos for criminal purposes. The family was saved by the intervention of the Human Torch, but the Asbestos Lady escaped.

Learning Nora, who was sick from her radium experiments, had a few more weeks to live, Fred took his family on vacation but while they were travelling by train, the Asbestos Lady caused the train to crash, killing both Fred and Nora.[3][4]

Notes

  • Toro had no origin for decades, apart from being the survivor of a train wreck, undamaged by fire, while his parents died, as depicted in his first appearance in Human Torch #2 (September, 1940).
    • Roger Stern (who was undoubtful that others had their own explanations) wanted Toro and his parents to be "secret emissaries of the Inhuman, sent out into the work on a inspection trip". Eventually becoming a Marvel writer, he couldn't go that way, as Roy Thomas made Toro a mutant in Invaders #22 (November, 1977). Considering it a "reasonable enough origin", that eliminated for Stern the need of implementing his idea.[5]
    • His origin was later retconned in All-New Invaders #8 (July 23, 2014), in the wake of the Infinity and Inhumanity events, as being a human with a recessive Inhuman gene who had reacted to the Horton Cells when he came in contact with the Human Torch, but underwent further changes activated by a Terrigen Bomb. It remains whether of his parents (if not both) were carrying Inhuman lineage in their genetics.

See Also

Links and References

References

Advertisement