Polite Dissent

Back in Marvel Mystery Comics #19, Toro (the teen sidekick of the Human Torch*) was injured in a fight with a villainess known as “The Hag.” The Torch rushed Toro the hospital where the doctors discovered that he had sustained internal injuries. Despite the best medical care, Toro kept becoming weaker and weaker. The doctors realized that his only hope of survival was to receive a transfusion from the Human Torch. You’ll notice that the Human Torch’s blood is described as flame or live fire and the hospital has to use asbestos tubing (this was years before asbestos was discoverd to cause cancer).

This marks the first time in comic book history that an android (the inaptly named Human Torch) donated blood to save a human. It wasn’t the last time either, at least for the Human Torch. In Invaders #11 his blood was transfused into the injured Jacqueline Falsworth. The android blood combined with the vampire blood already in her system (don’t ask) and gave her super-speed which she used to become the super-heroine Spitfire. She received a second transfusion the Human Torch sometime in the ’90s which restored her youth and powers.

*This is the Golden Age Human Torch, an android who went by the name Jim Hammond, not the second HumanTorch (Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four).