I'm reading a bunch of back issues featuring the original Torch, including golden age stuff. I've always thought of the Torch as being literally a 'synthetic man'--we know he has false blood and flesh, and in the past has been shown to have mechanical innards. The Vision, I recall, seemed a little more 'organic' during Byrne's run on West Coast Avengers, and one of the recent Torch stories (a retconned-in story taking place in the '40's) has his flesh eaten away after an encounter with a frog creature, revealing his very robot-like appearance beneath.
I'm curious--how has the Torch's/Vision's physicality been addressed in the past? Robinson said in the interview (linked in another thread) that this aspect of the Torch fascinated him, and he would address it...I prefer a more human-like Jim Hammond, not the Terminator-like guy.
On a side note, these golden age stories are quite goofy...one recount of the Torch's origin had him literally jump out of a pot of flames fully formed, 'a living flame', as Professor Horton exclaimed. Good stuff.