KYRPYTYR
Classification: Extraterrestrial humanoid chiroptera
Location/Base of Operations: The planet Psi Centauri
Known Members: None identified
Affiliations: Human Torch (Jim Hammond), Toro (Thomas Raymond) (law abiding citizens only)
Enemies: Human Torch (Jim Hammond), Humans, Toro (Thomas Raymond) (mutant criminals only)
First Appearance: Human Torch Comics#37/1 (June, 1954)
Powers/Abilities: All Kyrpytyr were able to fly due to wings on their back. They were extremely long-lived, living up to several thousand years. A small number of them needed to consume blood to survive and evolved to become shapeshifters to hide among the human race.
They were capable of interstellar travel using space ships.
Traits: The majority were a peaceful race, who opposed killing in general. Their mutants were the stark opposite because they had to drink blood to survive.
Type: Semi-humanoid (some posing as humanoid)
Eyes: Two
Fingers: Five
Toes: Presumably five
Skin color: Gray (some posing as Caucasian)
Average height: 6'3"
History:
(Human Torch Comics#37/1 (fb)) - On the planet Psi Centauri intelligent
life evolved from bats.
At some point a genetic mutation led to some Kyrpytyr being forced to drink blood to survive. A criminal cult formed around them on the peaceful planet. Many thousands of years ago they were rounded up and taken to Earth, where, at the time, only dinosaurs existed. The Kyrpytyr hoped that their criminals would die on this remote planet.
The criminals survived and evolved further when an intelligent species evolved from apes developed. Their new mutation allowed them to hide among humans by day, but return to their bat forms at night to prey on humans.
A Kyrpytyr scout ship passed Earth again and learned about humanity and how they were haunted by their mutant criminals.
(Human Torch Comics#37/1) - Human Torch and Toro heard about recent vampire killing from a newspaper boy, but the Torch disregarded it as mere legends that could be explained logically. They visited Professor Collins, who showed them a weird meteor through his telescope, that the Torch believed to be a space ship. Collins was able to chart were it landed and to the surprise of the Torch and Toro, it was in the mountains where the alleged vampire killings were happening.
The Human Torch and Toro traveled to the mountain village to investigate the meteor, they believed to be a space ship. They rented a room at a hotel and were shown to their room by the landlord (see right image). At night, during a massive storm, they saw a big bat flying away from the hotel and followed it to a cave. They encountered a group of giant bats and tried to burn them before turning off their flames and moving deeper into the cave where they were attacked by one of the giant bats. They recognized him as the landlord from the hotel, who ran away from them until he got caught by two other giant bats. The Torch and Toro followed the three giant bats through an opening to a larger cave and found the space ship they were looking for. While the landlord was taken aboard the space ship, another member of the race from Psi Centauri explained the whole history of the Kyrpytyr criminals that had been left on Earth before the rise of humanity and would now be taken to another world without intelligent life to protect humanity from them. The Kyrpyrtyr would not kill their criminals because they opposed killing. They were headed next for Hungary to pick up more of their criminals. Before leaving, the Kyrpytyr asked the Human Torch and Toro not to tell anybody what they had seen because it would only alarm humanity that a race of bats could come to Earth.
Comments: Created by Joe Gill, Dick Ayers & Carl Burgos.
Their real name was revealed in a note in the Vampires profile from Vampires: Marvel's Undead#1 (December, 2011).
Millions of years includes several thousand years, but living thousands of years is far less than millions. Longevity be damned, but thousands and millions of years is a massive difference, but there are possible explanations.
What does this story mean for the existence of actual vampires on Earth-616? Nothing! Some of the creatures humanity believed to be vampires were aliens while others were not. I understand that this story tried to explain away the existence of vampires, but there were too many vampire stories over the years and even explanations for their existence to just decide that vampires in general were all of a sudden just aliens.
This profile was completed on 08/25/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary event.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Kyrpytyr from Psi Centauri have no known connections to:
|
Kyrpytyr space ships were capable of interstellar travel. They brought criminals to Earth with a space ship, discovered humanity with a scout ship and later picked them up with a space ship to save humanity from the Kyrpytyr criminals. --Human Torch Comics#37/1 |
images: (without ads)
Human Torch Comics#37, p5, pan1 (main, Kyrpytyr landlord running away)
Human Torch Comics#37, p6, pan2 (Kyrpytyr head shot)
Human Torch Comics#37, p3, pan1 (Kyrpytyr in human form, landlord)
Human Torch Comics#37, p6, pan1 (Kyrpytyr body shot, from distance)
Human Torch Comics#37, p5, pan7 (Kyrpytyr space ship)
Appearances:
Human Torch Comics#37/1 (June, 1954) - Joe Gill (writer), Dick Ayers
& Carl Burgos (artists), Stan Lee (editor)
First Posted: 09/09/2026
Last updated: 08/25/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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