History
The so-called "Carnival of Doom" or "Devil Dancers" were a group of Nazi spies active during World War II. In the summer of 1943, they became aware of the "Ballet Gestapo", a play put on in New York that mocked the Nazi regime as well as its leader Adolf Hitler. They set out to eliminate all those involved for this effrontery to their leader.
Suspecting that the Human Torch and his partner Toro would attempt to stop them, they sent one of their agents to lob a grenade into their apartment. The Human Torch and Toro thwarted this assassination attempt, and their attacker fell from the fire escape outside their window. As he died, he told the two heroes that he was ordered to keep them away from the Ballet Gestapo.
That night, the Carnival of Doom dressed in devil costumes as extras in the play. When the performance went on and the actor mockingly Hitler called them on stage, they then began attacking the actors killing them on stage with real pitchforks. Witnessing this from the audience, the Human Torch and Toro flamed into action and stopped them from murdering any more of the cast.
The members of the Carnival of Doom fled up into the catwalk, however when the Torch burned away the ropes holding up the scaffold, they all fell to their deaths.[2]