Ultimate Failstorm! (Or: The Failure of Firestorm)

Since September's relaunch of every mainstream DC comic in the line, I've been reading, and reading, and reading still more. I started off reading nearly half the "New 52" and have pared my way downward from there. How's that coming? I'm still working on it, but I can tell you I've already dropped a few titles.

At the beginning, I had a master list of sorts. Books that I wanted to be really good. Books that I thought would surprise everyone. Books that I felt certain wouldn't last a year.

Some books met my expectations. Some exceed them by a mile.

One was an utter letdown in almost every respect.

Wouldn't you know, it's one I wanted to be good, and it really is surprising everyone. And based on the first two issues alone, I don't want the thing to last a year.

Enter: The Fury of Firestorm, the Nuclear Men.

DCnU: Crisis? What Crisis? (The New 52 & Rampant DiDioism)

Spoilers for the last four weeks of DC's books. Haven't read 'em? Look away, look away, look away, Dixieland.

Breaking news: Dan DiDio has just punched Superboy-Prime right out of the DC Universe. Film at 11.

Just over a month following my last mighty missive about DC Comics' relaunch of 52 of their titles, I'm back with some thoughts, after having read all but four of the titles I've signed on for. (To be read: Aquaman, Justice League Dark, Superman and Voodoo. Am I a masochist? Consider the books I've already read, noted below, and then attempt an answer.) What did I think of the books? Which books will I continue reading? And hey, just what did I think of DC co-publisher Dan DiDio's recent announcement that all company events bearing the umbrella word "Crisis" have been retconned out with the relaunch?

Those are all questions I'm just itchin' to answer. Shall we?

To date, I've read twenty-three "New 52" titles. The old cliche goes, some are good and some suck. Some of them--albeit very few--are fitting for the new audience that DC states they want to lure in. A few will appeal to those fans who are lapsed readers. For the vast majority, however, it's business as usual, with almost nothing really changed from August's books. And then, there are a couple--just one or two, mind you, and I think you know which ones--that are patently offensive and should be canceled as soon as possible.

Of course, they won't actually be canceled because DC has made it obvious that they thrive on controversy, and apparently every bad word about these books only serves to drive sales figures up, up, up. Joker's face ripped off and hung on the wall in Detective Comics? Controversy! Babs Gordon, out of her wheelchair and back to fighting crime as Batgirl, but with acknowledgment of her previous handicap? Controversy! Mister Terrific and an apparently unpowered Karen Starr (formerly Power Girl) possibly being "friends with benefits"? Horrors! Superman ran around in a li'l cape and jeans in his early days, and has never dated or married Lois Lane? Holy Toledo! Amanda Waller, formerly Suicide Squad's rotund leader, now a svelte, sexy lady who might weigh 100 lbs. after eating dinner? Great googly moogly!

And I haven't even gotten to Catwoman's sexcapades with Batman where they keep most of their costumes on in a fetishized scene. Nor have I told about former Teen Titan Starfire, who once had a long-term relationship with Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing, being reduced to a caricature who doesn't even remember who she fought or slept with--little more than, to be blunt, a pretty, curvy set of warm, wet holes that occasionally speaks.

It's been all over the internet now, of course. And hey, did anyone mention that Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 came out on the exact same day as Marv Wolfman and George Perez's New Teen Titans magnum opus, the hardcover graphic novel Games? You know, a book where Starfire is actually treated with some degree of humanity? For maybe the last time ever? And of course DC closes the book on their end with the proclamation that everyone should look at the rating on the book and take a big dose of STFU. Yes, hooray for tact, DC. You care about the bucks, not the content. We get it.

(Yes, I actually went out and bought Red Hood and the Outlaws #1. I didn't want to give DC a dime for the book. Alas, my decision was made a little better when I considered that my retailer had already paid for the drek that lined his shelves, and I'd be doing him a disservice by not relieving him of the book. I did, however, tell him that I most definitely would not return for any subsequent issues, so he need only take my copy in consideration when adjusting his future orders downward.)

There are, of course, equal-opportunity digs at male characters. Ray Palmer, the original Atom, is a mere scientist in Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. And...wait. Did any male character who was obscenely obese get trim? Did any paraplegic male character get up and walk? Is any male character reduced to humping the leg of any female in sight?

Don't misunderstand: there are parts of the new DC Universe I enjoy. As in my earlier review, I love I, Vampire. It's a brilliant reinvention of the original concepts by J.M. DeMatteis and Tom Sutton. I also really enjoy the stylishness of Batwoman by J.H. Williams III. Couldn't honestly imagine anyone else making the book quite so good. Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. is just goofy enough to work. I'm giving Resurrection Man another month or two, but boy, would it thrive under a more stylish artist. Speaking of stylish artists, Yanick Paquette is the next Kevin Nowlan in Swamp Thing, and the story by Scott Snyder fires on all cylinders even as it undoes everything Alan Moore did in "The Anatomy Lesson." Animal Man is the creepy polar opposite of Swamp Thing and I loved that cliffhanger. I even liked Snyder with Greg Capullo on Batman but at the same time I don't feel any compulsion to buy the next one. Aside from the astonishingly sexy art by Guillem March on Catwoman, there's little to recommend--for titillationists only. All-Star Western is okay enough and I could get it in collected editions, but I've the feeling I should reach for Jonah Hex Vol. 1 first. Nightwing? I'm really, really close to picking up number two. And Batgirl? Gail Simone takes into account the ongoing evolution of the character, doesn't throw out the baby with the bathwater, and gives me adventures of Babs monthly without my having to dig in the back issue bins. What's not to love? (Okay, besides the overcomplicated costume!) Yes, Batgirl is sublime. As for Grant Morrison's Action Comics...it's Grant Morrison, and I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't match the complexity of Batman Incorporated, alas, nor is it meant to.

Still, there are a lot of misses. I couldn't stomach Justice League no matter how much I used to enjoy Geoff Johns' scripts. It just felt like a team-up between the two heroes everybody should recognize from the movies, with another movie hero at the end in case anyone started to fall asleep. Hawk & Dove is typical Rob Liefeld, and although I like the relationship between Dove and Deadman....it's Rob Liefeld. Green Lantern tries too hard to turn Hal Jordan into a jerkier Peter Parker. I'd almost be interested in picking up issue two if not for the fact that Johns has burned me out on Sinestro. O.M.A.C. is DC's very own version of the Hulk, right down to the sci-fi milieu, but the "lead" plays just a bit part in the book so far, hardly a character at all. In DC Universe Presents Deadman, Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang don't give me anything better than Neal Adams & co. already offered in the seventies. Wonder Woman, I found guilty of trying way too hard.

In the "didn't make enough of an impression to care" department, I humbly submit Justice League International, Demon Knights and Stormwatch.

Aside from Red Hood, the biggest travesty I've discovered so far has been the book for which I held out the most hope. When DC promised a "reimagining" and a land of new and exciting concepts--when they said the character never existed before now in this post-"Flashpoint" universe--I should have known something would go horribly wrong. And, well, remembering the old jokes about a previous series being named after the fury instead of the character himself...just shoot me now.

The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men is the biggest dud of them all, if you don't consider the horrendous treatment of the women of the DC Universe to be worse offenses. (I kinda do.)

I've still got the next two issues of the series on order from the good folks at Discount Comic Book Service, but from reading the first issue, it was just too kooky, cliche, and derivative to stand a decent chance of working. Where would you like me to start? Cliff Carmichael is recast as a super-badass black ops guy who likes to kill people. Instead of being a potential mentor, Professor Stein is still dead. And Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch are about the most generic study in contrasts I've ever seen, all their attributes recited by rote. The Large Hadron Supercollider in Europe replaces the Hudson Nuclear Power Plant for a topical touchstone of superscience. And I haven't even gotten to Firestorm him/themselves!

Long ago, when the series was first announced, I looked at Jason and Ronnie's costumes and thought they were ridiculous. I get the idea: one character is mainly in red, and one is in yellow, and when they merge, hooray! Something vaguely resembling the original Firestorm!

Bzzt. Wrong answer. The bad news is that the costumes don't look any less ridiculous in the issue itself, which actually has capable artwork by Yildiray Cinar. The worse news is that when our heroes merge, they turn into Fury, a Hulky, Anti-Monitor-esque character that oozes nuclear fire and speaks in sixties slang. You can even tell right now that Jason and Ronnie won't be the only two characters to "plug into" this new entity. There are six circles on Fury's chest, y'see, and only two of them are now occupied by emblems that match the ones on their costumes. So I'm guessing we'll get to see four more nuclear characters. Firehawk, Pozhar...Atomic Skull, Tokamak anybody? (And if there are six total slots, why do we have seven nuclear men/women? Check the middle of the book...)

And, pardon me for drawing attention to cliche, but...Jason turns into Firestorm by saying the magic word? What are we, twelve?

Incredibly, "God Particle," the first story in this new era of Firestorm, is co-written by Gail Simone, who wrote Batgirl, which is one of my very favorite books in the "New 52." It seems she does her best, but I've really got my doubts about this new direction. I've got the uncanny feeling I'm about to drop Firestorm for only the second time ever. It's really that different and that unrecognizable to me. We'll see if Simone, Van Sciver and Cinar are able to make me reverse course, but it's not looking good.

All of the above brings me to this week's news from Dan DiDio that none of the events labeled "Crisis" happened the way we remember. Is it really that much of a shock? It appears that, with rare exception centered around most but not all facets of Green Lantern and Batman, everything about DC continuity prior to last month is up for grabs. That means you're best off not even acknowledging any events that occurred before four weeks ago as part of DC continuity. Unless they happened to Batman or Green Lantern. And in those cases, only about seven out of ten of those things happened. Get out your graphing calculators, kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Look at what hints at the past we've got in the books, and we're only a month along. Already we know the original Dove (from Hawk & Dove) died during "the worst crisis the world's ever seen." In Red Hood and the Outlaws, Arsenal clearly quizzes Starfire about her previous team, the New Teen Titans, bringing up names including "Vic," which is likely a reference to Cyborg, a.k.a. Victor Stone. The only problem is Cyborg has been set up to be a founding member of the "New 52" version of the Justice League...so why would he have been batted down to the Titans? Similarly, if Final Crisis never happened, under what circumstances did Bruce Wayne "die" so that Dick Grayson became Batman for the better part of a year (referenced in Nightwing #1)?

DC is on a slippery slope with this new approach to continuity. If they really are serious about September being a new beginning, then they should keep the references to pre-"Flashpoint" events to a bare minimum. If they're trying to put the continuity genie back in the bottle--as I postulated in my previous post where I labeled the recently-finished event the "Anti-Crisis"--they should work hard to adhere to their own new set of rules. Without that commitment, the company fails in the same way as they did during the fallout to 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Already we're seeing all manner of new stories that dredge up new versions of the past. Superman showed up in Metropolis wearing a little red cape and blue jeans some five years ago. At the same time we've got him showing up in Justice League, also five years ago, wearing his armor.

I've heard that Batman has been around for ten years, but I don't know how much stock I put in that idea. He must have been around for some time, as he's on his fourth Robin right now...who just so happens to be his illegitimate son. I have to suppress a chuckle every time I see a reference to DC publicity painting Robins as Batman's revolving door internship program. Please.

My point is that if we're really not supposed to think about older continuity, then the whole line should have been rebooted like Man of Steel and Wonder Woman did in 1987, and like only a few books--Mister Terrific, The Fury of Firestorm, Supergirl and a few others--did last month. If we're not supposed to try and fill in the blanks what happened and what didn't, then there shouldn't be four Robins, multiple Batgirls, Batmen across the world, etc., etc.

And if they care about historical interpretations of classic characters, then they shouldn't take characters that are familiar to kids from animated series like Teen Titans and make them into thoughtless sex drones.

Lastly, let's please, please, please not clear the decks of "Crisis"-type events just for the sake of 2012's line-wide event, First Crisis, No, Really, We Swear, Why Are You Looking at Us Like That, Just Shut Up and Buy It Already, These Aren't the Droids You're After. You've already given us hints that everyone's going to start to crossover in the third and fourth issues of various series, but please, if I wanted to read interconnected chaos, I'd be a Marvel Zombie forever and ever, amen.

DC, really, with the relaunch, I'm pulling for you guys. If you're successful, then maybe Marvel will lay off the aforementioned chaos. Then maybe we'll start to heal the industry.

I'm getting the idea you're gonna blow it. Don't do that. Don't.

Or Hulk will smash.

~G.

The New Spider-Man & The License of Power (Blame Film Class!)

(Updated to include Bill Foster & Jaime Reyes in my roundup.)

It's been a crazy week, kids, and it's only gotten crazier with yesterday's announcement that half-black, half-Hispanic teen Miles Morales will become Marvel's new Ultimate Spider-Man in this week's Ultimate Fallout #4 by Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli. I figured I'd touch on the hubbub and make a point that dovetails, ever so lightly, with my articles on continuity (the second of which, no kidding, is coming really soon).

New costume. New Spider-Man. Art by Kaare Andrews.

So, there's a new Spider-Man, and in a move apparently inspired by African-American comedian Donald Glover's desire to land the role of Peter Parker in next summer's Amazing Spider-Man film, he belongs to a racial minority. With this move, Marvel makes Spidey the next in a long line of superheroes who've been "replaced" by a minority character. This practice has been more common in DC Comics of late, with co-publisher Dan DiDio having launched an aggressive campaign to add diversity to their line-up of super-heroes.

Looking at the trend of "replacing"--always temporarily--major super-heroes with minority characters, I thought it interesting to be able to tie the concept back to something I worked on, years ago, back in film class! Y'see, once upon a time I took a class in colonialism in cinema, and the paper I worked on for my final was a dissection of the Blaxploitation genre. I introduced this concept of the "License of Power," in which I put forth the idea that the blacks in these films weren't really as in control of their destinies as the filmmakers would have one believe. Rather, the colonial relationship--which is essentially between master and subject/slave--was left intact, consciously or subconsciously, with power firmly resting in the hands of whites.

Fresh from the 70s Blaxploitation craze, and still Marvel's most popular black hero.

To drive a narrative forward, to be the "hero," blacks were licensed a measure of power that made them capable of accomplishing their tasks within the narrative. The implicit license transferred the whites' power onto the black protagonists (and sometimes antagonists), with the implication that without white interference, the blacks would be unable to succeed. The other side of the coin was that the "license of power" was not indefinite and did have particular conditions. If the licensee didn't follow through on the assigned task(s), or if he exceeds his authority, then the white men who have granted him such power were obligated to strip the character of it.

I went through a number of examples in the Blaxploitation genre to prove my argument, using films like Mandingo, Blacula, Shaft and Black Caesar. (In the end, I did get an "A" on the paper, so I suppose my claims have a degree of merit.) Which, of course, brings me to the License of Power as it applies to superheroics.

There is a dearth of truly original minority super-heroes in comics. Obviously Luke Cage, Storm and Black Panther come to mind at Marvel, while Black Lightning, Bronze Tiger and Vixen are solid if not particularly well-known examples at DC. While it's grown difficult for new characters to gain a foothold in the comics market, it's even more daunting for an original minority hero to find that niche. Since the sixties, it's become a common trope for the Big Two to develop a new minority hero by introducing them in the mold of an established white one. In all the below cases, the "license" idea refers chiefly to the passing of the tights.

John Stewart, forerunner of the minority replacement heroes. Art by Neal Adams.

• John Stewart: Introduced in 1972's Green Lantern #87, Stewart wasn't even the first alternate selected to be the Green Lantern of Sector 2814. He was only selected when Guy Gardner was comatose with brain damage. He was often a "substitute" Green Lantern during the late seventies, and stepped up to be the sector's only Green Lantern when Hal Jordan briefly quit in the early eighties. Hal Jordan has struck him down as Green Lantern, most notably when Hal as Parallax put an end to his life as the first human Guardian when he destroyed Oa's Central Power Battery. Interestingly, he's the Green Lantern the public finds most familiar, due to his appearance in Cartoon Network's Justice League Unlimited animated series.
• Bill Foster: Originally a lab assistant to Dr. Henry Pym, Dr. Bill Foster assumed the identity of Black Goliath in the seventies, using Pym's growth formula while Pym himself enjoyed a career as Yellowjacket in the Avengers. Later, he took yet another of Pym's noms du guerre, Giant Man. Much later, he surrendered the Giant Man name and powers to Pym, but eventually returned only to be killed during Marvel's Civil War.
• Jim Rhodes: Introduced in 1979 as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark's pilot, Rhodey didn't take the spotlight until 1983. Denny O'Neil and Luke McDonnell took Stark out of the Iron Man armor, having relapsed into alcoholism, and gave the armor to him. Rhodey wore the armor for over two years, until Tony actually fought his friend and diagnosed him with a physiological condition over wearing armor not meant for him. Afterward he rarely wore the suit, but upon Stark's "death" a few years later he donned the "War Machine" armor, which he's done off and on for years, mostly at Stark's discretion, often clashing with his boss and friend and even losing the armor. (Stark never had an alien armor bail him out of a jam!) He currently moonlights as "Iron Man 2.0."

Rhodey takes center stage as the new Iron Man. Art by Luke McDonnell.

• Isaiah Bradley: In the revisionist era of the early 2000s, African-American creator Kyle Baker posited that after Steve Rogers was given the Super-Soldier Serum that made him into Captain America, the U.S. government tried to duplicate the lost serum by experimenting on black men. The storyline evoked similarities to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and Isaiah Bradley was its biggest success, first becoming superhumanly powered (the "Black Captain America") but eventually falling victim to ill effects that left him incapacitated in his later years. Eventually Rogers learned of his existence and sought reconciliation, feeling guilt for what had happened to Isaiah.
  
• Jason Rusch: Ron Raymond, a.k.a. Firestorm, floundered from series to series after DC canceled his own long-running title in 1990. What else could DC do but relaunch the character with a new secret identity? While they wisely reinstated the dual personality that marked the Firestorm entity since his creation in 1978, it nonetheless remains expressly clear that Jason originally received his power as direct result of Raymond's death during Identity Crisis. And when Ron returned in Blackest Night, DC quickly relegated Jason to the voice in his head, going the way of his predecessor, Martin Stein.
• Crispus Allen: Originally introduced as a Gotham City detective in Detective Comics, he graduated to a role in Gotham Central before being murdered by a crooked cop named Jim Corrigan, not-so-coincidentally also the name of DC's original Spectre, an entity of immense power committed to vengeance against the guilty. Allen became the new Spectre, wearing the raiment longtime DC fans associated with the (for now) deceased, original Corrigan. Often, especially in big events, this Spectre is largely interchangeable with his earlier counterpart. (Death is a great way to inherit the "license," innit?)

Ryan Choi, Asian replacement for Ray Palmer, the Atom. Art by Ariel Olivetti.

• Ryan Choi: DC introduced the Chinese scientist specifically to add even more color to its diversifying line in the wake of Infinite Crisis. Created by Grant Morrison and Gail Simone, Dr. Choi was a previously unknown protege of the previous Atom, Ray Palmer, and took over the role when Palmer went conveniently went missing during the earlier Identity Crisis. He not only became the Atom, but he also took Palmer's place on the staff of Ivy University.
• Jaime Reyes: Also spinning out of the end of Infinite Crisis was this Hispanic variant on the Blue Beetle character, picking up where previous versions Dan Garrett and then-recently-deceased Ted Kord left off. The source of his powers was the same magical scarab used by Garrett, the first Beetle. He has had a three-year run in his own title, followed by a regular second feature in Booster Gold, becoming his partner in the same way as Ted Kord was before him in the Justice League International.
• Tyrone Cash: The Ultimate Marvel universe had one previous flirtation with changing races in Dr. Leonard Williams, the retconned-in "First Hulk." Introduced in Ultimate Comics Avengers by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu, Williams worked with Banner on the Hulk experiment, and became a Hulk that kept his intelligence and used his smarts to fake his death and set himself up as a gang lord in South America, surrounded by gangstas and hoes, embodying the very worst of the "Black Buck" stereotype. He also took the place of the "real" Hulk for a time.

They say this cat Hulk is a baaaad motha'--shut yo'mouth! Art by Leinil Yu.

• "Thunderbolt" Ross: Only a minority in the sense of his age group (originally to have been nearly 70 if older stories were judge, but edited to be in his 50s), Ross became a Hulk oddly similar to his predecessor, a sharp counterpoint to all previous gamma-enhanced individuals. Since being defeated by the Hulk, he keeps his power under writer Jeff Parker so long as Banner and Captain America deem it appropriate (i.e. as long as sales don't falter).

Finally, we come to Miles Morales, the alliteratively-named (just like Peter!) new Spider-Man. Unlike the majority of the previously-named characters, because it's the Ultimate Marvel universe and not the regular one, this change has a chance of sticking a bit longer than the rest. Indeed, he stands the chance of disproving the tried-and-true colonialist view of replacement heroes, in an in-story if not a meta context. Will the grand experiment succeed? You decide!

Miles Morales is a member of one of the fastest-growing minority classes (which will, we're told, become a sizable majority in the U.S. sometime later this century if trends continue). Besides that, we really don't know anything about the new Spider-Man; he's a blank slate and will continue to have only the barest hint of characterization until the new volume of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man arrives in comic shops in September. Although it will be interesting to see someone other than Peter Parker behind the mask for a change (Ben Reilly doesn't count, and Hobie Brown did it for all of five seconds), I can't help but feel Marvel's energies would have been better spent introducing the "next great character in the Ultimate Marvel firmament" who happens to belong to a minority, instead of just promulgating the next in a line of seemingly endless iterations of their number one hero. It's a publicity stunt either way, right? What would have been better than having several new heroes--white, black, Hispanic, Indian, Asian, whatever--trying to live up to the legend begun by Spider-Man, a young kid who could have been any one of them behind that mask that didn't give a hint to the identity or race of the person behind it? Imagine the development of several original characters inspired by Spidey, all under the event umbrella, "The Hero Who Could Be You!"

Maybe young Miles Morales is right. Art by Sara Pichelli.

Ah, but there we go, again. The last Marvel "hero" of any sort to really resonate with so-called fans is Deadpool, created in 1991. And the last minority character to really strike a chord was Luke Cage, created in 1972. (Does Bishop count? Where is he now, anyway?) And neither is really in the public eye--that honor belongs to Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and don't get me started on him. Perhaps it's better to endlessly regurgitate the old stuff in new ways--and in this case, the same tired colonialist tropes--simply because it's better to take small chances like changing a beloved character's ethnicity than take a bigger chance like trying to do something truly new, interesting, and perhaps, just perhaps, original.

Give us some heroes, Marvel. Don't give us a bunch of musical masks.

~G.

Storm Warning Epitaph: Firestorm & The DC Reboot

This news was announced this morning in the wake of the upcoming DC whole-line reboot:

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM
By Gail Simone & Ethan Van Sciver (w) / Yildiray Cinar (a)

"Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond are two high school students, worlds apart – and now they’re drawn into a conspiracy of super science that bonds them forever in a way they can’t explain or control."

I was looking forward to a Firestorm relaunch in the wake of Brightest Day, but based on the above image, I might be having second thoughts.

First, the pedigree: Gail Simone? Win. I loved her work on Wonder Woman and have heard good things about Secret Six, although I must confess I haven't really read more than one or two issues.

Ethan Van Sciver? It looks like he's doing covers, but I've heard elsewhere he's also contributing to the stories. I love his artwork but I've never seen him write a series that I know of. Still, so far so good.

Yildiray Cinar? Definitely a win. I saw his artwork at his New York Comic Con booth last year and to say it was stunning was an understatement. The guy's definitely got talent. His work is very dynamic and I've been waiting to see him on a project I'm interested in.

Now, for the doubts...and you should see three big ones on the top of the page. Three ugly, ugly costumes for Firestorm--two of which share a Flash/Reverse Flash motif. Apparently either Jason and Ronnie are both able to form a kind of Firestorm variant on their own, or else similar to Brightest Day their appearance changes depending on who's in control. And what's that Firestorm character above them both? A kind of uber-Firestorm? Is it some kind of living version of the matrix that was hinted back in Brightest Day? Or something else?

I'm ambivalent about regressing Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch to both being teenagers. Are there good stories that could be told with this paradigm? Probably. Are they going to tell a new origin in the first issue? Is the "countdown" referred to in Brightest Day #24 going to occur? At this point, who can say?

Ah, plenty of questions....and, a few fugly costumes.

~G.

Storm Warning 7: Shadowstorm Was a Wuss, Dude (Blackest Night/Brightest Day)

Are we all here? I'm sure you were all beginning to worry...

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. I know it's been a long time since the previous installment of this series, but sometimes, that's the way things go. I always intended to come back at the conclusion of Brightest Day and summarize my thoughts on the most recent iteration of everyone's favorite nuclear hero. In the previous segment, I took you through the death of Ronald Raymond, the introduction of Jason Rusch, and the return of Professor Martin Stein to a prominent role in the Firestorm matrix. This time out, we're picking up Firestorm's activities in two fixed-length series, Blackest Night (2009's runaway hit "event" series by DC) and its direct continuation, Brightest Day (which just finished a few weeks ago).

Black Lantern Firestorm. Original design by Ethan Van Sciver.

It's worth noting early on that Geoff Johns is a master of DC Comics' long and varied history. He began his career as production assistant to Richard Donner (yes, that Superman director-guy) and soon started writing for DC on books like Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA. After briefly sojourning down the street at Marvel, he returned to DC where he's been ever since, having written Flash (both Wally West, in the wake of longtime scribe Mark Waid), Green Lantern, Teen Titans, and several "event" series like Infinite Crisis, 52, and the two series I'm about to discuss here. And, back in 2003, he pitched a Firestorm revival that interestingly fused Ron Raymond with his "brainy ex-girlfriend," a take that was tabled in favor of Mike Carey and Lewis LaRosa's version (which I touched upon a few episodes ago). Perhaps that version was a conscious or unconscious inspiration for the latter-day merging of Jason Rusch and Gehenna that opened Blackest Night.

The crossover that set in motion everything about Firestorm that continues to date is to a vast degree a Green Lantern story that spilled over to the rest of the DC Universe. Everyone who's familiar with DC lore knows the Lanterns' oath: "In brightest day, in blackest night..." and Johns parlayed the oath into a prophecy of sorts. Not only that, he took the previously-established Star Sapphires and Yellow Lanterns and wrapped them with the Green Lanterns into a color spectrum of powered beings. In the lead-up to Blackest Night Johns introduced the other corps to both explode the Green Lantern brand and set the stage for the massive storyline to come. You don't need to know the gory details for the purposes of this article. Just know that an old Green Lantern enemy, Nekron, captured the Anti-Monitor (the big bad from 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths) and used him to establish a beachhead of power in this reality in the form of a Black Lantern whose rings infected dead bodies and reanimated them, using their memories to draw in the living and generate more power. When the rings and lantern were sufficiently powered, Nekron would again rise. Easy peasy?

Firestorm, surrounded by his oldest foes all as Black Lanterns.

For the components of Firestorm--Jason Rusch, Gehenna Hewitt and Martin Stein--the return of the dead obviously spelled the return of Ron Raymond. Meeting at Ron's grave in Pittsburgh, they discussed Ron while the rain fell and plants mysteriously died. The rings came later in the first issue, and with them, Ron came back as a Black Lantern Firestorm. In the next issue, he appeared in a Black Lantern version of the Justice League who battled Green Lantern Hal Jordan and the Flash (Barry Allen). The third issue (which features a stunning Firestorm-centric variant cover by Ethan Van Sciver) would easily be the most essential to Firestorm fans for its momentous events. Jason and Gehenna quarreled over her thoughts on starting a family, which Jason "overheard" while they were merged as Firestorm. Jason thought they were too young to be having such ideas, and Gehenna countered by suggesting they no longer be Firestorm anymore. (Be careful what you wish for, Gen.)

Summoned by an emergency signal at the Justice League's Washington, DC headquarters, Jason and Gehenna arrived as Firestorm and talked with Mera, Aquaman's wife, about the emerging chaos. Green Lantern, Flash, Atom and a group of Indigo Lanterns arrived and compared notes about the Black Lanterns before the BL League arrived. Then, BL Firestorm fissioned his counterpart, removing Jason and Gehenna. He merged with Jason, who watched in horror as "Ron" turned his girlfriend to salt, killing her. The strength of his emotions for Gehenna powered the lantern considerably.

In the fourth issue, Jason gained control over BL Firestorm to warn Flash to evacuate the Earth, but soon "Ron" reasserted himself. Jason remained trapped within BL Firestorm for virtually the rest of the story, through the return of Nekron, the introduction of a "rainbow corps" of Lanterns and the White Lantern Entity, and the revelation that life in the DC Universe originated on Earth. Finally, the heroes formed a "White Lantern Corps" and defeated Nekron by using the rings to resurrect a number of characters, from Nekron's herald Black Hand, to the Anti-Monitor, to several heroes and villains including Firestorm, now comprised of Ron Raymond and Jason Rusch.

Firestorm and the Atom, together! Art by Ivan Reis, from Brightest Day #2.

The new status quo of all the resurrected characters became the thrust of the next series, the 24-issue Brightest Day. Was there a method to the White Lantern's madness? Who, if any of those resurrected, would become the Guardian of Life? Would the heroes and villains permanently be returned to life, or was it a temporary situation? As in Blackest Night, there's much more to this story than just Firestorm's involvement, but I'll only discuss the portions germane to our guy(s).

Brightest Day began for Firestorm with the wake of Gehenna Hewitt, attended by Professor Stein, Ray Palmer (the Atom), Jason Rusch, and members of Jason's family. Ron didn't attend the funeral, missing appointments to file paperwork with the Justice League to renew his legal status in favor of partying with friends at Pittsburgh University. He also no longer remembered anything that happened after his death at the hands of the Shadow Thief (which meant he didn't remember meeting Jason). Arriving at the wake, Ron talked with Jason but a shouting match erupted, resulting in merging into Firestorm--a Firestorm who could not fission!

At Pittsburgh University, Professors Stein and Palmer met to diagnose the problem, and Palmer reduced in size to infiltrate the matrix and discover the source of Firestorm's new instability. He caused an explosion that successfully fissioned them, and Ron and Jason awoke in the hospital, where Stein made it imperative that they remain separate. Ron, who actually did remember some of what had happened when the Black Lantern possessed him, found himself haunted by a salt effigy of Gehenna. Similarly, a disembodied voice nagged at Jason before a crane nearby turned into bubble gum, prompting a disaster that caused him to again become Firestorm. With a hungover Ron in control, the hero vomited a black ichor on someone he saved from the disaster. Ron apologized to Jason and admits he remembered when BL Firestorm killed Gehenna, even as they reached the conclusion something else was in the matrix with them.

Firestorm learns his final (?) fate. Cover to Brightest Day #10.

Ron and Jason went to the Professor, then, who ominously hinted at a "third and final stage of Firestorm." Before he could elaborate, the White Lantern entity showed them its wisdom: "You need to study," it told Ronald, while it told Jason "You need to get your head out of the books." It told them they needed to learn from each other so they could stop "him"--the mysterious third being in the matrix. During a series of tests back at Pittsburgh University, Professor Stein put forth his theory that the Jason/Ron merger made Firestorm more powerful, but also more unstable. In a bit of retroactive continuity, Stein told Firestorm that his original experiments aimed at finding the spark that led to the Big Bang, and that's what Firestorm is: the universe's cosmic reset button. And the more agitated Ron and Jason become, the more likely the Big Bang would again occur, This is all the third entity needs to know to break free, fissioning Firestorm and rendering the Professor unconscious before standing revealed as the Black Lantern Firestorm, henceforth called Deathstorm.

Deathstorm wasted no time in drawing Professor Stein into itself along with Jason's father Alvin before finding its way, Firestorm in tow, to Star City and the White Lantern. It infected the lantern to be able to lift it so that it might bring it to its new master, who also said that Deathstorm must bring him/it an army and stop the Entity's replacement from being chosen. To that end, the creature recreated Black Lantern duplicates of all those the Entity resurrected, and left. Firestorm traveled to the JLA Watchtower in hopes that scientists Dr. Mid-Nite and Atom might help stabilize the matrix, while Deathstorm toys with Stein and Alvin Rusch, tempting them to kill themselves in hopes his threat would perish. Anger got the better of Jason and Ron, however, causing an explosion that left them as Firestorm in an apparent black void. Did they end the universe?

Ah! That classic logo! A terrific cover for Brightest Day #16.

Not so fast! Shedding some proverbial light on the subject, Ron found they were amid a swarm of Shadow Demons, which meant they did not end the universe, but instead had been transported to another one: the Anti-Matter Universe, home of the Anti-Monitor and the Weaponers of Qward. After briefly intervening in a battle between some Green Lanterns, Sinestro and the Weaponers, Firestorm finally found Deathstorm, the Black Lantern Corps, and their master...the Anti-Monitor.

Now, everything to this point in Brightest Day was a prologue. We had solid character development and an interesting throughline that proved Firestorm was among the most important characters in the series, but in issue #22, he finally took the spotlight in an epic battle with the Anti-Monitor. It's a true masterpiece in virtually every sense of the word and one that all Firestorm fans should read. Ron and Jason finally work together to save all life--as well as their "fathers"--from the clutches of ultimate evil and death. Unfortunately, while Firestorm was able to save the White Lantern and destroy the Black Lanterns, he was not able to save Martin Stein, who sacrificed himself to save Ron and Jason from Deathstorm's transmuting power. Turned into salt the same as Gehenna, he bequeathed his final wishes to the two men, "knowing" that Jason would be a better partner to Ron than he was. His life now returned, Firestorm found himself transported to the Star City forest, where Deadman demanded the Lantern, and the Lantern wished to be given to him.

Gary Frank illustrates the final battle between Firestorm & Anti-Monitor.

The final two issues really have very little to do with Firestorm, his story all but fulfilled in the previous story. All of the resurrected united at the Star City forest, where Deadman told them they were there to combat the "dark avatar," in actuality the Swamp Thing, the former Earth elemental whose body was possessed by the power of the Black Lantern. The five key heroes--Firestorm, Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and the Martian Manhunter--all transformed into elementals to form a last line of defense until the Entity's replacement could assume his role. Under a tree in that forest was--miraculously--the body of Alec Holland, the man whose consciousness had been imprinted upon the Green to become the original Swamp Thing. Now, Holland literally became the Swamp Thing and combined with the elementals to banish the dark avatar. At the end of the battle, most of the elementals returned to their normal forms and went their separate ways.

Ominously, as the main Brightest Day saga ended, a new era dawned for Ron and Jason. Upon examining some tests designed by the Professor, Jason found that the Anti-Monitor's blasts had caused a change in the Firestorm matrix, beginning a countdown to the detonation they all feared. That's where we leave our heroes until their next appearance.

The new merger, as previously glimpsed in Firestorm #9-13, was similar to the Jason/Professor merger of Stuart Moore's run in that it combined elements of both the "new era" (Jason) with the "classic era" (Ron) in hopes of pulling both new and old fans along--a smart move. This time, however, Firestorm returned to being about the "dumb jock" fused with the "intellectual" that fell in line with the original Conway/Milgrom iteration, getting away from the "dual intellectual" bit of Moore/Igle vintage. Only this time, due to popular demand, DC forsook one type of comic book minority (the fifty or sixty-something Stein) for another (the black Jason). They even went so far as to kill Martin Stein--my favorite character in the mythos--and with his parting words Geoff Johns and Brightest Day co-writer Peter J. Tomasi hit fans over the head with how much better a partner Jason would be than he was. It was one powerful line of dialogue for its sheer wrongheadedness, a moment where it felt less like the character saying the words and more like the writers forcing them in.

Deathstorm! Cover by David Finch.

Instead of getting a "voice of experience" in the dynamic, we now have two guys who are similar enough in age whose key differences are in intelligence and skin color. (Is anyone other than Kurt Busiek really going to call Ron Raymond "experienced"?) In selecting a Jason/Ron merger, Johns and Tomasi established a racial dynamic--or, at the very least, a stereotypical one where Jason functioned as the "angry black man" and Ron as a similarly intolerant white man who found themselves at odds, sharing the body and power of Firestorm. (It's not the first time such a dynamic has been used--anyone remember that Blaxploitation film, "The Thing With Two Heads"?) The point was even made explicit by Deathstorm in one of his early non-appearances.

I do enjoy the dramatic tension of having Ron and Jason at odds, and I do want it sticking around, but it goes without saying I want the racial undercurrent to be curtailed. The light antagonism is a plot point that didn't gain much traction in previous Firestorm series, with perhaps its strongest showings in John Ostrander's first issues (wherein Ron and the Professor were at odds over the ban on superheroes during the Legends crossover) and early in Dan Jolley's tenure, where Jason got to pick his partners in the matrix.

In some ways, the infighting between Ron and Jason highlights a key distinction and an evolution in Firestorm that I'd love to explore in deeper detail. Subtextually, the original relationship between Martin Stein and Ron Raymond was always depicted as one between a father and son, with Martin as the father that Ed Raymond couldn't be. Johns and Tomasi made that relationship explicit with Stein's death, while the entire Brightest Day arc functioned to establish a different dynamic between Ron and Jason Rusch. Since the Professor mentored them both, one can easily read the characters' antagonism and their very relationship as being between brothers--moreover, brothers who have experienced the loss of their "father." An intriguing shift, to be sure, and one that I hope DC will investigate in issues to come.

Deathstorm, Deathstorm, Deathstorm. More by Ivan Reis.

As far as villains go, Deathstorm seems like another "dark mirror" character in a long line, which is interesting since Firestorm already had one in Shadowstorm. It's true, he's all but forgotten--didn't he die in Captain Atom?--but since when did that ever stop a character from returning? While Shadowstorm was often too straight-faced, too stoic, too eeeeeeevil, Deathstorm was too often off in the other direction, with his deliberately horrible "surfer dude" dialect. I hear he'll be back, but I'm not so sure I like that prospect.

So, where are we heading from here? I keep hearing September will be rife with new first issues and it's obviously when the new Aquaman (by Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis) and Hawkman (by James Robinson & Rags Morales) series will debut. However, DC's made definite plans for Firestorm as well, and I wonder if we won't see a brand-new Firestorm #1 in September as well. At the very least, we should soon see him in a book like Justice League of America or somewhere his new, post-Brightest Day status quo can be explored. Who could be writing the book, if Firestorm returns to a solo series? I don't know, but you can bet that you'll see an interview with the new guy (or girl) either here, courtesy me, or at FirestormFan.com, courtesy Shag, that site's owner. I'm feeling good about this.

~G.

Storm Warning 6: From the Ashes...The Firestorm of Earth-8!

Hi, heroes!

When last we left our intrepid hero Ronald Raymond, he'd been through the proverbial blender. Split off from his partner, Professor Martin Stein, who'd become a Fire Elemental and gone off to explore the deepest reaches of space, he learned to once again harness his own atomic powers and become Firestorm anew, without having to merge with another being. He became an alcoholic and recovered. He became the "dumb jock" hero writ large, requiring other heroes like Oracle and the Atom to help him with his restructuring abilities. He rejoined the JLA and was even about to be featured in a new series that would've included several other beings in a re-exploration of the Firestorm Matrix. Then, plans changed, and DC instead decided to kill him in 2004.

If you can't make 'em marketable, kill 'em. Cover to Firestorm #6 by ChrisCross.

Well, actually the death would occur in Identity Crisis #5 (December 2004), when a group of super-heroes including Firestorm, Shazam, Vixen, and Shining Knight were on the trail of the sinister Shadow Thief. The villain used the Shining Knight's mystical sword to pierce Firestorm's body, triggering the equivalent of a nuclear core breach that led to a tremendous explosion. Of course, several months before creators Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales revealed this event, another pair of creators, writer Dan Jolley and artist ChrisCross, combined their talents for the newest Firestorm #1 (July 2004), telling the tale of Jason Rusch, a African-American teen in Detroit who mysteriously obtained the power of Firestorm during an errand for a local thug. It was only in the series' sixth issue that the connection was explained, that the explosion released the "Firestorm Matrix" which then found a new host in Jason.

While I liked the idea of a new Firestorm series, I wasn't totally sold on the concept as told by Jolley. While it'd been previously established that the Firestorm Matrix could absorb others into it, it had never before wholly transferred to another being who was not Ron or Martin. I did, however, enjoy the novelty of Jason needing to merge with other unrelated individuals to form Firestorm. The situation was vaguely similar to the early days of Ron and Martin's fusion, wherein Ron was fully aware of what happened when he was Firestorm, but Martin suffered amnesia. Each person involved in the merger would suffer from memory loss upon being separated from Firestorm, which was convenient--almost too convenient--to many stories' central plot. Also, each new individual in the Matrix now functioned like a battery for Jason, who had to be careful with his power output or else he could "burn out" the other person, killing them. (Disgustingly, this event occurred once, and blessedly only once, in the series, in issue #3.) The most interesting merger of the period involved a crossover with Jolley and artist Leonard Kirk's short-lived creation Bloodhound, where Jason combined with a criminal, resulting in a demonic-looking Firestorm creature controlled by that criminal while Jason became the one apparently at risk of dying.

Jason Rusch is the new Firestorm. Nice face tats. Cover to Firestorm #1 by ChrisCross.

After the first seven issues, I'm not sure whether there was an outcry by fandom to return to aspects of the original Firestorm, or if Jolley already planned to address specific plot elements.  The eighth issue by Jolley and new artist Jamal Igle was a quantum leap forward from the previous issue, with the reintroduction of original now-and-then cast member Lorraine Reilly, the original Firestorm's ex-paramour Firehawk. The narrative would expand to include Louise Lincoln, the second Killer Frost, whom Jason would modify with his restructuring power in an attempt to cure what he only saw as a sick human woman. Her powers returned and enhanced, she nearly defeated Jason, who had to let his partner of the moment go or else face killing him. When Lorraine caught up with him again, he decided to merge with her, to her shock and dismay. When the Matrix absorbed her, it triggered a tremendous explosion. Her own superpowers, having been triggered by a similar situation as had birthed Firestorm, supercharged the Matrix and returned Ron Raymond as Firestorm, with both Lorraine and Jason "on the inside."

From here on in, I was on board 100%--in spite of a distressing answer to a question I asked Jolley some months earlier at San Diego Comic Con 2004. Some Firestorm fans may remember seeing coverage of the DC Universe panel that Friday, July 23, when I asked one of the last questions of the panel. Would Martin Stein return in Firestorm? The writer had a one-word answer for me: "No." But of course, Ron Raymond would be a pretty good substitute, right?

A tale of two Firestorms. Cover to Firestorm #10 by Matt Haley.

The six-part storyline I can call "The Return of Ronnie Raymond" in issues #8-13 captured the essence of what made the original series so much fun, heaping on original supporting cast members and original villains. By re-introducing the original Firestorm, Jolley and Igle showcased what was so special about him, contrasting both his abilities and his very character with the "new guy" Jason. Yes, it felt like the last lap before truly saying farewell, but if this were the way Ron Raymond were going to go out, well, there were much worse ways to go! Jason defeated Killer Frost by restructuring her body back to what it was before, upsetting Ron but insisting he didn't have much of a choice. They discovered Firehawk destabilized the Matrix and had to fission, after which Jason still found Ron in his head.

Ron and Jason found they were both able to form their own version of Firestorm, and issue #11 developed a "teacher-student" relationship between the two men while Ron hoped to meet up with his father in Pittsburgh. They arrived at Ed and Felicity Raymond's home, but Dad and Stepmom weren't there, and before a reunion could occur, Firestorm again had to rush into battle in Detroit against Typhoon and Multiplex. Those villains were in turn following orders from a surprising face: Cliff Carmichael, Ron Raymond's high school nemesis, who'd years ago enhanced his own brain, become the Thinker, and briefly joined the Suicide Squad. Firestorm defeated him by dissolving the cybernetic enhancements in his brain, but shortly afterward Ron again dissipated from the Matrix. Jason's future was wide open, and he'd learned and grown tremendously from his experiences with Ron. Unlike when the character had been shoved down DC fans' throats, after issue #13 it felt like the torch had finally been passed.

Not a new #1, but DC wanted you to think it was. Cover to Firestorm #14 by Matt Haley.

More than we knew!

Citing having to devote increasing attention to new projects, writer Dan Jolley announced his leave from Firestorm in January 2005. He stated he was excited with what he would have been writing in the series' second year, but had to leave the book in editor Steve Wacker's capable hands. Soon after that announcement came another series of articles heralding the arrival of former DC/Vertigo and Marvel Knights editor Stuart Moore as the new writer, effective with June's issue #14. In interviews, he emphasized that Jason Rusch would remain the book's protagonist, and that he would delve into the character's more scientific aspects, making him a student at Lowrance University and giving him a job at STAR Labs, as well as introducing a new villain called the Pionic Man in his second issue. Here, although Jason doesn't have to merge with another person to become Firestorm, he can when he needs, fusing with a scientist to help him defeat the aforementioned villain. Then, there's this matter of some type of spirit at the fringes of the galaxy speaking of "Firestorm" and "Ronald." Hmm...

Over the next few months Moore continued the mystery of who sent the Pionic Man against Firestorm and he introduced Gehenna, an girl artificially aged to adulthood who'd become a major factor in Jason Rusch's life to date. The series was hit by crossovers with DC miniseries Villains United and The OMAC Project before the big crossover event of 2006, Infinite Crisis, hit. During this arc, the mysterious space entity stood revealed as Martin Stein, the Fire Elemental version of Firestorm, which made me stand up and cheer. (Take that, Dan Jolley!)

The league of extraordinary Firestorms? Jamal Igle conjures Uncanny X-Men #136.

It was wonderful to see Stuart Moore appreciated the rich history of the character, and events spinning out of Infinite Crisis #4 enabled the Professor to be re-integrated into the Firestorm Matrix, partnering with Jason as he'd done with Ron years earlier. In the two-part milestone "Building a Better Firestorm," spanning Firestorm #21-22, Firestorm had been effectively destroyed, and it was only due to the intervention of Stein that Jason did not perish with his partner and friend Mick. The storyline directly addressed Stein's whereabouts in recent years and presented an even greater possible teacher-student relationship between Stein and Jason than the one between Ron and Jason several issues previous. Jason implored Stein to join him, and together they rebuilt Firestorm from the ground up. Moore may have gone a little exposition-heavy, but he hit all the right notes, appealing to old and new Firestorm fans (including an homage that directly conjures the Ron Raymond-Martin Stein days of yesteryear) all the while paving the way for something new.

"Building a Better Firestorm" easily ranks among my top five stories featuring the character; unfortunately, Firestorm himself escaped back to Infinite Crisis for its remaining three issues without anyone ever really exploring the new dynamic. The most worthwhile thing we learned about Firestorm in that event miniseries was an interesting echo of pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, where there were often different versions of mainstay DC characters across multiple alternate realities (Earth-2, Earth-S, Earth-Prime). Fittingly, writer Geoff Johns revealed that in the pre-Crisis multiverse, Jason Rusch would have been the Firestorm of Earth-8, alongside that Earth's Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. (Of course, the Earths were all combined into one in the aforementioned Crisis series.) Then, all series in the DC line jumped forward with the "One Year Later" event, and the status quo shifted yet again.

Brian Stelfreeze brings Firestorm's covers to life.

One year after the end of Infinite Crisis, Jason Rusch was bonded with Lorraine Reilly again, but this time, thanks to the "ideal merge" with Stein having effectively rewritten the rules, the duo couldn't physically separate by more than a mile without causing an immense explosion. Reilly was now a U.S. Senator, taking over the same district as her father. Jason had transferred from Lowrance to Columbus University in New York, where Stein was now a professor of physics. Prior to Firestorm #23, the first issue of the new era, Prof. Stein was kidnapped by persons unknown, so the first arc through #27 became a search for Stein. Jason and Lorraine found that he had been kidnapped by the Pupil, who was intent on discovering as much as he could about Firestorm. They freed Stein and defeated the Pupil, after which the imperfect merger was negated. Finally--finally--the path was clear, and the next issue, #28, would feature the new Jason Rusch-Martin Stein merger. And another new Firestorm.

"In My Father's House," this Firestorm incarnation's final major arc, took all of what Moore had been planning from his first issue and drove the overall storyline to a grand climax. Looking back, it's likely that the writer had an inkling that this arc would be his last, as it ties up the main arc so neatly while allowing just a few nuggets out there to transition to whatever subsequent writer that might pick them up. Yes, the story featured the merger I wanted, and it was used superbly in a way that screams "more!" but there was so much else to recommend "In My Father's House" to longtime Firestorm fans, like the return of Mikhail Denisovitch Arkadin as Pozhar, transformed this time as result of a nuclear accident in Russia. Thankfully, Mikhail seemed to have spent quite a bit of time studying English since his last appearance! But the nods to older Firestorm stories didn't stop there, because this five-part arc functioned as a direct sequel to the first mega-arc in The Fury of Firestorm #14-18 & Annual #1, featuring the return of Hewitt Industries.

If you'll remember from my fourth "Storm Warning" entry, Henry Hewitt developed a plan to turn himself into a nuclear engine of power similar to Firestorm, first experimenting on Lorraine Reilly and turning her into Firehawk before he himself became Tokamak. Hewitt apparently died in that earlier story, but in fact he was able to survive, and began a series of cloning experiments. He "merged" Firestorm-style with one of those clones, becoming his own son, "Victor Hewitt." He raised another of his clones, Gehenna, as his own daughter, while employing other clones as "Dollies," his footsoldiers. His aim this time was simple: to use his strategically-placed Dollies to create an unparalleled, worldwide nuclear disaster to teach humanity the error of their ways, while at the same time giving himself incredible power. The final battle included all of the major players in Moore's stories to date--Jason, Martin, Lorraine, Pozhar, Gehenna, the Pionic Man, Tokamak and the Pupil--and concluded when Jason used his abilities to fission Hewitt from his cloned "son's" body. Before his weak body passed, Hewitt confided a secret to Firestorm: that he knew why Firestorm existed, and after he died Jason never would.

Firestorm faces Tokamak, in Moore & Igle's finale. Cover by Brian Stelfreeze.

Moore and Igle's final issue, #32, served as an epilogue with Jason and Martin dealing with dire weather-related phenomena caused by their having transmuted organic matter in the previous issue. It's a nice coda to the series, with resolutions among the major cast members. It still isn't clear whether the secret of Firestorm's creation was a plot point for a future arc if Moore had continued to write the book, or if it was mere setup for the then-upcoming Countdown to Final Crisis series, in which Firestorm would play a role. The late Dwayne McDuffie took over for Moore on the final three issues, taking Firestorm wholly out of his element and setting him against Darkseid's legions because the Firestorm entity contained one-fourth of "The Life Equation," which Darkseid saw as a threat to his own Anti-Life Equation. In the final issue, #35, Darkseid separated the Professor from Jason, and took him back to Apokolips. Then, Jason fused with Gehenna and the two of them left in pursuit. It was a hasty, contrived exit that led to Firestorm's involvement in Countdown, in which his involvement was nigh-incomprehensible, with Desaad stealing his power.

The downward spiral continued in McDuffie's Justice League of America, where the bad sadly outnumbered the good. While it was a good idea for Batman to draft the new Firestorm into the League, and a pleasant enough idea to have the new Firestorm face the Shadow Thief, the villain who "killed" Ron Raymond, the series underscores the problem of featuring the character in a team lineup. Firestorm is already a "team" unto himself, and other heroes can't really "see" the other person he's bonded to, so it makes his own internal dynamic difficult to present when there are seventeen other characters to deal with. From what I've seen in Justice League of America: The Injustice League (the only collection I own featuring Firestorm in the League), we don't even know who is merged with Firestorm! (However, if I had to guess, I'd say it's Gehenna...anyone wanna confirm?)

Similar to the era that preceded it, DC's recasting of Jason Rusch as Firestorm had its share of problems. The best stories came up when embracing the character's rich history, like the brief return of Ron Raymond during Jolley's run, and especially the return of Martin Stein during Moore's. Unfortunately, DC showed tremendous aversion to actually using Stein once he returned, giving him next to no part in Firestorm's involvement with 52 (the less said, the better) and only really giving us one good storyline with him as part of Firestorm before taking him away again for Countdown. The Professor is truly my favorite character in the Firestorm mythos, so the book was at its best when he was involved and the quality fell precipitously when he wasn't. On the plus side, Jason Rusch, whom I never really liked under Jolley, matured and developed tremendously under Moore, who fleshed out his family life and gave the character a relatable quality he previously lacked. And the interplay with both Stein and Lorraine was always solid. Stuart Moore and Jamal Igle should particularly be praised for their nineteen issues (excepting the fill-in here and there). I've met Jamal at Pittsburgh Comicon and told him so--but sadly, I didn't get to say hello to Stuart Moore last year at New York Comic Con. (Maybe next year?) When Firestorm was good, it was really good, and became a must-read, top-of-the-weekly-pile event.

To date, the only Firestorm graphic novel collection. Ever.

Unfortunately, DC never saw fit to release much of the series in graphic novel collections--only issues #23-27 are in a collection, Firestorm the Nuclear Man: Reborn. A few issues more have popped up during Brightest Day, albeit in 100-page collections alongside other heroes, but it's highly unlikely we'll ever see the collections this series truly deserves--especially in light of where DC now seems intent on taking the character.

And that's a terrific cue for an exit.

Next: In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night. (No, Green Lantern's not taking over!) The finale!

~G.

Storm Warning 5: All the Firestorm That Will Stick!

Yes, I've been away...again! But now I'm back to tackle the fifth in a series of posts chronicling my enjoyment of the adventures of everyone's favorite Nuclear Man (because, you know, that guy Luthor cloned from Kal-El's hair for Superman IV: The Quest For Peace didn't really cut it). This outing, we'll take a look at everything that's happened to Ron Raymond and Martin Stein in the years since their 100-issue series The Fury of Firestorm ceased publication up through that point where they decided they'd done just about everything with him they could possibly think to do. Y'know--all the poop that'll stick. Onward? Onward!

At long last--Firestorm returns. Cover art to Extreme Justice #5 by Marc Campos.

After DC canceled Firestorm in mid-1990, the character floundered, more than likely because after the radical changes John Ostrander had effected, no one quite knew what to make of him. Was he a nuclear-powered hero, or an elemental force? Was he comprised of two men, just one, or many? Love it or hate it, what we now refer to as the "Firestorm Matrix" is at the center of the debate over the character to this day, and in some ways, opening up Firestorm to being people other than Ron Raymond and Martin Stein was the worst thing that could happen, a dark stain on the character that divided the fanbase. And yet, just as it adds divisiveness, the Matrix also provides a broadening of the character's scope to allow for various types of stories, the like of which Ostrander only hinted at during his tenure. Hence, it's somewhat embarrassing to see that not only did it take some time in returning Firestorm to print (a few token appearances in the summer crossover War of the Gods and the conclusion of Shadowstorm's story in Captain Atom #54-57 notwithstanding), when he finally returned DC took pains to eliminate the dual personality aspect that had driven the character through his most successful incarnation of the Gerry Conway period.

In the series Extreme Justice, a Justice League of America spin-off, writer Dan Vado and artists Marc Campos and Mozart Couto chose to again bestow Nuclear Man status upon Ron Raymond. They revealed in the #0 issue that Ron had developed some form of leukemia and it had the strange side-effect of making him burst into nuclear fire above the city of Pittsburgh. The Extreme Justice team arrived to try to help, followed by Martin Stein as the elemental version of Firestorm. Having lost touch with his emotions, Martin intended to re-merge with Ron, absorbing his memories and consciousness into his own so that he could again look at the universe with a sense of wonder. Of course, Ron declined, but Martin chose to cure him of his leukemia, allowing him to remain Firestorm and serve alongside Captain Atom, Blue Beetle and the other team members.

I remember picking up issues four and five of the series, wherein most of the Firestorm-related action occurred, but I hastily dropped the book soon afterward because it truly wasn't the version of the character I wanted to read. Oh, sure, I bought one more issue of the series--number eight--that reinforced my opinion that whoever DC thought Firestorm was, he wasn't my hero anymore. They made him an underwear model--nicknamed "Ron Ray"--and they made him an active, then recovering, alcoholic. That chain of events--that led him to getting kicked off the Extreme Justice team right around the time the book itself got canned--culminated in a nauseating, totally uncharacteristic two-part "solo adventure" by Robert L. Washington III and Randy DuBurke in Showcase '96 #6-7 that had Ron entering rehab and featured precious little to remind me of who Ron and Firestorm ever used to be. Then and now, I honestly don't know what DC was thinking in changing the character so drastically, probably in a knee-jerk reaction to what was happening to the rest of their heroes during the decade. Superman died, someone broke the Batman, Green Lantern destroyed the Corps, and oh yeah, Firestorm turned into a raging alcoholic! So after a fashion, they turned the Nuclear Man into a cheap knockoff of Michael J. Fox in "Bright Lights, Big City." They darkened him up. Was that the best they could do?

Firestorm teams with yet another character to help him use his powers.

Thankfully, Firestorm's "dark" period passed, and DC started using him in their crossover events such as DC One Million and The Final Night. In James Robinson's Starman #38, he bore witness to the deaths of virtually all of the Justice League's European branch. Despite his having been around the DC Universe for many years by this point, he was continually played as the "noob," the guy who is standing around in the shadow of the big boys but who doesn't really know what the hell he's doing. Really, when you think about it, it was half an insult due to his tenure (and the fact he'd quickly been snatched up by the Justice League so soon after his introduction), but also half-truthful, for Ron Raymond was no longer operating in conjunction with Martin Stein, whose smarts allowed Firestorm access to the full complement of his powers, chiefly his atomic restructuring abilities which relied on advanced knowledge of chemistry. Hence, in the absence of a "Firestorm Matrix," DC's solution was simple: partner the hero with another one who can fill the Martin Stein role, but not be an actual part of Firestorm. Essentially, they wanted to dilute the concept and turn Firestorm into the guy who needs a sidekick because he can't use his powers well enough by himself. Does that sound stupid? I thought so.

Why was DC so evasive about using the "Firestorm Matrix"? Did they truly associate everything John Ostrander did in exploring the Matrix with why the book had been canceled years before? Or did they believe the existence of the Matrix made the book too cerebral? More likely, they believed--perhaps rightly--that the Firestorm character could never be popular enough to again be a solo feature, so instead they attempted to couple one not-quite-popular-enough-to-carry-his-own-book hero with another not-quite-popular-enough-to-carry-his-own-book hero, in hopes their combined popularity could lead to a limited or even a full-time team-up series. I think it was Geoff Johns who first explored the idea of teaming him with Ray Palmer, the Atom, and it's really an inspired choice beyond the fact that he's named after something that Firestorm is able to manipulate. Throughout the Day of Judgment crossover, Professor Palmer advises Ron in an effort to teach him chemistry concepts he's apparently forgotten after prolonged separation from Martin Stein. However, the role of sidekick becomes something of an insult to the Atom, whom DC introduced 17 years before Firestorm. Still, I guess they thought ol' Ray had nothing better to do than sit on a younger character's shoulder and recite chemical formulae.

One of the Firestorms-that-almost-was, in a never-resolved cliffhanger. Art by Doug Mahnke.

I'm told (although I haven't picked up the books in question) that Firestorm appeared during some issues of Grant Morrison's JLA as well as Geoff Johns' JSA, and that his appearances there built upon his relationship with Palmer, with writers even going so far as to have Ron enroll at the university where Palmer taught. Palmer accompanied him during the Green Lantern: Circle of Fire event, where they again ran into the Martin Stein elemental incarnation (who was, again, out in the furthest reaches of space, again losing touch with his humanity...anyone else sleepy?). Firestorm also started appearing in JLA during the "Obsidian Age" crossover, which I started but never finished picking up. Interestingly, this multipart storyline nearly paved the way for a new Firestorm regular series by the creative team of Mike Carey (of Lucifer fame) and Lewis LaRosa. That series would not only have reintroduced the "Firestorm Matrix," but given Ron not one but five "partners" with whom to merge, including a dead woman and a robot! The series was planned so completely that JLA #84 featured a cliffhanger designed to lead into the new Firestorm #1, which was aborted by editorial (see above). I don't think I'd be the first to say, based on the initial concept I think Carey and LaRosa had a nugget of something interesting, but it seemed to really exploit the original Firestorm concept in ridiculous ways, more like a parody of the core concept instead of something genuinely growing out of the character's roots. True, it again used the idea of the Matrix, the first such mention since Martin left, but..."Team Firestorm"? Really? Urgh.

Firestorm joins another failed team. At least the art (by Tom Grummett) is pretty.

So where did the abandoning of another Firestorm series leave the character? Ironically, he fell into Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett's newly-developed team book, The Power Company. Brought on board to replace the then-ailing Josiah Power, Firestorm quickly found that he was not comfortable with the way the group operated, disagreeing with their de facto field leader, Manhunter (Kirk DePaul). Thankfully, Kurt Busiek gave the character back some of his respect, allowing him the ability to transmute inorganic matter and making him something of a voice of reason within the group as well as making him feel like the veteran he should be treated as in comparison with the other team members. His entrance, development, and exit from the group was exceptionally well-handled, and artist Tom Grummett drew an excellent version of the Nuclear Man (except he did seem to make Ron's face look far too old).

After this entire period of experimentation during which his development often felt rudderless, what remained for the Ron Raymond iteration of Firestorm to do? One thing that DC proved beyond a reasonable doubt in the years since his title's cancellation was that they honestly didn't know what the hell to do with him. Nobody wanted to really touch the "elemental" version of Firestorm because of his insane power level and his having been developed from a character who was a senior citizen. Nobody wanted to really touch the "Firestorm Matrix" that John Ostrander had developed, probably because the concept seemed too complex to DC's writers--and when someone did have the sense to tackle it, they made the idea even more deliriously complex. And everyone who touched Ron Raymond as Firestorm seemed to want to make him something he wasn't--a model, a drunk, a newbie, a loser.

So of course, somebody at DC editorial decided Firestorm had to die.

~G.

Next: The Blistering Tale of the Firestorm of Earth-Eight!