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Firestorm is a DC Comics superhero. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Allen Milgrom, he first appeared in Firestorm #1 (May 1978).
The original Firestorm was distinguished by his integrated dual identity. High school student Ronnie Raymond and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Martin Stein were caught in a nuclear accident that allowed them to fuse into the "nuclear man" Firestorm. Due to Stein's being unconscious during the accident, Raymond was prominently in command of the Firestorm form with Stein a voice of reason inside his mind. Banter between the two was a hallmark of their adventures.
Firestorm possesses great powers, including flight, superhuman strength and control over matter itself. He also stood out visually, with flaming hair and a distinctive red and yellow costume.
The first Firestorm series was short-lived. However The Fury of Firestorm, later called Firestorm: the Nuclear Man, lasted from 1982 until 1990. It began as a Spider-Man-like series with the teenaged Raymond adjusting to his newfound role and later delved into the issue of the nuclear arms race and Firestorm’s role as an "elemental." A new Firestorm series began in 2004 with a new character Jason Rusch in the role.
Firestorm has been a somewhat popular DC property and the character has been a member of its "all-star" team the Justice League and, for two seasons, its 1970s/80s cartoon adaptation Super Friends.
Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein Firestorm
After the accident that created him, Firestorm took to defending New York from such threats as Multiplex (created in the same nuclear accident that produced Firestorm) and Killer Frost. The 1978 series was cancelled abruptly in a company-wide cutback (the "DC Implosion") with #5 (the first part of a multiple-issue story) the last to be distributed, and #6 included in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade. Writer Conway added Firestorm to the roster of Justice League of America. This led to a series of 8-page stories in the back of The Flash (with art by George Perez), and a revival of a monthly Firestorm comic in 1982.
The monthly series, written initially by Conway and drawn mainly by Pat Broderick and Rafael Kayanan, slowly developed the lives of Raymond and Stein, as the teenager struggled with high school and moved towards graduation and the scientist found a life outside the lab. A second nuclear hero, Firehawk, was added as a love interest for Firestorm in 1984. The series also tried to create a sense of fun, something that Conway felt was missing during his years writing Spider-Man; the banter between Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein contributed to this. Upon graduation from high school, Raymond entered college in Pittsburgh, where Stein had been hired as a professor.
Firestorm's list of enemies included such generally forgotten foes as the Hyena, Zuggernaut, Typhoon, and Black Bison. One Firestorm enemy, Plastique, would later play a major role in DC's Captain Atom; she later reformed and married him. He also fought Killer Frost, who was forced by the Psycho Pirate to fall in love with him during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
In 1986, Conway abruptly left the series, and John Ostrander (with artist Joe Brozowski) took over the reins. Ostrander, a more politically aware writer, sought to make Firestorm more relevant to the world and a good deal grittier. His first major story arc pitted Firestorm against the world, as the hero (acting on a suggestion from a terminally ill Prof. Stein) demanded the U.S. and the Soviet Union destroy all of their nuclear weapons. After tussles with the Justice League and most of his enemies, Firestorm faced off against a Russian nuclear man in the Nevada desert, where both had an atomic bomb dropped on them.
When the smoke cleared, a new Firestorm was created who was made up of Raymond and the Russian, Mikhail Arkadin, also the Russian superhero Pozhar), but controlled by the disembodied amnesiac mind of Prof. Stein. The stories featuring this version of the hero were highly political, with a good deal of action taking place in Mikhail Gorbachev's Moscow.
The Raymond/Arkadin Firestom proved to be a transitional phase, as in 1989, writer John Ostrander fundamentally changed the character of Firestorm by revealing that Firestorm was a "Fire Elemental". Taking his cue from Alan Moore's Swamp Thing (a plant elemental), Firestorm now became something of an environmental crusader, formed from Raymond, Arkadin, and a Soviet clone of the previous Firestorm, but with a new mind. Prof. Stein, no longer part of the composite at all, continued to play a role, but the focus was on this radically different character. New artist Tom Mandrake would create a new look to match. It was during this phase that Firestorm met and befriended Shango and the Orishas the elemental gods of Africa. He also met their chief deity and Shango's older brother Obatala, Lord of the White Cloth. This was also the situation in which the Shadowstorm entity first appeared.
However, the series ran out of steam at its one hundredth issue, by which time Stein learned that he was destined to be the true fire elemental. Raymond and Arkadin were returned to their old lives, and Stein, now Firestorm, was accidentally exiled to deep space in the process of saving the Earth. He thereafter spent many years traveling through space as a wanderer, returning to earth on only two occasions: the aforementioned War of the Gods crossover event, and again in Extreme Justice #5, where Stein cured Raymond of his leukemia and allowed Raymond to retain the original Firestorm persona on his own.
After the transition to the elemental Firestorm, all of the main characters from the series vanished from the comics for some time after the cancellation of the Firestorm comic in 1990 (except for a brief cameo in the War of the Gods crossover event). Raymond eventually returned in the pages of the JLA spin-off, Extreme Justice. Raymond, who at the time was undergoing treatment for leukemia, regained his original powers (rather abruptly) after a chemotherapy session. It took the combined might of the Captain Atom's Justice League and the returned elemental Firestorm to restore Ronald's health. Firestorm began to appear regularly in a number of DC titles, though lacking the guidance and knowledge necessary to use his skills wisely. He would play a role in several company-wide crossovers, and in 2002, returned to active duty with the Justice League and also appeared briefly in Kurt Busiek's heroes-for-hire comic, The Power Company.
Jason Rusch
In 2004, DC revived the Firestorm comic for a third time, but writer Dan Jolley and artist Chris Cross abandoned Ronnie Raymond entirely for a new protagonist, Jason Rusch, an African-American teenager. To explain this, DC killed off Raymond during the Identity Crisis mini-series. It was revealed in Identity Crisis #5 and Firestorm #6 that during a battle with a villain called the Shadow-Thief, the original Firestorm was impaled by the Shining Knight's sword, which the Shadow Thief had stolen. The magical sword ruptured the nuclear man's containment field, resulting in Firestorm's body exploding, and his residual essence funneling into Jason Rusch's body, perhaps activating a dormant meta-gene. Martian Manhunter explained in the latter issue that he examined the new Firestorm's mind telepathically for any trace of Ronnie Raymond, but could not find any, which would have seemed to indicate that Raymond is indeed gone. However, death often tends not to be permanent within comic book universes, and Ronnie Raymond returned within the Firestorm matrix in Firestorm #9, and remained with Jason as part of Firestorm until he appeared to dissipate in Firestorm #13. It is unknown whether Raymond is truly gone (although he hinted otherwise before vanishing).
Television appearances
Firestorm appeared in the last two seasons of ABC's SuperFriends series. Mark L. Taylor provided Ronnie Raymond's voice while Olan Soule provided Martin Stein's voice. Firestorm was among the myriad planned guest stars in Cartoon Network's Justice League Unlimited animated series, but was not shown. It is speculated that due to the relaunch of Firestorm with Jason Rusch, DC did not want to confuse potential new readers with two different, almost simultaneous new versions of Firestorm.
External links
- Alan Kistler's Profile On: FIRESTORM - An in-depth analysis on www.MonitorDuty.com by comic book historian Alan Kistler on the various incarnations of Firestorm and how their powers and personalities have differed.
- Index to Ronnie and Prof. Stein's Earth-1 adventures
- Firestorm 2 HQ
- The Nuclear Fan
DC Comics titles | Extreme Justice members | Fictional elementals | Justice League members
"Firestorm (comics)"