Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Thing and Firestorm



I really dug Firestorm when he first hit the scene. He was one of the first all new superheroes created after I started actively collecting comics and it was exciting to get on the ground floor for once. The idea of two people operating as one hero was quite cool to me, and his appeal didn't end there. He was a teenage hero that wasn't a sidekick, a rarity for DC at the time, and he had a truly cool look and unique powers. I was happy when he joined the JLA and always got a kick out of it when he would flirt with Power Girl during the JLA/JSA crossovers. His solo series by Gerry Conway and Pat Broderick was a favorite as well, I think I had a couple of letters printed in the first few issues.

Unfortunately after a couple of years into that series, Firestorm started to flounder a bit in my opinion, with major changes to the look of the character as well as the the men who made up his two halves. DC had finally gotten the character back to where I liked him when they killed him off. I wasn't happy about the death of Ronnie Raymond, but I have to admit I did like the Jason Rusch version that replaced him. Now Ronnie is back and sharing the Firestorm matrix with Jason, a set up that that I quite like so far. I have been enjoying Firestorm's arc in Brightest Day and hope there is much more to come.

4 comments:

Cathy and Dave said...

Dave says, I missed the first Firestorm series, but I stuck with Fury of Firestorm for the first 50 issues! That was some good stuff...

The Irredeemable Shag said...

Great cover! I've enjoyed your site for a while, but I couldn't resist commenting when Firestorm showed up.

Nice melding of that Firestorm cover with the Thing. Looks really good.

I'm a huge fan of the Nuclear Man. In fact, I run a blog dedicated to Firestorm. If you like the character, you might enjoy the site.
firestormfan(dot)com

Y'know one of the reasons you might like Firestorm so much is that Gerry Conway intentionally tried to create a Marvel character in the DC universe. Firestorm has a large number of Marvel character traits.

Keep up the great work!

Ross said...

I've seen your site, you do Firestorm Proud. I never heard that factoid by Conway before, but it makes total sense!

The Irredeemable Shag said...

Ross - Thanks!

For more on Firestorm's Marvel origins, check out this interview with Gerry Conway:
http://firestormfan.com/2010/01/13/gerry-conway-firestorm-interview/

Also, before I knew that Conway intentionally created Firestorm as a Marvel-type character, I outlined several Marvel traits Firestorm possessed.
http://firestormfan.com/2009/04/15/firestorm-the-greatest-marvel-character-dc-ever-produced/

Keep up the great work!

Shag

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