Comics Review: Bargain Bin Grab Bag: Firestorm

Part 1

Fury of Firestorm #20, #22, #25

I collected Firestorm for a short while in the 80’s.  I forgot the reason why.  It was probably because of Crisis on Infinite Earths.  I also collected Amethyst for a while because of that series.  There’s a Firestorm trade paperback of older material at Zia Comics that I keep getting close to buying, but the price keeps putting me off.  I’ll save it for the day that there’s nothing else at the store I want to buy. 

I wanted to like Firestorm.  The character looks cool.  Well, the flaming head is problematical.  Ghost Rider and Flaming Carrot must also have issues entering rooms with sprinkler systems installed.  Firestorm is overpowered (he can transmute inorganic matter into whatever form he wants) and yet always seems to be overmatched by even mundane foes with a little smarts. 

The character needed a harder limit on his powers to explain why he doesn’t just dominate.  Or perhaps, he can’t fully use his powers without melting down or causing a nuclear hazard.  Firestorm is a physically normal person apart from his powers.  You could add way more drama to stories by playing that up and forcing him to fight smarter.         

 He’s a combination of a high student, Ronnie Raymond, which somewhat explains his lack of intelligence, and also a scientist, Martin Stein, who should be very intelligent.  Firestorm ends up being his own sidekick, with Professor Stein being a disembodied invisible head following him around.  Their transformation into Firestorm is awkward as it didn’t require them to be anywhere near each other.  In a narrative sense, this skips over the tediousness of making every story about getting them together, but realistically it makes having a secret identity ridiculous, as Stein could suddenly disappear whenever Ronnie wills it.              

 

The Firestorm in the CW Legends show (and the Flash) made a little more sense.  They had to touch, Wonder Twins style, to transform.  He didn’t have the transmuting powers, but fired energy blasts.  I still didn’t understand the Legends didn’t rule nearly every fight with this guy in their lineup, at least against normal foes.

 

Firestorm was supposed to be like Spider-Man, right down to the Marvel-esqe alliterative name.  He should have relatable issues to the readers.  (People who are young and in school and people remembering what it was like.)  Unlike Peter Parker, he lacked the motivation and truly tragic backstory.  Ronnie’s problems seemed to always fall flat or be too mundane.  Stein probably had the more interesting personal life, because it intertwined with his professional life.  He should have been the star of the book really.

 

Something I noticed over these three issues that would have made Firestorm potentially fascinating was his split personality.  Firestorm was mostly Ronnie, but actually his own person.  Ronnie had a girlfriend, Stein had love interests, but Firestorm had his own girlfriend in Firehawk.  It felt like there could have been a whole lot more made of Firestorm not being either of the people who composed him. 

 

I can remember DC making a sincere effort at promoting this character at the time, but he wasn’t interesting enough as he was.  Changes were eventually made later.  I wasn’t following the character at the time.  I think they made him the fire avatar, like Swamp Thing was the earth avatar (or whatever they called it).  It was too little, too late. 

 

As to the issues themselves, #20 and #25 were setups to fights in the next issue, which I don’t have.  #22 just recounted Firestorm’s origin.  I’m sure I read Firehawk’s origin in one of these too somewhere.  (They were really promoting her in these issues.)  In other words, these were not great issues.  I’d like to at least praise the artwork, but I can’t.  It’s great and dynamic in places, but mostly dark, muddled, and awkward.  (I know all about bad artwork.  I do plenty.)  I don’t know if it’s poor inking or bad pencils with the inker trying to cover it or save it.  (The art team isn’t the same on these three issues.)  Strangely, this was the same problem when I was reading this comic in the 80’s.

 

In sum, this character needs to be rethought in terms of powers and origin.  The psychological aspect of Firestorm’s persona would be interesting to explore.  Lastly, you can see what a difference having appealing art makes in selling a comic book.  Overall, Firestorm feels more like a more marketing effort by DC editors than a creative one. 

Part 3