Were you aware that DC Comics owned the trademark on "Wildfire" long before the "one-shot heroes" Erg-1 took that name in an adventure of the Legion of Super-Heroes? It's true! (They may not have realized, of course.) The original Wildfire was, as a little girl, spared from a forest fire by a fire god. He made her mistress of flame, but after she was found by firemen and adopted by a stately family, she didn't exhibit any powers growing up. She became a socialite, and one night she felt drawn to a fire in town, and transformed into the Princess of Flame, flying on heat currents and making fire do her bidding. Those Fifth Columnist arsonists didn't stand a chance.
Wildfire's strip lasted through issue 37 of Smash Comics, but DC didn't embrace after buying her up along with the rest of Quality's catalog of characters in 1956. Roy Thomas did want to put her in All-Star Squadron, but the publisher already had a Wildfire in Drake Burroughs, so I guess that's the reason Roy created a female Firebrand with a similar power set. The Golden Age Wildfire did appear in a couple of Elseworlds projects (The Golden Age, JLA: Destiny), but by then, those were deep cuts indeed.
Comments