Who's Firebrand II?

Who's This? A blazing All-Star.

The facts: In the Golden Age, Quality Comics had a hero called Firebrand (which we discussed HERE) - just a short-lived punch 'em up crime fighter strip. When Roy Thomas started All-Star Squadron, he felt his pool of characters lacked diversity and actual super-powers. He didn't mind creating new characters, but even better if they had some connection to the past. So he injures Rod "Firebrand" Reilly off at Pearl Harbor (he'll die later in Freedom Fighters, or earlier by our reckoning) and introduces his sister, vulcanologist Danette Reilly, in the ASS insert in JLA #193. In All-Star Squadron #5 (January 1982), she is hit with Wotan's mystic blast and falls into a vat of lava, coming out of it with almost too much origin story AND fire-based powers. She becomes one of the main All-Stars, featured throughout the life of the title, as well as about a dozen issues of Young All-Stars. This was actually compromise. Thomas wanted to use Quality Comics' Wildfire as a prominent member, but editorial didn't want there to confusion with the Legion's Wildfire (despite ASS having a Flash, a Superman, a Batman, a Green Lantern, etc.). Danette (named after Roy Thomas' wife) would have few appearances in later chronology, becoming Atom Smasher's adopted grandmother after taking in Cyclotron's daughter and later marrying the Shining Knight (say what?!) and getting killed by the Dragon King on an adventure with him.
How you could have heard of her: Other characters have taken on Firebrand's name, most recently Janet Fals during the Dark Multiverse storyline. But she's no Danette. She's no Danette, no. An android called Red Inferno has appeared in Young Justice and is obviously modelled on Firebrand, not just her look, but her Golden Age career and death at the Dragon King's hands.
Example story: All-Star Squadron #55 (March 1986), "Crisis at Canaveral!" by Roy Thomas, Arvell Jones and Vince Colletta

A weird pick, perhaps, but Firebrand was really just a "team player" in the book, an "energy blaster" in a team that didn't have a lot of those (since the Golden Age was mostly fist-fighting crime busters). Possibly, because she wasn't an ACTUAL Golden Age character, Roy Thomas didn't focus very much on her. But this Crisis issue has her as the only starring All-Star, leading a group of DC's historical characters on a mission to defend Cape Kennedy 1985 under attack by Native Americans from various eras. The language is woefully out of date and therefore racist (Danette IS from the 1940s), but at least Firebrand knows to give them the benefit of the doubt.

She has the moral fibre of a Golden Age heroine, but also the firepower of a Bronze Age heroine:

But you might say, too much firepower for the opposition here. Well, what if we throw Super-Chief into the mix?

The opposing side in fact has a few DC heroes too - Strong Bow and Arak among them - so we KNOW they're not necessarily in the wrong, just displaced in time and confused. Can Firebrand bring about a peace? Not until she takes Super Chief out.

But she saves his life as he falls, so he stops another brave from killing her in return. He surmises that maybe they're ALL here at Harbinger's request. And yep, the real enemy are the mercenaries that seemed to be U.S. soldiers doing their duty, but were actually in the employ of the Ultra-Humanite. His plan? To launch a death ray into space using the space shuttle. His hostage? NASA's own Terri Rothstein, Nuklon's mother and Firebrand's godchild. Cyclotron (Terri's dad) is also time-displaced and does some of the heavy lifting at this point, but after he saves Terri and is returned to the moment of his death, Danette gets to eulogize him.

At least she gets to save the day by absorbing all the heat from the shuttle's rocket launch. The Ultra-Humanite will have to be defeated by other heroes in other comics, but it was nice to see Danette in a starring role even if she obviously has to share the page with a lot of others.

Boy, Roy Thomas really wanted to make DC's Who's Who a necessarily purchase, didn't he?

Who's Next? A pyromaniac.