Who's Firestorm?

Who's This? The Nuclear Man.

The facts: Firestorm, the Nuclear Man debuted with his own #1 cover-dated March of 1978 by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom, a hero who could rub shoulders with DC's most powerful, but still feel like a "Marvel hero" (with teenage problems, etc. à la Spider-Man). The series only lasted 5 issues and was a victim of the DC Implosion (the 6th issue collected in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade). But Conway wasn't done! He added Firestorm to the Justice League roster, leading to a back-up in The Flash, and then a revival in The Fury of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man, which went 100 issues plus Annuals, so from 1982 to 1990. Of course, not without major changes. The two people who made up Firestorm's matrix - Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein, started getting switched out in different "matrices" under writer John Ostrander, who eventually turned the character into Earth's Fire Elemental. Ronnie died in Identity Crisis so that a new Firestorm - Jason Rusch - could take over, HIS series lasting 30 issues. Though an attempt at making Firestorm interesting again was made in the Brightest Day event, DC instead opted to reboot their universe, spawning a different take on the Firestorm mythos in the New52. The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men ended on issue 20. DC Rebirth used him in Doomsday Clock, mostly to revise his origin, but it hasn't led to much.
How you could have heard of him: Older casual fans may remember him as a member of the Super-Friends in the 80s Super Powers cartoon (he even had a Super-Powers action figure), while younger ones might note that Firestorm appeared in the Flash and Legends of Tomorrow TV series - originally as Ronnie Raymond played by Robbie Amell, with Victor Garber's Professor Stein sticking around longer.
Example story: Fury of Firestorm #16 (September 1983) "Black-Out!" by Gerry Conway, Pat Broderick and Rodin Rodriguez

Though the cover makes the origins of Ronnie's trauma pretty clear, the issue plays it at as a mystery while his constituent parts are trapped in a dark liminal space.

When Stein finds Ronnie, the teenager has Swiss cheese memory of past events, so guided recollection is in order to bring him up to speed and make him face what just happened. So we go back to that morning, the day after Firestorm arrested Multiplex who nevertheless didn't blow Matchhead's secret identities to the NYPD. The media sure doesn't know when they track him down for an interview.

This was one of my first issues of the series (after discovering the character in JLA) and simple scenes like this made me come back for more. Love the Broderick/Rodriguez combination. The inner monologue that's really Jiminy Martin Stein. Firestorm being a bit of show-off... Oh, I buried the lede: Multiplex has escaped custody already, so maybe we'll get a bit of action after all... But not right away. Ronnie has classes, and it's almost 9 o'clock, which means he's already late. The door slams in his face and the principal walks in behind him. It's that Peter Parker luck! But the man is pretty understanding, perhaps on account of an old friendship with Ronnie's dad, though he asks strange questions that seem to put the lie to that. What's going on? We follow with a Senator Reilly scene (as seen on TV, this all has to be Ronnie's point of view) revealing that his daughter Lorraine has disappeared, so SCREW school, and a merge into Firestorm. The Professor was asleep somewhere and is jolted awake. They're off to Washington D.C. where Firestorm easily phases through Capitol Hill to find the Senator.

I guess he wasn't "worried" enough on the telly. As soldiers bang on the office door, Reilly admits saying anything might get Lorraine killed, and then Multiplex shows up as if in answer. This guy is fission to Firestorm's fusion, but he's still just a guy, or a bunch of guys. I don't think he's on the same level as Firestorm at all, so this fight is embarrassing.

Caught by those marines, he doesn't trust them to believe his story, so he uses a bit of that molecular transformation magic to prevent more violence before flying off.

Perhaps Ronnie's dad - a journalist - will know of a connection between Multiplex, Reilly's recent vote on a key bill, and the Hewitt Corporation that's benefiting from it. He's not at work. His boss mentions a phone call that sounded like someone was threatening his kid (i.e. Ronnie), a someone who had returned 15 years after causing Ed problems. A someone who... But no, the rest of Ronald's memory is a blank, one that Stein pushes him to fill in.

And little by little, Ronnie remembers what he can't face. The sight of his father opening their house's front door and getting caught in a fiery explosion. I really love the page where the two sides of Firestorm reintegrate in the wake of this incident.

Spoiler: Ed Raymond didn't really die, but it did seem like a delayed Uncle Ben moment, didn't it? I love that Gerry Conway spent an issue dealing with a single traumatic moment, with only seconds going by over 23 pages. It told us something about the Firestorm matrix and how it worked psychologically. It allowed you to forget the cover and still feel the emotional shock at the end. And it spun us out into the 2000 Committee storyline that made a fan of this particular reader.

I was one and off with Firestorm over the years, but the second year of Fury still contains some of my favorite Firestorm comics, or perhaps I should say favorite comics full stop.

Who's Next? Aquaman's catch of the day.