Fire & Water #252 – Firestorm’s Greatest Team-Ups

5 responses to “Fire & Water #252 – Firestorm’s Greatest Team-Ups”

1. You mentioned that you thought Ronnie Raymond and Ray Palmer were going to combine to make Firestorm. That would have been SO COOL! The Nuclear Man adds an Atom? Oh yeah! FIRESTORM: NUCLEAR SWORD OF THE ATOM! How did this not happen?! 🙂

   As for Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues, I love those! He did an issue that teamed Punisher and Wild Dog. Loved it so much, I wrote a short battle scene for it. 🙂

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2. This was so much fun. Thanks especially for tackling some of the “non-classic” versions of Firestorm. While the Raymond/Stein combo will always be my favorite, the fact is that many of the other versions were the ones I was able to latch on to in “real-time” as they were coming out, and so they’ll always hold a special place in my heart. For example, although I agree with the sentiment that the Elemental Era could be considered “great stories, but I wish they could have used another character instead of changing Firestorm to tell them,” I really wasn’t buying Firestorm until the change happened, but I ended up buying *every issue* of the Elemental run, as they came out, until the series was cancelled.

   After that point, it seemed like a dry spell for a lot of years (although in retrospect, it perhaps wasn’t so many… especially compared to the lack of Firestorm in recent years), and I grabbed everything I could find that featured him even a little. War of the Gods, Extreme Justice, JLA, the Power Company (which I agree had tons of potential, and I’m sorry that it was so quickly forgotten and so many of its characters either killed off quickly thereafter or just unused), etc. In retrospect, I get the impression that *no one* had any real idea what to do with Firestorm after the Conway/Ostrander run ended. Even when they brought him on a team, he never seemed to stick around or be featured very much. Very disappointing. I do agree with Shag that the Stuart Moore run was some excellent work. It’s a pity that *it* didn’t last very long, either.

   Indeed, I don’t think that the “what do we do with Firestorm?” problem has ever improved. Either he never shows up at all, or when he shows up, it’s for just a brief bit as a gimmick (“Forever Evil”), or in ways that do things with the character I’d rather forget (“Doomsday Clock” being only the most recent example). There have been a few bright lights in between, but all in all, it seems that the days of terrific, lengthy runs with Firestorm are well in the past, and that saddens me.

   At least we’ll always have these classic issues to read through. Thanks for bringing them back to mind.

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3. Fun show! I’ve always admired Ross’ Super Team Family efforts. Great stuff. It takes a lot of talent to pull something off like that, especially on a daily basis!

   I actually own a lot of these comics you covered, and bought many of them right off the stands. DC really seemed interested in pushing Firestorm as a big new star (at least post-Implosion) and of course his sales warranted that push. I love that 2nd Super Powers mini-series. It’s fitting that Kirby would get to draw Firestorm, since Al Milgrom’s design owes a lot to Kirby’s influence, particularly Kirby’s Lightray.

   I’m so glad you two mentioned Rodin Rodriguez. Man, I loved that guys inks. He seemed to ink EVERYONE at DC for a few short years, and his inks suited Broderick particularly well, I thought. He was one of the first inkers I took note of, because he had such a strong hand, and lush brush stroke. He often transformed artists work, probably beyond their liking, but the results were very appealing.

   Great show!

   Chris

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4. Gerry Conway hilariously commented in the letter column of the 80s Fury of Firestorm series— when confronted about the Brave and the Bold episode where the Hudson Nuclear Facility became sentient, which contradicted later uses of the Hudson Nuclear Plant— admitted “I forgot”. I suppose because it was such a one-off issue, it would be easy to forget after having written hundreds and hundreds of issues of comics.

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5. In the Criss Cross story, I found it odd that Superman told Firestorm to seek out Clark Kent only to reveal that he is Superman. If he wanted to let Firestorm in on his secret identity, why didn’t he just tell him he was Clark in the first place?
   And then when Firestorm gaslighted the FBI agent, Superman (a notorious gaslighted himself) found it hilarious. What a bunch of dicks!

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