“Now you boys get right to school….”
Fury Of Firestorm #20
FINAL ISSUE!
DC Comics (July, 2013)
“Problems Multiplied” part 3 WRITER/PENCILER: Dan Jurgens INKER: Adam Rapmund COVER INKER: Ray McCarthy COLORS: Hi-Fi ASSISTANT EDITOR: Anthony Marques EDITOR: Mike Cotton GROUP EDITOR: Eddie Berganza “FIRESTORM” CREATORS: Gerry Conway & Al Milgrom
As Firestorm battles on to save Ronnie’s mother, with help from Jason’s father and girlfriend, Elling sends Major Force to assist, and bring Firestorm in to become a military weapon. Standing in their way are Superman and a not-so-dead Professor Stein, the former offering Firestorm a place in the expanding Justice League. (As seen currently in the Justice League comic.)
What they got right: Action! Action! ACTION! This is a finale. Just one huge final battle between Firestorm and the bad guys, with Major Force thrown in…who at least hasn’t killed a Green Lantern girlfriend in the New 52 (I don’t care if GL didn’t get rebooted or if it did, I’m going into my happy little world here) so I don’t mind him as much. Plus he has the rare New 52 outfit that’s actually an improvement. There are hints of the stories Jurgens wanted to tell and foolishly won’t because the DC Powers That Be seem to hate fun stories. Why else would they keep pulling the rug from under him?
What they got wrong: Besides cancelling the comic and pulling Jurgens off of another great series? Maybe it’s because I ignored the stories between #3 and #0 because it wasn’t what I wanted in a Fury of Firestorm comic, but what great plan did Stein have? Are answers actually going to be forthcoming, and will it be Johns who will disappoint us with some lame story now that the character appears in Justice League? (Personally, I would have put him with the Teen Titans, since Ronnie and Jason are teenagers.) This could be a result of one of the few complaints I’ve seen from my circles, that there was too much put in to show what the writer intended to do. That can be hit or miss (track down my reviews of the Dynamite Buck Rogers comics) but this did succeed in making me further disappointed Jurgens wasn’t left to continue this title.
Recommendation: Pick up #0, which restored the series to its rightful concept, and then grab all of Dan Jurgens’ run on the series. You won’t be disappointed.
It was tough to find ONE moment for Firestorm, so here’s a reminder that Jurgens should be put back on Superman if they’re stupidly cancelling Firestorm.
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Man, and I’m a firestorm fan too (plus the run was finally looking up).
Ms Simone might be a great writer, but not for Firestorm.
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Gail Simone was only a co-writer on the piece and we don’t know how much editorial meddling there was in altering the Firestorm concept. All I know is I didn’t like the result.
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