I wish I could have found a regular video instead of a YouTube short, but this was my introduction to Firestorm, the “nuclear man” before that other one from the Superman movies. Created by the recently passed Gerry Conway, Firestorm quickly became one of my favorite superheroes. He had a cool powerset that was different from the ones I’d seen in previously, though my comic journey hadn’t yet included the likes of Martian Manhunter as far as passing through objects. Restructuring atoms and flight were probably not new, either, but they were new to me, and after picking up my first issue of The Fury Of Firestorm at the local grocery store I found a really interesting character that I wanted to see more of. He’s also one of the inspirations for the main character in my dream project, which is sadly a long ways off.
Sadly, someone lost the plot when it came to Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein. Strange decisions like forcing Firestorm’s Russian counterpart into the mix and causing a confused Firestorm, deciding Martin was supposed to be the only person in the Firestorm mix because he was really a fire elemental planned by the Earth goddess Gaia (someone was ripping off Captain Planet), replacing everybody with Jason Rusch and whomever he could get into the thinker seat that story, killing Ronnie Raymond and turning him into a Black Lantern, and then the New 52’s Firestorm In Name Only total reimagine that would have been much cooler as it’s own series instead of reimagining a character and concept I already liked. Yes, that was a paragraph-length sentence, but that’s how badly the character’s been done dirty since the Superfriends went Super Powers Team and the show ended. I never understood what the point was, but I never understood the point of the New 52 outside of Dan DiDio’s ego.
Gerry Conway already had a great concept, but DiDio’s “Project: Firestorm” concept is still in place because DiDio’s Darker DC is still in place. Now I catch this video from Jeff Lemire talking about his new Firestorm comic and how he’s building off of that…and I am not happy with what they’re still doing to my boy. It seems the Firestorm form has become its own persona…and Doctor Manhattan, in that he lacks humanity and wants to experiment with his powers. What makes it worse is Lemire’s reasoning and that of the editor, Andrew Marino: to explore Firestorm’s power in “reality”, another termed butchered by modern writes. At least we can’t claim anything political on this one, because I’m stick of bringing up the culture war, but it still isn’t the Firestorm I knew and loved seeing in action, and what passes for “reality” with modern writers is just the same thing we get from Watchmen and it’s atomic man. We can’t have fun in our superheroes anymore.
I’m at a point where every time a writer today says they’re writing a “love letter” to a period, concept, or character I have to wonder what they love. It sounds like Lemire is just interested in Firestorm’s powers, not in Ronald Raymond or Professor Stein (or rather what the New 52 has done to them). What interested me about Firestorm wasn’t his powers. Even though they were new to me as a kid when he made his Super Friends debut, it’s always the characters that make me like the hero. Ronald was a high school kid who lost his mom and had trouble fitting in at his new school until he found his place on the basketball team. When Ronald first became one-half of Firestorm his first thought was “help others”, even keeping Professor Stein in the dark of what they were doing because he wanted to help so badly. Martin would forget about his time as Firestorm because he was unconscious when they first fused. Once Ronald told the unfused Martin what they were doing, he forgave Ronald and started remembering his time as part of Firestorm.
I also liked their dynamic. Ronald was the jock, the body proud guy, so regardless of who was awake when the experiment went boom, having him be the body while Martin, the professor and physicist, was the mind and thus in Ronnie’s head as Firestorm made a lot of sense. I didn’t mine when Batman: The Brave & The Bold flipped the dynamic with Jason Rusch in Stein’s place because that version of Ronnie was a gym coach, pushing the brainy Jason to be more proactive and in the action. It still worked, though it wasn’t my favored pairing. It beats the Black Lantern situation, but I want to ignore that. Sadly it comes up one more time.
First I want to follow the nonsense in order of the video and discuss Marino’s comment about the audience expecting a “hokey science hero” and giving us Doctor Manhattan, an emotionless “god” who can break the previously established (pre-52 anyway) rule of not transforming living organic matter (that other thing about the Black Lantern Firestorm I never have to mention again that I really hated, by the way). I want the science hero transforming a bus into a sponge cake to stop Hyena or some other threat. That was fun for me, the same way as seeing a Green Lantern come up with fun constructs to stop a criminal or Green Arrow having a boxing glove arrow to knock out a crook. Seeing heroes beat villains in fun and nonlethal ways is what I want. It’s another example of “let’s subvert expectation” resulting in subverting desire, which is the biggest flaw of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, especially The Last Jedi. I want the classic Firestorm, not the soulless monster in some horror story. That’s not what excited me as a kid.
As for this “real world” nonsense, I again remind you FIRESTORM’S POWERS CAN’T EXIST IN A REAL WORLD! MOST SUPERHEROES’ POWERS CAN’T EXIST IN THE REAL WORLD! There’s something called the laws of physics that make most to all superhero abilities impossible, with the rules of biology not helping. Basically, science says superpowers can’t exist. If you watch Stan Lee’s documentary series on people with superhuman abilities, they’re cool because they aren’t normal but they’re nowhere near the level of superpowers we see in superhero universes. You can survive in dangerously cold weather longer than anyone? Cool, but let me introduce you to a guy named Bobby Drake who can cover himself in a flexible ice armor and shoot beams of freezing ice cold from his hands. Bet you can’t do that. Of course you can’t because science doesn’t work that way!
I will say something positive based on this preview: Rafael De Latorre’s art and his ability to match the art style of the various periods of the DC universe in general and Firestorm’s comics specifically while making “present day” look unique and cool is amazing. I wish I had that level of talent. Shout-out to the sadly ignored colorist if he or she is a different person. Not sure if they used an extra inker, either, but the art is really good. Too bad the story makes me want to avoid it.
(Okay, one more positive: no Cliff Carmichael. I hate that character AS a characters. What happens if you try a reverse Flash Thompson but make him a complete garbage scumbag of an alleged human being? Cliff Carmichael. It’s the only thing I hated about the original comics and story. Somehow the New 52 reimagine as a soulless mercenary was more likable than the nerd who picked on a jock because the principal bought into stereotypes and unlike Thompson had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Merc Cliff didn’t try to convince Ronnie’s dad that Ronnie was on drugs just to be an ass.)
I did something I rarely do with YouTube videos. If I like it I’ll click the thumbs up (unless I forget or the TV app goes too fast for me to do it because it can only be done while the video is playing.) If I don’t I usually leave it alone. On this one I had to click the thumbs down because this is not what got me interested in Firestorm or what I want to see from this concept. This isn’t the character child me got excited for. This is some horror take on Doctor Manhattan, only worse because at least Doc M was hero enough to run from the planet when he believed he was part of the problem and a threat to others. This isn’t what I wanted to see. This isn’t the Firestorm of my youth. This isn’t just lacking what I expect but what I desire, and it’s another “real world sucks” take on having science be unrealistic and still calling it real. I hate everything about this except for the art and I personally want nothing to do with it.
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