Firestorm (character)


Firestorm is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom. Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein first fused together to become Firestorm in Firestorm, the Nuclear Man #1. Jason Rusch debuted as a modern update of the character in Firestorm #1, and was created by Dan Jolley and ChrisCross.
Firestorm was featured in The CW's Arrowverse, portrayed by Robbie Amell, Victor Garber, and Franz Drameh mainly in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. The character has also appeared in the series Super Friends, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and Justice League Action.

Creation

In an interview, Conway discussed his reasoning and influences while creating the character: "I always loved the idea of the hair on fire, I think it goes back to Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, an entire flaming character, of course." Conway further elaborated, "I'd been playing around with the idea of a teenage superhero for DC, who could sort of fill the hole that had been left in my heart by leaving Spider-Man behind. I'd been thinking about the tropes — one of which was the meek, mild alter ego, the brainy kid who, in wish fulfillment, gets superpowers, is extremely powerful… able to do things that he hadn't been able to do before. That was, I think, the major motivating force—I wanted to play on that trope.
To do that, I wanted to flip it around: create a guy who wasn't the brightest guy in the room, the not-terribly-smart guy who became a superpowered character. The way I'd make that work: I'd bring him into contact with the smarter person, who would also share the powers. This led to… the multiple-people-in-one, Professor Stein/ Ronnie Raymond dynamic."
Jack Kirby's design for Lightray's costume influenced the look of artist Al Milgrom's creation of Firestorm. In a 2019 interview, Milgrom admitted: "The facemask on Firestorm, the way it comes around the chin, was probably inspired by Lightray more than anything... I liked the head-covering thing; I said, "I'm stealin' it!".

Publication history

The first Firestorm series was short-lived and canceled after the fifth issue, becoming a victim of the company-wide "DC Implosion". The sixth issue was included in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade.
Writer Gerry Conway added Firestorm to the roster of Justice League of America. This led to a series of eight-page stories in the back of The Flash, and a revival of a monthly Firestorm comic written by Gerry Conway in 1982. The Fury of Firestorm lasted from 1982 until 1990.
Firestorm ran from 2004 to 2007, and introduced the second Firestorm, Jason Rusch, following Ronnie Raymond's death in Identity Crisis.
The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men, a series starring Raymond and Rusch, ran from 2012 to 2013 as part of The New 52 continuity reboot. It was initially written by Gail Simone and Ethan Van Sciver and drawn by Yıldıray Çınar. Joe Harris replaced Simone starting in issue #7, while Van Sciver also provided the art for issues #7 and 8 before Çınar returned. Veteran writer/artist Dan Jurgens took over the series with issue #13 in 2012, until the series' end with issue #20 in 2013.
In 2016, Firestorm was one of the features in the Legends of Tomorrow television series, which united Martin Stein and Jefferson Jackson as Firestorm.
Firestorm will receive a new ongoing series in April 2026 as part of the "DC Next Level" publishing initiative, written by Jeff Lemire.
Firestorm has faced off with many enemies in his publication history. Thinker and Danton Black/Multiplex was introduced in issue 1, and Killer Frost was introduced in issue 3. Introduced in Firestorm Volume 2, this included Black Bison, Plastique, the 2000 Committee, Hyena, the Assassination Bureau, Enforcer, Mindboggler, Moonbow, Breathtaker, Pozhar, Sand Demon, Shadowstorm, Shango, Slipknot, Stalnoivolk, Tokamak, Weasel, and Zuggernaut. Other enemies introduced later in publication included Bolt, Brimstone, Naiad, and Deathstorm.

Aliases

Ronnie Raymond / Martin Stein

The original Firestorm was distinguished by his integrated dual identity. High school student Ronnie Raymond and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Martin Stein were caught in an accident that allowed them to fuse into Firestorm. Due to Stein being unconscious during the accident, Raymond was prominently in command of the Firestorm form with Stein a voice of reason inside his mind, able to offer Raymond advice on how to use their powers without having any control. Banter between the two was a hallmark of their adventures. Stein is initially unaware of their dual identity, leaving him concerned about his unusual disappearances and blackouts, but Ronnie eventually convinces him of the truth, allowing them to bond as separate individuals rather than as parts of a whole.

Ronnie Raymond / Martin Stein / Mikhail Arkadin

When Conway left the series in 1986, John Ostrander began writing the Firestorm stories. His first major story arc pitted Firestorm against the world as the hero, acting on a suggestion from a terminally ill Martin Stein, demanded that the United States and the Soviet Union destroy all of their nuclear weapons. After confrontations with the Justice League and most of his enemies, Firestorm faced the Russian nuclear superhero Pozhar in the Nevada desert, where an atomic bomb was dropped on them. A new Firestorm resulted, a fusion of the two heroes: this new Firestorm was composed of Ronnie Raymond and the Russian Mikhail Arkadin but controlled by Stein's disembodied amnesiac mind.

Fire Elemental

The Firestorm with Arkadin proved to be a transitional phase, as in 1989 Ostrander fundamentally changed the character of Firestorm by revealing that Firestorm was a "Fire Elemental". Firestorm now became something of an environmental crusader, formed from Ronnie Raymond, Mikhail Arkadin, and Svarozhich, a Soviet clone of the previous Firestorm, but with a new mind. Martin Stein, no longer part of the composite at all, continued to play a role, but the focus was on this radically different character. New artist Tom Mandrake would create a new look to match. During this time, Firestorm meets Sango and the Orishas, the elemental gods of Nigeria.
By the series' 100th issue, Stein learns that he was intended to be the true Fire Elemental and would have been being it not for Ronnie Raymond also being there by circumstance. Raymond and Arkadin lose their powers and Stein becomes the sole Firestorm. After saving Earth, Stein spends many years traveling through space as a wanderer, rarely returning to Earth.
After the transition to the elemental Firestorm, all of the main characters from the series vanished from the comics for some time after the cancellation of the Firestorm comic in 1990. Ronnie Raymond eventually returns in the pages of Extreme Justice. Raymond, at the time undergoing treatment for leukemia, regains his original powers after a chemotherapy session. Firestorm begins to appear regularly in a number of DC titles, though lacking the guidance and knowledge necessary to use his skills wisely. Firestorm is drafted by Batman into a "replacement" Justice League that was commissioned in case something befell the original team. After the original team returns, Firestorm remains as a reserve member of the League and participated in events such as a team-up with the Justice Society of America and the crossover story JLA/Avengers. He was also briefly a member of the Power Company.

Jason Rusch

Jason Rusch is the second Firestorm, introduced following Ronnie Raymond's death in Identity Crisis. He was created by writer Dan Jolley and artist ChrisCross.
Jason was a 17-year-old living in Detroit who wanted nothing more than to escape his home city. He lived with his father, who had turned abusive after he lost his hand in an industrial accident. His mother left the family sometime after the accident. With the loss of a job he needed for college tuition, Jason turned to a local thug for money, accepting a job as a courier. It was on that job that he encountered the Firestorm matrix, searching for a new host after Ronnie Raymond's death. In the aftermath, Jason struggled to cope with his new identity and powers—a struggle that led to the death of the man who had hired him.

Jason Rusch / Martin Stein

In the 2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, it was revealed that Martin Stein, alive in space as the "Elemental Firestorm", had sensed the presence of Jason Rusch within the Firestorm matrix, but was unaware of Ronnie Raymond's death. When Jason, as Firestorm, was gravely wounded in the line of duty, Stein linked with him in a variation of the merge, promising Jason a new Firestorm body to let him return into battle and asking him about Ronnie's fate.
Accepting Stein's proposal, Jason asked him to become the permanent second member of the Firestorm matrix. Sensing his "errors" were the result of his youth and lack of experience, he sought the experience and maturity of Stein. Stein refused at first, but later accepted Jason's request, thus ensuring both a new Firestorm body and the reconstruction of human bodies for both Rusch and Stein.
It was revealed in Infinite Crisis that Jason would have been a native of Earth-Eight in the old multiverse.

Jason Rusch / Firehawk

As the storyline jumped ahead one year, Martin Stein has mysteriously vanished, and Jason Rusch has been merging with Firehawk to become Firestorm, allowing him to use her powers as well. The two decided to look for Stein together. Stein had been kidnapped and tortured by the Pupil, his former teaching assistant. Flanked by the D.O.L.L.I.s, a group of cyborg soldiers of limited cognitive ability, the Pupil questioned Stein about the secrets of the universe. Jason and Firehawk, along with the mysterious teleporter Gehenna, freed the captured Stein and restored him to full health. Jason is a college freshman at New York City's Columbus University and seems to have ties with Dani Sharpe, a member of the senior staff at LexCorp.
The Firestorm team of Jason and Firehawk made several appearances across the DC universe before the search for Martin Stein ended. This included dealing with the latest OMAC and teaming up with Superman in the "Back in Action" story arc in Action Comics. Firehawk later introduced Jason to Pozhar, a Russian superhero who was once a part of the Firestorm matrix; together, the trio takes on a newly reborn Tokamak. This series ended with Firestorm the Nuclear Man #35.