"The Nuclear Man" FIRESTORM appreciation

[HunterX]

can't wait.

Thanks, definately can't wait, this is THE episode!

For a firestorm tv show, can maybe set it in high school similar to smallville. Firestorm can fight the freak of the weak from the nuclear accident. Probably simpler for firestorm to have just 1 person similar to spider man and static.

LOL. Sorry another Smallville is not gonna happen here, it would have to be a spin off. Neither Ronnie or Jason are in high school in this universe.

[HunterX]

Thanks for pics.

[Thirteen]

I think my first exposure to Firestorm was thru his appearances on the SuperFriends cartoon. Loved him, puffy sleeves and hokey floating head and all.
superfriends02.jpg
What I thought was really special about the progression from the Stein/Raymond matrix to the Raymond/Rusch was that Firestorm became his own legacy. Can't say that often.
I also liked what ChrisCross did with the Firestorm design to modernize it with tribal tattoo inspired markings that utilized the possibilities of modern digital coloring.
Firestorm11sm_1537.jpg
I'm less familiar with the New52 incarnation "Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear MEN". I was actually put off by the behind the scene creative conflict between Gail Simone and Ethan Van Sciver that overshadowed the potential for the concept of the 2, seemingly, separate but not Firestorms operating. Thus the title. In retrospect, I'll probably hunt down some issues and give it a shot. Anyone else have strong feelings on the early days of that relaunch. Worth a look?
Fury-of-Firestorm-1-DC-Comics-Relaunch-20112.jpg

[Abishai100]

A Modern Maestro



This is the right offbeat superhero for the modern age.

The Nuclear Man combines elements of incredible power with those of modern complexities associated with the boundaries of science (i.e., nuclear energy, war tools, etc.).

The modern villainy landscape (from both DC and Marvel) offers us strange relevant nemeses such as Video-Man (a nemesis of Marvel's heroic Spider-Man who can manipulate electric beams and invade electric wires), Poison Ivy (a nemesis of DC's heroic Batman who uses eco-terrorism as a propaganda tool to raise trouble about lifestyle revolutions), and Mysterio (a nemesis of Marvel's heroic Spider-Man who uses risk and uncertainty calculations to create bizarre death-traps and unpredictably dangerous gadgets). These villains create an arena in which the likes of only the Nuclear Man (now appearing on the new Flash TV series on the CW) seem to be able to tackle philosophically.

The Nuclear Man provides us with the right response to the new age villainy riddle: "Do modern profiteerism networks (i.e., eTrade) create fertile ground for nihilism wizardry?"

[liwanag]

[Cold Water]

So they found him last night? Or, he at least made an appearance?
This show is dragging ass if they haven't found him yet.
He's the only reason I am watching the show at all.

[Cmbmool]

The show went with the "crazy" Firestorm issues from the early comics.

[Cold Water]

The show went with the "crazy" Firestorm issues from the early comics.

What do you mean?

[Cmbmool]

What do you mean?

It felt that Martin stein was a tad crazy in the early issues of Firestorm and the show tried to replicate that in a way by making Martin the mind and Robbie the body.

[Cold Water]

It felt that Martin stein was a tad crazy in the early issues of Firestorm and the show tried to replicate that in a way by making Martin the mind and Robbie the body.

I know no other kind of Firestorm.

[MikeMC005]

This episode was great. I cant wait to see what happens next week.

[gwangung]

This episode was great. I cant wait to see what happens next week.

Pretty respectful of the comics. It's not an identical copy and it really shouldn't even try...I think it got to the essence of it...

[liwanag]

i'm really thinking that a firestorm spin off is not too far off an idea. man, i love the nuclear man episode of the flash. the cgi will be a killer though on the budget.

[Slaughter]

I really, REALLY LOVE the series so far.
I even got slightly teary-eyed when Ronnie's dad died.
And, as you can tell, I really like Killer Frost. I don't know about the current Killer Frost, but Crystal Frost/Killer Frost from back in the day? YES.
I could read Firestorm battling Killer Frost all day everyday, and I'd never get sick of it.

Yeah gotta love good ol' Crystal Frost. She would be right at home nowdays with facebook/reddit man-hating feminazis. She such a tragic and sad character turned bad, she essentially became a crazy villainess because she was a poor, love-starved scientific prodigy. Deep down, Crystal just wanted to be loved. Too bad the man she loved was immensely emotionally clueless Professor Stein. Too bad, they would've been such a cute couple. Would've loved to see a Earth-3/Anti-Matter counterpart that's a heroine instead. I can just a modern origin for her would include her going into her artic base computer and writing something like this on some feminazi social network adress:

LEXBOOK

Crystal Frost:

@Louise Lincoln
> Today I finally gathered the courage to tell Martin how I felt about him. Louise has been pestering me for weeks about it. Martin is somewhat older but I saw him as a gentleman and scholar, a brilliant accomplished scientist and he carries himself with such intelligence and class that I can't help but swoon like when I was a girl (ALL THOSE RUMORS THAT HE'S CRAZY AND HIS REACTOR STUPID ARE BOGUS, THAT DANTON BLACK FELLOW IS SHADY, I TELL YOU, SHADY!). I am so shy, how could I even bother such a genius, as I thought of him? We're in a artic base through and there aren't many people around here, so conditions are perfect! Alright Louise, doing it now!
20XX 13:57
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Comments
Louise Lincoln: You go girl! I heard the best to heat yourself in the cold is... skin to skin contact. Without clothes. I hear that shares maximum body warmth. Perhaps you should ask the doctor to share some... warmth?
Crystal Frost: Oh Louise, you're such a racy girl! But things don't work like that, he's a gentleman, not like those urban man-sluts you hang with!

Crystal Frost:
@Louise Lincoln:
> HE REJECTED ME! I loved him with all my heart and that STUPID MALE DISMISSED ME CASUALLY! All I wanted was to be loved by a kind and caring man who would make me feel like a princess, but Martin revealed himself to be another cold, self-centered MALE! TRULY MEN ARE ALL SELF-CENTERED COLD BASTARDS, DRIVEN ONLY BY THEIR RAMPANT LUSTS AND GREEDY DESIRE TO DESTROY AND RAPE ALL THEY GAZE! DAMN THIS VILE, MAN-DOMINATED WORLD! I WANT OUT!

#killallmen


20XX 15:13
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Louise Lincoln: Don't do anything stupid, Crystal! You're the best and I will always be your friend! #killallmen, starting with that pig Stein! Just dump the body beneath the ice, they will never find him!

Then she loses the will to live and walks into that big thermostat...

She was always the better Killer Frost compared to Louise (who was just a crazy sexy frozen psycho), my favorite Killer Frost story ever is the one where she freezes ALL OF NEW YORK on what was pretty much a whim. Then someone calls the League (because, OHMYGOD SOMEONE JUST FROZE NYC!) but she holds the entire city ransom to get Firestorm to pwn the League, which he does (not many heroes can pwn Superman, Hawkman and Zatanna in like two pages, without resorting to trickery). Then we find out how Crystal is messed up in the head and things just go from there!

Sometimes, I think about how they could have handled it... should Jason and Ronnie be separate Firestorm's like they did in Fury of Firestorm or should perhaps every time they merge randomly one of them gets chosen as the 'pilot'? Seems like a shame for diversity to have Jason being made the 'rider' instead of the Ronnie though at the same time I kind of do like Ronnie and makes sense for him to be the 'pilot' since he can't provide the equation's like Jason could.

I think that random choice would work more with my multiple-identity firestorm I outlined a few pages back. I do think that having a more consistent rider/mind equation is better, that's how it worked in the classic Gerry Conway run - Physical guy is the Rider, Smart Guy is the Mind.

Also, I always did wonder if the Firestorm Matrix had been accessed on other worlds... I mean, if it was discovered by Earth, surely alien civilizations would have discovered it? And if its unique, why did it manifest on Earth? Is it because Earth is the centre of the Multiverse so it gravitated to it? I know for readers it is of course obvious it would be on Earth otherwise we would have no story but in-universe explanations would be good.

Good question. The Firestorm Matrix could have a nice place on the DCU's over-arching cosmic forces - From the Emotional Spectrum to its nature-based equivalent in The Red/Green/Blue/Gray, as well as the Fourth World's Life and Anti-Life Equations Duality and the more scientific/cosmic concepts like the Quantum Field, the Speed Force and Hypertime.

For a firestorm tv show, can maybe set it in high school similar to smallville. Firestorm can fight the freak of the weak from the nuclear accident. Probably simpler for firestorm to have just 1 person similar to spider man and static.

That would actually work, because the original material is set in a high-school setting. Better saying, Ronnie's supporting cast was. Stein barely had a supporting cast in the original comic, he became disgraced from his peers after the original reactor explosion.
Nope, Firestorm needs to be 2 or more persons. A one-man Firestorm misses the point entirely. Firestorm is human nuclear fusion - two normal folk fuse into a super-powerful hero divided between a physical raider and a helping mind.
I would actually have it so that the program's two core characters actually have separate supporting casts that eventually fuse together.
Whole story would be a myth/character arc where the two main characters fight crime and explore the origin of their powers while knowing each other better and growing as persons.

Dunno if it would be Ronnie/Stein or Ronnie/Jason or even multiple people.

[Punisher007]

The Caitlin Snow Killer Frost is a pretty sympathetic character. She's basically a heat Vampire who HAS to consume body heat in order to survive (which unfortunately tends to kill people as you might imagine). It's why she first becomes interested in Firestorm, he's basically an unlimited source of heat.