The Fury of Firestorm review #1

I was with Firestorm from the beginning. Debuting in his own comic in the Seventies, this striking character was a breath of fresh air in the DC Universe, a hero with two secret identities who was all about fun. Sure, constituent parts Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein had their day-to-day problems, but the soap was as entertaining as the superheroics. For several years Firestorm was popular with readers, but, seeming to be less so with a new generation of creators, we saw him less and less. We’ve had relaunches and revamps, but none captured the charm of the Gerry Conway/Al Milgrom original, and the last few years have seen him reduced to fly-on parts in Justice League Unlimited and event comics.

Well, if you’re after the high-spirited hero with the Spidey vibe, the first few pages of this new series are worrying.

The humanity that was such a part of classic Firestorm is gone, he’s looking down on people as a god might look at man. Or a kid with a magnifying glass at ants.

The military, rattled, make a call on Lorraine Reilly, onetime girlfriend of Ronnie Raymond…

… and the superheroine known as Firehawk.

The hope is that Lorraine can get through to the Nuclear Man. She’s not so sure.

The preview pages released this past week by DC had me worried. Firestorm as a distant entity, divorced from humanity, ‘experimenting’? But once Lorraine arrives on page, and she assures us that’s not Ronnie Raymond piloting the Firestorm Matrix, writer Jeff Lemire has me on board. This isn’t the new normal for one of my favourite heroes in comics, it’s the starting point for… well, I don’t know what, but it’s not going to be this.

Just having Firehawk in the mix gains enormous goodwill from me; Lorraine is the same smart, assured young woman who flew at Firestorm’s side and could have been a superstar in the DC Universe. She’s been barely seen since the Eighties, but if she’s telling us that’s not Ronnie, I believe it.

And where’s Professor Stein? We find out towards the end of the issue, after a very intriguing sequence casting light on Ronnie’s situation.

Lemire is obviously a fan of the series after co-creator Milgrom went to Marvel and artists Pat Broderick and Rafael Kayanan picked up the visual baton, helping Conway take the hero to his greatest heights. There’s a nod to the horrible Project Firestorm business that completely blackened Martin Stein in the Doomsday Clock series, hopefully as a precursor to throwing it out.

The narration is nicely done, with an encroaching sense of doom, so much so I was a little scared this Firestorm would blast Firehawk to, well, atoms. Happily, Lemire isn’t going to waste a character with so much potential.

Er, is he?

Rafael De Latorre and colourist Marcelo Maiolo get full marks for the storytelling. The opening sequence is dreamlike, well, nightmarish, with the Lorraine pages providing visual relief as Lemire ramps up the intrigue. Towards the end of the book the look of the pages takes a turn for the brighter – I won’t ruin the reason but it’s fair to say I lapped it up. De Latorre’s compositions are made for maximum drama, whether it’s creeping horror or the reactions to it, while Maiolo’s choices are a big help in setting the mood.

Lucas Gattoni does his part with smart lettering, from the opening omniscient narrative boxes with their parchment background to the distinctively coloured word balloons of Firestorm and Firehawk.

The moody cover by De Latorre and Maoiolo, showcasing our lead characters, is a nice topper to the first chapter of ‘The Fury’. And the logo, a burnt-out version of the classic, is fitting.

I was a tad nervy about this issue, having seen the solicitations, but it’s a sharply written, excellently visualised treat. Give it a go.