"Back then we still had our tomorrows."

[mrosa]

John Ostrander's Firestorm is one of the best superhero sagas of the '80s. Ostrander made it more political and brought lots of Cold War intrigue to story, and in the process ripped Alan Moore off a bit, but who hasn't? It was great fun, smart, emotional, thrilling. The series starts with Dr. Martin Stein dying from cancer caused by his exposure to radioactivity:






So asks Ronnie to help him in one last task: save the world from nuclear destruction.



(Firestorm #62)

Things go bad really quickly, of course. The nations of the world are terrified of a superhero telling them how to behave. The Russians start training their own nuclear hero, Pozhar, and the Americans order Captain Atom to stop Firestorm. Firestorm barely survives.

Also, Ronnie's dad doesn't like learning that his son is a superhero, and that he's running away from the US government.



I also love how his dad, although he's obviously upset, isn't portrayed like a complete asshole but actually makes good points. That glow in the last panel, that's Firehawk showing up.

Stein thinks they should surrender, but Ronnie decides to stick to his principles:





I love that hug between father and son.

(Firestorm #64)

Then Firestorm fights Suicide Squad, the Parasite and the Justice League, before ending up in Russia with the Soviet nuclear man, Pozhar:






Firestorm has the upper hand, but then Stein's health gets worse and they revert to normal. And there's a nuclear missile on their way:



I also love Pozhar's altruism here; he's a pretty nice guy as we find out throughout the series.



(Firestorm Annual #5)

And later Firestorm fought a guy who looked like Stalin. This series was amazing!

Comments

[crinos]

Got to say, that guy lasted very long for a flaming skeleton, and he was surprisingly lucid and coherent.

That's what they'd call the diehard feat in Mutants and Masterminds I think.

[grazzt]

And later Firestorm fought a guy who looked like Stalin. This series was amazing!

Stalnoivolk, right? I remember him from Suicide Squad, but had no idea he originated in Firestorm, although I probably shouldn't be that surprised.

[icon_uk]

Yup, Stalinoivolk is the chap, along with his creepy boss Major Zastrow

[werehawk]

I only collected scattered issues of Ostrander's Firestorm back then (and Suicide Squad too - JLI on the other hand, was very addictive). But I really enjoyed Annual 5 and you helped fill in some of the blanks. From then, though, I thought it only got better with the Russian stuff, and Moore ripoff or not, I loved the elemental stuff, tying in Swamp Thing and an Aquaman character.

[icon_uk]

What Aquaman character was involved? Naiad wasn't from Aquaman AFAIK. (Ironically, one of Aquaman's old lovers who became a Fire Elemental, Corona, in the PAD run)

[werehawk]

You are totally correct. I was misremembering. It was 20 years ago :)

[avantre]

I always remember that story-arc for making me appreciate just how powerful Firestorm could be. It's one thing to lift huge loads or blow up things with energy blasts, or run near the speed of light, but completely reversing and shutting down a nuclear explosion? That's really impressive. And terrifying, in its own way (as shown by the army basically gaving up after this and trying to appease Firestorm)

[icon_uk]

As a long time fan of Element Lad, matter transmutation has always struck me as one hell of power.

[bruinsfan]

True. I seem to recall him dropping scores of mind-controlled Daxamites during the Great Darkness Saga by transmuting a tiny amount of the air in the environment into lead.

[nefrekeptah]

Wow. It's story arcs like this that remind you how it really was a completely different time back then.

There's still a possibility of nuclear holocaust, sure, but it's a distant one - not nearly the "inevitability" that it was considered then. Sure, it was a real threat, but looking at it from a modern perspective, the rampant fear and paranoia here just seems, well, kinda silly and a little quaint. Like remembering your childhood when you just knew there were monsters in the closet (so, most experts thought we'd have a nuclear war by the turn of the century, eh? Well, here we are a decade after the turn of the century, and guess what never happened).

[avantre]

Speaking as some-one who grew up in the 70's/80's, there was nothing quaint about the fear if you actually had to live through feeling it. We can look back now and roll our eyes at all the saber-rattling rhetoric the two sides spouted at each other during the mid-eighties, but back then if you were actually there, there was always that occasional underlying doubt that maybe one of them would be crazy enough in their self-deluded superiority to actually push the button.

[avantre]

I'll hasten to add that by self-deluded superiority, I meant that each side was always sure to show they weren't afraid of the other side retaliating when denouncing each other over the latest political kerfuffle, which came off as self-deluded when everyone was sure that no-one would win a nuclear war.

[icon_uk]

Personally, as someone who was also around at that time (Though not the Bay of Pigs, which I remember my parents telling me about) my fear was rarely based on the Americans or the Russians pushing the button, they both had too much to lose (or at least I convinced myself of that), it's the nutter despot in a rogue state getting nukes and who would be deluded enough to actually use them that scared the crap out of me... and still does to an extent.

[biod]

The amount of times we came to the brink of Mutually Assured Destruction is more than a little terrifying.

[wizardru]

As others are pointing out, there was absolutely nothing quaint about it at the time. Friends and I had discussions about the very real possibility of nuclear war. Not in some vague terms, but the very real fear that the world could end very quickly. Watchmen's Doomsday Clock felt very accurate at the time.

The fear wasn't that anyone wanted it, but that all it took was a single incident to light the kindling into mutually assured destruction. So much so that some people were willing to do heroic and dangerous things to avert disaster.

[nefrekeptah]

Oh I realize that. That was kinda the point I was trying to make. It was a very real possibility back then, but to those of us who didn't grow up in those times, who look back on it now knowing that the constant threat never materialized, it's very hard to see what everyone was so scared of.