Firestorm Villain: Hyena

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

What do you get when you cross a werewolf with giggling, babbling insanity? Why it's next up on Firestorm's Black Lantern list: The Hyena! (dial-up beware)

Here's the quick recap:
(2 scans Firestorm 10)


For those who can't read, hero's girlfriend's sister (named Summer Day..yes, really) went to Africa with Peace Corps, gets bit by were-hyena, essentially.

Summer has been in therapy and has come home, but vanishes during the night. A were-hyena attacks local hospital, is stopped by Firestorm. Summer shows up at home..





Ronnie eventually wakes up and staggers to his other half for medical care. But we all know happens when you get wounded by a wereWOLF, right?

Next, we get to meet Summer's therapist, Dr. Jivan Shi. Turns out he was a high ranking doctor in the East, but US medical regulations force him to start at the bottom. (4 scans Firestorm 11)





There's another fight in the hospital. Firestorm is running a fever and having intense dreams. He loses. Good thing he can get treatment at the hospital!





Time for backstory..stuff you might've told someone earlier, Summer.







I can't help think of the Kool-Aid Man and how much he hated not being able to quit grinning. There's a fight, Firestorm is having trouble keeping his cool, Summer escapes. (3 scans Firestorm 12)





The infection vanishes when Firestorm separates, but reappears when he transform again. He finds her later.





Firestorm bursts in but, rather than using his godlike powers, goes hand-to-hand. He becomes savage and reckless, but the He-Hyena is better at that. Summer tries to intervene and calm Shi, but the two end up ripping each other up. Firestorm uses the reprieve to imprison both of them.

Unfortunately, now he can't separate anymore! The were-hyena infection is fusing his selves together. So he goes on a desperate quest to the original place Summer was infected, contacting the friendly local authorities..(3 scans Firestorm 13)





His muzzle is growing, and he has a permanent, maniacal grin now.

The friendly Prez sends him to a village. Despite godlike abilities, Firestorm doesn't have supersenses or superresiliency. He get clunked in the back of the head by local guerillas. While in captivity, the dreams intensify.



He wakes up, fully were-hyena. Ronnie appears to be mindlessly animalistic, though the other were-hyenas retain the ability to rant and rave. The subconscious Stein is unaffected, but has no control.



The nice guy in the headdress removes the hyena curse. Sadly, the mean guerrilla kills the nice man before Firestorm can get him to cure Summer and Jivan. Cue the ironic commentary on man's inherent beast..

Comments

[neotoma.insanejournal.com]

The artist really didn't have any good references for hyenas, did they?

They don't look *that* much like wolves. And they should either have spots or stripes, depending on what species they're supposed to be based on.

[liarashadowsong.insanejournal.com]

Agreed. I know what hyenas look like, and the werehyenas here are not particularly consistent with that. I do appreciate that they are trying to be more original and use a different variety of were-being present in myths, but they really should not look so very much like the animal in question is a wolf rather than a hyena.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

I guess I'm not the only one wondering about him lying in bed with that flame coming from his head right into the pillow. (John Totleben once said when he and Bissette were drawing the JLA in SWAMP THING, "Where the fuck is his brain?")

Also, Stein is very white. "Native village"? This was of course the 80s, so we can't blame the era. I already think it's a bit weird that in most of the Firewolf panels, he doesn't look so much like a were-thing as he does, well, shall we say Brotherly.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

He has a normal skull. In his origin appearance, we see that its just his hair thats flaming.

I know the detail is hard on some of these, so I made the pic larger than necessary so you can see the fur on his face.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

But it is fire, right? And that's a pillow. And soon after that, all the children burned and it was all Ronnie's fault...

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

Not actually a flame, no. Ronnie* told Jason that it was just a hologram. It just happens to look cool, which is why Jason kept it.

* I THINK...I don't have the issue at hand, ATM, but it was either Ronnie (via the Matrix) or Stein - maybe they both did, at different points.

[thokstar.insanejournal.com]

While I agree that the Hyena probably should be on a Firestorm villain list, it seems like they aren't going to use him in Blackest Night. The one guy who looks like the Hyena is actually the Weasel (because one rogue based off of a carnivorous animal isn't enough for a a character that can commute elements at will.)

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

Ah! Thank you! While reading this I had a moment of 'wait, come to think of it has Hyena been killed twice? Because I think I remember her biting it in Suicide Squad and Villains United'... But it was WEASEL who was offed in SS.

Now, it's still possible they've killed Hyena twice, but I've only read one of them.

[box_in_the_box.insanejournal.com]

Throw in the Jackal, and Gerry Conway seems to have had a theme going on.

Back when I was young and stupid and still reading Wizard, I always read their "Mort of the Month" feature, and while I disagreed with them when they took aim at intentionally ridiculous characters that were never meant to be taken seriously, I agreed with them when they took aim at absurd characters who were clearly intented to be seen as SERIOUS BUSINESS.

The more "Morts" I read, the more characters I saw from Conway's Firestorm and Justice League runs, and my God, were they terrible.

Conway has his strengths as a writer, but creating villains is not one of them.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

I think MGK did a thing on Firestorm's villains.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

I'm reading this and thinking: And Alan Moore still gets shit over "the Curse"?

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

You know, if mainstream DC ever does that storyline that they teased us with in the 'Super Friends' book - the 'Jester's League of America', where the Joker gathers together all the joke-and-trick-themed villains into one group - the Hyena should definitely be included. I mean, she's called the HYENA, for cryin' out loud - I'm surprised Mistah J hasn't tried to recruit her as a henchwoman by now.