Before we get started, I just want to wish a Happy Christmas to all my regular readers and hope you will enjoy this special all-free holiday edition of DC: A New Dawn! The regular Pulp Empire weekly newsletter will return on January 8th.
Firestorm #64 by John Ostrander and Joe Brozowski
The saga of Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein intensifies as Martin grows sicker and the force of the world’s governments all comes down on him.
After months of build-up, Firestorm faces all-out anarchy, but Ronnie Raymond first stops by to talk with his father and stepmother, Felicity Smoak. With a dying Martin Stein in tow, he still tries to beat around the bush about the recent events with his father. Martin and Felicity convince Ronnie that it’s finally time to come clean with poor Ed Raymond. After nearly a decade of continuity, including years on the Justice League, Ronnie finally tells dear old dad that he’s Firestorm.
Firehawk arrives at the apartment and makes it clear that she’s there to help Ronnie and Martin. They both know that it’s likely Martin is nearing his end. If they are to make a last stand, it needs to be now.
Firestorm flies to Times Square to make an announcement: meet them in the Nevada desert with whatever force they hope to bring. The Americans and Russians have already made an agreement that Pozhar will get the first chance at Firestorm, but America’s top secret super-team doesn’t care. The Suicide Squad mounts an attack directly in the middle of Times Square. Posing as simply villains that are answering the President’s call to stop Ronnie, the fight immediately endangers hundreds of innocents.
Meanwhile, Doreen Day also answers the call from the President. She meets with Chief Ferguson and tells him that Ronnie is Firestorm. When asked by a colleague, he chalks this up to an angry ex trying to cause trouble for her boyfriend. But in private, he picks up a line and puts a phone call through to… someone.
The battle with the Suicide Squad doesn’t prove easy for Firestorm. Outside Rick Flag, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang, the team is made up of ex-Firestorm villains: Slipknot, Killer Frost, and Multiplex. The villains aren’t particularly concerned about collateral damage. Firehawk shows herself to aid Firestorm but ends up locked in a battle with Frost. This leaves Firestorm to deal with the others. He does alright for himself, but things go from bad to worse as the Justice League arrives at the issue’s end.
Firestorm Annual #5 by John Ostrander and Joe Brozowski
The final Firestorm Annual wastes no time in picking up from right where the last issue stopped.
The Justice League focus as much attention on the rampaging villains as they do the rogue heroes. Things quickly go from bad to worse though as the Suicide Squad’s “secret weapon” is unleashed. Parasite immediately murders his guards before going after the heroes and villains. He wastes no time in killing Multiplex as well, ending the life of Firestorm’s earliest villain without care.
Batman meets with Rick Flag. He asks Flag if he’s still with the Forgotten Heroes, unaware that Flag brought the villains to the square. (This actually starts an important seed with Batman and the Suicide Squad, as Ostrander lays the groundwork for events in his other series.)
The powered heroes and villains are all attacked by the Parasite. He doesn’t kill any of them but drains several of their powers, including Black Canary and Martian Manhunter.
Firestorm is the only one powerful enough to stop him, but he’s started to suffer as Martin’s sickness weakens him. He pushes through and once again embeds Parasite in amber to defeat him. With most of his enemies down, he flies off to the desert.
On the Bug with Flag, Batman orders Blue Beetle to pursue Firestorm. Beetle refuses, saying he’s not going to use the Bug to fly after a hero that just saved countless lives. (This actually also seeds into the Justice League series as Batman’s leadership will soon come under fire.)
Firestorm sets up an ice globe in the desert. Later, Ronnie wakes up Martin from sleep. Martin is in even worse shape, but they don’t have much time to discuss it as Pozhar finally arrives. Still dressed in his Rocket Red armor, Pozhar and Firestorm are evenly matched as they rain nuclear fire upon each other.
Firestorm’s weakness slows him, but Stein figures out the containment suit is key to Pozhar’s survival. They break down the suit, only to realize that without it, Pozhar is in danger of going critical. Firestorm forms heavy water out of the desert sand to bathe the burning man and save his life.
It’s the last thing he’s able to do, as the fusion ends and Stein collapses. Ronnie tries to see to his mentor, but it’s already too late. The Americans have launched a nuke directly at Firestorm and Pozhar. He tries to revive Stein, but Stein isn’t moving and may not even be breathing. Pozhar offers to share his own power to try and ignite the spark between them.
It’s too late. The nuke hits them. But in the midst of the blast, something pulls in the nuclear energy. Firestorm rises out of the fire as the issue closes, with the “Fallout” promised for the next issue.
Several comics currently being produced by DC clearly have little or no long-term plans. Ostrander and Brozowski clearly started the build to these current events months earlier. The plan was in place and they’re executing it in a way to make sure we understand the significance, with guest stars galore in the midst of an international incident. It’s well-done comic storytelling that serves to elevate Firestorm’s place of importance in the DCU.
Flash #5 by Mike Baron and Jackson Guice
Between the four issues already published and the annual, Wally West has gone through three adventures in his new career, none of which feel like they have any link whatsoever to the others. They all felt like they could be the launching point into something else, but the other stories have almost no relationship to the rest other than mentions of Wally’s newfound wealth.
The fifth issue finally follows up one of those other stories, the battle with Kilg%re from issues three and four. This issue opens with Tina McGee, the scientist Wally struck up a romantic bond within the previous story arc. Her comments about her husband in the previous issue made it seem like they were already separated and on the way to divorce. But this issue opens with them in their shared home. Tina seems to just be telling her husband Jerry that she wants a divorce now. It doesn’t place her in a very good light, but Jerry’s presented even worse. His solution to her request: is to beat her, and rather savagely from the number of sound effects shown (even if the book doesn’t show an ounce of the hitting.)
Jerry heads back to his lab, where he injects himself with more of the experimental steroids he’s researching. He wants vengeance against the Flash for breaking up his marriage and is willing to take it out on both Wally and Tina.
Tina contacts Wally. He rushes to her aid. They meet at a restaurant and he whisks her back to his mansion. He wants to protect her and he wants to move on with their relationship despite the age gap. (The issue actually lays that out: Tina is thirty-one and Wally is twenty.)
They seem ready to consummate their relationship when Wally’s father Rudolph shows up on his doorstep. He’s apparently already spent the half million Wally gave him and is on the outs with Wally’s mother. He ruins the romantic interlude, or at least he seems to until Tina slips into Wally’s room at night.
Unfortunately for both of them, the newly dubbed Speed McGee takes that time to attack. Nearly completely immune to pain, he shrugs off Flash’s attack and runs wildly away with Tina as the issue closes.
Guice’s clean line works as well as it has in previous issues, maybe even better with new inker Jack Torrance gelling with his style a bit more than his previous partners in crime.
I’m sure that Mike Baron intended to try to work the newly minted topic of domestic abuse into his story, but it’s incredibly ham-fisted. Speed’s already on steroids and I think we’re supposed to see that as an excuse for his behavior, as he’s being driven mad by them. Tina wants out of the relationship, but it’s not presented clearly whether this is a recurring incident or if it’s for other reasons. The handling of the issue forces everything into a superhero situation instead of actually dealing with an obvious crime like it should be: with charges filed. It misses the mark but is explicitly made worse by Tina never being unlinked from Speed McGee ever. We’ll cover some of the worst of that in the months ahead and I’ll call out the creative teams for them when they occur.
It’s a shame they couldn’t have handled this subject with a bit more grace as the pages focused on Tina and Wally getting closer to one another are incredibly well-written and beautifully drawn. But it’s hard to read a story sensationalizing domestic abuse as anything other than gross.
Justice League #6 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire
Faced with a city completely transformed and under the total control of the Gray Man, the Justice League is arguably way out of their *ahem* league as this one kicks off. They aren’t helped along by the loss of both Captain Marvel and Doctor Fate, arguably their two most powerful members.
The Creeper seems to actually like the twisted look of the town, while the majority of the Justice League worries they may be facing a threat out of the scope of their abilities. Any debate about their next move ends when the Gray Man sends a mind-controlled Captain Marvel after his own team.
Captain Marvel tries to kill Black Canary and Booster Gold first, but Martian Manhunter quickly steps up to stand toe to toe with him. Meanwhile, Fate points out to the Gray Man that his control over the Captain is too much of a strain on his abilities. He loses his hold on Captain Marvel just as Martian Manhunter delivers a haymaker that leaves Captain Marvel on the ground.
In a brief departure from the rest of the action, we check back in with Maxwell Lord as he meets with Hal Jordan. Lord clearly has a plan for the team, one which the world’s first Green Lantern refuses to sign off on. But that doesn’t seem to slow Lord’s plan at all…
Doctor Fate breaks free of the Gray Man’s trap and the two do battle again. The Justice League arrives, sans Captain Marvel and Martian Manhunter now. They again aren’t sure what they can do against their enemy, but before they can make a decision, the Gray Man summons his lookalike minions to attack the League.
They seem ready to overpower the League, but the Creeper arrives out of nowhere to attack the Gray Man. This doesn’t slow the lookalikes though, and the League seems to be in real danger. Doctor Fate finally unleashes the full power to send Gray Man elsewhere, though it isn’t clear to what plane or world he’s been banished.
Martian Manhunter watches the city return to normal from a distance before flying off to seek medical attention for Captain Marvel. It’s a rather abrupt ending to the story, especially since next month’s Justice League comes with an altered name and a pivotal change to the dynamic of the book.
The wise-cracking between the heroes has also distinctly picked up this month, another clear sign of what is to come, even if it hasn’t quite reached the full comedy/drama dynamic that this series is most known for all these years later.
The creative team does seem to be firing on all cylinders at this point, with DeMatteis really building character beats over Giffen’s plot. Maguire and Gordon are an amazing team together and the art shines on every page. The team has gelled into a cohesive unit that will continue to build over the next year or so of comics.
Vigilante #46 by Paul Kupperberg and Tod Smith
After his encounter with Black Thorn last issue, Adrian Chase is now in police custody. So much so that he loses the cover of his own comic entirely.
The first half of the book deals with Chase being defiant to his lawyer, well aware that he committed every crime they want to try him for — even if the charges aren’t forthcoming. A group of rogue police officers have plans to take justice into their own hands for Chase’s killing of one of their colleagues. Harry Stein is busy hunting down a Russian smuggler in Gotham with Harvey Bullock. (Harvey gets to be especially foul-mouthed as the language definitely ups a notch in the mature readers title.) And Valentina Vostok is closing up shop, leaving her agency behind (on her way to a place in Doom Patrol) and in the eventual charge of Harry. She does give one final order to two men: go free Adrian Chase. And Black Thorn is making her own plans to break Adrian out.
Adrian gets attacked in the prison shower by a group of miscreants as the guards stand aside and let it happen. Adrian makes short work of the seven men, but as he’s doing so the rogue cop is breaking in with their own prison uniforms. A female cop also brings a perp in, only to take him down and reveal herself as Black Thorn. Thorn catches that the cop is wearing gloves and carrying a gun. The two break down into a battle within the prison walls.
The cop’s accomplice tries to corner Black Thorn, but she’s standing up against both of them. The agents stop the fight as Adrian takes notice of the happenings down the way. He hears gunshots from a distance but isn’t able to help or do anything.
We switch back to the viewpoint of the prison guards as they find their downed compatriots. They run into the cell block but Vigilante is already gone as the issue ends.
It’s interesting to see Kupperberg has set up so many players in his book that he could essentially do issues with Chase as little more than a supporting cast member, yet here we are. Even as the series nears its end, Kupperberg hasn’t slowed down the drama or made his twenty-seven-page stories any less dense. Tod Smith and Rick Burchett continue to make the book shine on the art side. Vigilante remains one of the brightest hidden gems I’ve read from this era of comics. It’s a shame only four issues remain.
Elsewhere in the DCU (all these links are free for everyone to read):
Vampires, robots, and adult films with superheroes: the wide-ranging interests of John Byrne: Action Comics Annual #1 by John Byrne and Arthur Adams; Superman #10 and Action Comics #593 by John Byrne
A three-in-one battle and the weakest of mysteries: Outsiders #24 by Mike W. Barr, Trevor Von Eeden, and Erik Larsen; Hawkman #15 by Dan Mishkin and Richard Howell
One creative team takes its final bow, while another introduces one of the most famous artists of the era: Batman #412 by Max Allan Collins and Dave Cockrum; Detective Comics #579 by Mike W. Barr and Norm Breyfogle
A bevy of villainous problems and quantum injuries are clearly no fun at all: Blue Beetle #17 by Len Wein and Paris Cullins; Captain Atom #8 by Cary Bates and Pat Broderick
The reason why a book didn’t need to be published monthly: Secret Origins #19 by Len Wein and Murphy Anderson; Roy Thomas and Arvell Jones
New Gods, invasions from Apokolips, and ancient demons all in an ancient kingdom: Warlord Annual #2 by Michael Fleischer and Pablo Marcos; Warlord #122 by Michael Fleischer and Art Thibert
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Merry Christmas- it's been a great pleasure reading these summaries.