The Fury of Firestorm
The DC NEXT LEVEL Initiative has blessed us with new approaches to fan favorite characters, and up next is The Fury of Firestorm! The Nuclear Man has been explored to varying degrees in the past, in his own ongoing series and appearances across the DCU, whether in the background at the Watchtower or in a supporting role during an event. Now, he’s back with Jeff Lemire, Rafael de Latorre, Marcelo Maiolo, and Lucas Gattoni in an opening issue that takes cues from science fiction with Firestorm playing God, literally.
Lemire’s writing positions Firestorm as a God-like being; rightfully so, he has the power to change matter at the atomic level. The opening line, “On the first day, the Nuclear Man descended from the heavens.” It presents an Annihilation-style setup, a red-hot stranger coming down to change the landscape. The off-kilter presentation proceeds as the narration alerts us that this isn’t standard, taking Firestorm’s unique properties like his design and history into something more foreign or haunted as the writing describes.
Bedford, Colorado, is the unfortunate Ground zero for the Nuclear Man. Latorre draws the superhero with an air of detachment as he walks the streets, with onlookers in shock and surprise. The detachment extends to the white-hot absent eyes, making him feel more alien than anything else as he begins his experiments. Maiolo’s colors maintain a mix of brown and other muted hues against Firestorm’s bright yellow and red. Lemire dives into body horror and destruction as the isolated Ronnie makes his way through the opening days of his appearance in Colorado, with Latorre drawing statues of people, fused monstrosities, and slowly changing environments.
Elsewhere, another character with ties to Ronnie Raymond is drawn into the events in Colorado, allowing Lemire to briskly catch new readers up on Firestorm as a character without derailing the story to explain things. Building Firestorm into a strange object that people have to observe, study, and treat like a military-grade threat straight out of Arrival or Prometheus complements Lemire’s take on the character and the mystery of what’s going on. Latorre’s art grows weirder with earlier streets and markers now floating in the air or even more deconstructed. One of my favorite parts of the book is how Latorre’s art and Maiolo’s colors recreate the Firestorm world of the old days, villain included. Gattoni’s lettering has a spark of whimsy, with the colors reverting to brighter, eye-catching hues that contrast with the gritty realism of the present.
Lemire ends the first issue with an enticing enough mystery about the true nature of what’s going on with Ronnie Raymond, and I must say, it’s an engrossing hook that presents a different road, one that’s not as worn down for the Nuclear Man as far as his other solo outings have been.