Fire Facts

Are you a fan of The Nuclear Man? Well, we got One Dozen Firestorm Facts!

1. The original Firestorm was a fusion of high school student Ronnie Raymond and physicist Martin Stein. In 1986, after a plot involving nuclear bombs Firestorm was reborn with Ronnie and Russian superhero Pozhar/Mikhail Arkadin, but Stein controlled Arkadin's body. In 1989 Firestorm was composed of Robbie, Mikhail and Svarozhich-a Russian clone of Firestorm. In 2004, after Jason's death, his essence within The Firestorm Matrix fused with struggling teenager Jason Rusch and formed a new Firestorm, in 2006 Martin Stein would return and fuse with Jason as well. Jason also fused with his best friend Mick Wong for a short time. Firestorm has fused with Firehawk, Gehenna, and Cyborg at points as well.

2. Firestorm was the result of a scientific creation called The God Particle malfunctioning, thus created The Firestorm Matrix. This is a realm of Nuclear energy that invisible to average people. Much like The Speed Force, it cannot be accessed by just anyone. During "Forever Evil" The Crime Syndicate where able to use the Firestorm Matrix as a type of prison where they locked a majority of three Justice League teams inside of the now brain-dead Firestorm. While inside each hero experienced a different hallucinogenic reality.

3. The incident that resulted in Pozhar's fusion with Firestorm came from a story in which Firestorm demanded all nations give up their nuclear weapons. This story brought the entire Justice League down on Firestorm and made him an enemy of the world.

4. On two occasions Firestorm has been called a Fire Elemental. The first incident had Jason and Mikhail become an environmental crusader who interacted with African element Gods, but ended with Stein becoming the sole Firestorm and being exiled into space for a number of years. The second time Firestorm was a Fire Elemental was during "Brightest Day" when The Entity-a being representing Life itself-selected a number of characters to carry out it's long-thought plan to revive and kill Deadman, but also selected Elementals for Earth. This also included Aquaman being a Water Elemental, Martian Manhunter being the Earth Elemental, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl being Air Elementals.

5. Confirmed by The New Gods and Darkseid: The Firestorm Matrix is one quarter of The Anti-Life Equation. An equation Darkseid has been hunting throughout his creation to enslave the universe. And The Atom can travel inside of it.

6. During "Blackest Night" Ronnie was revived-after his death via magical sword-as a Black Lantern, turned Jason's friend Gehenna into salt and referred to himself as Deathstorm. Even after Ronnie's revival, Deathstorm existed in the Firestorm Matrix and escaped a few times. On Earth-3, Martin Stein experimented with human subjects to test the boundaries between life and death. A lab accident caused him to fuse with a corpse and become Deathstorm.

7. In the world of Flashpoint, Flash villain Heat Wave killed Jason and tried to be the second half of Firestorm, but he is stopped by Cyborg.

8. Firestorm's main power is fire manipulation, but he also has the ability to rearrange molecules. He can essentially turn anything into any element, like concrete into styrofoam, steel into water, and so on. He could do this much easier when Stein was part of the fusion. Upon research and focus he can even create Kryptonite, making him an immediate threat to Superman. Fully powered he can create and destroy matter.

9. Firestorm's villains include the Superman villain Parasite, rope-master Slipknot, explosions expert Platique, and a serial killer named Weasel. His biggest villain is Killer Frost, the original was a scientist who fell in love with Martin Stein, but after she was involved in a lab accident and was spurned by Stein she became Firestorm's archenemy. The second Killer Frost was the best friend of the original and recreated the accident to get similar powers and fight Firestorm, as it was his radiation that killed the last Killer Frost. The second Killer Frost was also on The Suicide Squad for a brief time. Elements from both of these women were inserted into the modern Killer Frost Caitlin Snow, who's origins have nothing to do with the previous Killer Frosts or Firestorm. This new Killer Frost was likely made different so that she could spin-off as her own character, she has been a member of both The Suicide Squad and The Justice League. She has appeared as part of the Suicide Squad in animated form and had her origin story mixed with the first Killer Frost when she was made a main character of "The Flash" TV show.

10. Firestorm has appeared in animated format in 1984's "Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show", 2008's "Batman: The Brave & The Bold", and 2016's "Justice League Action". The writers of "Justice League Unlimited" wanted to use Firestorm, but struggled to find a good story for him. They planned on making him the focus of the episode "The Greatest Story Never Known", but the episode instead starred Booster Gold (as it should). Due to this episode, Booster Gold has gained the moniker of "The Greatest Hero Never Known".

11. In the universe of "Injustice 2" Firestorm is not only a playable character, but was also selected by Batman to guard Superman's cell with Blue Beetle. During the story he also creates Kryptonite for Batman just in case Superman betrays them again. Here it is established he is a fusion of Jason and Martin.

12. In "Batman: The Brave & The Bold" Jason is still a student, but Ronnie is his high school gym coach. In The New 52, both of the boys are students attending high school, but Jason is a nerd and Ronnie is a jock. This allows Ronnie to bring the physical strength and Jason to bring the smarts. The two of them have had disputes over control of the body and their powers, however. A fusion out of anger will result in a different form called Fury-a hulking monster. In the alternate future of Future's End, Jason gets a distress call from Green Arrow and calls Ronnie, but gets no answer. Half an hour later Jason goes to Ronnies' apartment where he has been romantically distracted. When the finally head to Seattle to find Green Arrow they see he died trying to save people in a burning building. Jason blames Ronnie, but Ronnie keeps Jason inside of the Firestorm Matrix for an extended time to shut him up until he breaks free. Jason goes on to fuse with the daughter of an arms dealer and joins The Justice League yet again.

Thanks for reading.