THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN #8
Written by JOE HARRIS and ETHAN VAN SCIVER
Art and cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER
On sale APRIL 25 | 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US | RATED T

Jason Rusch rockets to Europe to thwart the next Rogue attack, only to find that other Firestorms have beaten him to it! Introducing the all-new Firehawk, France’s own atomic defender, and Hurricane, Great Britain’s officially sanctioned Nuclear Man! Meanwhile, out of the ashes of last issue’s shocking climax, Ronnie Raymond and the Russian Firestorm, Pozhar, begin a long, mutual descent toward the dark underbelly of the Firestorm Protocols. New cowriter Joe Harris (Ghost Projekt) continues this acclaimed series with superstar artist Ethan Van Sciver, who provides another stunning issue of full interior art!

Wow! Joe and Ethan are really taking things up a notch! First off, what an amazing cover! Firehawk, Hurricane, and Jason look fantastic! I’m dying to learn more about these new Firestorms. I really dig the way the Great Britain flag was worked into the Firestorm costume design. So cool! And the new Firehawk is beautiful and off-putting at the same time. Interesting. Personally, I’m speculating that Firehawk will NOT be Lorraine Reilly, and that Hurricane will feature some nods to the old Firestorm villain Typhoon. Just my current guesses. We’ll have to see!

Below are the pencils for Ethan’s cover to issue #8. Such an amazing amount of detail! Click the image to enlarge.

Below is a page from The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #7! Click to enlarge!

I’m really enjoying the current issues of Firestorm, but I’m also getting really anxious for issues #7 and #8! Can’t wait!

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Be sure to visit Todd Klein’s blog for more information and Mr. Bové’s thoughts on this design.  It’s a great read!

My thanks to our good buddy Walter, from the outstanding Boosterrific blog, for providing a heads-up about this interview!  Thanks, Walter!

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The two pages below served as bookends for the main storyline.  Below is the first page of the comic. Click the image to enlarge…

Next up is the final page from the comic. Click the image to enlarge…

It’s nice to see Firestorm included with some of DC’s other premiere characters! Also, it’s always a pleasure to see Pat Broderick draw Firestorm and Plastique again!

My thanks to Frank for sending these scans! Be sure to visit the Power of the Atom blog for all your news on Captain Atom and The Atom!

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We’ll talk later. There’s lots to discuss.

If you’d like more information on Pozhar, Russia’s Firestorm, click here for our coverage.

While you’re thinking about Firestorm, check out who is saying what…

• On Facebook, watch Ethan Van Sciver, Gail Simone, Joe Harris, DC Comics & Firestorm Fan
• On Twitter, watch Gail Simone, Yildiray Cinar, Norm Rapmund, Joe Harris, DC Comics & Firestorm Fan
• Watch or start a discussion on the DC Comics Message Board, Gail Simone Forum at Jinxworld, or Comic Book Resources Forums

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Right out of the gate I wanted to tackle one of DC’s biggest, baddest villains of all – DARKSEID!  Believe it or not, Firestorm has gone toe-to-toe with Darkseid on a few occasions and somehow managed to survive!

First up is a scene from Justice League of America #185 (Dec 1980) written by Gerry Conway and drawn by George Perez & Frank McLaughlin.  In this scene Firestorm gives Darkseid a taste of his own medicine!

Now admittedly, the comic above was published back before Darkseid was THE big bad of the DC Universe.  Nowadays, Firestorm probably wouldn’t be able to pull off such a simple stunt against Darkseid.  In fact, the next time Firestorm was face-to-face with Darkseid, things went very differently.  Below is a scene from Firestorm the Nuclear Man vol III #35 (June 2007) written by Dwayne McDuffie and drawn by Pop Mhan & Steve Bird.

Yeah, that’s right.  Darkseid just showed up and literally ripped Firestorm apart.  Wow.  That’s serious power!

Let’s tally up the two battles… looks like the final scores between Firestorm and Darkseid were: One victory each!  I don’t know about you, but I’d gladly accept a tie with Darkseid.  Heck, I’d gladly accept just surviving against Darkseid!

Watch for more UNUSUAL SUSPECTS in the weeks to come!

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Not surprisingly, we’re going to focus on The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #3. In November our favorite Nuclear Men occupied the 78th sales spot with 28,489 units sold. Of DC’s The New 52 issues, Fury of Firestorm #3 landed as the 38th book in units sold.

In September, Fury of Firestorm #1 (first printing) occupied the 46th sales spot with 46,383 units sold. Of DC’s The New 52 issues, Fury of Firestorm #1 landed as the 30th book in units sold.  The second printing of Fury of Firestorm #1 sold an additional 10,539 copies, for a grand total of 56,922.

In October, Fury of Firestorm #2 occupied the 54th sales spot with 39,591 units sold. Of DC’s The New 52 issues, Fury of Firestorm #2 landed as the 34th book in units sold.

While numbers have certainly slipped since September, Fury of Firestorm #3 still out-performed lots of other successful books such as: Punisher, Hulk, X-Factor, Avengers Academy, Thunderbolts, and many more. Also, just think how good these rankings would look if they included the digital sales! Overall, I still think Fury of Firestorm is performing well. Below you’ll find the top 100 selling comics in October from The Comic Chronicles.

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Here is the solicitation:

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN #7
Written by JOE HARRIS and ETHAN VAN SCIVER
Art and cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER
On sale MARCH 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

New co-writer Joe Harris (Ghost Projekt) joins Ethan Van Sciver in this white-hot jumping-on issue! Plus: Van Sciver provides interior art for what’s sure to be one of the most talked-about comics of the year! As the fallout from the recent rogue Firestorm attack spreads and threatens to bring down Zither-Tech and the Firestorm Protocols, Ronnie Raymond pursues the Russian Nuclear Man Pozhar on what may well turn out to be a suicide mission. Meanwhile, Jason Rusch is made an offer he can’t refuse. Separated in an evolving game of international atomic brinkmanship, each Firestorm faces a world more dangerous than he ever imagined… while one gets a life-altering shock you’ll never forget!

Man, this issue sounds like it’s going to be amazing! A new writer with great ideas and Ethan drawing two entire issues?!?!?  A winning combination!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still enjoying the current issues with Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver, and Yildiray Cinar.  I’m just getting excited for what’s coming too!

If you haven’t read them already, there are two great interviews with new writer Joe Harris about Firestorm.  Click here for the Newsarama interview Joe did with Ethan Van Sciver, and click here for the Comic Book Resources interview Joe did on his own.  Great stuff!

My thanks to Brandon Leonard and Corey Hodgdon for the heads-up on this solicitation!

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WHO IS JOE HARRIS?

If you’re not familiar with Joe Harris’ work, then check him out at Comic Book DB – click here and click here (he has two different entries currently).  Personally, I really enjoyed his Slingers series!  You may also check out below his biography from his website:

“No one writes horror quite like JOE HARRIS,” says Wizard World of the acclaimed writer of numerous comics, graphic novels and movies mixing horror with tales of super-heroes and the supernatural.

As a young creator at Marvel Comics, Joe launched the cult-classic Spider-Man spinoff series, Slingers and wrote myriad other titles including Bishop: The Last X-Man. He has written for all major comics publishers and franchises including the X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman and others.

He conceived and co-wrote the screenplay for the hit Sony Pictures film, Darkness Falls and the politically-themed slasher movie and Fox release, The Tripper before returning to comics and launching creator-owned properties that brought his experiences in publishing and moviemaking together.

His supernatural title, Ghost Projekt was published by Oni Press. Called the “Best Miniseries” of 2010 by Wizard and lauded by Ain’t It Cool News as “one of the finest” of the year, the tense tale of ghosts, gambits and Cold War-era secrets is currently being adapted for television by SyFy.

WHAT ABOUT GAIL SIMONE?

Also announced was Gail Simone will be leaving the Fury of Firestorm series.  Issue #6 will be her final issue.  This rumor has been floating around for some time, so this doesn’t come as a tremendous shock.  Gail Simone had this to say on her message board:

These things happen. They always suck, but they happen. An editor’s vision doesn’t match what you thought the book was about, it happens.  But Ethan was the guy who really saw a huge mythic potential in Firestorm, and he’s still on the book so I have a feeling it’s going to be cranked up considerably. Him doing art for two issues is a big deal, as well.

Personally, I’m sad to see Gail Simone leave the series.  I have no doubt Ethan, Joe, and Yildiray will produce excellent comics, but we’ll still miss Gail.  I’m very appreciative of all the support she’s given the FIRESTORM FAN site.  Be sure to support Gail by picking up her Batgirl series – it’s excellent!

WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING?

Ethan Van Sciver had this to say on Facebook:

FIRESTORM!!! I’d like to introduce you all to Joe Harris, screenwriter, comic book writer, and left-wing extremist who will join me in bringing you the next chapters of THE FURY OF FIRESTORM, starting with issue #7! I’ll be drawing interiors for 7 and 8. We’ll light all of your heads on fire! See you soon!

Joe Harris is a gentleman. I have to say. He has political views that are diametrically opposed to mine in most places, but he’s thoughtful, polite, kind, and never overbearing. I love him. He and I get along perfectly.

Joe Harris had this to say on Facebook:

News has broken, finally. I’m joining FIRESTORM, writing the scripts and co-plotting with Ethan Van Sciver (who’s also going to be drawing my first two issues — #7-8)! It’s going to kick all sorts of ass, I do promise. We’ve got some pretty shocking stuff lined up.

First FIRESTORM issue Ethan and I are coming out of the gate with is explosive, to say the least. Kids. Nuclear weapons. What could go wrong?

Joe Harris had this to say on his own blog:

The first arc is called “The Firestorm Protocols” and, I can promise you, it’s going to be filled with a lot of big science fiction concepts and super-hero smackdowns… some good, tense international and geopolitical maneuvering around the prospect of a new nuclear arms race in a much smaller and interconnected world than the Cold War-era knew, and some really dark, juicy moments that should really shock the hell out of people.

Fury of Firestorm editor Rachel Gluckstern had this to say on the DC Blog:

The secrets are out, the weapons are amassing, and Ronnie and Jason have barely begun to understand the depths in which they’re swimming.  Once they were normal teens, now they wield incredible powers – and have caused incredible disasters. And it’s only going to get worse. Ethan Van Sciver and Joe Harris are kicking down the doors in this new chapter of THE FURY OF FIRESTORM, taking our heroes into the global arena of politics and power. We’re going to learn the truth about Professor Stein and all the plans he set in place, which are now spiraling out of control. Join us for the thrilling new story — THE FIRESTORM PROTOCOLS!

NEWS ROUND-UP

Below are some of the comic book news sites that are talking about this big change:

• DC Universe: The Source
• Newsarama
• Comic Book Resources
• Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources
• Bleeding Cool
• Comic Vine
• The Beat
• Comic Book.com

WHERE DO I FIND JOE HARRIS?

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Website

My thanks to Keith G. Baker, liquidcross, Luke Jaconetti, and Brandon Leonard for the heads-up on this breaking news!  We’ll be talking lots more about Joe Harris in the coming months, but for now let’s give him a warm Match-head welcome!

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Gail Simone on Newsarama

Fury of Firestorm co-plotter and scripter Gail Simone recently spoke with Newsarama about the new series. Below are a few of her responses during the interview.

• I’ve gone back and read some of the original Firestorm stories, and they are quite remarkable, they are full of fun ideas, and some genuine optimism, and some really likeable characters. They were also created by some of my favorite writers, guys like Gerry Conway and John Ostrander.  I think the problem we had was that the world’s view of nuclear energy got some serious rethinking recently, with events in Japan and elsewhere. Whether that’s fair or not, it’s something that is very powerful. To me, Fury represents terror, the kind of panic that started with the cold war, that we are dealing with forces just barely under control, and when they are set loose, the results are devastating.
• Our heroes are basically good guys, they’re decent young men. Fury isn’t decent, and he’s someone even the Justice League have to keep a close eye on. He adds that measure of unpredictability that both Ethan and I cherish.
• Our lives are connected to strings pulled by people we didn’t vote for, and don’t even know exist. People who control technology control seismic shifts in the way we live, they control whether or not we have a career. Zither is that face behind the curtain, for good or ill.
• I love that guy [Yildiray Cinar] — he’s perfect for this, his dynamism, his monsters, I just love his storytelling and designs. And he loves drawing Firestorm. Also, he’s an idea man. He adds tremendously to the stories.

Ethan Van Sciver on the DC Comics Message Boards

As reported previously, Fury of Firestorm co-plotter and cover artist Ethan Van Sciver has been spending some time lately over on the DC Comics Message Board in the Firestorm forum. He created a thread allowing fans to directly ask him questions about the new Firestorm series. The thread is entitled, “FIRESTORM QUESTIONS FOR ETHAN VAN SCIVER! Ask here!”  You should really visit the message board and check out this thread.  Lots of great discussion on Firestorm, Ethan’s art, and much more.  Here are a few of Ethan’s responses relating to the current Firestorm series:

• Martin Stein did much, much more than develop a Nuclear Power Plant in our post-Flashpoint DCU FIRESTORM book. A Nobel Prize wouldn’t cover it. But wait and see. He’s a complicated man.
• I never meant to imply that kids wouldn’t want to read about Martin Stein. In fact, he’s the entire crux of this series. You’re going to be reading a lot about him. He’s a much bigger force, and a much more mysterious fellow in our series than he ever was before, and you’re going to be hearing some very strange things about him soon.
• As co-plotter, I worked with Gail to establish what the FIRESTORM PROTOCOL is, what our boys can do, what the overall conspiracy is, and where we should be headed. Issue to issue, I turn in a rough outline of key bullet points, and Gail does all the rest. I plotted issue #4 by myself, however, just for fun.
• I want to use ALL classic Firestorm friends and villains in fresh new ways.
• Yildiray and I designed the FIRESTORM suits together with input from Gail and editorial, and I created and designed FURY. Yildiray really is a fantastic designer, and we’re letting him do all of the design work now, which is fairly extensive. I like his ideas.
• Yildiray is awesome, but yeah, I’d like to take a crack at interiors as soon as possible. Just for fun, like a fill in. We’ll let you know when. I haven’t done interiors in ages, and kinda feel like it’s time to get back into it again.
• Ronnie and Jason’s parents are vital to the series, and play a big role in their lives and the decisions they make. You’ll see what I mean very soon!
• Ronnie and Jason are both just shy of their 18th birthdays, and are juniors in high school. They live in Walton Mills, which is a nice suburb of Pittsburgh.
• Firestorm will interact with the Justice League soon.
• As for FURY, yes, he’s a big fiery Hulk. But he’s something much, much more important than that. Nothing is what it seems on the surface right now.
• Ronnie and Jason are still young and inexperienced. They have no idea how powerful they are, nor do they have a clue of the power they are capable of wielding. Right now, if Ronnie or Jadon went toe to toe with Superman, I think they’d have problems. As Fury, they are a match for Superman. Or they will be once they figure out how to control the Fury entity. If Ronnie and Jason fully understood the vast power available to them, they could take down the Green Lantern Corps.
• Fury, He’s a vessel that exists because of the conflict between Ronnie and Jason. But obviously, there’s much, much more to it that can’t be discussed until more stuff is revealed. His “tough talk” is something Gail contrived. I thought Fury would be silent and uncontrollable, and cause mass destruction. He’s ghostly, representing nuclear annihilation. A grim reaper. But that’s only what’s on the outside. Ronnie and Jason see through his eyes. They ought to turn around.

Rachel Gluckstern on Comic Book Resources

Fury of Firestorm editor Rachel Gluckstern sat down with Comic Book Resources recently to talk about the series.  My thanks to match-head Keith G. Baker for the heads-up about this interview.  Below are a few of her responses during the interview.

• …we don’t want people to physically look for Professor Stein in these pages, but rather, pay attention to what Jason is experiencing as he interacts with the Firestorm Protocols and what happens when Jason and Ronnie are combined into Fury. That’s really where I want to guide readers attention.
• Pohzar is going to be a very interesting addition to the book, particularly his connection to Professor Stein. We’re not going to physically see Professor Stein in the present day, at least not anytime soon that I’m aware of, but his presence kind of overshadows things, particularly with the revelation we will have in issue three. Going forward from there, Pohzar is going to shed a whole new light on him, too. It’s going to be pretty intense!
• I want people to really pay attention to Fury as well, when Ronnie and Jason combine into Fury, to see if there is any sort of hints there that they might find interesting regarding Professor Stein and the boys in general.
• I think my job is to make sure they can tell the best story possible through their talents. I kind of just hope that I can help them focus on what they need to tell and let them tell it. Now, there’s no end of big ideas coming from them, and we have these weekly meetings and we’re always in contact — it’s a very thorough collaboration going on at every moment. My role is to stay informed and to make sure everybody’s not contradicting each other and that’s about it! [Laughs] But it’s really great, and Ethan, particularly, just loves to bring in everybody at any given moment. He wants Yildiray [Cinar] on these calls, which is a little difficult because Yildiray lives in Turkey, and he’s always throwing off these big ideas and Gail really comes through with the voice. It’s a fascinating collaboration. I’m really glad to be a part of it. They’re really doing the hard work! And Ethan has to do the covers, too, and Gail does the scripts. It’s very equal and solid collaboration, it’s very exciting.

Maybe it’s just me, but Gluckstern’s comments lead me to wonder if the Fury entity is secretly being controlled by Professor Martin Stein.  Fury doesn’t display the Professor’s typical behavior, but perhaps it’s his subconscious (like it was during the “Blank Slate” era).  Just some speculation on my part.

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You can find the eighth episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST on iTunes. While you’re there, please drop us a review on the iTunes page. Every comment helps! Alternatively, you may download the podcast by right-clicking here, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (39 MB).

Thanks again to my co-host Rob Kelly, Sea King of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE, for doing all the post-production on these episodes! Additionally, special thanks to Daniel Adams and his band The Bad Mamma Jammas for our super-cool outro theme!

Thanks for listening! Send your feedback to: firewaterpodcast@comcast.net

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