This issue is written by Ethan Van Sciver and Gail Simone, with art by Yildiray Cinar and Norm Rapmund. I really like Jason’s inner monologue in this preview, and the art is gorgeous! This issue looks to be fantastic! I can’t wait for tomorrow when this issue hits the stands!

Below is one of the three pages in the preview. Be sure to visit ComicVine to see all three preview pages!

My thanks to match-head Brandon Leonard for the heads-up about this preview! Don’t forget, pick up your copy of The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #5 tomorrow! “Good day to you, sir!”

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Take a good look at the image below. This doesn’t bode well for our favorite Nuclear Men…

According to Ethan, below is the British Firestorm from issue #8!
I love the way the British flag was worked into the costume! Brilliant!

The next two below are from issue #7 and are CREEPY!

The one below was labeled as, “Jason and his father comfort Ronnie Raymond’s mother.”
Oh-oh. That doesn’t sound good for Ronnie!

Finally, below is a blazingly cool drawing of Pozhar, the Russian Firestorm.

I can’t wait for The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #7 & #8 by Joe Harris and Ethan Van Sciver! If you want to keep up with Ethan on Facebook, click here.

Special thanks to fellow match-head Brandon Leonard for letting me know about some of these images. Thanks, Brandon!

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Stealing an idea from my buddy Rob at The Aquaman Shrine, here are some of the more popular posts from FIRESTORM FAN in 2011:

• Ethan Van Sciver Exclusive Interview with FIRESTORM FAN
• Gail Simone Interview with FIRESTORM FAN
• Brian Clevinger: Exclusive Interview about Firestorm
• Gerry Conway & Al Milgrom Exclusive Interview
• John Ostrander: Exclusive Interview with FIRESTORM FAN
• Stuart Moore: Exclusive Interview with FIRESTORM FAN
• McDonalds Happy Meal Toy for Firestorm! & McDonalds Happy Meal Firestorm Toy: The Low Down
• Firestorm in the New Justice League?
• Blackest Night to Brightest Day: What a Long Strange Trip
• OFFICIAL: New Firestorm Series by Van Sciver, Simone, and Cinar
• B’wana Beast Cosplay – Traffic to that post is being driven by the woman cosplaying the Goblin Queen. 

To close out the year, enjoy Jason’s New Year’s Eve celebration as he rang in 2007. Story by Stuart Moore with art by Jamal Igle. I’ll talk with ya again next year!

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In this first panel, Jason gets busted by Dick Grayson (a.k.a. Night-Stick-in-the-Mud-Wing) for trying to liven up the party.

In this next panel, Jason keeps the fun going by using his atomic restructuring powers to play DJ!  And he’s apparently got a special message just for me!  Seriously folks, this is an unaltered panel.

Thanks, Jason! You know I’m rockin’ it! … and is that Wonder Woman grinding on the Shaggy Man?!?!? That’s some wild party!

Don’t forget to pick up The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #4 on sale this Wednesday!

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In Firestorm the Nuclear Man vol. III #27 (Sept. 2006) by Stuart Moore and Jamal Igle, Mikhail Arkadin returned to comics after a more than fifteen year absence.  Some time prior to his reappearance, Mikhail was exposed to plutonium from a dirty bomb while inspecting a former Soviet power plant in Lithuania.  This resulted in Mikhail gaining his new powers.  He adopted a new costume and began calling himself Firestorm.  Since then he’d been operating in Eastern Europe trying to prevent nuclear disasters.  Once Firehawk informed Mikhail of Jason’s role as Firestorm, he re-adopted to his Pozhar codename.  Sadly, we also discovered that his wife Nina had left him some time ago.  When Jason first met Mikhail in issue #28, a battle nearly erupted between the two of them (in classic superhero team-up fashion).

Next, our heroes were ambushed by some atomically-powered Dolly cyborgs. In his Pozhar identity, Mikhail helped Firestorm and Firehawk defeat the man-machines.

Y’know, I really dig Pozhar’s symbol on this costume.  It’s like a zoomed-in version of the classic Firestorm symbol.  If you look, you can clearly make out the edge of the sun symbol, along with the three electron paths.  Nice attention to detail, Mr. Igle!

Then, in an effort to trace the origins of the Dolly attackers, our favorite Nuclear heroes freed the Pionic Man (a former Firestorm foe) from his containment at S.T.A.R. Labs.  This lead to Hewitt Enterprises, the place where Lorraine first became Firehawk against her will (in Fury of Firestorm #17, way back in Oct. 1983).  Mikhail joined Lorraine and Professor Stein in their investigation at Hewitt Enterprises.  There they met Victor Hewitt, CEO of the company and son of Henry Hewitt.

Later, Jason discovered that Victor Hewitt was actually Henry Hewitt (a.k.a. former Firestorm villain Tokomak).  After being defeated by Firestorm way back in Fury of Firestorm Annual #1 (1983), Henry merged with a clone of himself taking on the role of his own son, Victor Hewitt.  Victor had been manipulating events in Firestorm’s life for quite some time, including directing the actions of: the Pupil, the Pionic Man, the Dollies, and even Jason’s girlfriend Gehenna (who turned out to be another altered clone of Henry Hewitt – awkward!).  Victor explained his imminent plan for causing numerous nuclear disasters around the world, while at the same time making himself invincible. Jason, Professor Stein, Firehawk, the Pionic Man, and Pozhar put a stop to Tokomak before he could realize his mad scheme.  During the final battle, Jason unintentionally caused Tokomak’s death.

With the world saved, our heroes took some time to catch their breath.  When we last saw Mikhail, he and Lorraine were ringing in 2007 with a New Year’s Eve kiss.

This was Mikhail’s last appearance before the New 52.  I gotta say, there are certainly worse ways to go out.  Way to go, Mikhail!

That’s it for today! Come back tomorrow as we wrap-up our look at Pozhar!

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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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Below you’ll find the uninhibited cover art.  Click the image to enlarge.

Below is the cover including the trade dress noting the connection to Infinite Crisis.

Did I mention Donna Troy is super-hot?  Okay, just wanted to be sure.

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Man, I love the way Yildiray draws the Brightest Day Firestorm, Ronnie and Jason! You can check out other Brightest Day Firestorm artwork by Yildiray by clicking here and clicking here.

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1. Fury’s persona is an amalgamation of Ronnie and Jason’s subconscious minds; or
2. Fury’s persona comes from the nuclear power itself.

However, after reading the panel below, I’m left wondering if there is another possible answer…

Seeing Ronnie and Jason operate consciously inside Fury reminded me of the “Blank Slate” incarnation of Firestorm.  In that incarnation, Ronnie and Mikhail Arkadin were trapped inside the Firestorm persona, much like Ronnie and Jason in this issue.  In the “Blank Slate” version, the Firestorm persona was being controlled by Professor Stein’s subconscious mind.

The panel above has me wondering if there could be a third person in the Fury matrix with Ronnie and Jason? Could Ronnie’s murdered friend Trev have something to do with Fury’s persona? Could Fury’s persona be derived from Professor Stein in some way?

What do you think?

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