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Brightest Day, Odd Couple, Ed Benes sketch, Racism in comics, drink recipe, and more

Welcome to another installment of FIRESTORM FAN’s Nuclear News! Here are some news and web findings on our favorite hothead.

  • A few weeks back I did a post on the 2003 Ronnie Raymond Firestorm series that almost was.  I’m over-the-moon happy to report that I received very nice notes about my post from both writer Mike Carey and artist Lewis LaRosa.  Great guys! Be sure to support their projects!
  • Check out this amazing Firestorm sketch on eBay by Ed Benes (Justice League of America, Birds of Prey, Superman).  Gorgeous sketch!  It sold for $374.  Wow!

Ed Benes sketch of Firestorm

  • Brightest Day #3 came out last week and there is a good Firestorm-related scene.  Not going to spoil it for you.  Visit your local comic book shop and check it out!
  • DC Comics has created a Brightest Day mini-site and Firestorm has his own page.  Not much to see there yet, but check it out by clicking here.  Also, you can get some Brightest Day desktop wallpapers and buddy icons on their Download page by clicking here.
  • Peter Tomasi gave an interview to Newsarama about Brightest Day in early May.  Click here for the entire interview.  Below is an excerpt that included Firestorm:

Nrama: Then let’s switch our attention to this new Firestorm. Ronnie Raymond is obviously still irresponsible, and Jason already despises him. Are you hoping to explore the contrast between the two characters by throwing them together as Firestorm?

Tomasi: Ronnie and Jason’s characters are polar opposites in the truest sense of the word, and that makes them incredibly interesting to read about. All you need to do is put them in a room together and the tempers run high – put them in each other’s head and you’ve got a battle royale. Ronnie and Jason have a pretty epic storyline in place that will test them both and bring them right to the emotional edge of who they are and what they believe in.

An audience member wanted to thank DC for using Firestorm again. [Ian] Sattler replied that he is fascinating and has so much planned for him. Long term stuff.

  • Back in early May, Chris Sims wrote a post over at Comics Alliance on “The Racial Politics of Regressive Storytelling”.  The editorial makes the observation that DC is replacing legacy heroes that happen to be racially-diverse (such as Jason Rusch/Firestorm and Ryan Choi/Atom) with the classic iconic versions.  It just so happens that all the classic iconic versions are white Americans, therefore DC is eliminating their racially-diverse characters.
    Now this editorial was written in early May.  Since then, a legacy superhero that happens to be non-white has been murdered in the pages of DC Comics (being vague on purpose so not to spoil it for anyone that doesn’t know).  Combine this editorial with the recent death and you’ve got a literal fandom firestorm on the net (no pun intended… well, maybe a little bit).  Just go to any comic message board and this topic is being argued.  I’ve also stumbled across dozens of comic news sites and blogs discussing this issue.  There are valid arguments on every side of this issue.  I’m not going to comment on the issue, but I encourage you to check out what everyone is saying.
  • David Wolkin did a review of Brightest Day #1 on his blog Wolkin’s House of Chicken and Waffles (and Comics!).   The review is very humorous and worth your time.  Additionally, he referred to Ronnie and Jason as “The New Odd Couple” and included a link to the following Twitpic he posted.  Friggin’ hilarious!

Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch - The New Odd Couple

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4 Comments

  1. JasonTodd says:

    Excellent post, so much Firestorm stuff compiled I can’t even imagine how long it took you, but it was definitely worth the read. Those sketches looked amazing too and that Odd Couple pic was hilarious, haha.

  2. Shag says:

    Jason – Thanks! I just collect stuff I come across and pull together a post like this once and a while. Speaking of time involved, that Green Blogger story you wrote must have taken a long time! I confess I was lost with all the in-jokes, but I can appreciate the effort!

    The Irredeemable Shag

  3. Jon says:

    I hope you did the honorable thing and bugged the heck out of Mike Carey for a copy of those scripts 😉

  4. JasonTodd says:

    Thanks, hell thanks for even reading it. I was hoping I didn’t alienate any of my newer readers, but stick around, and I’ll make sure you make it into the next one, with a few firestorm jokes 😛 I actually wrote it spur of the moment in like an hour and a half haha.

Leave a Reply to Shag