Welcome to another installment of FIRESTORM FAN’s Nuclear News! Here are some news and web findings on our favorite hothead. I gotta say, it’s nice to see some love for the “blank slate” incarnation of Firestorm this time around!
- Brightest Day #4 came out yesterday. This is the issue with the Black Lantern Firestorm cover. Be sure to stop by your local comic shop and pick up a copy!
- There was some hubbub amongst Firestorm fans after Brightest Day #3 hit the stands two weeks ago. In the issue they portray Alvin Rusch (Jason’s father) as having two hands. The reason for the confusion is that Alvin Rusch lost his hand in an industrial accident before Firestorm vol III even started. There is lots of speculation, everything from a simple artist mistake to Jason re-growing the hand. At this time, I don’t believe we have an official explanation.
- Over at Primary Ignition, they’ve identified Firestorm the Nuclear Man Annual #5 from 1987 as a hidden gem. This is the issue where the “blank slate” Firestorm was created. Click here to read their commentary on this great issue.
- There is a really great column over at Comic Book Resources on Firestorm vol II artist J. J. Birch (a.k.a. Joe Brozowski). J.J./Joe drew Firestorm during the “blank slate” era. This column specifically focuses on Firestorm the Nuclear Man vol II issues #70 & 71. Click here to check out the article.
- The folks at the DC Multiverse blog pointed out something I never realized. Firehawk (a.k.a. Lorraine Reilly) shares a last name with the second Firebrand (a.k.a. Danette Reilly). This is interesting because they both have fire powers. Could Lorraine Reilly be related to Danette Reilly? Something to consider. Click here to visit the DC Multiverse blog.
- If you’ve got $600 to spare, you can pick up a slightly charred Firestorm action figure on eBay. Yes, you read that right, $600. Clearly this is some kind of joke, but it’s an odd one. Click here to see the eBay entry.
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Gotta love the fact that the eBay merchant is making a “selling point” of the fact that the figure is graded as “poor” and that somehow INCREASES its value?
His sales patter borders on the slightly delusional (or tongue-in-cheek):
“The figure was doused with lighter fluid and lit on fire back in the 80’s. For a few moments, this toy was the most perfect recreation of Firestorm in Action Figure form. Finding such a figure in this exact condition is rarer than finding one in a AFA 60. There is only one AFA 20 Firestorm graded in the world! Granted you can take any $15 Firestorm and make him into a AFA 20 easily. Because it is so easy to reproduce the condition of this toy, I have priced it as so….”
But it’s quite chucklesome and fair play to him if some mug ponies up the money, then he’ll be the one laughing 😀
600 Dollars?! Lmao man, that’s insane. I don’t know what to say about that… anyway, I didn’t know about Jason’s dad missing a hand but that sounds like a big screw up on their part. I hope they just admit they made a mistake instead of something like “The White Light regrew his hand” just because the artist probably made a mistake.
I first noticed that burnt figure back in 2008 (back then it was only $300), it pops up on ebay from time to time. No idea why. The sad thing is, I’d probably buy it if it was $20, purely for the amusement of having a graded burnt figure.
He did use a prosthesis at times too, right?
If that Firestorm figure sells for $600 or whatever, then I’m buying a lighter and setting my JLU collection ablaze.
I’ve only read that issue of Brightest Day the once, and noted that brief image of a two-armed Alvin in the distance. However, I was willing to chalk that up to “less detailed than it should have been ” art rather than a mistake, recognizing that Alvin had taken to using a prosthetic by the last we’d seen of him.