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The Completist’s Burden

When it comes to Firestorm comics, I’m a completist.  I want to own every appearance of Firestorm in comic book form.  It may seem a bit crazy, but it’s kind of my thing.

One of the tools I’ve used over the years was the 1993 Mayfair Games role-playing supplement to Who’s Who in the DC Universe.  Each supplement page included a complete list of comic book appearances for that specific character.  Seriously, a COMPLETE list up to the date of publication.  It’s amazing!  Below you’ll find the Firestorm list of appearances through 1993 from the supplement.

Firestorm appearances in the DC Univers as of 1993 from the Mayfair Games RPG supplement

What a great resource!  Think Firestorm’s listing is long and overly-detailed? You should see Superman’s list of appearances!  It’s insane!

The Firestorm listing above was extremely helpful in my back issue hunting.  In fact, I managed to pick up every appearance of Firestorm on this list, with the exception of one comic. For whatever reason, I was never able to find a copy of BLASTERS SPECIAL #1.  I know, BLASTERS, really?  This INVASION spin-off was not exactly a top-seller, but I still was unable to find a copy… until a few months ago!  I was trolling through some fifty-cent bins and stumbled across my own personal Holy Grail of Firestorm back issue finds – BLASTERS SPECIAL #1!  I couldn’t believe it!  My long journey of seeking Firestorm back issues was finally at an end.  With an amazing amount of satisfaction, I plunked down my two quarters for this comic.

After nearly 20 years hunting this comic, it was finally in my hands!  I anxiously flipped through the book looking for my favorite Nuclear Man.  Surely if I’ve waited this long for the comic, Karma should deliver an amazing Firestorm appearance.  Doesn’t that seem cosmically fair?

I finished flipping through the comic, but failed to find Firestorm.  Huh?  I tried again.  After a second more thorough examination, I found Firestorm in the comic!  Yup, he appeared in exactly one panel.  That’s right, just one.  And he didn’t even have a speaking part.  Just some guy stuffed in the corner of a mediocre splash page.  What a disappointment!  To save you match-heads the effort of digging up BLASTERS yourself, below is the one panel Firestorm appears in.  Click the image to enlarge.

 Blasters #1

Geez.  After a nearly twenty year search, that’s it?  Such a disappointment.  The burden of being a completist is a heavy one.

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6 Comments

  1. “1993 Mayfair Games role-playing supplement to Who’s Who in the DC Universe.” Someday, this will be a Jeopardy answer. The question? “What did people use to keep track of character appearances before the internet?” That is fun — and I like that they included pre-Crisis appearances, too.

  2. Ryan says:

    Twenty years to complete a quest with little if any feeling of fulfillment or satisfaction. There’s got to be a metaphor in there somewhere.

  3. D.C. Dill says:

    I too happened upon the 1993 Mayfair Games role-playing supplement to Who’s Who in the DC Universe. Only my character to complete was Aquaman! Well, the appearances I could afford. Adventures of Bob Hope #94 was on my must-have list for years. I did get it, and the appearance was disappointingly small. But at least he had a speaking part.

  4. rob! says:

    I feel your pain, Shag. I used to be a completist for Aquaman stuff, JLU figs, and Bob Dylan songs; eventually when I gave it up I felt so much freer. I cannot imagine having a “must own all” thing for characters like Superman or Batman!

  5. Jon says:

    The sad thing is, having seen that I still need to get this comic 😉

  6. […] Fan and The Aquaman Shrine! I had originally planned to make this another installment in my “Completist’s Burden” series. However, I prefer to think of this as… “Look who got invited to the […]

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