I read THE FURY OF FIRESTORM #1 and really enjoyed it. It wasn’t perfect, not yet, but it was really good and fun. Shag, I agree with pretty much everything you said in the review. I’m not sure if it’s the structure or pacing, but it feels like Gail Simone and Ethan Van Sciver are still working out the kinks of their collaboration. Sometimes the flow felt a little off, but as far as that goes, wow, a lot happened in this book. A lot of jumping around, different scenes, different glimpses into these boys’ lives. Compared to last week’s SUPERGIRL #1 which was all one scene with a fight taking up 14 of the 20 pages (seriously, I think that issue took place over about three minutes of time).

I like the Ronnie and Jason rivalry, but there’s still a lot to be explained about this. We need to get A LOT of information about Jason in the second issue or this will be a problem of how he got the magnetic bottle, and why he inexplicably blasted Ronnie in the paper so… impetuously. That seems suspicious is all.

A few other notes: The new take on Cliff Carmichael: interesting. I don’t suppose it makes sense for him to be the nerdish bookworm needling Ronnie, since that’s kind of what Jason is for. Makes me wonder why they even used the Cliff Carmichael name for this new character, unless something important happens later on. Speaking of that: the girl in Carmichael’s crew–was she “frozen” by the FIRESTORM effect? And was she still alive? Could this be the origin of a certain FIRESTORM rogue? Also, whatever they might say about Professor Stein, I’m not so certain. It’s pretty vague and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in hiding or something else, but I think he’s still alive.

All told, I enjoyed it. I think this first issue had a lot of rough exposition to drive through and sometimes it felt clunky, but I think that will be a non-problem next issue. And I still think this could be one of the best titles of the new 52 once Gail, Ethan and Yildiray really kick off.