Granted, maybe I haven’t completely disassociated this run from any that came before (I am trying to do that since it is obviously *not* supposed to be the same characters in many ways), and maybe Ron in this incarnation is just a “brawler” and really thinks these things. But what we’ve seen so far doesn’t support that for me. A “brawler” isn’t the quarterback and team captain on a varsity high school football team (that I’ve ever seen, anyway). You have to have some leadership skills and some ability to work the plays (and improvise when they go south). Before the school got blown up and shoved into the background — the team was doing well, and we never saw that Ron lacked respect from most of the school (sans Mr. Chip On His Shoulder Rusch) and certainly the team. That reads to me that Ron should be closer to Conway’s run — he isn’t a SOOPER-GENIUS like Stein (and now apparently Rusch) is, but he’s not a moron either. He’s *average*, which means he can at least think tactically on some level.

Ok… that said, unless #5 shows us that he was playing along with Zither to find out what was going on – #4 didn’t exactly display him at his best… he bought into the whole “We’re the good goons… no, really!” thing awfully quickly.

In one of those passing thoughts — the general line did make me think of Ron not being cannon fodder, but rather a likely candidate for an Academy if his grades aren’t too atrocious (good athlete, known team building/leadership skills, etc.). Not to say he wouldn’t top out around Commander/Major… but it does raise the thought that the US government could likely get a lot more mileage at this point *recruiting* Ron (with the covert side knowing he’s Firestorm, the military wouldn’t have to). Getting him on a sub/carrier with a reactor might be interesting, it couldn’t hurt if Ron could actually learn some nuclear physics (if you have to, some “leakage” of intellect/interests the way the Ron/Martin merge hinted at would work) — and given the way Jason is written as rather a maverick talent, a patriotic Ron pitching national security versus a “no one should have this, or all should be balanced” Jason could make an interesting story driver.