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Dan Jurgens Takes Over Writing and Art with FIRESTORM #13

Big news, Match-heads! DC Comics shocked everyone yesterday by announcing Dan Jurgens will be taking over the writing and penciling chores on The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men starting with issue #13 in October.

First, let’s look at the official solicitation and cover. Second, read on for some of my thoughts on this creative change.

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN #13
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by DAN JURGENS and RAY McCARTHY
Cover by DAN JURGENS and NORM RAPMUND
On sale OCTOBER 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• Ronnie and Jason not only not only have to deal with a new twist to the Firestorm powers, but they also must face off against the murderous DataXen!
• New series writer/penciller Dan Jurgens blasts Firestorm in a whole new direction beginning this issue!

Below is the exciting cover to The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #13 by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund. Click the image to enlarge.

Fury of Firestorm #13 cover by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

Wow, I don’t think anyone saw this announcement coming. To be honest, I was expecting a slow week here at FIRESTORM FAN… boy was I wrong!

THE NEW DIRECTION

We don’t know anything for sure, but based upon the solicitations and cover art for issues #0 and #13, it appears we’re getting a new Firestorm! Specifically, a Firestorm who looks similar to the “classic” or Brightest Day incarnation of the Nuclear Man! While I love the Firestorm Protocols storyline, I’m excited by these new developments! I can’t wait for issues #0 and #13!

JOE HARRIS AND YILDIRAY CINAR’S DEPARTURE

Personally, I’m very sad to see Joe Harris and Yildiray Cinar leave the series. I have no doubt Dan Jurgens will produce excellent comics, but I’ll still miss Joe and Yildiray. I really enjoyed their issues of The Fury of Firestorm. Not only are they amazingly talented, but they are also incredibly nice guys and have been very supportive of FIRESTORM FAN. Please continue to follow these fantastic creators on their next projects! You can support Joe Harris by pre-ordering his new creator-owned series, Great Pacific coming from Image Comics. Then, watch for announcements from Yildiary Cinar. He’s got something in development with DC Comics. Whenever it’s announced, please pre-order this item and show your support!

WELCOME DAN JURGENS

While I’m sad to see some of my favorite creators leave The Fury of Firestorm, I’m also excited to welcome another of my favorite creators! Dan Jurgens is a legend in the comics field. He’s written and drawn hundreds and hundreds of fantastic comics! I’ve been a fan of his work for over 20 years now. Some of my personal favorites of his include: Justice League International, Booster Gold, Adventures of Superman, Superman, Teen Titans, Aquaman, Tangent, Zero Hour, and Justice League America. That’s just to name a few! I’m very interested to see what direction he will take our favorite Nuclear Men. We’ll be talking lots more about Dan Jurgens in the coming months, but for now let’s give him a warm Match-head welcome!

Looks like we’ve got some exciting stories coming in the next few months! My thanks to the legion of Match-heads who sent me information on this big announcement: Jason Pope, Russell Burlingame, Randy Caldwell, Walter from Boosterrific, Raul Cotto, Keith G. Baker, Comicbook.com, Brandon Leonard, Ray Tigner, and Roger Priebe.

Support Firestorm (and Dan Jurgens, Joe Harris, and Yildiray Cinar)! Fan the flame!

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24 Comments

  1. Dan says:

    This was awesome news, I didn’t stick around long with the new direction sadly enough, despite Yildiray’s amazing work, but Dan Jurgens I follow anywhere. And yes, if Dan Jurgens jumped off a cliff I probably would too. Probably. That’s just the way it is.

    Looking forward to this!

  2. liquidcross says:

    Dan Jurgens? Sounds good to me! I hate the Tron lines on Firestorm’s costume, but that’s practically required at DC and Marvel now. :(

  3. Charlemagne says:

    Okay. I love this. I love the attempt to return Firestorm to a more classic look. Hey, I love Jurgens too. Booster Gold is one of my all time favorites. So I’m really happy this is what DC editorial has chosen to do.

    My only little complaint is after the great zero cover grabbing long time fans attention by showing us the “classic” Storm I would have piggybacked that by reintroducing a classic Firestorm villain for issue 13…a one two puch if you will. I really really don’t want to go down a road of creating new villains at this point…give us the Firestorm Rogues already!

    Cant wait!

  4. Keith G. Baker says:

    What, no puffy sleeves?

  5. Luke says:

    I have to say that “DataXen” sounds like a character which Superman would have fought in the 90s. Perhaps he would be an escapee from Cadmus, or a LuthorCorp experiment gone wrong.

    I’m torn on this new direction. The idea of Firestorm as an allegory for nuclear proliferation is a good one. A dark direction for a series, sure, but there’s nothing wrong with that. But at the same time I really enjoyed the Firestorm dynamic in Brightest Day, and if Jurgens is moving back towards that, I think the book will be more enjoyable for me as a reader. Jurgens also has the same sort of story pacing which I am currently praising Rob Liefeld for over on Savage Hawkman. That is, tell the story in the number of pages the story needs.

    Hopefully Jurgens will hit the genre news circuits like Liefeld has and promote the heck out of this book, and give it some legs.

  6. Leenovak16 says:

    I’ll echo a lot of sentiments already stated here, such as lamenting the tron lines and the lack of puffy sleeves. I really don’t understand the tron lines, but they’re everywhere now. Ugh. Oh well. I’ll be sad to see Yildiray go, his artwork is truly amazing and I’m sure he’ll be picking up a new gig soon enough, if he already hasn’t. I’m going to order that Great Pacific book, if for no other reason to thank Mr. Harris for his brief run, he had to be in a pretty difficult spot, being forced to pick up in the middle of a story that had alienated a lot of the main character’s fan base. I wish them both nothing but the best in the future of course.

    I really, REALLY hope DC puts some in-house ads in their zero issues trumpeting the fact that Jurgens is taking over. I have to believe that there is a large percentage of comic buyers who don’t religously follows Bleeding Cool, Newsarama, Firestorm Fan, etc…and getting the word out to them that a soft reboot is coming with a new write is vital at this point. 99% of the reaction to this news I have read on other forums has been positive, with a lot of people saying they were going to come back and give the title another shot.

    I’ll be honest, I was 100% convinced the next “big Firestorm news” was going to be its cancellation. I am very happy to have been wrong.

  7. Patrick M says:

    I think almost all of my posts so far probably reference me being happy with the direction, but also not having investing in the history/mythology that makes up Firestorm.

    I’m not sure what to think. It’s not that I’m unhappy with the change, but there have been so many up to this point. What sorts of expectation should we have?

    I backed two books in the New 52 Relaunch and I’ve already put my reverse-Midas-mojo on Captain Atom, so I echo Leenovak that I am happy that the newest Firestorm news didn’t involve it’s cancellation.

  8. Wow, this is awesome news! I have to say that just earlier this evening I was thinking when I would quit FIRESTORM….but now I’ll see how the current storyline ends just to be there from Dan Jurgens’ beginning. Yes, I will admit it…the current series leaves me less than thrilled. But Jurgens? Yes! Yes, a 1,000 times yes. :-)

  9. Charlemagne says:

    Just thinking… if this DataXen thing is an updated Bug without the Byte…I MIGHT be okay with that. Hopefully Jurgens will get with Shag soon and give us some insight into what we can long time diehards can expect!

  10. Ben Avery says:

    This is good news. I’m revising my “it has until issue #0″ . . .

    Like most of you here, this news seems to be good. Truth be told, I’m looking forward to #13 more than #11. My hope now is this: issue #0 is going to end the story arc started in issue #1, leading into issue #13 — which will go in a “bold new direction”. I’m not thrilled that the current team hasn’t had a chance to find their footing, but I am happy to see that this just may be going in a direction I’m more inclined to like.

    I truly, truly hope this is the “breathing new life into Firestorm” that the book needs — although I do wish the current team had a chance to prove themselves.

  11. Martin Stein RIP says:

    Your positive comments seeing off the current creative team while at the same time welcoming Dan Jurgens are well made, Shag. Pure class.

  12. Martin Stein RIP says:

    I think Tron-lines in comics are so prevalent today because every comic is first a film pitch and second a comic.

  13. Jon says:

    Wow. Did not see that coming, it had sounded like the current direction was set in stone for some time to come. My interest in this comic just increased 100 fold. Don’t get me wrong, Firestorm thus far has been well done, but it’s just not the Firestorm I want to read about (that’s assuming this is going where it looks like it’s going lol).

    I’m actually excited for the future of the book now, whereas previously I was expecting it’s eventual cancelation and then a 5 year wait for a Crisis (you know it’s gonna happen) to reboot the character to more familiar roots. Cool.

  14. Charlemagne says:

    Following up on something I mentioned earlier about Firestorm villains. I dont read Flash currently but was flipping through the back issues and noticed that in his first year a handful of his rogues have been reintroduced…Captain Cold, Grodd, Weather Wizard and now Heatwave. I’d put Firestorms Rogues up against the best of them…Flash, Batman…any of them. Yet we haven’t seen ONE villain brought back (just hints at a Killer Frost from issue 1 who may or may not even materialize now with this new direction).

    Give the fans what they want and stuff will sell. Apparently its taking DC such a long time to figure this even translates to Firestorm.

  15. Luke says:

    Charlemagne, remember that it took a lot of effort to make Flash’s Rogues cool. In the early to mid 90s, even under Waid and Augustyn, the Rogues were sort of just lumped together as one 6 man entity who were not much of a threat to the Flash until they came back as zombies. Geoff Johns clearly had a lot of love for them and gave them the care and attentioned they needed to be ready for prime time.

    I am not familiar with Firestorm’s rogues gallery but there is no reason that they couldn’t be given the same care and attention and be brought up to a good threat level for the hero.

  16. Ray Tigner says:

    Charlemagne……

    I sent a letters/email about 2 months ago complaining to the editors (2 Letters, 1 to Didio/1 a letter to the editor, as well as email posted through the new DC Website) about the very same thing. DC is aloof how to handle this character, its like their always trying to reinvent the wheel…..Jasonstorm, had to have two people, but could merge w/ everyone, also the new 52 Crapstorm, everyone and their mom is a Firestorm. Whats funny, DC eventually will put the Firestorm character back to its classic dynamic w/ in time. We’re seeing it again now w/ Firestorm Vol 4, issue 0.

    In the letter, i said they nailed what Firestorm was w/ Brightest Day/Darkest Night………additionally, they even had a chance to take things back to basics, but once again Didio and company want to tweek the Firestorm chemistry……not surprisingly we’re watching people get into an uproar and watching the new series fail in the new 52.

    Now mind you, i’ve sent letters of complaints in the past and have never gotten a response, i like to think that someone there has to have had read them (at least i like to tell myself that).

  17. Charlemagne says:

    Killer Frost, Multiplex, Typhoon, Hyena, Plastique, Black Bison, Bug N Byte…Man I would love to see all these guys come back in one form or another. I just want them done with respect and not transformed into something totally different and just using the name.

    Oh, and SlipKnot… gotta have SlipKnot back fo’ sure!

  18. Leenovak16 says:

    As long as we are mentioning characters to bring back, am I the only one who thought Moonbow was hot?

    Am I the only one who remembers Moonbow?

    That’s what I was afraid of.

  19. Charlemagne says:

    She could be a love interest for Ronnie if they arent going to give us Doreen or Lorraine. Girlfriend by day, bow weilding hero/villain by night. I remember that two parter very well cuz my first issues of Firestorm were the ones right before it with the Rogues and Blue Devil.

  20. Martin Stein RIP says:

    I remember Moonbow. “Bree Brandon.” One of the worst alter ego names Gerry Conway ever cooked up. Enough with the alliteration, Ger. Mercifully, John Ostrander retconned her name to Bree Daniels. And I remember that all off the top of my head, sadly.

  21. Shag says:

    Wow! Thanks for all the comments! You Match-heads are awesome! As I mentioned in the post, I’m really excited about Dan Jurgens coming on board! While I’ll really miss Joe Harris and Yildiray Cinar, the new issues should be a fun ride!

    Just a few quick responses to some points…

    Tron Lines – It’s just the way comics are nowadays. It’s like Thought Balloons disappearing. One day you wake up, look around and realize comics changed while you weren’t paying attention. And Luke, true Hawkman doesn’t have any Tron lines, but his costume looks as sharp as a cheese grater. If someone where to brush up against his costume accidentally, it would eviscerate them. :)

    Classic Villains – I’m hoping we see some classic villains too! Bring on Killer Frost, Multiplex, Hyena, Typhoon, Plastique, Stalnoivolk, Brimstone, Black Bison, Tokamak, Slipknot, Bazooka Joan, Zuggernaut … uh, wait. I think I went too far towards the end there. And yes, I remember Moonbow. I was 13 years old when she premiered. She certainly caught the attention of this 13 year old. :)

    Puffy Sleeves – I feel like we should hold a “Funeral for a Friend” for the puffy sleeves. Oh well, they’ve disappeared previously only to return. I’m sure we’ll see them again some day.

    Again, thanks for all the comments!

    Shag

  22. DrNobody says:

    This is (more than likely) the way the Firestorm matrix should have worked in the first place… I’m hoping for a Ronnie/Jason mix, with either character taking maybe being able to take control… Although Ronnie probably wouldn’t be much help scientifically…

  23. Thad Ochocinco says:

    Well, I’m hoping for the best on this one…I’m not really a fan of Dan Jurgens, but I’m gonna give him a chance here, pretty much because I’m too lazy to adjust my pull list. Also, I just want ONE decent Firestorm story in 2012.

    It’s like the braintrust at DC didn’t even read Blackest Night or Brightest Day. Coming out of those books, with Ronnie and Jason still upset at each other over what happened to Gen…THAT is the story right there. All this extra stuff with 200 extra Firestorms who can all merge together to make other angry Firestorms…they missed the point.

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