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Classic Fury of Firestorm #14 & Aquaman #34 – FIRE & WATER #101

Continuing THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST coverage of the classic Fury of Firestorm series from the 1980s!

Firestorm and Aquaman: The Fire and Water Podcast

The 101st episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is now available for your listening pleasure! THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is the official podcast of FIRESTORM FAN and THE AQUAMAN SHRINE.

This week Aqua-Rob and Fire-Shag talk about their favorite heroes! Aquaman and Chimera finally throw down! The big conclusion we’ve all been waiting for in Aquaman #34 by Jeff Parker, Carlos Rodriguez, Bit, and Rain Beredo. Plus, Professor Martin Stein takes center stage as the Enforcer attacks in The Fury of Firestorm #14 (July 1983) by Gerry Conway, Pat Broderick, Rodin Rodriguez, Gene D’Angelo, and Adam Kubert!

You can find the 101st episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST on iTunes. While you’re there, please drop us a review on the iTunes page. Every comment helps! Alternatively, you may download the podcast by right-clicking here, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (48 MB).

As always, thanks to my co-host Rob Kelly, Sea King of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE, for doing all the post-production on these episodes! Opening theme, “That Time is Now,” by Michael Kohler. Special thanks to Daniel Adams and Ashton Burge with their band The Bad Mamma Jammas for our fantastic original closing theme! This episode brought to you in part by InStockTrades.com!

Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content?

The Fury of Firestorm The Nuclear Man vol II #14 cover by Pat Broderick and Dick Giordano! Interior story and art by Gerry Conway, Pat Broderick and Rodin Rodriguez! Click to enlarge!

Fury of Firestorm #14 cover by Pat Broderick & Dick GIordano

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6 Comments

  1. Thanks to Rob’s facebook recommendation, I’m currently reading “Marvel: The Untold Story”, and DEVOURING IT!!! Good godalmighty, there is some high drama there. I’m nearing the end of the Silver Age, so I know it’s about to get hairy.

    Um, I’m pretty sure “Jumping the Shark” refers to when the show (or comic, or movie series, or whatever) went too far outside their wheelhouse and did something…stupid…like jumping a shark…in a lake. I can’t tell if Shag was serious or not about it meaning “peaking”, but it really just means, it’s all downhill from here. And with Happy Days…it was! I expect continued quality from you too, though. Going back to Silver Age Marvel, episode #100 was you Galactus saga. There’s still more great things to come, though. Your “This Man, This Monster” and intro of the Black Panther, etc. are ahead of you!

    I always liked the Enforcer’s look as well. I have no experience with him/her other than Who’s Who, but the look stuck with me. The faceplate looks a bit like Iron Man’s earliest Red and Gold look, with the “horns” on this yellow face. Looks like he’s flying in that page on the tumbler, so I guess he is quite Iron-Man like!

    Congrats on the art gig, Rob! Exciting stuff, rubbing elbows with Staton and JLGL (PBHN)! Keep us posted!

    And Shag and co., I’m enjoying visiting the Legion blog everyday. Great stuff!

    Chris

  2. Kyle Benning says:

    Rob ain’t lying, the Untold Story of Marvel Comics is freaking awesome!

    I’m with you Shag, I really love this arc, I’m looking forward to your coverage of the whole 6 part story. Wouldn’t this story be perfect for a Trade Collection? *hint hint* DC.

    I’d love to see a Super-Villian Team-Up of the Enforcer with the original Bloodsport.

    While I agree that a number of Villains from the Marvel movies may seem generic, there is one big outlier….Loki!! He is arguably one of the most popular characters, to some he probably tops Thor himself. He is really the only Villain that has had a starring role in more than one movie and I would argue that is just as popular as any of the heroes. While he is definitely the strongest, I believe that they have fleshed out some of the other villains adequately as well without taking away from the focus on the heroes. I agree with Shag, I think that is intentional, to make those special villains, like Loki (and I assuming Thanos) that much more special. I really would have liked to see Ronan fleshed out more, he is one of my favorite Fantastic Four derivative characters, but his role was canon-fodder, and he sufficed in that role. If Marvel Studios had the Fantastic Four movie rights, I would think they would have either done more with him, left him alive, or picked a different straw-man villain to pop in there to be destroyed. I would also say that Abomination, Red Skull, and Winter Soldier were pretty solid portrayals of their comic counter-parts.

    So for solid villains, they have:
    Loki (re-occuring, has starred in 3 movies, was head Villain in 2)
    Red Skull (seemingly dead)
    Winter Soldier (still around)
    Abomination (is he still around? I can’t remember if he was incapacitated or killed?)
    Iron Monger (nice character driven villain, close friend of hero)
    Hydra (their total infiltration of SHIELD is pretty epic)

    Weaker Villains:
    Every other Iron Man Villain since the first movie
    Shitari from Avengers (back-up villains anyway)
    Ronan (straw-man xenophobic angry space guy)
    Dark Elves (Angry space dudes)

    Villains introduced in back-up roles:
    Thanos (PULLS THE STRINGS!!! From behind the scenes)
    The Collector (introduced, minor role)

    I think Thanos could very much be the Darth Vader of the Marvel Cinematic universe. Loki has a huge following already, maybe that makes him the Boba Fett, but much more fleshed out in the movies.

    Rob you are going to have your art featured inside a comic with a cover by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, I mean how freaking sweet is that?!?!?!?!?! I see there is also going to be a Charlton Western comic that has a story written by Chuck Dixon. I’m loving the Charlton revival, can’t wait to pick up their latest stuff!

    Fan the Flame and Ride the Wave!!!

  3. Xum Yukinori says:

    Rob, congratulations on the Charlton romance project. It is quite a thrill to work with one’s heroes…

    Shag, your enthusiasm shone brightly in this podcast, and it brings to mind a story of my experience with the Fury of Firestorm title. I may have explained this before, but it wasn’t easy finding DC Comics titles while I was in school in the UK. However, I had an uncle that did live in the States (who actually opened my eyes to the world of Silver Age DC Comics — a story I promise to tell in the first episode of my own podcast), and he would buy an extra copy of certain comic book titles off the newsstands where he lived and bring the accumulated stack with him when he came to visit me. The Fury of Firestorm was one of those titles, and on one of those visits he had brought me issues #14-20.

    After my uncle left, I soon had the pleasure of “binge-reading” what you call the “greatest story arc of Firestorm ever” (and I agree), except for one problem – there was no Fury of Firestorm Annual #1 in the stack. I wrote a letter to my uncle asking about the missing final chapter, and he had written back to me saying that it had not been released yet – even though he had brought the next two issues after it. So I had to wait several months before I could finally read the conclusion to this arc. Worse, I decided to go ahead and read issues #19 and #20 (the latter of which spoiled the surprise ending of the arc).

    I am curious exactly how long people in the U.S. had to wait for the conclusion of this storyline. According the Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, the annual was supposedly released a few weeks after issue #18, but my uncle’s letter suggests otherwise. Can any other Match Heads out there tell me if they had the same experience of not finding the annual until after issue #20?

  4. This issue of Firestorm is almost my favorite so far. It was plotted well and the action was basically spread between the three leads (Stein, Ronnie, and Firestorm) for a change. I’m much more a fan of these “little” issues rather than EPIC or BIG stories, so this was a nice change of pace. Much better than the gender-bending Hyena story we just managed to get out of…hey, wait. What did Rob just say about the Enforcer from Who’s Who? He’s actually a chick? Hold on….

    Okay, just put my angry pants on and I’m ready to continue this review….

    I really want to like Firestorm: The Comic. Seriously, I do. However, my overly literal and logical mind keeps walking smack-dab into the door-jam of stupid plot contrivances. Martin Stein is hired to work as the one-and-only fry cook at Bun ‘N’ Bun because….Ronnie recommends him? HUH?? For anyone who has ever worked in the fast food business (which Gerry never did) we know this is impossible. Next. Multiplex wanted to kidnap Firestorm, so he…only…kidnaps…Stein? I’m with Shag here, why is this the plan? When the Enforcer has both Stein and Ronnie right there, why only take one of them? If this is not explained next issue, it’s gonna *really* bother me. And then we have The Enforcer himself…or is it herself? What the hell is it about Gerry Conway giving us gender confused characters that Pat Broderick draws incorrectly? I mean, come on…! Look on pages 7, 10, 11…that’s a man’s figure, people. Pat could have drawn a less masculine figure (I don’t know, in a suit of armor, maybe?) and made it more believable. It was annoying with the Hyena; now it’s a trend. This crap has to stop!

    I do look forward to the re-appearance of Multiplex. He/they were always my favorite Firestorm villain(s). And I don’t know the how of what’s gonna happen to Lorraine, but I’m guessing I know the what…

    And to end these comments on a silly note: heard said by the Enforcer as s/he blam-blams at Firestorm: “This Sentry Mark XX Combat Tank was designed to take on a dozen fighter jets simultaneously. Against it…he never had a chance!”
    Yet Firestorm isn’t at all roughed up (his costume isn’t even darkened-up ala Yosemite Sam & TNT) and, even more surprisingly, neither is the wall of the headquarters. Did Enforcer mean his tank takes on Kenner Fighter Jets, maybe? Cuz the tank did a surprisingly low level of damage here.

  5. Frank says:

    1. No Shag, I think this is one of those instances where everyone knows that jump the shark means the point of no return badness of a series, not its peak. When folks say something “never jumped the shark,” it’s a compliment, not a notation of its never having reached it’s crescendo. For instance, M*A*S*H.

    2. Besides being the most engaging comic book book I’ve read since Gerard Jones’ revised version of The Comic Book Heroes with Will Jacobs in the ’90s, Marvel: The Untold Story has been invaluable to my recent podcasting efforts. Truth is, beyond the first chapter, I’ve read the book only through reference searches, and it’s still awesome taken an out-of-context paragraph at a time! My one complaint is its general omission of the Timely years.

    That said, there’s a strong element of “print the legend” to that book. For instance, Jim Shooter brought up the DC licensing deal in a CBR interview many years ago, after which the assertion was highly and hotly contested. Then Howe recounts Shooter’s take, in spite of the controversy surrounding the statement (see also: anything Jim Shooter has ever said about anything ever.)

    3. Gerry Conway really liked Dressed to Kill.

    4. I suspect the theory at Marvel Studios is that they want people to like the heroes who they see in every movie so that they have a built-in draw for the franchise, instead of having people see the flicks for a new starring villain requiring big paydays and pomotional heat for every single movie. Why pay Jim Carrey $20M and waste 45 minutes of screen time setting up The Riddler’s origin only to have to start all over again in the next Batman movie when you can buy Christopher Ecceleston an economy car and use him for set dressing while your low rent contract players do all the heavy lifting to keep Thor chugging along?

    5. DC loves its media tie-ins, so I’d expect either a Best of Firestorm or a Conway/Broderick trade sooner rather than later.

    6. I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the Blue Devil Showcase Presents since I’ve got most if not all those issues, but since I’d like a second volume where my run gets spotty, I may step up for the first, I’ve developed such an aversion to DC that I even feel bad when I buy reprint editions.

    7. Congratulations to Rob on his future comic book work under the esteemed banner of Charlton Comics, placing his name in fine print underneath Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, Bob Layton and more greats! No congratulations to Shag for whoring another damned comic book blog on Twitter.

  6. Tim Wallace says:

    I feel like such a slacker…but it’s not my fault, really! Stupid IOS updates and an older iPhone, but finally I can listen to podcasts again!

    Congrats to Rob on his Charlton gig!

    And thanks Shag (well both of you really) for the kind words and continued plugs of my various projects…Kord Industries, Futures End coverage at FirestormFan, the Legion of Super-Bloggers, and believe it or not…there may be a few more in the pipeline! After all…I learned it from listening to you guys!

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