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Fury of Firestorm (Classic) #21/Aquaman #41 – FIRE & WATER #131

Firestorm and Aquaman: The Fire and Water Podcast

The 131st 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.

The review shows are back! This week Shag and Rob take a look at Aquaman #41 by Cullen Bunn, Trevor McCarthy, and Guy Major, the first issue by the new creative team. Next up, Killer Frost continues her reign of terror in The Fury of Firestorm #21 (March 1984) by Gerry Conway, Rafael Kayanan, Rodin Rodriguez, Carl Gafford, and John Costanza. Finally, we wrap up with your listener feedback!

You can find the 131st 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 play the podcast using the player below or by right-clicking “download”, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (59 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!

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Fury of Firestorm #21 cover by Rafael Kayanan and Dick Giordano

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5 Comments

  1. I’ve read John Byrne’s INCREDIBLE HULK run three times, always hoping to find an enjoyable story and always walking away disappointed. It sucks. We’re all lucky it ended when it did as it allowed Milgrom to spin a few interesting yarns before Peter David’s historic run, and John Byrne went to DC where he did a decent job on ACTION COMICS.

    Crystal Frost did appear in four issues of FURY OF FIRESTORM, so you guys would have mentioned her on four episodes of the Fire & Water Podcast. Maybe that’s why Rob thinks she appeared so much in the story. On the other hand, she also appeared in the first Firestorm series, an issue of DC COMICS PRESENTS, and three issues of the Conway-written JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA where she joined the Secret Society of Super-Villains. So, yeah, she did have about ten appearances in just five years. It’s clear Gerry Conway favored her.

  2. Michael Chiaroscuro says:

    Hey guys, good to see you back to the classic Fire & Water reviews. I said something similar to this over at the Shrine, but I’ll paraphrase it here: sometimes you aren’t being a snarky fanboy. Sometimes you just don’t like something. And so far I’m not enamored with this soft Aquaman reboot. For several reasons. One, I wasn’t feeling the need for a soft reboot of the book at this time. I wanted more from Parker and Pelletier, so I was bound to be a bit disappointed by this new team, I suppose. Two, I am not exactly excited at the prospect of Aquaman in the comics being made to resemble Momoa in the films. I see no reason why the two can’t exist in separate mediums. But instead it looks like we’re heading in that direction. Three, so far I’m not into the art at all. Too stiff, too scratchy for me. So, all in all, we’ll see where this goes. It’s only one issue. I’m not condemning this team yet! I’m just not that keen on seeing where this goes, honestly. I’ll likely follow through your podcast to see where it goes and jump back on if you guys seem excited over a span of a few months, maybe.

    Oh, and I forgot – not too happy with the turn for Mera. I think Parker had built her up into something special, so I’d really like to have seen her given her own series, or at least stay with Arthur in this soft reboot instead of separating them yet again *yawn*

    What a great bronze age cover on that issue of Firestorm! It seems like Killer Frost made for a great sparring partner with Firestorm back in the day. I need to find some more of these back issues with her in them. I believe I have the previous ones from the Broderick era at this point. I didn’t realize how much I liked her from this era until recently.

    How did I miss that Byrne had a (brief) run on the Hulk?? I need to find that on Marvel Unlimited now. I’m a huge 70s and 80s era Byrne fan (I know, I know, he’s a jerk and some of his writing is problematic, but I think it’s undeniable that he’s a legend and produced some amazing work in that time period).

  3. I remember Comics Feature (remember that mag?) doing a big article on Byrne coming to the Hulk. They had no way of knowing Byrne would run to DC in 6 months, but I think I first learned of Byrne taking over Superman there as well.

    I hate unnecessary reboots, soft or otherwise. This new Aquaman doesn’t look bad, but you really have to question the thinking here. At a glance the “mainstream” DC You books look like someone in editorial said “how can we get these characters as far away as possible from their iconic, recognizable, and highly-marketable looks?” Crew-cut, T-shirt-wearing Superman with an exposed secret ID? Check. Jim Gordon in Gundam Bunny armor saying he’s Batman? Check? Green Lantern in a hoodie? Check. Aquaman in a a suns-out-guns-out shirt with He-Man’s Power Sword? Check.

    Looking at your tumbler, I can’t believe Shagg failed to comment on the drawing of Killer Frost in the first panel on page 5. She is indeed, hot.

    Chris

  4. Martin Stein Returns says:

    Shag— the female equivalent to “phallic” is “vulvic.”

    The more you know!

  5. Frank says:

    “How many more must I kill” and you already lost me even before Aquaman is teleporting and drilling people with icicles and wielding a power sword. This isn’t an Aquaman I need in my life, and I’m not down for the art, either.

    I’m late replying because I bought a buck copy of Fury o’ Firestotehnukemn #21 from a crappy comic shop that was super close to me but I hated the atmosphere so much I refused to go there and now would drive back to the old neighborhood just to dance on the grave of their strip mall junk heap. They were seriously everything wrong with comic shops and fandom. Anyhow, I read the book and liked it pretty well. Killer Frost is an awesome pioneering villain and the book seemed to step up whenever she was around. It’s an obvious dynamic to put the elements against each other, but since so many Firestorm villains are counterintuitive creations, I’m happy at least she made sense. It went deeper than that though, with Firestorm being a bit overheated but life affirming, where Frost had that chilly remove while dealing sudden still death. Pat Broderick was a perfect fit for the Firestorm that was, but I find the quiet grace and atypical interpretation of a young turk powerhouse offered by Rafael Kayanan more interesting, though that take wouldn’t pay off until Brozowski took over for the Blank Slate period. The Philippine artists had a mood that lent itself to more contemplative or horrific stories, which is in opposition to Spidey-Storm, but we’ve established that ain’t my bag. For the record, I was referring to Louise Lincoln’s Suicide Squad gear as practical, not the horrid Underworld Unleashed non-costume.

    Thanks for the podcast pimping. So far I go back and forth between derailing the DC satellite shows with Marvel Super Heroes and vice versa, but I hope to find equilibrium soon. It’ll help when I finally get the Convergence stuff recorded and edited, as that’s a big chunk of co-dependent material waiting in the wings.

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