Comments on: Fury of Firestorm (Classic) #22/Aquaman #42 – FIRE & WATER #134

By: rob!

rob! — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 19:39:34 +0000

At least he still has a book…

You’re getting a TV SHOW!

By: Anj

Anj — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 14:45:34 +0000

When collecting the Firestorm book, I also wondered why an origin issue was needed so early into the series. We had seen snippets of it in the infamous tape that Prof. Stein was doing early on.

It was great to see Pat Broderick back on the issue and especially drawing Firehawk.

As for Aquaman, I don’t collect the book but it bums me out to hear as if the title is unraveling a bit. Hope they correct course for Rob. At least he still has a book …

By: Martin Stein Returns

Martin Stein Returns — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 07:40:06 +0000

Another Jefferson/Jackson theory: possibly editorial told Gerry to change the character’s name as not to be confused with Jefferson Pierce, aka Black Lightning. So Gerry quietly did a soft retcon. Around the same period of time, this happened with, of all characters, Captain Carrot, who was originally named Roger Rabbit, until a certain movie got green-lit by Warner Brothers, and then suddenly, the character became Rodney Rabbit, due to editorial mandate.

By: Martin Stein Returns

Martin Stein Returns — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 07:37:35 +0000

Although they never outright confirmed it, I have always surmised that Ronnie’s friend was named Jefferson Jackson. Two reasons for this: one, because at least once that I recall, Ronnie called him “Jeff” for short (couldn’t tell you where, but I’m sure it happened), and you truncate a first name more typically than a last name. Second, “Jefferson” is more plausible a first name than Jackson would be. So the only thing that makes sense is that he was interchangeably referred to as Jefferson and Jackson because his name was Jefferson Jackson. (What really probably happened, however, is that Gerry Conway originally gave the character one J-initial slightly stereotypical African-American surname, forgot what it was midstream, got confused, and started referring to him with another J-initial slightly stereotypical African-American surname.)

As for the retelling of the origin story at this point, I would guess it was because Firestorm was just about to be unleashed upon the public in the Superfriends cartoon. The powers-that-be knew this and figured that a new jumping-on point was due for the series itself to coincide with what was going to be a major quantum leap in mainstream exposure for the character.

By: Earth 2 Chris

Earth 2 Chris — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 15:27:55 +0000

Man, Aquaman took a nose dive quick. I’m so sorry to hear this. I have never understood taking something successful, and mixing up a winning formula just because of well…”cause”. That’s just nuts. Here’s hoping this is going somewhere, and Bunn and McCarthy take the title back toward what was proven to work after this arc. I’m with Shagg (Good Lord, did I just type that?), this sounds VERY much like Sword of Atlantis.

As for Firestorm CAL-ASSIC, this issue does have “fill-in” written all over it. But it’s not a bad idea to get new readers up to speed. Firestorm was one of DC’s top titles, and maybe the top brass felt the new readers needed a crash course. Sal Trapani was Dick Giordano’s brother-in-law (Dick was married to Sal’s sister), so he would pop in and out of both Charlton and later DC comics from time to time. He did take the Broderick right out of the art, but they are both listed as artists, which is weird, so I’m wondering if Broderick just did layouts?

I can just imagine the look on Shagg’s face when Professor Stein finally spoke to him. I imagine he’d be waiting on that for 30 years. Looking forward to the expletive tag on the Jason Momoa soundbyte episode.

Chris