The Fury of Firestorm #2 – Now Only Pictures In My Head

The Fury of Firestorm #2 steps back from the larger story and mystery surrounding what is up with Firestorm and focuses more on telling Ronnie Raymond’s origin and relationship with Professor Stein.

Lemire weaves this retelling into the story as it is clear that that something is wrong with the fusion between the two human components of the hero. Told through Ronnie’s inner monolog as he goes back to his early childhood through his college years where he meets Stein and eventually caught in the exploitation that fused and endlessly then with the Firestorm abilities.

Lemire does a nice deconstruction of Ronnie, and showing readers new and old that he, Ronnie, is just an average all-around person, who, due to extraordinary circumstances, is now part of one of the strongest omega-level superheroes in the DCU. It is unclear exactly which origin Lemire is presenting or if he is returning to the original “it was a freak accident” or “Stein deliberately causes explosion to study metahumans ” as was put forth during DCU Rebirth / Doomsday Clock. Whichever Lemire is using or a combo thereof, it still remains that the corruption from the Lazarus pit during the Lazarus Planet event remains in play (an editors note would have been useful in the first and this issue) leaving Ronnie the sole inhabitant with the Firestorm Matrix which seems to have achieved some form of sentience and an elevated powerset as shown in the first issue.

Latorre continues to show his artist prowess with the differences in styles differentiating between the present and past. Maiolo’ colors also go alongside the art to tell and separate the flashback sequences and the splash pages strategically placed throughout the issue.

The issue wraps up in a cliffhanger that will definitely have readers placing issue #3 at the top of next month’s read pile.