Firestorm
While the threat of nuclear problems may not be as prevalent as it once was, I’m not sure that’s a scare that’s going to ever be completely behind us. One of the many comic characters spawned from such fears is Firestorm, who first appeared in 1978. This nuclear man has been through a few iterations, but the one that I find most interesting, and that would be most interesting for a film, is the Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein character.
Yes, those are two separate people, but that’s part of the joy of this character. A nuclear accident merges everyman high school student Ronnie Raymond with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Martin Stein. Raymond retains most of the control, but Stein serves as the voice of logic in the background. There’s a lot of banter between the two characters, which creates a sense of internal fun which few of DC’s other characters share.
Firestorm has the potential to rival Flash in terms of being quirky and humorous, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a quality addition when it comes to crime fighting. He can fly, survive without air, boost his own immune system and even change the atomic composition of matter. The possibilities are basically limitless there, both in terms of defeating villains and epic cinematic scenes.
Contrary to what Robot Chicken would want us to believe, he actually is a pretty cool character.
