Sometimes, I find myself with a problem when I do these columns. When a character has been around a while, there are so many re-tellings of an origin, adding and subtracting certain elements and sometimes using new characters with the same name! I always wonder which is the “best” origin to showcase. When searching through my back issues for today’s subject though, It was particularly difficult. In the end, I decided to focus on my favorite version of a character rather than drown in a sea of minutia. This character’s atomic structure is complex enough as it is, so let’s just dive in and check out… The Secret Origin of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man!

As many origins go, this one starts with a framing sequence. In this one, it’s pretty obvious that Firestorm is new to the hero scene, as he’s still testing out his abilities. He’s flying above the city, and causing quite the commotion. Such a distraction is he, that he ends up having to save an onlooker who’s about to get hit by a taxi. Now if this were your run of the mill hero, like Superman or the Flash, they’d just speed in front and scoop the guy to safety, or just smash the taxi for dramatic effect. Instead, Firestorm uses his ability to alter matter to turn the taxi into water. Now, I’m no physicist, but just because something changes its atomic structure doesn’t mean it loses velocity, so Firestorm actually turned the pavement into a very painful Slip ‘N Slide. After that, Firestorm changes his destiny density and flies through a passing helicopter, freaking them right the hell out. This sort of irresponsibility is not what I want out of my heroes! To add an extra bit of weirdness, a disembodied voice tells Firestorm, or rather Ronald, that’s he’s doing a fine job!

I guess always having a guy in your head makes exposition easier.

And so, Firestorm flies off to confront Earhart, but when he gets there, the threat of death causes the Nuclear Man to flashback! Unlike most flashbacks, Firestorm’s only goes back to earlier that day. We’re looking in on the life of Ronnie Raymond, who is apparently the “Ronald” that the voice mentioned earlier. Anyway, it seems Ronnie is the new kid in school, but he must go to school in Bizarro world, where the jocks are picked on by the nerds…

Cliff’s taunts continue throughout the day, finally getting the better of Ronnie in the cafeteria, where he lashes out! Unfortunately for Ronnie (and his burgeoning lady friend Doreen), he up ends his lunch tray and pelts the two of them with grade D meat and other things resembling food (this is a public school, after all). The day continues as such, with Ronnie lamenting that he flunked out of jock school and that he didn’t make any friends. Truly does it bring a tear to the eye. To keep up from getting too choked up, the narrative now takes us to the Hudson Nuclear Plant where we are told resides someone else very important to Firestorm, Professor Martin Stein.

Before Stein can truly savor being master of the atom, a former assistant busts in along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The assistant, Danton Black, accuses Stein of stealing the plans for the power plant. Of course Stein objects, saying Black is nothing but a thief and a liar, but the NRC says the plant isn’t allowed to open until a trial is held. It just goes to show you, no matter what super powers you have at your disposal, bureaucracy will always win. Stein is pretty broken up about it. Even though The China Syndrome wouldn’t be out until next year, he’s still keen enough to know that the public will assume the plant isn’t open because something is wrong structurally. Since this takes place in the DC Universe and not real life, Stein has  a plan.

I never said it was a good plan!

Leaving Stein to his mad scientist ways, we switch back to Ronnie, who is checking out the news where there is a nuclear protest being led by the previously mentioned Eddie Earhart. Ronnie, being a dumb ass teenager, decides he can save face with Doreen and everyone else, if he joins up with Earhart’s group and takes a stand for something. Even if he personally doesn’t care about the issues, he’s gonna be popular, dammit! Apparently, the news story tells where the group is headquartered, since Ronnie finds it with no problem. It seems like it’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but Ronnie seems to have a blind spot when it comes to people with outrageous facial hair…

"You got it, Afro-Taft!"

Predictably, the group plans on raiding the nuclear plant that night, and as soon as they break in, Ronnie protesting all the way, they knock the foolish high schooler out. But Prof. Stein was watching all of this while powering up the atomic pile. He’s taken all he can stand at this point, and since there are no guards due to the plant, you know, not being open he decides to take matters into his own hands. While Stein has the element of surprise on his side, there is no way he can contend with the awesome mutton chopped might of Eddie Earhart!

Chunk Young? Isn't he a famous football player or something?

Now with any opposition knocked out, the nicely coiffed criminals set their explosives, because… well their motives aren’t exactly clear. I mean, blowing up a nuclear plant might get the point across to abandon nuclear power, but it’s more likely going to just kill a lot of people. At any rate, Ronnie, being hard of head, comes to just as the bad guys are leaving. He hears they’re next going to hit a plant in Jersey, but he decides it’s probably a better idea to save his own life at the moment. In said moment, a number of things happen. Danton Black shows up to steal Steins computer designs, Ronnie finds Prof. Stein and tries to save him, and oh yeah, the bomb goes off!

Yes, we call it "Comic Book Radiation"...

Black is also caught in the explosion, and it’ll cause him to later become the villain Multiplex, but seeing as this isn’t his story, we’re going to ignore him for now.  In the heart of the explosion, Ronnie is experiencing sensations altogether new to him, and frankly, he likes it! It seems he and Professor Stein have fused into one being, albeit a naked one. Ronnie seems to have a lot of knowledge he didn’t previously, and instinctively knows how to alter matter. Thankfully for the reader’s eyes, that extends to clothing, and Ronnie whips himself up an outfit. He even goes as far to name himself Firestorm, because why not, and then we finally learn who the disembodied voice was from the beginning of our tale. If you didn’t figure it out on your own by this point though, please turn in your “Grasp of the Obvious” membership card.

Get it? Nuclear Fusion, cause they "fused" together? Verrrry clever.

Now we’ve come full circle, since Firestorm now goes off to test his powers. The flashback ends, and apparently Firestorm can give the Flash a run for his money when it comes to the fast thinking department, because all of that back story was recounted in a fraction of a second! Firestorm is in the thick of the fray now, Earhart orders his men to kill the Nuclear Man yet again, but the Ronnie/Stein combination is too much for the collective no-goodniks. He turns immaterial, he transmutes guns into cucumbers, he shoots blasts out of his hands that may or may not cause instant cancer! At this point, Earhart knows he’s licked, so he does what many a desperate man does and tries to kill everyone along with himself! It doesn’t quite work out that way.

"Hit you with an atomic belch? Well now that you mention it..."

Firestorm instead opts to just knock the guy out, which also works. The day won, Firestorm flies off, but being a fused being, he has a mini freakisode when he realizes that he may just be stuck as he is forever. We get a half page of a guy who could probably kill everyone on the planet going nuts, which is a little worrisome. The collective DCU breathes a sigh of relief when things calm down.

How can something be inexplicable, and then explained in the same panel? My head hurts.

At this point, Ronnie and a Professor Stein who doesn’t seem to remember a thing about their adventure stumble off into the sunset, beginning the strangest friend/partnership since peanut butter and bananas. Firestorm would go through many, many incarnations over the years, including the really excellent Jason Rusch version.  The current Firestorm is a weird mix of Ronnie and Rusch and has just finished up a stint in Brightest Day, and it remains to be seen where the character will go from there. If nothing else, at least he has a pretty awesome costume, right?

This story originally appeared in Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #1 March, 1978. It’ll be collected in a trade paperback in July.