Firestorm: Bio, Origin & History

Real Name: Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein

First Appearance: Firestorm The Nuclear Man #1 (March, 1978)

Powers: Firestorm Kid possesses many superpowers. He has superhuman strength, endurance, speed, durability, senses, and self-sustenance. He also has the ability of nuclear pyrokinesis, flight, intangibility, energy manipulation, nucleokinesis, and possesses clairvoyance. 

Affiliation: Justice League of America

Did You Know? The original Firestorm is actually two people in one.

A Little History

The origin of Firestorm is pretty straightforward. 

Firestorm first appeared inside the pages of Firestorm The Nuclear Man #1 back in March of 1978. He was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom.

It’s never easy being the new kid in school although if your name is Ronnie Raymond you wouldn’t understand that. Much to the eyre of his classmate Cliff Carmichael, Ronnie was an athlete for both his school’s basketball and football teams. One day while trying to impress Doreen Day, Cliff took it upon himself to embarrass Ronnie. Wanting to prove to Doreen that he wasn’t all that Cliff made him out to be, Ronnie joined an Anti-Nuclear activist group. Things would’ve been ok had the activist group not begun adding violence to their protests. Point in case, their desire to blow up a nuclear power station designed by Martin Stein. Adding to the chaos was that Stein’s former assistant (fired for attempting ti take credit for the lab) Danton Black was in on wanting to explode the facility. In fact, it was Black who actually set up the explosives in the lab. 

Not wanting to take part of the mayhem, Ronnie refused and tried to walk away. This wasn’t meant to be as the group brought him back, knocked Martin Stein unconscious, and tied the two together. Once the group was out of the building, the charges were ignited and the building exploded in a ball of nuclear energy. The explosion did two things. First, it destroyed the building. Second, it fused the two men (Raymond and Stein) together and gave the new singular being (Firestorm) incredible power. Because Ronnie was awake during the blast, he gained control over Firestorm with Martin Stein forced to act as a voice of reason and guidance inside his head. Once separate, Ronnie Raymond was able to remember their exploits perfectly and Martin Stein wasn’t.

And that’s it. The origin of Firestorm.