10 Criminally Overlooked Characters In Comics

The first Firestorm came to be when high school student and activist Ronnie Raymond discovered his group’s leader setting a bomb to kill the nuclear plant manager, Professor Martin Stein. Raymond and Stein were trapped in a room and the resulting nuclear accident fused them into the merged being of Firestorm. Because Stein was unconscious at the time, Ronnie was in the “driver’s seat” in their shared form with the Professor being an advisor, source of knowledge, and the voice of reason and experience to the much younger man.

After being forced to merge with his Russian counterpart, Pozhar, Prof. Stein discovers that he is a fire elemental and separates from Raymond before going off into deep space. Without the Professor’s scientific acumen, Ronnie has a great deal of difficulty during his time with the Justice League but tries very hard. He is killed when the Shadow Thief stabs him with the Shining Knight’s sword and he flies into the air to explode without harming anyone. His energies funnel into Jason Rusch who becomes the new Firestorm.

Of Firestorm’s many powers, his primary and most incredible one is the ability to reconstruct matter. If he knows the atomic structure of an object, Firestorm can transform any object into another object with a wave of his hand. He is alchemy personified. If he can think of it, he can make practically anything.