Professor Stein introduces Ronnie to sushi. A flashback takes us to sixteen months earlier. Ronnie attends a debate on astrology at the museum. One debater, a mystical new-age man, informs Ronnie that he is about to face a dangerous challenge. A large meteorite in the museum's 'Space Rocks' display suddenly begins emanating dangerous radiation and Firestorm must determine its true nature.
Firestorm826's Panel-by-Panel Story Summary (Spoiler Alert)
Night in the Big City...Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein sit together watching the chef dice up their dinner at the Sushiko Bar Restaurant. “…Look, Professor, we’ve been over this a dozen times,” Ronnie laments, “and we’re no further along than when we started. Ever since our run-in with Plastique and the new Killer Frost last week, we’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong when we tried to use our atomic restructuring power while we were at zero atomic density - - and after busting our brains together and alone, we still haven’t a clue.” He pokes at his plate with a chopstick, asking, “Uh, by the way…What is this stuff we’re eating?” Stein answers, “Sushi, Ronald.” The Professor dips his in soy sauce with his chopsticks and continues their discussion.
“About our problem…I’ve been giving it considerable thought, and it seems to me we must have short-circuited our nuclear powers somehow.” Ronnie fumbles with his chopsticks and takes a nervous nibble. “What do you mean, short-circuited? And what’s a sushi?” he asks. “Think of it as overloading a power line, Ronald,” Stein explains, “When too much energy is fed over the line, the line goes down…unable to carry the overload. Something similar must have happened to us as Firestorm. Sushi is a Japanese delicacy, Ronald.”
Ronnie looks down at his plate and glances over at the chef busily chopping and rolling more sushi on the other side of the display glass. “So, like, we had some kind of blackout - - is that what you’re saying? And, uh, what kind of Japanese delicacy are we talking about here?” Ronnie asks, looking a little squeamish. Stein sets his chopsticks down for a moment. “Not a total blackout, Ronald, such as we might have if we tried using our Firestorm nuclear power on something organic in nature,” he answers, “Organic power feedbacks are something we’ve learned to control, more or less…though I well remember it wasn’t always so. In particular, I recall an experience we had at the Museum of Science and Industry very early in our career as Firestorm…We were so new to the Firestorm persona, each challenge seemed so overwhelming…I feel almost as if we were different people back then.”
Ronnie struggles with another bite of the cold concoction. “Yeah, uh-huh. What kind of Japanese delicacy, Professor?” he asks again. “Do you remember how we almost panicked? But you recovered the situation, Ronald - - your judgment, not mine, resolved the crisis,” Stein replies, adding, “I never asked you…but how did you know what to do then, so quickly, so confidently?” Ronnie swallows hard, answering, “Believe it or not, I saw it in a dream. But, listen…I’ve gotta know…What kind of delicacy?” He takes another cautious nibble. Stein explains, “Fish, Ronald. The Japanese have quite a skill for preparing it. Sushi is raw fish.” Ronnie stares blankly at his chopsticks as the Professor continues. “A dream, hm? How intriguing,” Stein ponders, “…to think our very survival hinged on a dream…” Ronnie stops chewing and drops his chopsticks. “Gaaaaak!” he groans.
Fade to a flashback, sixteen months ago…What if the worst happened? What if the powers of Firestorm, the Nuclear Man, roared totally out of his command? Could he stand up to the terrible fate that awaits him…if he ever should fail? Our hero must learn that the answer lies…not in our stars, but in ourselves!
Firestorm falls backwards through a strange shapeless void. Streaks of orange and yellow race around him as he falls toward a bizarre blue center of a seemingly endless space. “Can’t…control it! My own power…raging against me!” he stammers, flailing his arms and legs wildly as he falls. “The feedback…ripping me apart! Can’t stand it! Can’t…get…free!” he thinks in near-panic, “How did this happen?....How?....How? Can’t take the pain! Blacking out…Got to stay conscious…fight to keep…”
“…Awake!” Suddenly, Ronnie sits bolt upright. Momentarily disoriented and confused, he looks around quickly. He catches his breath, realizing he is lying safely in his bed at home. He rubs his hand through his hair with relief, thinking, “Ohhhhh, man! Something in my life has gotta go - - either my cravings for chili dogs at three in the morning - - or my getting hung up on how this Firestorm identity is going to affect my future!” He gets out of bed, toes scrunching into the soft carpet. He reaches for his dresser and picks out a change of clothes. “Maybe it’s time I should worry!” he ponders, “I’m a young guy…my whole life ahead of me…I don’t want my chances for a normal life to be ruined by…Firestorm! Maybe.” He reaches for his wallet and pops it open. “Ahhh - - give it a rest, Ronnie!” he figures, “It’s Saturday…Maybe there’s someplace in town this ol’ student I.D. can get me into!”
Much later… “Just great! I can’t get into the movies with it, and I haven’t enough money to cover anything else,” Ronnie stews as he walks alone, “Museum’s the last place I can try! This is going to be about as exciting as watching Mr. Wizard suck an egg into a milk bottle!” Ronnie sees a sign announcing ‘Space Rocks and Astrology: The Great Debate’ in front of the museum’s entrance. “Is it too late to get in on this Earth-shattering debate here?” Ronnie asks an usher. “Go right in. There are still seats down in front,” she answers, pointing him inside the museum’s nearby auditorium.
Ronnie walks down the center aisle, pausing for a moment. On stage at adjacent podiums, two men are engaged in a back-and-forth discussion. “Even if we accept the tenets of astrology…we find they are in no way based in reality! Astrologists say ‘The Sun is in Aries…the Sun is in Pisces.’ But the Sun moved out of those constellations ages and ages ago!” says the lecturer on the right, dressed in a standard business suit. Ronnie continues walking, finding his way to an empty seat. “Whatta treat! Two old geezers talkin’ about the stars,” he groans. The lecturer turns to his debate opponent and asks, “What is your response to that, Mister Nostradamus, or whatever you call yourself?” The crowd erupts in laughter, amused by the quip. “Hope this doesn’t come to blows,” Ronnie thinks sarcastically, “I don’t think my heart could stand the excitement!”
The second lecturer stands in markedly different appearance than his opposite on the stage. He wears an ornate, flowing robe with a hood covering his head. Deep age lines crevice his face, and his long hair and beard protrudes from the hood’s edges. Against a backdrop screen of planets and galaxies, he raises his arms to respond. “It was Arthur C. Clarke who said, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” he counters, asking, “Are you really ready to discard a branch of knowledge merely because you do not understand it? If you cannot see inside a watch…cannot see the inner workings that make it tick, do you dismiss it? Say that it cannot work? So it is too, with celestial mechanics.” The crowd listens quietly, and Ronnie watches the lecturer intently. “Scientists are unsure how the aspirin works on the system! That doesn’t stop licensed physicians from prescribing it for everything from colds to catatonia!” the lecturer continues, “If we learn anything from our lives on Earth, we know that every change in the ecosystem, every tip of its precious balance weighs its effect on us. Who is to say the stars do not affect us…the same way?”
The debate moderator steps to the podium. “That concludes this evening’s debate. The space rocks exhibit will continue to remain open, however, until closing time. Thank you,” he announces to the crowd. Ronnie gets up from his seat and heads for the exit. The crowd murmurs quietly, discussing among themselves the points made by the lecturers. “Not a bad rap the guy had!” Ronnie thinks, “Never saw it his way before. Of course, if I did, Professor Stein would have a fit. He gets along with occultists the way mongeese get along with cobras.” Ronnie sees the second lecturer emerge from a stage access door into the museum’s main hallway. “Hey, I’ve been wondering about my future. Maybe I could get him to tell me…” he thinks.
“You!” the lecturer exclaims when he sees Ronnie, explaining, “Your face…Yes! You must be the one! Your countenance has appeared to me…in a vision!” He holds his hands to his face, eyes closed in concentration. “Wha-aa-aa-aat?” Ronnie stutters, confused. “Listen to me! Listen carefully!” the lecturer directs sternly, “You are about to be tested! It will be the most dangerous challenge of your life! If you are found wanting…if you fail…you will never be able to live with yourself! You will never be the same man again!” Ronnie reaches his hands into his pockets, stepping back a step from the odd man. “What is this? Part of the act? Scare the customers - - two shows daily?” he asks a bit defensively, “You pick one rube from every crowd, is that how it works?” The lecturer reaches his hands out pleadingly to Ronnie. “Take heed. A warning that falls on deaf ears is worse than no warning at all!” he implores.
Ronnie turns and walks away. He ambles down a stairway toward the space rocks display. “Professor Stein was right! These guys are all fakes - - frauds!” he thinks, “That guy belongs in a circus sideshow! But why let him rattle me? I might as well take in the other exhibit while I’m here!” Ronnie walks among the glass display cases holding samples of celestial matter. “This is what’s real…and it’s ten times more amazing than any stuff you could make up about the stars!” he thinks as he looks over the displays, “Moon rocks! A man actually walked on the Moon and collected these. There was no Justice League. No superheroes. Just your plain, garden-variety mankind. And we did it all by oursel…”
A voice nearby yells in panic, breaking Ronnie’s thoughts. “Look out! Look out!” the voice urgently yells out. A museum guard quickly appears in the museum lobby, speaking through a bullhorn to announce emergency directions to the bewildered crowds. “Please evacuate! Everyone evacuate the museum immediately!” the guard orders, “Evacuate slowly! Do not panic! Look for the exit signs and leave slowly! Do not run!” The museum visitors and staff anxiously make their way through the lobby towards the exit doors. “What’s going on? Some kid pull a bone out of the Tyrannosaurus skeleton and watch it collapse?” Ronnie asks as he watches.
“Make way! One side please!” a voice barks from behind Ronnie. He turns and sees a group of four technicians, equipped in red hazardous materials isolation suits. They quickly head down a museum corridor and Ronnie follows. “Good grief! Looks like they’re filming ‘Ghostbusters II!’ It’s gonna be worth my while to get a sneak preview!” he thinks as he trails close behind them. A security guard blocks his path. He holds his hand at Ronnie’s chest, ordering, “Hold it! You can’t go in there!” Ronnie quickly explains, “I’m with them. I left my lab coat at the dry cleaners.” Incredibly, the guard lets him pass. Ronnie runs to catch up with the emergency response team. “Now, what could possibly be so - - Ho-leeeeeee!” Ronnie exclaims.
A huge meteorite brightly radiating light fills the room. It is emerald green and vibrantly pulsating. Waves of yellow-green light flow from it, illuminating the room in an unearthly glare. The technicians swarm around it carefully. Several wave their Geiger counter sensors at it while one takes photos of the bizarre phenomenon. “This is amazing! What kind of readings are you getting?” a technician asks after snapping several pictures. “Radiation levels well into the danger zone! We’d better leave and come back…in protective suits!” another answers. They move carefully around the meteor’s half-spherical shape. “If we do…we could miss some vital data…some important change…in an incredible phenomenon!” the photographer answers, adding, “We’ve got to stay…and babysit this thing…whatever it is! It certainly isn’t what we thought before. It may not be anything…we’ve ever encountered before!”
Ronnie watches for several minutes before turning to run down a nearby corridor. “It’s actually growing brighter than before! I can really see it changing!” he thinks, “And once I get cover…it’s time for me…and the Professor…to do some changing, too…” FZAAAAAM! Two men fuse into one in a radiant burst of nuclear energy as Firestorm forms and appears in the corridor. “…into…Firestorm, the Nuclear Man!” Ronnie says as they come together. Stein asks curiously, “Why did you bring us together now, Ronald? I was I the middle of some important research!” Ronnie leaps and flies down the corridor back to the strange phenomenon. “You want research, Professor? You’re about to get more than your share!” he answers quickly.
Inside, a technician moves close to the meteorite. “Unbelievable! It’s throbbing! Pulsating! Humming with a life all its own!” he exclaims excitedly. “Get away from it! Whatever you do…don’t touch it!” his colleague warns. Firestorm walks next to them. “Sound advice! Idle hands and all that!” Ronnie announces to the surprised technicians. “Firestorm!” one yells out. Ronnie stands between them and the meteorite. “Back away…slowly! Your being here is far too risky!” he directs them. A technician protests, answering, “We’ve no choice! We must observe it! Do you see what I see? It looks as though…there’s actually some swelling…like a balloon that’s about to - - burst!”
Ronnie turns to face the meteorite. He raises his arms and releases an energy burst at it. WHRRAAMM! The orb swirls and pulsates angrily. “Can’t take the chance…of letting that big rock explode…Got to use my powers on it…Change its molecular structure - - to oxygen!” he stammers, concentrating and launching several restructuring bursts into its mass. Atomic rings dance and spin around the meteorite rapidly. “Nnnnnrrrggghhhh!” Ronnie groans suddenly, “Massive…power feedback! My own…energy turned against me!” The backflow of energy sweeps Ronnie off his feet, spinning him in the air around the edge of the strange celestial object. “What is it, Ronald? What happened?” Stein asks nervously. “Can’t break…its grip!” Ronnie gasps, “Can’t…get free! Blacking out! Can’t stay…” Blackness.
Ronnie slowly comes to. He opens his eyes, finding himself lying face down on the floor. He shakily tries to get up. “So woozy…it’s all…a haze,” he groans, “Energy must have dissipated. Don’t know…how long I’ve been out of it…but, dear Lord…I wish it were forever!” He stands stunned at the sight around him. The technicians lay dead, strewn about lifelessly on the floor. A massive stain on the floor marks the perimeter of where the meteorite apparently exploded. Devastation spreads out from its epicenter. The museum has vanished, replaced by a desolate landscape of jagged debris. “Got to get up…Go on…Must be something we can do…” Ronnie says in shock. “What can we do, Ronald? We’ve already failed…miserably,” Stein replies sadly, “There’s nothing left for us now but to split…and go our separate ways.” Stein waits impatiently for several moments. “Well - - ? You heard me! Split us up!” he directs Ronnie. “I…I can’t! I’ve been trying…but…I can’t!” Ronnie exclaims in reply.
Ronnie leaps skyward out of the shattered remains of the museum. “All right, then, if you don’t want to split us up…maybe we can use our powers to at least repair the museum!” Stein suggests, “Fly back and - - Ronald! Where are you taking us?” Ronnie heads away from the museum quickly. “Anywhere! Away from here! I screwed up once with my powers…and now we’re stuck with each other like this forever. I don’t want to see what happens when we fail a second time!” Ronnie answers in frustration. “What are you talking about? You’re the one that’s keeping us together!” Stein argues, directing him, “Split us - - now!”
Ronnie flies over the city skyline. “Don’t you understand this yet?” he asks, adding, “We’re welded now…for good! It’s all happening…just the way it was prophesied!” Stein is shocked by Ronnie’s unscientific explanation. “Prophesied??” he blurts. “It was…foretold to me that…if I ever failed as Firestorm…I’d never be myself again!” Ronnie reveals, “And now…it’s happening! I’ll have to remain Firestorm…for the rest of my life!” Stein is bewildered. “This is ludicrous, Ronald. Our powers are not based in science, not the occult,” he answers, “There’s no magic spell, no charm that says if we fail…we’re doomed to stay Firestorm always!” Ronnie remains unconvinced. “How do you know? How can you ever really know?” he asks, “We got our powers as the result of an accident. There’s no telling what was involved! But I was told that this would happen if we failed - - and we’ve never failed before…until today!”
Ronnie flies towards home. He tells Stein agitatedly, “Look! There’s my house! Am I supposed to go home…like this?” He lands outside his bedroom window and looks inside. “My bedroom! I’ll log a lot of hours in the sack now! Can’t you just see me?” Ronnie blurts, “The great Firestorm, ready for a nap. I’ll just ring the front doorbell! ‘Hi, Dad! I’m home!’” He walks along outside his father’s room. He looks in, seeing his Dad asleep in bed. “Oh, he’ll be glad to see me, all right,” Ronnie says dejectedly as he gazes through the glass, “It can’t be. He can’t see what’s happened to his son. I’ve got to go away…”
Ronnie leaps back into the air, continuing, “…far away…and he’ll never realize…never understand what’s become of his boy! All the time we spent apart…all the ordeals we’ve suffered to be together at last…it’s all been a waste!” He returns his disjointed, emotional thoughts to Professor Stein. “And you…you and your precious research!” he tells Stein, “You’re gonna get a lot of research now, pal. You’re gonna learn to love aerial viewpoints…because that’s all you’re gonna get! That’s all we’ll ever see. Think we’ll ever get close enough to see anybody…to talk to anyone…touch somebody again? Don’t bet on it.”
Ronnie comes down for a landing outside an elementary school. The students bustle about on the playground. They point and wave at him. “We’ll always be Firestorm, striking fear and terror into the hearts of evildoers…and everybody else!” Ronnie gripes, nodding at the students, “Look at them! The ones who aren’t afraid of me…haul back and laugh!” Ronnie leans a hand on the schoolyard fence, watching as the teachers shepherd the students back in from recess. “My old school,” Ronnie sighs, adding sarcastically, “I’ll be a sensation at the class reunion! I’ll bring my yearbook picture: ‘Most Likely to Be a Big, Fat Freak!”
The students disappear back inside the building. “There they go, back to class. Back to girlfriends. Back to homework, and studying, and thinking about college and their future,” he says wistfully, “They haven’t got super-powers. They can’t fly. And I’d trade places with any one of them!” Ronnie turns, walking slowly away from the schoolyard. “So you’d better be good company, Professor…cause you and I are gonna spend a lot of time together - - like…every waking moment!”
Ronnie rolls over, waking up in his bed. “…every waking moment…” he repeats sleepily. He sits up and looks around. “Twice in a night!” he thinks as his senses return, “Sleep ought to be outlawed. I’ve got half a mind to use my powers to create another Sun so it’s daylight all the time! But the Sun’s already up, and it’s Saturday. Maybe it’ll turn into a peaceful weekend after…” He reaches to turn on his radio and the announcer’s voice interrupts his thoughts. “…tists at the Museum of Natural History are puzzled by the meteorite’s sudden, strange activity. Security has already evacuated the…” Ronnie slams his hand down on the top of the radio in frustration. “No! Not again! Dear Lord…not again!” he yells angrily.
FZAAAAAM! Instantly, he initiates the nuclear fusion to become Firestorm! “But…forewarned is forearmed! It doesn’t have to turn out the same way…I hope!” he thinks as he leaps skyward. He quickly flies to the Museum of Natural History and runs inside to the space rocks display. Inside, he finds the technicians swarming around the giant, brightly pulsating meteorite. “Firestorm! Look!” a technician yells as Ronnie runs up. “That meteorite…it seems to…” another technician starts to say. “I know!” Ronnie answers, “Don’t ask me how I know…I just know!” HMMMMMMMMMMM! The meteorite vibrates and shimmers with strange energy emanating from deep inside its core. “Unbelievable! It’s throbbing! Pulsating! Humming with a life all its own!” an amazed technician yells out.
“That’s it! That’s what I did wrong the…’last time!’” Ronnie thinks quickly and analyzing, “In my dream, I experienced a massive feedback of my own energy! That only happens when I use my powers on something that’s organic! That must mean…that thing is organic…alive!” KRRRRRK! KRRRRRRKK! Strange noises sound from the meteorite as it pulsates. Ronnie aims his hands at it. “If I try and confront it directly…I’ll get a feedback that’ll take me right out of the game!” he decides, “Instead, I’ll transform the molecules in the air to form a lead box around us both…so when it explodes…I’ll be ready!” With a wave of restructuring powers, Ronnie creates a lead containment cube around himself and the meteorite.
The meteorite starts to release basketball-size chunks of itself that fly about inside and into the containment dome. WHRAAMP! WHA-BUMMMP! WHUM-BUMP! Ronnie stands watching its behavior carefully. “I see now what this ‘meteorite’ really is! It’s a spore…a giant alien spore!” he cries out, “It’s the resting stage of some strange alien life-form…and now it’s bursting apart with ‘seeds’ so it can reproduce itself!” WAAAAAAAA! The spore makes a strange screaming sound, intensely spewing more seed pods into the air! “One last thing to do,” Ronnie says as he lowers his atomic density, “Make my own molecules pass through the holding cell I’ve made - - and then heat up the whole works…destroying the deadly spore within!”
He phases outside the cube, turns back, and aims his hands at the lead cube to beam nuclear heat into it. The temperature inside quickly rises to astronomical levels and the cube itself glows a bright yellow-orange! After several minutes, Ronnie refocuses his energy flow. “It’s…safe now for me to dissolve the lead box,” he says, phasing the lead cube away. He looks inside with relief. “The spore…the seeds…they’re all gone,” he says happily, “I did it! I turned it all around! Snatched victory from the jaws of defeat! I was tested…and I passed that test!” A ring of alien residue lines the museum floor, smoldering and sparking. Smoke drifts up gently from the remains of the spore. Ronnie turns, walking out of the museum, past its ornate marble columns out to a beautiful sunrise that frames the Manhattan skyline in pretty streaks of light. “The Sun is up. It’s getting warm,” Ronnie says as he walks along, “This may turn out to be a good weekend after all!”
Fade back to the present: Night in the Big City. The Sushiko Bar and Restaurant. “…but though there were similarities between what happened to us then and what happened when we fought Plastique and Frost, there are certain fundamental differences as well,” Professor Stein methodically explains, “First, of course, is the fact that we’ve always been vulnerable to the organic-feedback effect. What occurred during our recent battle, however, was something completely new.” He rubs his chin in thought, leaning on the men’s room door awaiting Ronnie’s return. “Perhaps it has something to do with the very nature of our nuclear powers…a flaw inherent in our fused persona, a ‘bug in the program,’ so to speak,” he deduces, “If so, it’s a flaw that must be studied…and quickly…before it gets out of control.”
Ronnie emerges, arms wrapped around his uncomfortable abdomen. “Professor…Do me a favor. Next time you take me to a new restaurant…don’t tell me what we’re eating until after I’ve had a chance to digest it,” Ronnie moans. They walk out onto the sidewalk. Stein wraps a comforting arm around the somewhat green Ronnie’s shoulder. “You’ll have to get accustomed to new things, Ronald,” he says, “In a few months, you’ll be attending college…and a college man is expected to maintain an open mind. Which reminds me…how did you do on your final exams?” They walk along in the cool evening air past a pet shop. “Funny thing about that, Professor. Remember I told you how I knew all the answers on my Chem test?” Ronnie asks, adding happily, “Well, turns out that wasn’t the only exam I passed. As a matter of fact, grades were posted today…And guess who scored a solid A across the board!” Professor Stein smiles at him, answering, “Ronnie, my boy - - Congratulations! Does your father know?”
Car tires screech on the pavement nearby. “Not yet. I called his office at the newspaper, but they said he was having dinner with someone from the Business Department,” Ronnie explains, adding, “Ronnie Raymond, dumb jock, gets a good grade for the first time in his…life?” SKRASH! A green sedan barrels down the block, bouncing off a cargo truck as it races along past them. “Oboy,” Stein sighs. “Professor…?” Ronnie asks. “…Do it,” Stein replies. Seconds later, Firestorm appears in the sky, chasing the car as it passes the intersection of 24th and Broadway. “Professor, why do people do it - - drive crazy like that?” Ronnie asks. “We live in a ‘crazy’ world, my boy…But of course, that’s no answer,” Stein replies, continuing, “Life in our modern society is complex and some among us have less capacity to deal with that complexity than others. For them, a reckless life is the only life that makes sense.”
Ronnie flies down close behind the radically weaving car. FZAM! FWHHOOOOMP! With a nuclear restructuring burst, he swells the tires to gigantic proportions and the car grinds to a halt. “Yeah? You want to talk about complex, talk about our lives, Professor,” Ronnie answers as the car’s body rises high into the air on the huge wheels, asking, “Think things will get simpler once we’re both at the same college?” Stein returns with a question, “What do you think, Ronald?” Ronnie turns to head for home. The driver of the reckless car clings nervously to the door of his suddenly highly elevated vehicle. “I think what I need is a good night’s sleep,” Ronnie says, flying past the squirming driver. “Motion seconded, Ronald,” Stein agrees, “Our problems can wait till tomorrow.” Flying swiftly along the light posts on Broadway, Ronnie answers, “Yeah…Like the movie says…Tomorrow is another day.”
Fade out…on night in the Big City.
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