Fanning the Flames of World War
This series had a shaky start, but I've admired many things about it from the beginning. It completely embraced the ideal of The New 52, and Gail Simone's done some incredible things in her reinvention of the entire concept. There's a world of Firestorm's out there, and Jason and Ronnie are just caught in the middle of the storm. the FIRE-Storm.
You done throwing things at me yet? All right fine, I deserved that. But I meant what I said about the wide world of Firestorms. The downside is that it doesn't exactly feel connected to the rest of the DCU. We've got global terrorism and government conspiracies and all sorts of stuff that seems like the rest of the superheroes in the world wouldn't be able to ignore. But frankly that's easy to overlook, take the series for its own values, and forget about the rest as you lose yourself in the world built.
And this issue makes it so much easier to take everything in. The art was fantastic in the first issue, but it quickly did the opposite of grow on me. I started to be bothered by the uncanny surreal sense that the art evoked because it didn't fit the tone of the series. But something's drastically changed with the style of Yildray Cinar's art, or maybe its the inking, or the colors. Or all three. Or two out of three. Either way, the artwork has a much better sense of normalcy to it, making things much more enjoyable to follow.
And there's a lot to follow. We get some more developments for Pozhar, which builds up on some massive developments going on. Ronnie and Jason have settled out of the chaos into a whole new world of possibilities. In this sense it feels like The Fury of Firestorm has come a little further than some of the other series. It began with two anrgy college kids arguing, and now they're fighting terrorists for the government and living in a planned community with benefits.
Speaking of said terrorist, there's one major thing that bothered me. The terrorist from the end has the exact same design as the one from the beginning. The one who gets killed in the beginning. Can someone explain that to me?
Ronnie and Jason have come a long way from the wooden angry non-people they started out as. They're not completely in synch, but they're starting to reach a balance of opinions. They pretty much always disagree, but now there's a range of reactions from debating to helping through a difference of opinions. And the difference of opinions helps highlight the massive spectrum of deeper ideas strewn through this comic. Compromise, Idealism, Government, Conspiracies, Freedom, Principles; all of these ideas and more clash between characters and internally within characters. All in the name of good or the greater good.
In Conclusion: 4.5/5
I LOVED this issue. Gail Simone and Ethan Van Sciver have been completely reinventing Firestorm, and taking the concept to the limits of the world. The cover isn't exactly accurate, Ronnie and Jason are actually getting along much better, and Zither certainly isn't pitting them against each other yet. But the artwork really worked out the kinks impressively between issues. I can't wait to see what twists and turns this series will take next.
