DCU Comic Book Reviews

FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MAN #35

The End Is Here

June 2007

Written by Dwayne McDuffie

Pencils by Pop Mhan

Inks by Pop Mhan and Steve Bird

Cover by Pete Woods

Synopsis

Kalibak has arrived on Earth looking for Martin Stein and he as brought parademons with him.  While Orion battles Kalibak, Firestorm tries to sop the parademons, but his efforts have no effect.  Kalibak then appears, tossing aside Orion like a rag doll, before he launches his assault on Firestorm.  Firehawk tires to help, but Kalibak catches her easily.  Kalibak demands Martin Stein or he will kill Firehawk.  Just then Gehenna teleports in with an armful of dynamite, which she ignites before teleporting herself, Firestorm, and Firehawk away from the explosion.  Knowing this will not hurt Kalibak, Firetorm devises a plan.  He and Firehawk are linked once more.  Firehawk then drives away so that when she is a mile away from Firestorm, he explodes like a nuclear bomb.  When this happens, Firestorm is holding Kalibak and the explosion knocks Kalibak unconscious.  Firestorm then gets rid of the parademons with the help of a mother box.   Suddenly, Darkseid appears on Earth, grabs Firestorm, pulls Martin Stein out of Firestorm, and takes the professor back to Apokolips.  Firestorm is ready to go after him, but needs someone to fuse with; Gehenna offers.  The two then begin the search for Martin Stein. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Well, it looks like I was wrong.  I had guessed, in my last review, I really felt that Martin Stein was not going to be a factor in whatever DC has in store in the next year so that Stein’s theories were going to be debunked, making him unimportant to Darkseid.   Turns out Stein (and Firestorm) are going to be big players in the upcoming Countdown weekly series. 

The appearance of Darkseid at the end and what he was able to do just completely undermines the entire three issues.  We went through battle after battle and close calls just for Darkseid to appear out of nowhere and grab Stein.  Why didn’t he do this from the start?  It was somewhat like telling the reader that all of the events you just read, the time you took to read these issues, well, it didn’t matter because, really, the entire three issues could have been condensed into two pages. 

Okay, maybe that is a little bit harsh, but I kinda felt that way.  Luckily, I actually enjoyed these issues so I wasn’t all that upset by it.  I mean, McDuffie did manage to have a great Orion and Stompa fight in the last issue and this issue had the battleship pun and Gehenna’s dynamite solution.  I also liked the way Jason is presented as a battle-tested veteran who is able to deftly deal with everything is tossed at him.  Jason has come a long way since his debut and McDuffie handles that progression very well. 

Part of me is disappointed that DC didn’t try to end this series (for this is the last issue) with a nice moment at the end with the characters, much like the ending of issue #32 (which I suspect was the original final issue before this three-parter was commissioned).  It would have been nice to go out on a wrap-up scene rather than cliffhanger.  Plus, Firestorm is launched into a whole new direction, one which we won’t get to see except perhaps in guest spots, if at all.  But part of me likes how DC used this series as a launching pad for Countdown or whatever else is coming up and hopefully whatever exposure Firestorm gets will be a good thing and perhaps lead another series down the road.

 

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