Firestorm Vol 1 1

Make Way For Firestorm!

Summary
Volume: Volume 1 Issue: 1 Month: March Year: 1978

Credits
Editor: Jack C. Harris Writer: Gerry Conway Writer: Al Milgrom Pencils: Al Milgrom Inker Klaus Janson Colourist: Adrienne Roy Letterer: Todd Klein Cover Art: Al Milgrom

Cast of Characters:

 * Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein)
 * Cliff Carmichael
 * Doreen Day
 * Eddie Earhart
 * Danton Black
 * Clark Kent

Locations:

 * New York City
 * &mdash;Bradley High School
 * &mdash;Hudson Nuclear Power Plant

Items:

 * None

First Appearances: First appearance of all characters Final Appearances: Final appearance of Eddie Earhart

Synopsis:
Ronnie Raymond is a young, athletic high school student who has just relocated to Bradley High. He meets the attractive Doreen Day, and immediately crosses swords with the school’s resident super-genius, Cliff Carmichael. Feeling inadequate next to Cliff, Ronnie decides to do something reactionary to impress Doreen. He joins a local activist group known as the Coalition To Resist Atomic Power.

What Ronnie doesn’t yet realize is that the Coalition’s leader, Eddie Earhart is actually a terrorist. Ronnie volunteers to join his group, and Eddie welcomes him with the hidden intention of using him as a patsy. Their plan is to “protest” outside of the newly furbished Hudson Nuclear Power Plant in Westchester, New York.

The only man presently working at the plant is the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Professor Martin Stein. Stein designed the Hudson power plant as the world’s first completely safe nuclear testing facility. Stein runs afoul of a bitter ex-employee of his named Danton Black. In an effort to halt the official opening of the plant, Black accuses Stein of stealing research from him and alerts the Atomic Energy Commission.

That night, the Coalition breaks into the Hudson Nuclear Power Plant. Ronnie learns that Eddie Earhart intends on blowing the building up and tries to stop him. Eddie punches Ronnie in the face knocking him out. The Coalition members come upon Professor Stein and knock him out as well. What they do not realize is that Danton Black has snuck into the building, with the intention of stealing data in order to back up his earlier claim.

Ronnie comes to and discovers several pounds of TNT rigged to explode. He sees the unconscious Stein and tries to drag him out of the building. The bomb goes off and Raymond and Stein are caught in the explosion. Rather than kill them however, the nuclear blast fuses the two men together creating a composite being known as Firestorm – the Nuclear Man. Ronnie Raymond has conscious control over the Firestorm form, while Professor Stein (having been unconscious at the time of the initial merging) exists only as a passive, non-corporeal entity inside of Ronnie’s mind.

In the next room, Danton Black is likewise caught in the nuclear explosion and begins suffering from the effects as well.

Firestorm flies out and discovers that he has the ability to altar the molecular composition of any non-organic material. He tracks down Eddie Earhart and his gang and arrests them.

Trivia

 * Superman makes a one-panel cameo appearance as Clark Kent.

Recommended Readings

 * Firestorm (Volume 2)
 * Firestorm (Volume 3)