Because I grabbed it out of the quarter bin again, I nearly just re-blogged an old issue of the Shadow that I blogged back in 2011, so instead I had to go through the increasingly inaccurate Firestorm tag to make sure we hadn't seen this one before: from 1980, Justice League of America #179, "The Siren Song of the Satin Satan!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Frank McLaughlin.
Firestorm joins the JLA: he would be the last new member of the classic "satellite era" and possibly when Alex Ross stopped reading the book. He's thrilled to death, maybe a bit over-enthusiastic; but Superman thinks his "innocence and joy" would be good for the team. On the other hand, Green Arrow thinks he may be self-centered and spacey; when he's really just conversing with the unseen Professor Stein. Observing them, Red Tornado suspects Arrow feels he should be doing more on the streets, like Black Lightning, who recently passed on membership.
After a pleasant induction--and tedious orientation from Batman, that apparently the whole team sat through?--Firestorm returns home to Manhattan and changes back to Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein: Stein still didn't remember anything that happened when they were Firestorm, because he had been unconscious when they first formed! Ronnie puts the dazed Stein in a cab and sends him home--upstate, which couldn't have been a cheap fare! Dick move, Ronnie. Surprisingly, Ronnie's supporting cast makes an appearance, namely his girlfriend Doreen and bully/future villain Cliff Carmichael. A friend's brother had vanished at a disco downtown, so they decide to go see. Carmichael reluctantly joins them, saying "somebody's got to keep your noses clean," which I'm hoping isn't a cocaine reference. They quickly discover the missing brother, an avid dancer, had been invited to the swanky penthouse of supermodel Sabrina Sultress, known as the Satin Satan. Weird nom de plume for a model, isn't it? It's not even great for a supervillain.
Right after Professor Stein pays the cab driver, Ronnie summons him back into Firestorm again to investigate! God, you dick! Firestorm is immediately mesmerized by Satin, but manages to activate his JLA signal device...to be continued! "So, what do I do for an encore?" Get captured immediately? Maybe next issue Ronnie can leave the Professor at a homeless shelter or something.
Ok, so after doing a quick Google search on the topic of whether or not Alex Ross hates Firestorm, I came across this blog post by a Firestorm fansite called Firestormfan.com:
ReplyDeletehttp://firestormfan.com/2015/03/17/alex-ross/#:~:text=Summary%20of%20Findings%3A%20Evidence%20indicates,day%20JLA%20work%20is%20inconclusive.
Basically Alex Ross choice to never use Firestorm in any of his work because when Firestorm joined the team, Iris Allen had been killed off. Apparently this and the death of Aquaman's son traumatized Ross so much that whenever he sees Firestorm it triggers those bad childhood memories. Plus he's not a big fan of the costume, so that's why he doesn't like Firestorm.
Thanks for adding the link to that old article of mine. It really brought back some memories.