The first issue out of the way, Dan Jurgens has jumped right into the meat of things on The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man, calling back to the continuity of the just-cancelled Captain Atom (written by J.T. Krul, who worked with Jurgens previously on Green Arrow) and driving deeper into the relationships between Ronnie, Jason, their parents and Jason’s girlfriend. It’s a dense, fast-paced issue that tends, even when there’s not somebody blowing something up on the page, not to stop to catch a breath.Dan Jurgens joined us to talk about #14, the dynamics that will define Ronnie and Jason moving forward and the challenges of altering Captain Atom’s status quo so recently after the launch of the New 52.This is a spoiler-intensive discussion. Pick up a copy of the comic and read along with us if you haven’t seen it yet!Now, we come to Dr. Megala from Captain Atom and I have to wonder: What’s the cost/benefit analysis of picking up threads from a cancelled book? I mean, obviously those readers want and deserve closure, but do you worry about getting your title tangled up in a mythology not a lot of people were reading?
A very valid question and it is something I was quite concerned with.But the similarities between Captain Atom and Firestorm are such that it’s one of those stories that had to be told. I think the key to doing so is presenting it in such a way that, if you weren’t reading JT Krul’s fine Captain Atom series (which you should have been!), you don’t feel lost. There are obvious comparisons and similarities between CA and Firestorm that made it a bit of a natural.How long do you think it’ll be until you can top the giant bunny suit?
I don’t know… but I’ll have to try, won’t I?Quite honestly, that’s the kind of thing that makes Firestorm a fun character. It’s consistent with the age and approach of who he is.
(And right after he decked Relay for being inside their heads, thinking she might figure it out)
This quantum field thing is dangerous in that it only seems to affect Firestorm, so it could theoretically be deployed anywhere, or laid down over a broad area, right? Or am I missing something?
When you’ve got a character who’s operating on an alpha level power scale, is it always a card you’ve got in your back pocket that you just kind of explode your way out of things? It seems like it would give some stress relief to somebody who’s always holding back.
And do you ever worry about that kind of thing turning into a Lois-Clark-Superman love triangle and getting stale?
Now, Captain Atom looks much, much different from the last time we saw him…or at least the last time I did, as I admit I bailed with a few issues to go in the series. What happened to the mohawk and the Dr. Mahnattan hue?
Obviously Firestorm uses the same atomic shorthand around his powers often, but was it intentional that you kinda buried the Captain Atom logo on the cover of this issue?
Now that he’s back to silver, what will you guys be doing with Cap to differentiate his newly-shaven look from Silver Surfer?
Has Ronnie’s middle name always been Roy? Oh, the alliteration!
I have admittedly limited experience with Firestorm but I feel like swapping in a new brain into the equation is a go-to move when storytelling with the character. How do you keep that fresh?
is the “don’t go there” a little wink-and-a-nod to the kind of overt racial overtones we saw in the beginning of the series?
So–what happens to the guys when they vanish here?
And what was the deal behind changing the cover to the next issue? Did it have to do with the character’s altered look or was it just a matter of going with something a little more dynamic? (feel free to reuse the answer you gave me privately if it’s suitable for publication).
