Yesterday marked the release of The Fury of Firestorm The Nuclear Man #13, Dan Jurgens’s first issue on the book as both a writer and artist. The veteran creator, fresh off runs on Justice League International and Superman, takes the reins on what’s frankly been a pretty rocky start to the series, with creative changes and low sales leading many to speculate that the series may have been cancelled with #0.Instead, DC Comics handed the book off to Jurgens, who takes the character back to his roots–roots, of course, that don’t really exist yet in terms of the New 52. Jurgens joined us to talk The Fury of Firestorm The Nuclear Man #13, and the where he hopes to take the series.This is, you’ve said here and elsewhere, a kind of de facto #1 for the series. Is that part of why the subtle title change happened?Very much so. On top of that, I wanted to signify that there is now just one, singular, unique Firestorm. So, yes, it’s now called “The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man” as opposed to “Men“.
Now, DataXen is pretty formidable to be a throwaway. Is this a beastie that will keep coming back for more after this issue?
How do you imbue a robot with enough “personality” to make it worth bringing back?
Booster Gold
As people get older, it tends to be a bit harder to write for young characters. Is it any different doing so now than, for example, writing Teen Titans when you and George Perez did it in the mid-’90s?
Is it a little different writing for teenagers now that you’ve had them for a while? Your kids aren’t quite old enough to have been Titans back then.
“I’ve had it with these metas” is an interesting comment–it’s almost that veiled racism you get in X-Men titles about mutants, isn’t it? It’s kind of like, “If you lived in a world where these people were just a fact of life, and they were always breaking stuff, some people just wouldn’t have any tolerance for it, and they’d have by extension no tolerance for the entire class of people with those powers.”
In a world where everything is increasingly under surveillance, does running afoul of the military put Firestorm at risk for being followed back home by a spy satellite or something?
I liked the idea of turning the missiles into tin cans rather than oxygen or something. Are you going to have a little Green Lantern ring-style fun with Firestorm’s powers as you go?
It’s interesting–Ronnie’s kind of a Type A personality in his own way, isn’t he? Even though he’s not focused on grades or work, he’s a very competitive spirit, between the sports and the notion that “I’m going to be so great the Justice League will notice me.”
Just looking at those outfits, and comparing them to the one Max Lord wore during the Giffen/DiDio run on OMAC, is it safe to assume that DataXen came from Checkmate?
Is the Brady High defense a reference to anyone in particular? Tom Brady, maybe, or a creator whose name I’m not familiar with?
Gerry Conway gets a little shout-out on the next page though.
Maybe it’s just me, but Coach Conway reminds me a bit of the way they played Ronnie as the gym teacher in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Is that intentional?
How hard is the Tonya thing going to pull at the guys? I mean, if she’s the only one who knows their secret, she’s bound to be spending more time with Ronnie than Jason likes, even if it’s just in the capacity of someone to vent to.
And what do you think about this notion of her helping Ronnie with his schoolwork? It’s hard to argue that it’s for a good cause. I feel like back when Karl Kesel was writing for Superboy, he used to be able to get passes on homework and stuff…but then, everyone knew who he was.
Is it important, when you’re introducing three new villains all at once, to have that kind of vaguely expository panel where all of their names are used?
It seems a little more stylish to integrate it into the dialogue than to have those intro captions like so many team books do these days.
Will we ever get to see Jason “drive”?
And if so, will Firestorm look black on the outside?
How much time do you put into designing these villains? This is–what, something like the tenth through twelfth entirely new villains you’ve created for the New 52?
DC put a lot of stock in the “we need to create new villains” thing in the beginning of the New 52, but that seems to have petered out a bit linewide. Why’s it remaining so important to you?
Firestorm
Do you think it’s harder to get readers to engage with new villains as opposed to the old, familiar faces they’ve all seen before?
Because I noticed it, some others may have–what’s the difference in terms of execution, penciling a bit action scene like this where the hero has a cape versus doesn’t? Coming off Superman, are there new “positions” you can do in the combat and flight action pieces that you just couldn’t get the same mileage out of with a cape in the way?
It’s interesting–we’ve got the old man who seems to be pulling everybody’s strings, and he’s anonymous–but then we also have the anonymous stranger watching him as he watches Firestorm. Will we get an idea on these guys’s identities soon?
Firestorm
