Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville Team Talk Bea & Tora's Long-Awaited Solo Adventure
Joanne Starer and Natacha Bustos break down the hilarious and heartfelt first issue.
Female Heroines
The Dawn of DC storytelling initiative has been spotlighting a number of female characters from the DC Universe. How does it feel to not only be part of an all-female creative team for this project, but also to highlight Fire & Ice in their own solo series?
Joanne Starer: It's incredible. I'm so inspired and motivated by the women I'm working with. I'm very thankful to our editor, Andrea Shea, not only for putting this team together but for being such a champion for this project. But it's such a rare thing to see an all-female team, from the editor to the letterer and colorist. Having Tamra Bonvillain bring these vibrant colors and Ariana Maher add her gorgeous lettering, it brings the whole project together.
It's also just been a huge comfort, because ultimately this is a book about Fire and Ice's friendship. There's action, and comedy, and romance, but any story about Fire and Ice is going to be about their ride-or-die relationship. Working with an all-female team, I know we've all experienced that, that very special and unique bond. Your romantic partner fulfills a need in your life, but your best girlfriend, that's a different—and sometimes an even more important—relationship. It can outlast any other relationship in your life and be the repository for all your deepest feelings and insecurities. So having a team that understands that and will treat it with care is so important.
Natacha Bustos: Well, I'm delighted. I have always preferred to draw stories of characters that are not as much in focus as other series and give them my voice. They are characters very loved by the DC fandom and Joanne has created a very cool dynamic between them with her scripts that make the story entertaining.
Origin Story
Joanne, one thing the fandom really responded to when we shared the preview for Issue #1 was Tora's original origin story being kept. How important was it for you to include that?
Starer: I honestly didn't even think about it in terms of keeping her original story. I had a chance to kind of restart these characters, and so I thought about the most essential versions of them. Ice being a princess feels like a core part of her personality. Being both royalty and coming from this lost tribe, it makes her a bit sheltered, a bit naïve. She's less worldly than Fire, and more trusting because of it.
Aesthetic
Natacha, your art does a wonderful job of capturing Bea and Tora's iconic costumes, while also streamlining and modernizing them. How did you approach that balance?
Bustos: Joanne and Andrea wanted to keep their iconic costumes and modernize them without doing something totally different, you know? And for me it was then about adding details. With Ice we really didn't want to modify anything, but with Fire I had a lot of fun—cropped jackets are back in style, so I added flames drawings and a studded belt, which is actually very 90s, but it's a fashion that now that it's back, it's so perfect.
L-Ron
L-Ron is a scene-stealer in this book. Both narratively and aesthetically, how did you approach bringing him back in a modern context?
Starer: Oh, I literally just tried to write him exactly as he always was. I'm not sure I've modernized him at all—aside from putting him in an apron and letting him explore his feminine side. But L-Ron, to me, has always been a star. He's not a sidekick, a goon, or a flunky. He's great because he's subservient only when he wants to be, and he claps back hard when necessary. But he's very clearly CHOSEN Fire and Ice. Maybe that's modern? He's given up his male overlord to be of service to two women.
Bustos: For the aesthetics, I returned to the classic design. I respected Keith Ian Giffen's original design in this case.
Martha Kent
I also really loved how you portrayed Martha Kent — were there any touchstones (both narratively and visually) that inspired how she factors into this book?
Starer: I originally wanted her to be very much like Lily Tomlin's character on Grace & Frankie. To me, it made sense that she would be kind of a hippie in her heart, living off the earth on her farm, believing in the inherent goodness of people. But my guiding principle with Martha was, this is the woman who raised Superman, the world's greatest Super Hero. She made him who he is. At the same time, I wanted to acknowledge that she has lived her entire life in the service of that. Being a mom is a full-time job. So, giving Martha some time to be her own person was very important to me.
Bustos: With Martha, I wanted to draw those types of ladies who inspire confidence just by looking at them. Women who give you warmth and the feeling that you are at home.
Guest Stars
Jimmy Olsen and Lobo will be guest starring in November and December's issues. Can you tell us a little about what mayhem will ensue when they come into town? Natacha, what other artists/comics have inspired your version of these two iconic characters?
Starer: All of it. All the mayhem. The Jimmy Olsen issue is a real farce. What I can tell you is, Fire has set a ridiculous scheme in motion, and Jimmy shows up right in the middle of it to write a story about Fire and Ice setting up shop in Smallville. So, it's basically, "hide the chaos from Jimmy Olsen" for the whole issue.
Lobo is another story. He brings the mayhem with him. I don't want to give too much of that away, but if you've seen the incredible cover that David Talaski did for issue #4, you've probably got a good idea that things are getting heated between Lobo and Fire.
Bustos: For the look of the characters, once again I returned to the original source, but adapted it to my style. We owe a lot to Keith Ian Giffen in this comic—he created some fantastic characters. Especially Lobo, who is irreverent and sexy—it's very very cool to draw him.
Romance
It sounds like things are over between Guy Gardner and Ice, but are there any other romances in the series that you can tease?
Starer: There are a LOT of romances in this book. Well, I don't know if you can call them all romances. Some are just hookups. Some are unrequited loves. But everyone's got the bug. Even Ambush Bug. We do introduce a hunky new Smallville local, a bartender, who catches Fire's attention. But a lot of things catch Fire's attention…like Lobo. We also have a super fun romance in store for our new character, Tamarind, who works at Fire and Ice's beauty salon. Ice, however, is very much just focused on herself and what she needs right now. When Superman suggests they use this time in Smallville to refresh and reevaluate, she takes that seriously. She wants love for her future, but she knows there's work to be done in the present before she can get there.
Surprises
What do you think is going to surprise Bea and Tora fans the most, once they read issue #1? What are you most excited to see them respond to?
Starer: My HOPE, if I've done my job right, is that they'll be surprised by how much it feels like the old Justice League International books while still being new and accessible. I've tried extremely hard to put all my love and passion for the Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire series into this, to give it the heart and comedy that those stories had. But you can absolutely pick this up if you don't know anything about Fire and Ice. It's pretty simple: one has fire powers, and one has ice powers! They're best friends, and now they're in Smallville, starting their lives over!
There is a new character I genuinely can't wait to see the response to. He's not a major player, but he is majorly weird. His name is Smarty Pants. I don't want to tell you anything else about him…you'll have to wait till issue #2!
Bustos: I think the comedy that this comic has will surprise fans. It's a full-fledged sitcom with Bea and Tora, where characters come and go in increasingly absurd situations. I love it!
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Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #1 is now available wherever comics are sold!
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