Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Eye Contact
Written by: Dan Jolley
Penciled by: ChrisCross
Inked by: John Dell
Colored by: Chris Sotomayor
Lettered by: Phil Balsman
Associate Editor: Stephen Wacker
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Publisher: DC Comics
Comic fans are an exceedingly picky lot. Case in point: fans on the DC Message Boards, and other places, have been lobbying DC for a new Firestorm series for years. Originally, it was announced that Mike Carey, of Lucifer, Hellblazer, and My Faith in Frankie fame, would be the writer. The brief comments that I saw from Mr. Carey seemed like we were in for a great book, with a return from the classic Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond. Unfortunately, Carey’s take was shelved and a new writer, Dan Jolley, was brought in.
Not long after Jolley was announced as new writer, word came out that along with the new writer a new “person†would inherit the Nuclear Man’s powers for the book. Jolley was the recipient of rampant attacks on the DC Boards by supposed fans of Firestorm. Several fans even tried to organize a boycott of the book that they had long fought to see return to the shelves. Change is very rarely taken as a good thing by comic readers. The attacks on Jolley may not have reached the level of the death threats that Ron Marz was faced with when he replaced Hal Jordan with Kyle Rayner ten years ago, but it was certainly not a good situation.
Now, I’m an old school fan of Firestorm! Growing up in the early ‘80s it was one of the first superhero books that I got hooked on, and became a regular reader of. I owned every issue and even went back and tracked down the five issues from the ill-fated 1970’s Firestorm book as well. He remains one of my favorite characters to this day. The 100 issue run of the ‘80s series had some of the best written superhero stories of the decade. Gerry Conway and later John Ostrander turned in some of the finest stories about a teen and young adult growing into their powers since Stan Lee’s Amazing Spider-Man work.
Firestorm has shown up here and there since his book got the axe in 1990, but has largely been forgotten by the comic world. Mike Carey is one of the best in the industry and I am still pretty down that we’ll never get to see what he had planned for the book, but I’m willing to give Dan Jolley a chance. After reading the first issue, let me just say: I’m damn happy that I did!
Jolley’s script in this first issue is perfectly paced; he introduces us to the series protagonist Jason Rusch and his rather difficult life. He’s a character that I could easily identify with. He’s a normal enough guy, just trying to save up enough money to go to college by working a job as a waiter. As the story starts off, we see Jason being treated for some nasty facial bruises from a recent altercation. He gets sent home from work, because it’s “a family restaurant.†Jason is put in a bad spot because he needs another 500 bucks to make tuition for the fall term. Jason then has a run in with his father. At first his dad comes off as a real jerk, but we can see that he’s under as much strain as his son. All of the problems lead Jason to a bad decision. He goes to a local thug named Stevie Golek, who has a quick courier job that will net Jason the five bills he needs. This courier job leads to the unveiling of the new Firestorm on the final page.
While it’s not exactly a fast paced introduction, Jolley gives the story a slow burn. In superhero books I like to see a strong intro to the man-behind-the-mask before he gets down to the costumed action. Jolley gets us in Jason Rusch’s head and builds up a believable character. You need to care about the character and not just the superhero—Jolley really succeeds to that end. While some people may complain that our hero doesn’t even get into costume until the end of the story, it works perfectly. Hell, so many superhero books today seem to take six issues to reach a similar point. I can certainly deal with a one issue build-up, especially when it’s as engrossing as this.
ChrisCross is one of my favorite pencilers going back to his days working with Peter David on Captain Marvel. His art perfectly conveys the somber tone of Jolley’s script. Plus that last page look at Firestorm kicks ass!
I still have my reservations about a Firestorm comic without Ronnie Raymond, but I can’t fault DC’s logic. There hasn’t been a Firestorm book in nearly fifteen years, and it wasn’t even an industry powerhouse when it was on the racks. A series saddled in old school continuity probably would have a difficult time finding a niche in today’s market. What DC has done here is unveil an Ultimatized version of Firestorm. Jolley seems to have plans that will include Ronnie Raymond down the line, so that should help appease old school fans.
The old Firestorm stories were all about a young man growing into his powers and becoming a responsible adult. Even though this book’s not about Ronnie Raymond, Dan Jolley has captured the essence of what Firestorm was always about, and given us a modern spin on it. I haven’t read much of Jolley’s work in the past, but I’ll say that this issue was a real eye-opener.
