The Fury of Firestorm #3 is a comic that’s working on two levels. First, it’s continuing to showcase just how dangerous the Firestorm Matrix has grown now that it’s sentient, especially since it’s able to take on the entire Justice League with ease. Secondly, it once again takes a hard look at Firestorm’s origin and reveals that things weren’t as they seemed. Specifically, it turns out that Professor Martin Stein wasn’t accidentally fused with Ronnie Raymond; rather, he manipulated Ronnie to harness the power of Firestorm to fight and potentially control other metahumans.
While this reveal might shock some fans, others will realize that The Fury of Firestorm #3 builds on the Superman Theory revealed in Doomsday Clock, which posits that certain superheroes were created to defend the world from the Justice League and other metahumans. However, Jeff Lemire goes further, revealing the true extent of Stein’s goals. It turns out that Stein suffered a tragedy resulting from a superhuman battle, which makes him far more sympathetic; yet Lemire also has him compare himself to Robert Oppenheimer, which is darkly ironic given what happens to the Firestorm matrix. The contrast between past Stein, who arrogantly throws his weight around, and present Stein, who is wracked with horror at his actions, is a sight to behold.
Lemire also continues to touch on the different people connected to the Firestorm matrix, this time revisiting the second Firestorm, Jason Rusch. Jason’s post-Firestorm life is in sharp contrast to Stein’s, showcasing how he’s carved out a life for himself that doesn’t involve superheroics. While Stein descends into madness as he tries to create Firestorm, Jason is trying to carve out a life for himself, his wife, and their unborn child. Firehawk also continues to play a key role as she slowly learns the depths of Stein’s deception and how it has affected the world. It’s a great way to drive the narrative and showcase how Firestorm’s wrath touches everyone who’s ever been involved with him.
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Rafael De Latorre and Marcelo Maiolo flirt between past and present with ease, depicting Stein’s machinations in one set of pages while also showcasing the battle between Firestorm and the Justice League in the other. Maiolo’s color art helps make that distinction… well, distinct, favoring sepia-like hues for the past sections and brighter colors for the present sequences; the latter feels extremely dissonant given what Latorre is putting on the page. In the span of a few panels, Firestorm stops the Flash in place, lights Martian Manhunter on fire, and turns the air around Supergirl into Kryptonite. What makes this even more unsettling is that the Nuclear Man’s face is a mere shadow, with only a pair of glowing golden eyes hinting at any sentience.
Even more disturbing is the state that Firehawk finds Stein in. The once proud professor is a shell of himself, growing a long beard and crazed eyes under De Latorre’s pencils. More than that, he’s grown fearful of his creation, and what it’s done to Ronnie Raymond.
The Fury of Firestorm #3 is chilling from start to finish, as it once again deconstructs the Nuclear Man’s origin and shows how Firestorm has become a true force of nature. In the same way that Oppenheimer once lamented that he had become “the destroyer of worlds” after witnessing the atomic bomb, so Martin Stein laments how he’s set an angry god upon the DC Universe.
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