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Identity Crisis

In Identity Crisis #5 (with later revelations in Firestorm (vol 3) #6), Firestorm (V, Ron Raymond) is killed. What happens in the story is that during a battle with a villain called Shadow-Thief, he steals Shining Knight's sword and impales Firestorm with it. This ruptures Firestorm's 'containment field' and his body explodes, with the residual essence entering Jason Rusch.

And that's how you get the new Firestorm.

Now ... why doesn't this make any sense?

Because it ignores all continuity and everything previously established about Firestorm. Ron has never needed a containment suit - though other nuclear-powered characters, such as Tokamak and Pozhar, did. The classic incarnation of Firestorm, whether it's Ron/Martin, Ron/Martin/Mikhail, or Ron by himself, has been injured before in ways that would have ruptured a containment field, had Firestorm had and/or needed one.

It also ignores where Ron, as Firestorm by himself, gets his powers from. As we learned in Extreme Justice when Ron became Firestorm again, he spent so much time as Firestorm with Martin, and later with Mikhail, that Firestorm's powers imprinted on his meta-gene. Therefore, Ron's powers as Firestorm are part of him - rather than something that are thrust on him and that he must contain (again, the previous analogy of Tokamak applies here).

So why does it happen?

Well, obviously, when DC decided to revive Firestorm they wanted a new character. The answer for why they wanted that lies in the back issues of Extreme Justice and The Power Company. What we saw with both of these comics was that DC simply didn't know what to do with Ron.

In Extreme Justice we saw the writers ignore the relationship established between Ron & Martin to have Ron become Firestorm by himself - but separated from his partner, they lacked any idea about what to do with him. So they keep him as the 'junior hero' who still has to prove something to his fellow teammates - never mind that Ron has been Firestorm for years and is a fairly experienced hero, the fact that he is younger than his teammates means that is the role they saw him occupy. In his personal life, the writers have him follow Martin's path into alcoholism and rehab.

In The Power Company, Ron is down on his luck and trying to make it through college with meager funding. Taking a well-paying superhero gig seems like the answer. For The Power Company, bringing on a known character was a way the writers tried to generate interest in the new comic. Again, however, we saw that they didn't know what to write for him or how to write the character. Here Firestorm is the experienced hero, the former member of the JLA, yet again we see him come on the scene and say to Manhunter 'that was okay, right?' The writers fall back in the pattern of making Ron not confidant as Firestorm, a hero who needs guidance.

Now, this pattern goes back to the original issues of Firestorm, where teenage Ron is mentored by middle-aged Martin. However, in Firestorm Ron grows up. He goes to college. He has to make tough decisions without guidance. He spends years as Firestorm, first with Martin, then with Mikhail. He sacrifices his own identity to become the elemental. When the series ends, Ron isn't a teenager any more. He's a man.

And that's why they kill him.

Having fallen into the pattern of writing Firestorm as a younger superhero, as someone who needs guidance, who is unsure, the writers must have realized they could no longer justify writing Ron Raymond this way - but they still want Firestorm. The only way to do that is to give those kinds of powers to a new teen, someone they can explore the same old sort of gest with. Hence Jason Rusch - a young man, somewhat impulsive, lives with a single father with whom he has a troubled relationship. Sound like Ron Raymond when we first meet him? Sure he does. Because that's what the writers know how to write.