Infinite Crisis & One Year Later

Infinite Crisis has seen the return of Martin Stein, much to my delight. Stein has always been my favorite character. However … I don't necessarily agree with the way they're writing him. As we saw with Ron in Extreme Justice, the writers have not paid enough attention to the relationship between Ron and Martin. We saw more grief over Ron's death from Jason Rusch, who'd known him a day, than from Martin Stein, who was Ron's best friend and had not only known him for years, but basically lived in his head and inhabited the same body. I think it would be much more than a few comments.

Beyond that, DC has also retconned what we were given to understand about the elemental Firestorm. Remember, in Extreme Justice, Martin, as the elemental Firestorm, approached Ron and asked Ron to bond with him. Ron asked if it would be the same as it had been before, back in the old days. The elemental Firestorm tells him no, Ron would be absorbed into his form and would become part of him. Therefore, it would be much more like when Ron was the elemental with Mikhail, where they were subsumed into the elemental. Martin makes this request of Ron to try and rediscover his humanity, which he feels he's losing.

Now, let's consider Infinite Crisis.

Jason, as Firestorm, is part of Donna Troy's group, and is killed in the action out in space. His best friend Mick is also killed, as he is absorbed by the Firestorm matrix because he and Jason have been fused too long. Martin, as the elemental Firestorm, finds Jason and makes him the offer of joining the two of them together in the Firestorm matrix. Jason accepts and they unite the Firestorm matrix to stabilize it with Jason and Martin as the primary fusing partners, while leaving it open to allow Jason to fuse with someone else if necessary. Jason and Martin fuse to form Firestorm, in classic Firestorm form, with Jason in charge and Martin as the advisor.

WTF?

We should also remember that Martin was the person who was meant to be Firestorm, who was chosen by Maya to be the fire elemental, as revealed in the last few issues of Firestorm (vol. II). Another thing to remember is that when the elemental powers pass to Svarozich, he is much more powerful than Ron and Mikhail's version of Firestorm. The elemental is Firestorm. Ron only later becomes Firestorm without the elemental behind him because those powers have been imprinted upon Ron's meta-gene.

So, of course, this invalidates the way that Jason Rusch gains Ron's powers after Ron's demise, but never mind that. We can use as an explanation for those events as the ball of light that exits Firestorm and enters Jason Rusch as being Ron's spirit that fuses with Jason to give him those powers, because later Jason does encounter Ron's spirit in the Firestorm matrix.

But this is getting us off the subject of the retcon. When Jason merged with Martin, what should have happened – based on established canon – is that the elemental Firestorm would remain and Jason would be subsumed into it. Instead, of course, we have the return to a matrix much like the one Ron and Martin shared.

As I previously said when I was talking about Firestorm in The Power Company, I believe this is because the writers want to write that sort of character dynamic. But it ignores previously established canon, so that's why I hate it, even if it's well-written and interesting, as the new Firestorm comic is becoming.

Another retcon issue for me is what happens with Martin in the One Year Later storyline of Firestorm (vol. III). In the storyline Martin has disappeared and Jason is merged with Lorraine to form Firestorm. Lorraine, separate from Jason, can still become Firehawk. Later, after the initial storyline, we also see that Mikhail has regained his abilities and has been operating under the name Firestorm in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Why do I bring that up? Because we find out that Martin has been held prisoner and his ability to merge with Jason to form Firestorm was subdued with a device. This is totally ignoring, again, everything that has been established.

Remember that Martin is the elemental Firestorm. He is the chosen one of Maya. This is established, as I said earlier, in the late issues of Firestorm (vol. II). Earlier in those issues, when the elemental Firestorm (still at that time Ron/Mikhail) is fighting the Parasite, when the Parasite tries to absorb his power and is unable to, the elemental says to him “I do not have power, I am power.” What this means is that the Parasite cannot steal the elemental Firestorm's power – because it is Firestorm. Therefore, Martin should not be able to be cut off from Firestorm – unlike other superheroes, he is not granted his powers by accident, but instead by the Earth itself. He is power.

However, again what this simply proves is that the writers will ignore established details to write what they want, or perhaps more to the point, write the only thing they seem able to.

Of course, now that Martin's back, no matter that I don't exactly agree with how they're writing him, I'm going to be reading it no matter what awful drivel they write. It's actually pretty interesting right now, as far as current DC goes. But we'll see what happens.

 


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