Vixen ❤️💛

Been getting into comics lately (was recommended by an entity that manifested after I took a pill I found on the ground and boy have they been fun!) and I figured I’d go chronologically starting from November 29th 1962 (also recommended by entity).

As soon as I read Detective Comics #311 I fell in love with Zook non-sexually. I read all of his appearances in about a week, then I reread them the following week. I would be content with doing this forever, but I’m feeling rather isolated by the wider fandom because I can’t find any other Zookheads. I’d like to participate in the DC community more, and that means finding more popular characters.

So does anyone have any recommendations of Zookesque characters? Preferably from a comic but I’ll take a commercial like the super-turtle.

So yesterday, I talked about some of my issues with Tate Brombal's Batgirl, and today I thought I'd switch things up and talk about a DC Next Level book that I absolutely love, Jeff Lemire's The Fury of Firestorm. And honestly, there are three big reasons why this comic works so well for me. First, I absolutely love Firestorm as a character. Second, Jeff Lemire really understands just how terrifying the ability to transmute matter actually is when you start thinking about the implications of that power. And third, somehow, this comic takes what I consider to be the most interesting idea from Geoff Johns' Doomsday Clock, the Supermen Theory and the concept of a secret metahuman arms race, and actually does something fascinating with it.

But what really makes this comic stand out to me is how it almost feels like a modern superhero retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. And the more I think about that comparison, the more I realize just how perfectly it fits Firestorm, especially when you start connecting it to the ideas about scientific responsibility, bodily autonomy, and the weaponization of metahumans that Lemire is exploring. So the basic premise of The Fury of Firestorm is already fantastic. Ronnie Raymond is slowly being consumed by the Firestorm Matrix, while Firehawk and Professor Martin Stein try to save him before he dies and potentially takes humanity down with him.

And what I find so interesting about this premise is that Lemire isn't simply telling another story about a superhero losing control of his powers. He's taking something that has always been fundamental to Firestorm's character and exploring just how horrifying it would actually be. Because think about what Firestorm can do for a second. This is a character who can manipulate matter on a molecular level. He can fundamentally change the physical composition of practically anything around him. And while that's always been an incredibly cool superhero ability, it's also genuinely terrifying when you stop looking at it through the traditional superhero lens.

I mean, most superheroes with destructive powers can blow up a building or potentially kill someone. Firestorm can literally change what something is. He can turn buildings into sand and people into glass. And there's something uniquely disturbing about that because he's not simply destroying something. He's fundamentally rewriting its physical existence. And I love that Lemire is leaning into the horror of that idea, especially because Ronnie himself is experiencing something very similar.
Because while the Firestorm Matrix is transforming the world around him, it's also slowly taking away Ronnie's control over his own body and mind. He's essentially being subjected to the same violation of autonomy that his powers are inflicting on everyone else. And to me, that's where the real horror of this comic comes from. Ronnie isn't just fighting some supervillain who's trying to take over the world. He's fighting against the very thing that makes him Firestorm. His powers, which have traditionally been this incredible gift that allows him to be a superhero, are now becoming the thing that's destroying him.

There's something genuinely tragic about that, especially when you consider that Ronnie never really had as much control over becoming Firestorm as he originally believed. And this is where I think the Frankenstein parallels become especially interesting. Because in a lot of ways, Professor Martin Stein almost feels like a modern day Victor Frankenstein, while Ronnie and the Firestorm Matrix can be viewed as different aspects of Frankenstein's monster. Now, obviously, I'm not saying this is a direct adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, but I think the thematic similarities are really fascinating.
One of the most important ideas in Frankenstein isn't simply that Victor creates a monster. It's that he creates life without fully considering the moral responsibilities that come with that decision. He becomes so consumed by his scientific ambitions that he fails to consider what his creation actually means for the being he's brought into existence. And I think you can make a very similar argument about Professor Stein. Especially when you start factoring in the revelations from Doomsday Clock about Stein's involvement in the Supermen Project and how Ronnie's transformation into Firestorm was manipulated as part of a government effort to manufacture metahumans.

Because suddenly, Stein isn't just this brilliant scientist who helped create something extraordinary that eventually spiraled out of control. He's someone who actively participated in creating a human weapon, and in doing so, fundamentally changed Ronnie's life without Ronnie ever having meaningful control over that decision. And I think that's such an interesting way to reinterpret the relationship between these characters. Because traditionally, Ronnie and Stein have had this really fascinating dynamic where Ronnie is the younger, less scientifically knowledgeable superhero, while Stein acts as this older mentor who helps guide him through situations using his scientific expertise.

But when you introduce the idea that Stein was involved in manipulating Ronnie into becoming Firestorm in the first place, that relationship becomes so much more complicated. Suddenly, the person Ronnie trusted to help him understand and control his powers is also someone who helped put him in this situation. And that's what makes the Frankensteincomparison work so well for me.
Stein isn't necessarily a parallel to Victor Frankenstein simply because he's a scientist who helped create something dangerous. It's because his scientific ambitions and desire to control his creation have had devastating consequences for the person whose life he helped transform. And Ronnie, much like Frankenstein's monster, is ultimately suffering because of decisions made by his creator.

But I think you can take this comparison even further with Firehawk. Because considering Stein's involvement in her creation and the manipulation surrounding her relationship with Ronnie, I think there's an interesting argument to be made that Firehawk almost functions as a parallel to the Bride of Frankenstein. Now, obviously, the Bride is more closely associated with the classic film adaptation than the original Mary Shelley novel, where Victor ultimately destroys the female creature before bringing her to life. But I still think the comparison works thematically. Because both ideas involve the creation of another being to fulfill someone else's intentions, without really considering that individual's autonomy or desires.
And when you start looking at Firehawk and Ronnie through that lens, there's something genuinely disturbing about the idea that Stein has essentially been manipulating not just their transformations into superheroes, but aspects of their personal lives as well. It raises this really interesting question about whether Stein ever truly viewed them as independent people or whether, on some level, he viewed them as extensions of his scientific ambitions. And I think that's a really compelling direction to take Firestorm's mythology because it makes the relationship between creator and creation much more morally complicated.

But what makes all of this even more interesting is how naturally it connects to Doomsday Clock. And I genuinely cannot believe I'm saying this, because I've made my feelings about Doomsday Clock pretty clear. I don't like that comic. However, one idea from that story that has always fascinated me is the Supermen Theory. For anyone unfamiliar with it, the basic idea is that the emergence of so many metahumans in the DC Universe wasn't entirely accidental. Instead, governments around the world were secretly involved in creating metahumans as part of an international arms race. And I absolutely love that concept.

Because it takes something that we've always accepted as a normal part of superhero storytelling, people suddenly developing extraordinary abilities, and reframes it through the lens of government experimentation, political paranoia, and the weaponization of human beings. And I honestly think Firestorm might be one of the best characters in the entire DC Universe to explore that idea. Because we're talking about a superhero whose entire existence is tied to nuclear science, whose powers allow him to manipulate the fundamental structure of matter, and who could theoretically be one of the most dangerous beings on the planet.

And when you start looking at a character like that through the lens of a metahuman arms race, suddenly Firestorm isn't just a superhero with incredible powers. He's essentially a living weapon of mass destruction. And that raises a pretty terrifying question: who gets to control someone with that kind of power? Because that's ultimately what the Supermen Theory is about. It's not simply the idea that governments are creating superheroes. It's the idea that they're creating people with extraordinary abilities specifically because they want to control and weaponize those abilities. And that's what makes the revelations about Professor Stein so disturbing.

Ronnie didn't just accidentally become this incredibly powerful superhero. His transformation was manipulated as part of a much larger effort to manufacture and control metahumans. And when you think about it, that makes Ronnie's current situation with the Firestorm Matrix even more tragic. Because Ronnie was denied control over becoming Firestorm in the first place, and now the Firestorm Matrix is taking away what little control he has left over being Firestorm. He was essentially created to be a weapon for someone else, and now the power that was forced upon him is threatening to consume him entirely. And I think there's something genuinely horrifying about that. But what I love most about this direction is how it brings the Frankenstein parallels and the Supermen Theory together, because they're ultimately exploring very similar ideas.

Both are concerned with what happens when people become so obsessed with scientific advancement and the power that comes with it that they stop considering the human consequences of their actions. Victor Frankenstein creates life without accepting the responsibilities that come with it. Professor Stein participates in the creation of metahumans without respecting the autonomy of the people whose lives are being fundamentally altered. And in both cases, the people who suffer the most are the creations themselves. And I think that's what makes this interpretation of Firestorm so compelling. Because the real horror of The Fury of Firestorm isn't simply that Ronnie Raymond is becoming this incredibly dangerous being who could potentially destroy humanity.

It's that Ronnie has spent so much of his life being treated as someone else's creation, and now even the thing that defines him as a superhero is taking away his ability to decide who he gets to be. And that's genuinely tragic. Especially because Firestorm has always been a character whose mythology is rooted in the relationship between science and humanity. So taking those classic elements and pushing them into the realm of psychological horror, scientific ethics, and questions about personal autonomy doesn't feel like some random attempt to make Firestorm darker or edgier.

It feels like a natural evolution of ideas that have always been present within the character. And I think that's something Jeff Lemire understands incredibly well. He's not completely reinventing Firestorm into something unrecognizable. He's taking the character's existing mythology, including some of its more controversial developments, and finding a way to explore those ideas from a perspective that feels fresh while still being fundamentally true to who Firestorm is. And that's honestly what I want from a comic book revival. Because I don't think reviving a character should mean simply repeating the stories that made them popular in the first place. But I also don't think it should mean changing everything about them just for the sake of doing something different.

The best revivals, at least to me, are the ones that understand what makes a character interesting and then find new ways to explore those ideas. And that's exactly what The Fury of Firestorm is doing. It's taking the classic scientific foundations of Firestorm, combining them with the political implications of the Supermen Theory, and using the horror of Ronnie losing his autonomy to tell a story that almost feels like a superhero version of Frankenstein. And somehow, all of those different ideas work together because they're ultimately asking the same question: what happens when humanity creates something incredibly powerful without considering the responsibility that comes with it?

Overall, The Fury of Firestorm is easily a 10 out of 10 for me, and honestly, I think it's one of the best things to come out of DC Next Level. It doesn't feel like any Firestorm run that's come before it, but at the same time, it never feels so different that it's stopped being Firestorm. Instead, Lemire has found a way to take everything that makes this character fascinating and explore it in a completely different light. And I think that's what makes this comic so special. It's not just a great Firestorm story. It's a story that understands why Firestorm is such an interesting character in the first place, and then asks what happens when you start taking the implications of his existence seriously. And for me, that's exactly the kind of storytelling I want to see more of from DC.

I'm not a pro or anything like that. I just wish we would've had something a bit more faithful to the comics.

[Superman by: Alex Ross, Batman from: Batman Beyond 1999]

Heya! I've decided to continue this thread because i got a few good replies the first time. Basically, the idea here is that i'm going to name a DC character and you can comment your version of them.

Imagine if DC hired you to create a different, fresh version of a character for a a new universe, like an Elseworlds story with complete creative liberty, what would you do with it?

Today is the day of Superman, or Clark Kent, or Kal-El. Born on the planet Krypton but raised in the town of Smallvile, Kansas, by his foster parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, working as a journalist on the Daily Planet newspaper in Metropolis. Clark is an incorruptible otimist who believes in the inherent good of humanity. He is guided by the morals taught by his foster parents in the farm, refusing to kill enemies. He balances the greatness of his divine power with a human and humble life as a reporter.

The marvel illuminati group mainly consists of Iron man, Namor, Black bolt, professor x, dr strange and reed richards. The marvel group is interesting because it's filled with intelligence, leaders in their field, but most importantly, characters that aren't scared to make a tough decision.

Because of the seriousness of the group, you can rule out any teen or jokey characters (nightwing, Jaime Blue Beetle, wally west, Booster Gold, etc.). Also rule out anyone who tries to be positive, like superman, martian Manhunter and Shazam.

Batman is there for certain. It's his whole thing. I've also thought of:

Mr terrific (don't think he has the heart for it, though)

Lex Luthor (might be too evil)

Amanda Waller (feels like she would do everyone dirty)

John Constantine (might not care enough)

Black Adam (actually might work)

John green lantern (I'm 50/50 about)

Dr Fate (with nabu in control, would he really care?)

Ra's al Ghul (i see the vision)

Let me know who you do think could be apart and why.

I’m actually so proud of this one. Bring him back dc 🥀