Firestorm’s Doomsday Clock Origin Returns To DC (Spoilers)

Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Doomsday Clock, Superman | Tagged: firestorm, jeff lemire

Firestorm’s Doomsday Clock Origin and The Supermen Theory returns to the DC Universe with The Fury of Firestorm #3 (Spoilers)

Doomsday Clock, DC’s unauthorised sequel to Watchmen by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, included The Supermen Theory, that the US Government was deeply involved in creating the superhero and supervillain characters that populate the world, mostly in the USA. Specifically, the allegation was made in Russia in front of the world’s media that the DC Comics superhero Firestorm was a creation of such a programme.

Superman, however, knew that this was fake news, from Doomsday Clock #8. Firestorm was not created by a super-secret government programme.

It was a nuclear accident. Well, in Doomsday Clock #9, Ronnie Raymond gets to revisit the moments before that accident, courtesy of the time-travelling Dr Manhattan.

Professor Martin Stein groomed Ronnie Raymond to turn them both into a government-controlled superbeing, to be named Firestorm. A suggestion that others were formed in similar ways. And now Raymond has seen the truth – at least the truth shown him by Manhattan. With the backmatter underlining that this was also an espionage activity to embed Firestorm amongst the other superhero teams….

And then it all came out, as the world learned the truth.

How much of this was to be considered DC Comics canon was up in the air, as Geoff Johns left DC Comics, And then The New History of The DC Universe by Mark Waid and Mike Allred set up The Supermen Project with Will Magnus, Nilkes Caulder, Martin Stein and Simon Stagg.

Scientists who, by hook or by crook, would invent much of the modern DC Universe.

And yes, mostly by crook when it came to it… including Firestorm.

And then in the new Fury of Firestorm #1 by Jeff Lemire and Rafael de Latorre, Project Firestorm reared its head. again.

And to be fair, over the years, he has been quite a lot of people.

But what about The Superman Theory? Was Firestorm created deliberately by Professor Stein? Did he groom teenage Ronnie Raymond to be a controllable superhero, with Stein as part of the matrix?

In today’s The Fury of Firestorm #3, we go straight to that secret government programme straight from Doomsday Clock…

Now Firestorm is pitched as a way to control the emerging superheroes at the time. And the death of Stein’s child as a motivating factor, as seen in the Doomsday Clock letter is restored.

And that includes a way to take down Superman. Or, indeed, Supergirl.

Should the reason ever arise. Firestorm as a weapon that can pull Kryptonite from the air…

But it’s not an altruistic act, even from that perspective. Steib wants in, literally.

But also being part of Firestorm and controlling all that power…

Back to grooming Ronnie Raymond. No wonder folk are so upset…

And he engineers the so-called nuclear accident, knowing exactly what would happen to him…

And to Ronnie…

The Supermen Project lives! The Fury of Firestorm #3 by Jeff Lemire and Rafael de Latorre is published by DC Comics today. As the folder from Doomsday Clock burns…

The Fury of Firestorm #3 Jeff Lemire, Rafael de Latorre
Lorraine is on the hunt for the only person who can bring Ronnie back from the brink: Martin Stein. But what did Martin do to cause such a rift between him and Ronnie to begin with?

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