Comments on: Comic Blogs Should Be Good – Metamorphostuff

By: Eddie

Eddie — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:54:36 +0000

If only Ostrander had written Superman IV: The Quest for Peace……His Firestorm story appears a bit more politically astute.

By: karthik

karthik — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:20:15 +0000

Being a big fan of comics I have over the years collected a whole lot of comics including Archies, Phantom, Tarzan Classics, Li’l Abner Classics, Wizard of Id Asterix to name a few. However the other day my nephew happened to leave the asterix collection on the floor and Rocky (my German Shepard) had a blast by tearing it all apart. I went online to purchase a new set of asterix and to my surprise (or call it luck) I got the Tintin collection free of cost for buying the asterix collection on IndiaPlaza.

If any of your dogs chews of your books try this link below to find some real cool deals @

http://www.indiaplaza.in/books/all/ASTERIXTIN/all/the-asterix-and-tintin-collection.htm

By: Rebis

Rebis — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 22:20:55 +0000

I started buying Firestorm when Ostrander took over. I stayed on till the end, so though I didn’t remember much about it (other than Mikhail and the eventual elemental twist — and didn’t he introduce Naiad in the series, the Water Elemental inhabiting a Japanese woman?) I obviously enjoyed it enough. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Ryan.

As an aside, that first Firestorm logo was far and away the best.

By: Christopher J. Carlson

Christopher J. Carlson — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:09:34 +0000

Great article, Mr. Day. (Oooh. That sounds like a superhero name to me. He could be part of a duo with Mr. Night. I’m sure someone has already created characters with such names though.)

Anyhoo, this article didn’t just relate to me the great work Mr. Ostrander had done on Firestorm. It actually makes me want to collect the entire 100 issue run! Seriously!

I’ve always liked Firestorm, although I’ve never had more than a couple of comics starring the character. Great costume too, aside from the “elemental” version. Ewww.

Anyhoo…

By: Michael Rawdon

Michael Rawdon — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 19:35:37 +0000

Most of Ostrander’s run on Firestorm is quite cool, I agree. But he completely lost me when Firestorm became an elemental, partly due to the, “What, this idea AGAIN?” aspect of the story, and partly because of Mandrake’s artwork, which I have never warmed up to.

Mandrake, by the way, first worked with Ostrander on Grimjack. That was probably my least-favorite period of that otherwise-excellent title. I’m sad that the IDW mini-series doesn’t seem to have done well enough to revive it for good. (I’m also sad that IDW stopped issuing collections of the original series in hardcover after volume 3.)

Anyway, I liked the Firestorm run the best when it was dealing with the questions of consciousness and control over one’s life, as the three people who made up Firestorm had to cooperate to run their own lives.

By: Ryan Day

Ryan Day — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:00:53 +0000

I agree the elemental part is kind of iffy. I still find it interesting, though, particularly since Ostrander took so many of the ideas with him to The Spectre, where they worked a lot better. But from the beginning of the run (#58) to the end of Eden (#79) is great stuff. Joe Brozowski turned in some very nice work on the series, too.

Thanks for the comments.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 16:49:09 +0000

I agree with Pedro.

I thought the first year or so was some of the best superhero comics coming out from DC at the time (granted, there weren’t many good DC superhero comics coming out at the time, natch).

Then the Elemental stuff seemed to waver a bit.

By: Pedro BouÃ§a

Pedro BouÃ§a — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 11:53:39 +0000

In my opinion, Ostrander’s Firestorm started very well
(the best the character ever was, to be fair), but went
downhill with the elemental thing. I’m an Ostrander fan,
but to me this is his lesser work, sorry. But those first
few issues were great!

Oh, and androids becoming elementals and/or fathers is
beyond stupid! By the way, do you know how an android is
NEVER portraied (sp?) on comics? As an android! An
emotionless mechanic thing which is little more than a
computer with arms and legs! I mean, even Ultron has
feelings, for Bog’s sake!

Best,
Hunter (Pedro BouÃ§a)

By: Brad Curran

Brad Curran — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:28:11 +0000

Given that your opening sentence is generally the depth of my opinion on Firestorm, I think it’s pretty impressive that you have me wanting to read these issues. For you and Ostrander.

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:02:05 +0000

Well, there were those Millennium crossovers that you *wanted* to forget.

Ostrander’s Firestorm was pretty darn good, and it’s a shame his work isn’t better known. The whole ‘elemental’ thing was all part of the long shadow cast in the 80s by Alan Moore, so I won’t hold it against him. (I actually don’t have a problem with Reddy being an elemental if a bunch of plant muck can be, but the fact that Captain Atom was a ‘quantum elemental’ was pretty lame.)

I *think* it was Ostrander who stated that if you’re going to create a comics hero, you should think out the situation and determine ways in which the character can be revolutionized as the series progresses, and it seems to me his run on Firestorm was a really good example of this approach.

By: Bill Reed

Bill Reed — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 23:46:28 +0000

Ooo. Your blog’s great, man.

By: smarty

smarty — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 21:57:47 +0000

I read the first few of Ostrander’s Firestorm and thought they were excellent and interesting but, wow, the art was terrible. I may be remembering incorrectly but it seems like there were fill-in artists every other month and all of them were awful. And the “regular” artist was no better. Mandrake’s great but I had dropped the book well before then.

And Ostrander’s best stuff = Grimjack, at least the John Gaunt issues.