Martin Stein


 * This article is about one of the two humans whose fusion makes up the conjoint meta-human Firestorm. For the current other half of Firestorm, see Jefferson Jackson. For the man who formerly served as the other half of Firestorm (until his presumed death), see Ronnie Raymond. For the meta-human, see Firestorm. For his Earth Two equivalent, see Martin Stein (Earth Two).

"I understand the importance of one thing and one thing only: After everything I've accomplished, all... All of the awards I've won... The only thing that brings meaning to my life is Clarissa. Yes, Martin, our wife, who you spent the last two days ignoring. Cherish her, Martin, because I promise you, she is the only thing you will care to remember."

- Martin speaking to his past self in 1987

Professor Martin Stein (born March 16, 1950) is a physicist who was the team leader for the F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. project. He co-wrote a paper on it with Jason Rusch. After the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator exploded he became one half of the transmuted and conjoined meta-human Firestorm alongside Ronnie Raymond. Firestorm was resurrected with Jefferson Jackson as the second half after Ronnie's death. In early 2016, Martin Stein was recruited by the rogue time-traveler Rip Hunter on a mission to take down Vandal Savage. During several missions he used the aliases "Elon Musk" and "Max Lorenz".

Life prior to the accelerator's malfunction
Martin Stein was born in 1950 on a roadside in Ivy Town after Martin Stein's mother went into labor. Shortly after being born, his father gave him to Rip Hunter and Mick Rory who were posing as doctors in order to kidnap newborn Martin to protect him from the Pilgrim. He was brought to The Refuge under the care of Mary Xavier. Rip Hunter later retrieved baby Martin from the Refuge and returned him to his parents restoring his existence in the timeline.

Martin Stein was raised in Jewish faith and his father made him become a rabbi directly before Martin's enrollment at MIT. Martin Stein attended University of Chicago where he became classmates with Quentin Quale, as they were both of class of '70. Their relationship could be seen as more than mere acquaintance, for Martin was the only person with whom Quentin shared the truth about his brother's death being a suicide.

In October 1975, the visit of his future self causes him to miss a faculty mixer arranged by his future wife's uncle who was a professor at Ivy Town University. However Rip Hunter is able to "encourage" him to attend the mixer, thus preserving the timeline.

Martin accomplished various achievements in the scientific field and even had a table for all the awards he received, though his wife Clarissa would remark that perhaps he was just a tad too focused on his career. However, Martin still loved Clarissa very much, and often spoke of his affection for her when conversing with his friends. He wrote numerous papers on a vast array of scientific theories, a number of which were for the Oxford University Press; one of them was about the topic of time travel, published around 1990, and became well known in certain circles.

Professor Stein worked as the leader of the F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. project. He published an 800-page paper regarding the project that was co-written by Jason Rusch. Wishing to get help for it, he went to an unspecified source.

The day of the accident at S.T.A.R. Labs and afterwards
39 years later Martin Stein was on the train back to Central City, the same train Barry Allen rode from his trip back from Starling City. They both interacted, discussing the theories of Albert Einstein. They mentioned the brilliance of Einstein and Barry's own girlfriend problems.



That night, Martin was near S.T.A.R. Labs and happened to be in the middle of an anti-particle accelerator protest. When the accelerator exploded, he dropped his Firestorm Matrix and the wave (containing particles of Ronnie Raymond) hit him, fusing the two together. Martin Stein was considered "missing" for a long time afterward.

One month later, Stein (in Ronnie's body) found himself trashed. He went back to his wife, who obviously could not recognize him as he took on the appearance of a stranger, forcing him to flee from their house and live on the streets.

9 months later, close to the one year anniversary of the S.T.A.R. Labs incident, Ronnie's subconscious loosely gained minimal control of his own body and revealed himself (with Stein still the prominent conscious) to Caitlin Snow. Afterwards Caitlin and Cisco Ramon became persistent on finding Ronnie, not knowing that Martin was the one in most of the control of Ronnie's body. They wanted to help him but he refused. Later when The Flash was about to be killed by the Reverse-Flash, Stein came to his aid by blasting the speedster off of him. He then told Caitlin not to look for him again before flying off.

3 months later Stein was still in Ronnie's body then later came to his old schoolmate Quentin Quale asking him for help but ended up losing control of his powers and severely burned Quale to a critical condition. Team Flash eventually tracked him down and managed to persuade him to come in, thanks to Clarissa. As the team ran tests on Stein, they discovered that Ronnie's body was becoming unstable and that he would eventually explode. Hearing this, Stein traveled as far as he could from the city to avoid harming anyone. Caitlin and Barry tracked him down and tried to prevent him from exploding by putting a device on his chest, which didn't seem to work at first, as the explosion still happened with Barry and Caitlin barely escaping the blast.

They succeeded in separating. However, Martin and Ronnie maintained synchrony in their brain waves, enabling them to communicate telepathically to a degree. General Wade Eiling eventually sought to kidnap both of them to experiment on, succeeding in kidnapping Martin. Ronnie sensed Martin being in danger, used a piece of broken glass to carve a message, hoping Martin would receive it; he did, and in return, sent a Morse code respond to share the location where he was kept captive, thus Barry and Ronnie went to rescue Martin. While Barry was occupied, Martin and Ronnie were cornered, and forced to merge. However, this time, having accepted each other and achieved balance, both of their minds were active on a conscious level. Although Ronnie was in control of the Firestorm body this time, Martin was still active to communicate with one another telepathically. With the use of the device, they were able join and separate at will and separated after the incident. Ultimately, they chose to visit a colleague of Martin Stein's in Pittsburgh to get a better understanding of their condition. Having decided this, they joined again to become Firestorm and flew off.

Three months later when Barry realized he was too slow for the Reverse-Flash he called Firestorm and Oliver Queen/The Arrow to help him in his upcoming fight against him. When Wells arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs to use the particle accelerator the Flash confronted him and Firestorm and Arrow soon joined him, but Wells was unimpressed and fought all 3 of them. When Flash was down Firestorm distracted Reverse-Flash so Arrow could shoot him with a special arrow to disable his speed, but Reverse-Flash used his tornado powers to send Firestorm blocks away. Flash quickly recovered him and stopped him falling to his death and resumed the fight shooting a massive ball of fire at Reverse-Flash atop S.T.A.R. Labs when Flash lead him up there, causing him to fall on a car where Arrow finally finished him off with an arrow and made him pass out. Having defeated the Reverse-Flash, the Arrow parted ways with Flash while Firestorm remained.

While incarcerated inside the Particle Accelerator, Eobard Thwane revealed his plan of having Barry Allen opening up wormhole inside the accelerator in order for him to time-travel back to the future. Eobard proposed that when the wormhole opened, Barry should use it to travel back to the night when his mother got killed and prevent her assassination. Hearing this proposal, Martin discussed the complications, calming that if Barry does decide to prevent Nora's death then his entire life and all of the current history up to that point would be completely erased and Barry would never have met all the people in his new life as The Flash. However, Martin remained uncertain of the full extent of the repercussions.

Doctor Stein began analysing the variables of the wormhole in order to verify Thawne's claims, working alongside Eobard's distant grandfather, Eddie Thawne. Eddie immediately felt unqualified to help so he decided to leave, but he was stopped by Martin who said that he is equally important as anyone else. Eddie gave a rebuttal by mentioning Eobard's claims about the future, how Eddie failed to accomplish anything in his life. However, Martin dismissed these claims by pointing out to Eddie the incredible coincidence of him and his distant grandson existing in the same moment in time and that he is the only person in that era who Eobard is incapable of killing. Martin believed that Eddie is the only individual in this entire scenario he exhibits free-will. Just as encouraged Eddie to stay, Martin noticed that one of the possible outcomes of opening up the wormhole would be the creation of a singularity, a black-hole capable of swallowing the entire planet and he immediately warns the rest of the team.

When The Flash ran to stabilize the singularity, Martin merged with Ronnie and flew up to the singularity in order to separate it in the eye. They succeeded in stopping the singularity from swallowing up Central city with some consequences. During their effort to destroy the singularity Ronnie and Martin separated and Ronnie was pulled into the singularity which possibly killed him.

New Firestorm
Six months after Ronnie's death, Martin became the new mentor of Team Flash. After meeting and speaking to Jay Garrick, he discussed the implications of the multiverse including Earth One, Earth Two and Zoom. He later helped save Patty Spivot and stop Eddie Slick/Sand Demon and questioned Cisco about his odd behavior. He then learned Cisco was a meta-human and persuaded him to use his abilities for the better and tell the team. Stein began talking to the team when he fainted which was found to be the effect of not being merged with his second half for a long period of time.

A few hours later, he recovered from his state and helped to stop Lewis Snart and Leonard Snart/Capitain Cold from stealing the diamonds. He also contributed in helping Lisa Snart. Stein immediately starts bursting into blue flames before falling on the floor unconscious.

The team discovered he needed someone else to merge with Stein in order for him to stay alive. The only two possible matches were Jax Jackson and Henry Hewitt. Henry Hewitt was not able to merge with Stein as he was incompatible so they had to resort to the second choice Jax Jackson. During a fit of rage Henry discovered his new abilities. Henry was both enraged and jealous of this decision and tried attacking Caitlin in the garage Jax was working in, Jax successfully defended her and they both escaped to S.T.A.R. Labs. The team found out Henry was wreaking havoc in the stadium Jax used to play in. After discussing the dangers of Henry the team decided in order to tackle Henry, Jax Jackson and Martin Stein had to merge. The merge was successful and Jax had the physical and mental control of firestorm. After a long battle with Henry Hewitt, Firestorm and The Flash succeeded in defeating Henry. Later Jax Jackson and Martin Stein decided to leave Central City in order to train.

Joining Rip Hunter
In January 2016, Jefferson Jackson and Stein were still in Pittsburgh, where they were up against a criminal at a chemical plant as Firestorm. Stein told Jax to be careful, as 83% of the chemicals were flammable. Jax however still shot fireballs all over the place. While Firestorm defeated the man, Stein was still upset that Jax doesn't listen to him. Jax told him to stop treating him like one of his "snot nosed undergrads" when they were intercepted by Rip Hunter. Martin and the rest of Rip Hunter's recruits woke up on top of a building where Rip informed them of the impending threat of Vandal Savage’s conquest of the world and a chance to join him. Later, Martin and Jax discussed Rip’s offer where Jax was firmly against it while Stein relished the opportunity.

Before embarking on Rip's mission, Jax from a few months into the future time traveled to just before the team left due to future Martin sending him back to 2016 to reverse the effects of temporal radiation and he made contact with Martin. Jax and Martin scavenged Eobard's Time sphere for parts to the jump ship with Jax noting that present Martin was more arrogant than future Martin. As they were saying their goodbyes, Martin apologized for being an insufferable know-it-all and Jax told him that his present self would be very angry about Martin drugging him later but that he would eventually consider it the best decision he never made. Jax then left and time traveled back to the Vanishing Point.

Not to be deterred, Stein drugged him and took him on Rip Hunter's mission anyways. Martin and a sleeping Jax arrived with the others at the Waverider where Ray Palmer talked to Martin about being one of his students, which he doesn’t remember. Then, Rip took them first to St. Roch in 1975 where Jax was angry with Martin for drugging and kidnapping him against his will and elected to stay behind on the ship. Martin accompanied Rip to speak to Dr. Aldus Boardman to gather information on Savage. After speaking with Aldus, the Waverider was attacked by Chronos and Martin sensed Jax’s distress causing the team to return to the ship. Under fire from Chronos, Martin and Ray made a run for the ship. As Firestorm, he and the Atom provided enough cover for the rest of the team to make it to the time ship. Hiding in the temporal zone, the team learned of Rip’s status as a rogue Time Master and the murder of his family by Savage. Martin then suggested that everyone needed time to think about their options. Martin apologized to Jax for bringing him unwillingly and offered to go home. However, Jax had a change of heart and wanted to stay.

The team next headed to Norway, where Savage was holding a black market auction of a nuclear bomb. Against Rip's wishes, they went after Savage during the auction. When the team had difficulty with an ID checker, Martin was able to swindle the guard allowing the team into the auction. However, Savage sensed the presence of Kendra and Carter and ordered the attendees to kill the group. A huge fight broke out and Ray emerged from Martin's pocket and joined the fight. However, the team failed to kidnap Savage and he escaped, activating the bomb while leaving. Firestorm flew the bomb away and absorbed the nuclear energy. Unfortunately, Ray left a piece of his exosuit behind, altering history. Martin and Ray deduced that the exosuit's alpha particles can be tracked with a device created by a younger Martin Stein in 1975. The younger Stein lost opportunity to meet his future wife Clarissa, after meeting with "sexy assassin from the future" Sara Lance, and her proceeding to knock him out, he refused to go to a Facility Mixer. Rip convinced the young Martin Stein to go and meet his dear Clarissa. Stein became depressed upon realizing that despite believing he had matured over the years, he was still just as arrogant as his younger self. After Savage forced a captured Leonard Snart to contact the team, they came to the rescue. Firestorm was able to knock Savage out, but Kendra and Carter were unable to finish him. Savage then killed Carter and wounded Kendra forcing the team to retreat. Rip took Martin back to the university to show him his/Marty's meeting with Clarissa. Back on the time ship, they renewed their commitment to defeating Savage in memory of Carter. Later, Jax helped encourage Stein by showing him that he has indeed matured into a kind, smart and selfless man who is willing to do anything to save the world to make it a better place.

When Kendra's wound worsened, Martin and Ray discovered fragments of the Amon Dagger in her bloodstream. Ray tried to use his A.T.O.M. suit to destroy the fragments with Martin's help but he panicked and stopped the procedure. Ray resented the fact that Martin didn’t remember him as one of his top students. Later, Martin confided to Ray that he acted like he didn’t remember Ray because he was jealous that as one of his students, Ray seemed more brilliant than he was. In a second attempt, Martin guided Ray through Kendra's bloodstream and managed to destroy all of the remaining dagger fragments. Ray then realized Martin had lied about remembering him as a student, but Martin justified it by saying that Ray needed the push. After the rest of the team recovered Carter's body from Savage, they held a funeral for Carter and Aldus. During a visit to 1986 to track Savage, Stein attempts to investigate a Russian nuclear program being funded by Savage by himself out of concern for Jefferson's safety, but although he is able to drain off Savage's nuclear reaction by himself, he, Ray, and Rory are subsequently captured by Savage's ally, Valentina Vostok.

Realizing that Savage's plan was intended to recreate his own version of Firestorm, Martin did his best to withstand Savage's torture to keep the secrets of Firestorm safe. However, Savage threatened the lives of Ray and Mick, forcing Martin to give Valentina the equation for Firestorm. Valentina was able to forcibly merge with Stein to create a new Firestorm, but with Jefferson's encouragement and recognition that he had only left Jefferson behind out of fear rather than a lack of trust, Stein was able to separate from Valentina, triggering a nuclear explosion that destroyed Valentina and the gulag where she had been working while Hunter and his team escaped.

After being knocked out of the temporal zone by Chronos into Star City of 2046, Martin stayed on the ship to help with repairs. Due to their psychic link, Jax caused Martin to become irritated that Ray and Kendra were being friendly with each other since Jax had a crush on Kendra. Jax was unsure of himself, but Martin implores him to be confident. Martin then tried to deter Ray from romantically pursuing Kendra, but in actuality gave Ray the idea. When Sara went off to rescue Connor Hawke from Grant Wilson's men, Martin convinced Rip to help her because this potential future is real to Sara. Firestorm, along with the rest of the team, came to help Sara and Oliver rescue Connor.

When Gideon received a distress signal from the Acheron, the team investigated it to retrieve current timeline data. Martin accompanied the away team to investigate the Acheron but stayed behind on the jumpship. Martin snuck on board after Rip, Mick, and Jax were captured by Jon Valor, disabled the weapon systems, and freed Rip, Jax, and captured time master Eve Baxter. Later, the team decided to put down Mick for selling them out to the time pirates. The Acheron's time data pointed to Savage being in Harmony Falls, 1958. Martin disguised himself as a replacement doctor since the last one was murdered (presumably by Savage). After Rip and Leonard find Betty Seaver injured by with talon wounds, Martin surmised that Savage had an Nth metal meteor of the same kind that gave Kendra and Carter their powers. He proposed that he could come up with a cure for the mutated creatures. Leonard and Martin snooped around the hospital for Jax, meanwhile Martin grew worried when he couldn't psychically sense Jax. When Kendra failed to kill Savage, Savage released his manhawks. Martin and Leonard fought off the manhawks but discovered that Jax had been turned into one. They subdued Jax and took him to the Waverider where Martin and Gideon made a gene therapy to cure Jax from the Nth metal mutation. Before the rest of the crew was onboard the Waverider, Chronos attacked the ship forcing it to take off and strand Ray, Kendra, and Sara in 1958.

When Chronos boarded the Waverider, Rip told Martin and Jax to take the jump ship. However, they were not willing to leave their team behind. As Firestorm, they busted through the bridge to find Rip lying on the floor and Leonard kidnapped. Rip rebooted Gideon to override Chronos' commands and they freefell through time. The team landed in 1960 to pick up Kendra and Ray, but found that Sara had rejoined the League of Assassins. The team snuck into Nanda Parbat where the League captured them. After a trial by combat between Sara and Kendra, Chronos attacked. Ra's al Ghul freed the Legends so that they could fight off Chronos. Through their combined efforts, they defeated Chronos but discovered that he was actually Mick Rory. Rip then told the team that their next destination was 2147.

Rip's plan in this leg of the mission was to kill future despot Per Degaton in 2147 before he could provide the platform for Savage to later conquer the world. Martin and others opposed this plan so Rip compromised by abducting him from the timeline. While the rest of the team kidnapped Per Degaton, Martin accompanied Ray and Jax to disable the A.T.O.M. robot army. Later, Tor Degaton's army surrounded the Waverider so Firestorm helped the team hold off the soldiers and A.T.O.M. robots. After trying and failing to kill Per on his own, Rip exchanged Per's life for Sara's and the team escaped the Kasnia Conglomerate.

While hiding in 1871 from the Hunters, Martin went with the team to explore the town of Salvation. Martin played cards with some local townspeople using card skills his father taught him. One of the men at the table got frustrated and grabbed a waitress. Martin picked a fight with him causing the man to draw his gun. However, Leonard was the quicker draw and shot the man, saving Martin's life. Afterwards, it evolved into an all-out bar fight until Jonah Hex settled them all down and demanded to be taken to Rip. Martin later returned to the saloon to ask the bartender where to find Jeb Stillwater and also ran into a grieving woman who had a sick son. She took him to her son who had tubercolosis. Martin tried to sneak some medicine off the Waverider but got caught warranting a lecture from Rip. Despite that, he still gave the futuristic medicine to the boy. After Rip won the duel against Jeb Stillwater, the Hunters arrived and assaulted the town. Firestorm and the rest of the team fought off the Hunters. Before dying, one of them told Mick of the Omega Protocol which would initiate the Pilgrim to go after the team. Martin said his goodbyes to the mother and her son who turned out to be the future H.G. Wells.

When the Pilgrim went after Ray in 2014, Firestorm and Rip rescued him. Jax confided to Martin that he never got to see his father since he shipped off to Somalia before he was born. However, when Martin and Ray were kidnapping Jax as a newborn in 1993, Martin saw that his father hadn't shipped out yet. Martin brought back present-day Jax so that he could talk to his father. After the team was successful in rescuing everyone's younger selves, they took them all to the Refuge under the care of Mary Xavier. Gideon then intercepted a message from the Pilgrim threatening the team's family, including Clarissa. The team met her at an abandoned Time Masters outpost where they turned over 10 year-old Rip to her. Firestorm and the rest of the team then ambushed her but she held them off with her time micro-manipulation powers. However, young Rip stabbed her and she was subsequently destroyed by the team. Back on the Waverider, Clarissa didn't remember Martin but Rip assured him that he would return them when the mission is complete.

Next, the team went to London of 2166 at the height of Savage's reign. After an assassination attempt on Savage, Rip took Martin, Jax, and Ray to make contact with the remains of the resistance. Martin and Ray investigated a destroyed resistance camp and discovered Savage's superweapon was The Leviathan, a colossal robot. Martin brought the refugees from the resistance camp onboard for protection. The Waverider was then attacked by the robot while trying to escape and took serious damage. Martin was injured in the attack and charged Jax with protecting the refugees before being sedated by Gideon. Martin later woke up and was reassured by Rip that the refugees made it out alive.

When Jefferson was contaminated by exposure to temporal energy while repairing the Waverider's temporal core, Stein sent him back to 2016 in the escape pod to purge him of the radiation. When Stein and the others were captured by the Time Masters, Jefferson was able to repair the pod and return to the future with the aid of the Stein from just before he joined the mission. Reunited, Stein and Jefferson learned that they could transmute elements as Firestorm as well as just shoot fire, but had to prioritise eliminating Savage's plans over exploring this new development in depth. Despite this, the two used this power to destroy one of the meteors Savage was using for his plan.

After stopping Savage, Stein and the others bid Carter and Kendra farewell as they wanted to try to live a life now free from their long time nemesis. Rip asked if the others also wanted to leave but they all wanted to stay with him. Before they could leave, they watched as an identical timeship crashed in front of them. From the ship emerged Rex Tyler who came to warn the Legends that they were in danger.

Protecting the timestream
After spending some months protecting the timeline from other threats in the absences of the Time Masters, the now-named 'Legends' tasked themselves with undoing any disturbances to history. They began to notice that there was someone causing a number of time aberrations, namely giving blasters to assassins to kill the King Louis XIII of France in 1637. Martin was a little happy to be in that time period, dressed in the clothes of the era, to Mick's annoyance. After they saved him and were aboard the Waverider, they felt a massive 'time quake' in the temporal zone. The origin was New York in 1942 where the Nazi's had destroyed it with an atomic bomb. Reviewing the timeline, they noticed that Albert Einstein had gone missing prior to the attack and decided to rescue him to prevent the Nazi's from getting the bomb, to Martin's excitement.

Stein was speechless to meet Einstein and tried to convince him to go with them for his own safety but he refused, even when he came under attack from Nazi spies. Stein then went and punched Einstein so they could take him back to the Waverider. On board, they realized that taking him didn't change the abberation at all. Stein talked with Einstein and realized that his ex-wife Mileva Maric was the Nazi's target to obtain the atomic bomb. They then learned that Damien Darhk was the one who was heading the Nazi's attack on New York. After saving Mileva, they boarded the Waverider to stop the Nazis from using the bomb. To protect the team from the damage to the Waverider, Rip scattered the Legends through the timeline. Stein and Jackson ended up in the Middle Ages acting as wizards until they were rescued by Mick Rory and new team member Nate Heywood.

After ensuring the Einsteins' safety, the Legends decided to leave 1943 but were intercepted by the Justice Society of America. They had a short battle with them but the Legends were defeated and taken back to their headquarters where they met Rex Tyler again though he didn't know them. As they talked Rex believed that Martin was the group's leader. The JSA asked the Legends to leave after they received a mission in France. When the Legends returned to the Waverider, they discovered that the JSA were in danger.

Martin decided to appoint himself leader as he felt there was a reason that Rex Tyler assumed that he was their group's leader to begin with. They went to France and found the JSA staking out a night club frequented by the Nazis. Stein pretended to be a famed singer to gain access and sang a song in the club. However, their cover was blown by Ray and a fight broke out where the JSA were reunited with the Legends. To get the amulet, stop the Nazis and ensure the JSA's survival, they decided to team up. When they intercepted the exchange, Kreiger used a serum to turn himself into a Berserker monster and caused the Legends and JSA to retreat but Ray and Amaya were captured. During the battle, Martin had tried to direct everyone but froze when the Berserker attacked, making him realize that he wasn't fit to be the group's leader. After talking with Jax and seeing Sara argue with Rex Tyler to save their friends, Martin saw fit to name Sara as their new Captain.

When Nate was injured, Martin tried to help him as much as he could but he was dying. Ray had gotten a hold of the serum and modified it for himself but instead gave it to Nate which saved his life to Martin's astonishment. They bid the JSA farewell before they went back to their search for Rip. Martin was talking with Ray about Nate's condition when they were jumped by Amaya who stowed away believing that Mick had killed Rex. Afterwards, an accident stranded Nate and Ray in feudal Japan and they had to touch down the ship to rescue them. Martin stayed with Jax on the ship to make repairs when they discovered that Rip had a secret armory. In it, they discovered a message from Barry Allen from the future. The two of them decided to not tell the team about it after they got back.

When the team encountered a distress call from a stranded time pilot, they set down during the time of the American Civil War. He told Jax that it might be best if he stayed on the ship, as it was the time of slavery, but Jax told him that he could handle it. The team discovered that the pilot had been infected with a futuristic disease that turned him into a zombie like creature. He then passed it on to some Confederate soldiers who were chasing a messenger. Stein freaked out at the sight of them and revealed that he had an inert fear of zombies. When Mick was infected, and then let loose on the ship, he was beyond panicked. However, with Ray's encouraging, he was able to fight passed his fear to help stop Rory so Ray could come up with the cure. When Jax returned, Martin saw that he had been affected by his experience and told Jax that he wanted to spare him from facing that dark part of humanity.

Changing his past
Jax began to propose that with the Waverider, they could go and make their own changes to history to try and make it better though Stein argued that they could do just as much damage as their enemies by manipulating the timeline. When the Legends detected an aberration in Washington D.C. in 1987, Martin went off with Jax to the White House to find the cause. He knew that he was in Washington for the nuclear peace summit but was surprised to find his younger self in the White House as he knew that he hadn't been there and knew that time was already changing. Ray and Rory found out that Damien Darhk was there and he quickly warned Sara to not do anything rash but she ignored him. They were almost caught by the Secret Service but managed to escape arrest. He warned Sara that in her quest to try and save her sister by killing Darhk almost 30 years before his actual death could have grave consequences. Stein then listened in when Ray and Rory ran surveillance on Darhk but his younger self had arrived. He was surprised as he remembered it was his wife's birthday today but his younger self had chosen to stand her up in order to try and ask Darhk for a chance to bring his research to President Reagan's attention. His younger self seemed to notice that Darhk was meeting with the KGB for a side deal right before he was stabbed.

Stein was then reunited with his younger self who had deduced who he really was after their last encounter. Stein then yelled at him for leaving their wife alone which had gotten him into this mess in the first place. He then went with the team who managed to gain access into to the White House through Obsidian to interrupt Darhk's deal with the KGB but had run into Clarissa who had come to look for her husband. When they met, she felt as if she knew Martin from somewhere though he claimed that he was one of her husband's work friends. When it was discovered that Darhk had planted a bomb, he and Jax went as Firestorm and got Clarissa to safety. When his younger self was recovered, he gave him a stern lecture of being selfish in abandoning their wife all to further their research. He told her that Clarissa was all that gave his life real meaning, not his work, and that he had to cherish her. His younger self seemed to agree and promised that he would never stop loving their wife and always let her know how important she was to him.

Over time, Martin was starting to see flashes of a girl. At first, he thought that he was suffering some kind of mental affliction and had his brain scanned by Gideon though nothing was wrong with him. He discussed what was happening with Jax and together they came to the conclusion that what was happening to Martin was due to his interaction with his younger self in 1987. Martin didn't know who the woman was that he was seeing, though he was certain that he loved her. Jax took this to mean that he might've had another woman in his life other than Clarissa.

When the Dominators came to Earth, Stein went with the other Legends to Central City to help Team Flash and Team Arrow against them. He also met Supergirl who was from another Earth in the multiverse whom Barry had brought to help them. He and Jax decided to inform Barry of the message they found in the Waverider and pulled him aside along with Oliver Queen. The message told of Barry giving a warning about a future war that was brought upon them as a result of him going back in time. He then informed Martin, Jax and Oliver about Flashpoint and the differences he made to not only his life but several others. Martin then had more flashes of the mystery woman and he asked for Caitlin to take him home. Caitlin was wracked with guilt due to her hurting her friends because of her powers and Stein offered her both advice and solace in the fact that it wasn't really her doing those things. He then got to his front door to find the young woman he'd been seeing. At first, he was worried that his wife wasn't there because of the change in time but the woman told him that she wasn't here. It was then revealed that this woman was actually his new daughter, Lily Stein. He was shocked at the revelation and quickly made an excuse to leave to the puzzlement of both Caitlin and Lily. He rejoined the others when they received word that the President had been captured by the Dominators. Before they left, Barry then confessed to the others about creating Flashpoint and most of the team became angry with Barry for taking it upon himself to change history for his own benefit. Stein was one of the few who still trusted Barry.

Stein went to S.T.A.R. Labs to try and work on a weapon to use to stop the Dominators. Caitlin had revealed that she had brought Lily to come and help them. He was surprised to see that Lily was a technical expert and she was eager to help her father. However, whenever Lily tried to engage Martin in conversation, he tried to distance himself from her. Caitlin asked why he was shutting Lily out and he revealed to her that Lily was a time aberration he created by interacting with his younger self. Caitlin then asked if he was going to go back in time and erase her and he told her that he was going to restore the timeline back. When Lily started to lose her temper at not being able to find a solution to the weapon and was ready to take off. Caitlin told Stein that Lily was really upset over her father keeping her at arms length and not understanding why. He argued that it wasn't the time for family drama but she argued that they needed Lily's help. Stein went to apologize to Lily and told her that he was being distant because of the new complications in his life. What he said seemed to spark inspiration in Lily and together, they were able to find the missing piece in creating the weapon. Martin then realized how remarkable his daughter truly was.

When the team learned that the Dominators were going to drop a bomb to eliminate meta-humans, along with millions of normal humans, he and Jax went off to try and stop the bomb before it hit the ground. They tried to transmutate it but it was too big. Stein begged Jax to try harder as he now had a daughter and it seemed to spark the power they needed to destroy the meta-bomb. Firestorm then joined the other heroes in fighting against the Dominators as Felicity Smoak activated his and Lily's weapon which forced them to retreat. When they were celebrating back in Central City, Jax went to Stein and asked how he now had a daughter. He then revealed how he had lectured his younger self about neglecting Clarissa and that it caused him to pay more attention to his wife which made them go on and have a child. He then told Jax that he couldn't tell the team about it as he decided that he didn't want to lose his daughter.

After this, Stein started receiving more flashes as new memories of Lily started to come to him. He told Jax that every one of them was a gift though Jax warned him that it would only be a matter of time before the team discovered the truth about her. The team then discovered a new aberration in Chicago of 1927. When Ray let Eliot Ness go with some corrupt policemen that worked for Al Capone, they passed by Stein though he didn't notice as some more memories of his daughter were triggered and came to him. Sara asked him why he didn't stop them though Jax covered for him as he guessed what must've happened. They then moved for the docks and rescued Ness from Capone. To keep history back on track, they had to get the ledger of Capone's dealings for Ness and Nate guessed it was in his speakeasy. The team was ready to move in when they ran into Damien Darhk. But then his speedster ally arrived and Stein along with Sara were kidnapped.

They then learned that Malcolm Merlyn had joined them as well and tried to make a deal with Sara for the amulet that they took from Darhk in 1987 but Sara refused as she said that you couldn't manipulate time for your own benefit which made Stein uncomfortable. When he asked if she had considered taking the deal, she did consider it but he taught her better than that. Stein then confessed about him causing an aberration which resulted him now having a daughter. Sara was surprised and angry, especially with how he had convinced her to not try and save her sister, when they were interrupted by Damien Darhk. He had Stein taken away where he met the speedster, who Stein felt he knew from somewhere. The speedster admitted that their past was complicated and then used a device to painfully steal his appearance. He was then taken by Capone to be thrown in the river but his friends realized the deception and Sara had made a deal to trade the amulet to learn where he was. They then saved him and brought him back to the Waverider. Sara approached him and she told Stein that she understood his decision and she would help in protecting his new daughter and he thanked her before telling Sara her his daughter's name.

The Legion of Doom
Stein stumbled upon Rory who revealed that he had been seeing a ghost of Leonard Snart. He asked Stein for his help but told him to not tell the others that he was seeing him. He was trying to help Rory learn what could be causing this when Sara came and told them that Rip had been found in 1967. He had been arrested and to get him out, Stein played the role of a psychiatrist. He, Rory and Sara was shocked to see Rip again, though the man didn't recognize them and was now Phil Gasmer. He resisted going with them as they thought they were to take him to a mental facility. Rory knocked him out and they tried to take him out but Darhk and Merlyn had arrived, looking for him as well. They were barely able to get Rip to the Waverider just as Darhk and Merlyn found them. They then learned from Gideon that Rip's mind was altered and he was reprogrammed with a new identity. Rory then had an idea to use Gideon to find out what was making him see Snart though Stein told him that his visions weren't neurological but psychological but Rory insisted. He ran the scan and found that Rory had some kind of chip in his head that looked like a receiver that was placed there by the Time Masters when he was Chronos. Stein guessed that when Snart died in the Oculus blast, the chip honed in on the wavelength of the energy letting him see Snart. Rory asked him to remove it though Stein was a bit nervous. Stein managed to remove it but learned that the chip hadn't been able to work in months so it wasn't the cause. He guessed that it simply the reason Rory was seeing Snart was simply how he was emotionally dealing with his friend's death.

When a time quake was felt and traced back to 1776, Stein was shocked when he learned it was due to George Washington being killed before his trip across the Delaware. He and Jax stayed on the ship as the rest of the team moved to protect Washington but felt a jolt when Rip used a device to send an EMP through the area which shut down the ship and his and Jax's quantum splicer. He was shocked when Sara was brought aboard, suffering being shot by Rip. Jax told him to try and help Sara without Gideon but Martin tried to remind him that he wasn't a doctor but Jax told him that today he would have to be. He tried to help Sara as much as he could before Rip came aboard the ship and knocked him out. He came to and found that Sara had been suffocated by Rip and Jax had watched it. Ray managed to get Gideon back on line and he quickly moved to heal Sara before the damage could be permanent and managed to succeed. He then was in the ship's mess hall, celebrating Christmas with the rest of the team.

When his daughter's algorithm located another fragment in 3000 A.D. Stein was excited to go into the distant future. He and the team went to a research lab where they found Dr. Mid-Nite dead, killed by Rip. Martin found some advanced tech lying around and pocketed it. They then found another fragment in 507 A.D. but Martin chose to stay on the ship so he could analyze the tech he got from Mid-Nite's lab. However, Mick caught onto him and found that he stole the tech though he quickly told him that he 'borrowed' it which Mick laughed at in amusement. When Jax returned with some mind control tech that Rip and Damien Darhk were using on Camelot's knights, Martin saw that it went as a set to the device he took from the lab. He learned that the 'commander' wore the one that he took while the 'soldier' wore the one that Jax brought to him. They then hoped that they could hack the signal from Rip's commander device and disrupt his control. Martin tried to use it to control Mick but it didn't have any effect. When Sara and Amaya managed to get Stargirl to give them her piece of the spear, they were set to leave but Ray had chosen to stay behind to help Camelot fight against Rip and Darhk's army. The team then started arguing about whether it was best to stay or leave and Martin voted to stay and not leave Ray behind.

Personality
Martin is a pacifist, having protested in the Vietnam War. He also hated pizza before merging with Ronnie. After merging he picked up some of Ronnie's characteristics, such as obsession with pizza. Martin is also shown to have a childish and laid back personality. One example was when he stated he was "game" if Ronnie was also willing to try to separate. He is also shown to have a sense of humor, telling Ronnie they should not fight on their wedding day shortly before officiating Caitlin and Ronnie's marriage. He also believed that any relationship should be prioritized above everything else.

On his first encounter, he is shown being cold towards Team Flash's camaraderie, asking if they were going to start chanting soon. However, after being rescued by the Flash, with the help of the team, he seems to have warmed up to the idea of the collaboration. This is even more apparent when he returns with Ronnie to help Barry. Not only does he help Barry travel back in time, he also helps a disheartened Eddie understand his role in everything that was happening.

Martin is very articulate and speaks in a very cultured and academic way that is sometimes misconstrued as arrogant or sometimes impossible to even understand; because of this, he is generally incapable of referring to someone by their nickname, calling Ronnie "Ronald" (despite "Ronnie" being his actual and legal name), calling Jax "Jefferson" and everyone else either Mr. or Ms. followed by their second name.

In combat and as Firestorm, Martin is very brave, dangerous, and sometimes brutal, despite his personality when not fighting. He attacked Barry and tried to kill him by dropping him from the sky, out of anger for Barry and his team not leaving him alone as he told them to. Even without Firestorm, he was brave enough to fight hand to hand with Time Pirates and knock out some of them on his own. While co piloting Firestorm's body, he was willing to be part of killing in battle. In this regard, while he dislikes fighting, he is not afraid of it and will fight as a last resort or to defend himself.

In "Abominations", it is revealed that Martin has an irrational fear of zombies, extending to the point where he cannot hear or say the word without difficulty, and apparently has never had the courage to watch zombie movies. This becomes a problem, when Mick becomes a zombie and starting to attack him and Ray. Martin became overwhelmed with fear, but managed to overcome it, as evidenced when he faced Mick alone.

Martin, despite his academic nature, is often subject to his rather powerful emotions. Due to the trauma of having lost Ronnie, his original fusion partner for Firestorm, he often berates Jax on his recklessness. This is out of fear of losing another partner and having to face the prospect of telling Jax's mother that her son died. Martin is also a very caring man, who has taken issue when confronting his rather arrogant and self-centered younger self, who he personally verbally skewered, informing him that his wife was the most important achievement of his life. This shows how much Martin has changed over time.

While loving his family (i.e. his wife), Martin originally had reservations about becoming a parent, mainly stemming from how poorly his father apparently was to him. However, upon meeting his daughter Lily (who did not exist prior to temporal alterations), was overwhelmed by emotions. While he described from his new memories that he loves her, he initially tried to keep her at a distance in an attempt to convince himself that her existence was not real. However, upon meeting her and working alongside her, he came to fully accept his feelings for her as genuine. To which, as he continues to gain more memories of raising Lily, he becomes more fond and glad of his accident with the timeline. His love for her is so great that he attempted to hid the truth about her existence from the team, fearing that their knowledge of her being a time alteration would make them undo the changes. Overall, while Martin has a deep appreciation for maintain the natural course of events and not intentionally altering them, he is able to accept the unique benefits of accidental changes, showing that his compassion for others can go beyond rationality. To which, he proved himself to not be a hypocrite as upon learning of Barry Allen from the year 2056 altering time, he did not criticized the present Barry for his action

Martin is known for his extreme loyalty, often putting the safety of his loved ones above all else, often going to unique extremes in order to protect those closest to his heart. In his older age, Martin prioritizes his wife, daughter, and Jax above all else, with Jax being as close as family to him due to their bond of not only nuclear energy, but camaraderie that borders on paternal.

Powers

 * Meta-human physiology: After Professor Stein was struck by the energy of the Particle Accelerator explosion, this altered his DNA and supercharged his cells, augmenting his physiology into well-beyond peak human condition.
 * Firestorm Matrix: When Jax merges with Professor Stein, the two create the nuclear-powered composite being Firestorm. The F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. Matrix are controlled by two individuals, or “halves”; when they achieve physical contact, the Matrix takes over their biology and merges them into a singular being. When the two halves of Firestorm merge, the Matrix has them take on the form of the individual that has the stronger body. If bereft of another half, Stein will still exhibit some of Firestorm powers, but only for a short time, as a symptom of approaching death.
 * Energy absorption: Firestorm has shown the ability to not only generate nuclear power, but also contain the energy coming from outside sources by absorbing its output. He has done so, for example, when he absorbed the blast from Vandal Savage’s nuclear warhead and also when he short-circuited the Pentagon's alarms. As shown by Martin, while separated, he is still able to passively absorb energy, albeit on a smaller scale and with a greater strain for himself. It appears that it takes a great deal of time and concentration to trigger the absorption of energy, as shown as when he was unable to absorb a blast of the Flash's lightning when it was launched at him.
 * Matter transmutation:  While fighting Nazis in 1944, Jax and Martin discovered that their nuclear powers can manipulate matter at an atomic level and arrange its subatomic structure so that it becomes a different substance altogether. Firestorm first used this by turning a rifle into dust by simply grabbing it. When the two minds focused, Firestorm was later able to transform a radioactive meteorite into water.
 * Nucleokinesis: Firestorm is virtually a living reactor, and as such, creates great amounts of nuclear energy via the numerous atomic reactions constantly occurring in his body. That and his mental capacity to process both fission and fusion, allow him to harness the energy emitting from his either his own body or any source of energy that’s near.
 * Psychic link: Jefferson can hear Martin Stein's disembodied voice while the two of them are merged into Firestorm. Even when they are separated, their link allows them limited communication of sensations or emotions. This link can be so strong that if Stein wanted to prevent whoever he merged with from attacking, he can restrain the nuclear energy from being shot out.
 * Pyrokinesis: Due to the unique nature of the transmutation between the two bodies, Firestorm is able to produce nuclear energy in the form of fire from parts of his body. He can use his control over the energy to project it willingly in the form of concussive blasts. These "nuclear blasts" are often shown to be quite powerful and have shown to be able to knock unarmed humans out unconscious and are hot enough to burn through solid structures and even cause harm to meta-humans. Stein has exhibited some pyrokinetic ability even without another half to join with him, though it was a sign of approaching death.
 * Flight: Firestorm has so far seen to have at least two methods to achieve flight. The first and most common is when he uses fires nuclear blasts downward at a consistent rate, thereby generating enough force to defy gravity and allow for stable propulsion. This flight style is his preferred and most practiced choice. The second method is unclear, as he is shown to be able to fly at impressive speeds without the need of his blasts. He displayed this ability when he attempted to disarm Vandal Savage's missile. How he achieved this skill or how he even does it is unclear.

Abilities

 * Genius-level intellect: From a young age, Martin showed exceptional intellect as skipped from 10th grade all the way to college and by age 25, he had two PhDs as well as nearing a third, plus was a leading expert in a field of study. Martin's profound knowledge of the quantum physics is shown by the many awards he won; not only is he good at theorizing, his project, F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M., has put into practice that which has yet to be successfully done by mankind. He is also especially interested in the concept of time travel and has several ideas on this topic alone.
 * Eidetic memory: Given his extraordinary level of knowledge and understanding of physics, Martin most likely possesses an eidetic or photographic memory, which allows him to process and utilize his vast intelligence effectively. An eidetic memory would be necessary in the usage of Morse code without a code book to create a message in an emergency situation. Yet, despite this, he always forgets his keys, and also seems to have forgotten who Eobard Thawne is.
 * Sharpened mind: When they first successfully fused into Firestorm, Martin was able to detect enemy presence behind them before Ronnie could.
 * Hand-to-hand combatant: Martin has proven himself to be a skilled fighter to an unknown degree. This is evidenced when he managed to fight, defeat, and disarm an armed time pirate.
 * Indomitable will/Tolerance for pain: After getting captured by General Eiling, he was tortured in order to get the secrets of Firestorm, so they could weaponize it. However he resisted (something even Eiling was surprised by) without saying a word. He endured a similar treatment when he was captured by Valentina Vostok and Vandal Savage in 1986, only giving in when they threatened Ray Palmer and Mick Rory rather than himself.
 * Multilingual: Martin is capable of fluently speaking English, Hebrew and German.
 * Rabbinical knowledge: Having attended a seminary or a Jewish theological college, Martin has become a fully legitimate Rabbi, and as such, he is able to read in Hebrew and is licensed to pronounce marriage.
 * Singing: When masquerading as Max Lorenz in 1942, Martin proved to be an exquisite singer, able to impress fans of the actual Lorenz.
 * Skilled in using morse code: Martin is familiar enough and able to construct morse code messages without having to look it up.

Weaknesses

 * Ionized radiation: The Firestorm Matrix can be destabilized by bombarding its cellular structure with ionized radiation, temporarily disabling Firestorm's powers. Though it will not separate Ronnie and Martin it will cancel Firestorm's powers for a small amount of time.
 * Limited control: As Firestorm, Martin has very little control what the Firestorm will do, unless he has the superior body of the two. If the host will have superior body to Stein and is in control, Stein has to count on that they will separate or he will be stuck in that particular body as long as the host wants to. However, when Valentina, a mad Russian scientist who wanted to become Firestorm herself, had merged with Stein and was attacking everyone, and was even about to attack Jefferson, Stein was able to restrain her from launching a blast and was able to separate from her with help from Jefferson.
 * Prolonged separation: Martin's exposure to the dark matter explosion left his body unstable at a cellular level. Over time, Martin's body will continue to weaken from the build up until eventually killing him. Only by periodically merging with another meta-human of compatible nature will restore his health and stabilize him while separated until the next needed merger.

Former equipment

 * Power cane: During the search for a new host for the Firestorm Matrix, Cisco created a cane using parts from a Speed Force battery to stabilize his condition. However over time, the device became useless.

The Flash
{{Scroll|

Season 3
}}

DC's Legends of Tomorrow
{{Scroll|

Season 2
}}

Trivia

 * Martin used to, according to his wife, "despise pizza', but after being merged with Ronnie for so long, he began to crave for it.
 * Martin states he's been married 28 years as of 2016, meaning he waited 15 years to marry Clarissa in 1988. This would also put him at 38 years old then.
 * Martin didn't have any children. However, when he met his younger self in the 80s, Stein told him to give an equal amount of attention to Clarissa and his work. As a result, Stein rewrote a portion of his life, gaining a daughter named Lily, whom he loves very much.
 * Martin is the only character to serves as a member of both Team Flash and the Legends.
 * Apparently Firestorm doesn't exist on Supergirl's Earth implying that if Martin has a doppelgänger on that Earth, he never became Firestorm.
 * At the begining of Season 2 of The Flash, Martin served as a replacement for Harrison Wells as the scientist of Team Flash. However, after The Fury of Firestorm, Martin's role was replaced by Harrison Wells from Earth 2.
 * Martin has a fear of zombies.
 * Martin's signature catchphrase is "Astonishing!" or some variation thereof due to the fact that he is frequently enthralled by his experiences on his adventures.
 * He is nicknamed "Grey" by Jax due to his age.
 * His time with the Legends improved his personality. Jax notes he was less of an annoying know-it-all.
 * Stein attempted to become the Legends' leader when Rip vanished, but left the job to Sara as she was better suited to making tough calls.
 * Despite being the only member of the team to have knowledge of the Reverse-Flash and his appearance, as seen in Fast Enough, in the episode The Chicago Way, Stein appears to make no reference to his past experiences and even calling Thawne his doppelgänger, even after Thawne reveals his appearance to him.
 * This could either be due to Stein possibly not actually seeing Thawne erased from existence or a huge oversight.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, Dr. Martin Stein became one half of the nuclear superhero Firestorm when he was combined with Ronnie Raymond after an explosion at a nuclear facility. Similar to how the Flash tapped in to the Speed Force for his powers, Firestorm used the Firestorm Matrix to transmute elements.