Firestorm


 * This article is about the conjoined meta-human that is the result of the fusion between Martin Stein and various other individuals. For other uses see Firestorm (disambiguation).

Firestorm is the name used by the transmuted people that were mutated by the Particle Accelerator in a specific manner. The first duo to form Firestorm were Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein. After Ronnie's death, and Martin's failing health because of spending a significant amount of time unmerged, Barry Allen and his team were able to track down Jefferson Jackson to substitute for Ronnie. Briefly, Valentina Vostok merged with an unwilling Professor Stein as Soviet Firestorm during his time travel adventures as part of the Legends.

Forced combination
On December 11, 2013, Ronnie Raymond was caught in the blast caused by the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator. He was transported along with many previously theoretical particles outside, meeting with Professor Martin Stein, who at the time held a F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. core. They were then merged in to one person, but because of their unwillingness, Stein's mind took control of Ronnie's body (later described as an example of "Darwinism", with Stein's superior mind controlling Ronnie's superior body), while Ronnie's mind was suppressed, causing Stein to feel schizophrenic. With Stein in control, he tried to return to his former home to find his wife, Clarissa. However, because of his appearance as Ronnie Raymond, she didn't recognize him and attempted to call the police, before fleeing.

For the following 10 months, Stein chose to live under a bridge and scavenge through garbage to survive. He began frequently making use of his pyrokinetic powers, described as onlookers as a "burning man". One night, he was accosted by two muggers, who taunted him for appearing cold. He got up and displayed his powers, assuring them that he wasn't cold.

A few days before Christmas, Firestorm, likely under the direction of Ronnie, followed Ronnie's fiancée, Caitlin Snow, to the Central City Shopping Mall garage. He approached her as she was getting into her car, but ran away when she noticed him. Caitlin caught up to Firestorm, but, unwilling to face her, he covered his hands and head in flames to scare her off and escaped the garage. Later, Caitlin found him with the help of Cisco Ramon by following the ionized particles Firestorm emitted. When Caitlin tried to talk to him, he denied that he was Ronnie Raymond and warned her to get away. Caitlin insisted the need to take him to S.T.A.R. Labs to remind him of his identity, causing him to take her face in his hands and whisper "Firestorm". He distracted the two of them with flames and promptly escaped. That night, Firestorm arrived outside S.T.A.R. Labs, right as The Flash was fighting the Reverse-Flash. He saved The Flash, shooting flames at the Reverse-Flash. When the Reverse-Flash escaped, Ronnie warned Caitlin not to look for him, before flying off by propelling himself with flames.

Some months following, Stein approached Quentin Quale, an old friend of his. He claimed to be looking for help, but Quale hardly recognized him because of his new appearance, and he accidentally lost control of his powers, burning the physicist. Deciding to stake out Stein's wife's house, Dr. Wells and Caitlin waited for Firestorm to appear again. When he did, he was confronted by The Flash, whom he easily defeated by flying into the air and forcing him to drop. When Firestorm was about to strike down Barry, he saw Caitlin and fled. However, Barry had planted a tracking device on Firestorm and was able to find him again. With Clarissa's help, the team convinced Firestorm to go with them for treatment. Dr. Wells and Caitlin stabilized Firestorm's mind with a drug cocktail used for dissociative personality disorders. At this point, Stein's personality was dominant, with Ronnie's dormant, although Stein did have knowledge of Ronnie's memories and was influenced by some of his feelings, including his love for Caitlin. When Wells discovered that Firestorm's body was destabilizing and would soon disintegrate in a massive nuclear explosion, Firestorm decided to isolate himself at a location far away from Central City to avoid harming anyone. Barry and Caitlin arrived with a quantum splicer, which they hoped would harmlessly separate Ronnie and Professor Stein while preventing the explosion. Caitlin activated the splicer, but a huge blast of energy was released from Firestorm's body, engulfing the area.

Controlled separation
Fortunately, though creating a giant explosion, Ronnie and Professor Stein were separated, causing no nuclear residue. For a time, Professor Stein and Ronnie attempted to go their separate ways. However, they soon found themselves being connected and drawn back together. The S.T.A.R. Labs team was able to track down a kidnapped Stein, and in order to defeat General Eiling, Ronnie and Professor Stein decided to make peace with each other and willingly merge back together, giving Ronnie control but allowing Stein to have a voice within. Before Firestorm could knock Eiling down, however, he released an ion grenade, causing the Firestorm Matrix to destabilize momentarily and knock Ronnie down. As Eiling aimed a gun at Firestorm, The Flash quickly intercepted and knocked him to the ground. Initially about to hurt General Eiling, Barry suggested that they head home together, which Ronnie accepted. Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry suggested that Stein and Ronnie try to separate. Trying hard, they were able to succeed. They headed back to Stein's home, where Ronnie and Martin bid their farewells to Caitlin and Clarissa, respectively, telling of their plan to go to Pittsburgh for more information on their condition. Outside, they merged back in to one, expressed their love and flew off.



Later when Barry realized he was too slow for the Reverse-Flash, who was really Dr. Wells but was also really Eobard Thawne impersonating the late doctor, he called Firestorm and Oliver Queen/Arrow to help him in his upcoming fight against him. When Eobard arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs to use the particle accelerator the Flash confronted him and Firestorm and Arrow soon joined him, but Eobard 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 rotated his arm at super speed, sending 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 succeeded Arrow and Firestorm left as Flash secured Reverse-Flash.

Half-sacrifice
After Flash stabilized the singularity caused by Eobard's manipulations Ronnie and Stein merged into Firestorm once more, intended to separate inside the singularity so the energy released would destroy it. Firestorm flew up to the portal as Flash ran around the portal to keep it stabilized and Firestorm separated as intended and the energy indeed destroyed the wormhole. Unfortunately Ronnie and the Professor weren't able to re-merge in time and Ronnie was killed while Flash barely saved Professor Stein, essentially destroying the Firestorm matrix and thus Firestorm itself.

The new Firestorm
The instability of Stein's molecules from a long period without merging put him in critical condition and forced the team to search for a compatible partner, narrowing it down to scientist Henry Hewitt and mechanic Jefferson "Jax" Jackson. Hewitt, who had been chosen by Caitlin Snow, failed to merge with Stein and became angered at her for having raised false hope. Jax initially refused to help out, but changed his mind, after Caitlin told him the story of how Ronnie died a hero by stopping the singularity, and also due to an attack by Hewitt at the repair shop where Jax worked. Jax successfully merged with Stein as Firestorm and helped Barry stop Hewitt at Jax's alma mater. Jax and Stein then departed to better understand their power and unlock new abilities that weren't touched on when Ronnie was alive.

Legends
When Rip Hunter came to recruit Stein and Jax for his mission to oppose Vandal Savage, initially Jax was reluctant to join the mission, prompting Stein to drug him so that he could load his counterpart onto the Waverider without needing his direct permission. However, although Jax came to appreciate the necessity of the mission, he found himself occasionally sidelined by Stein, officially due to Stein's doubts about his abilities in the field.

Soviet Firestorm
When Martin Stein, Mick Rory and Ray Palmer were captured by Valentina Vostok in 1986, she learned that Stein was one half of the current Firestorm matrix and forcibly merged with him to become a new version of Firestorm, but their pre-existing conflict meant that the fusion was unstable, allowing Stein to forcibly separate himself from Valentina once Jax told Stein that he accepted that Stein had only treated him harshly to avoid losing him like he had lost Raymond. With her body completely unstable, as she lacked the quantum splicer that Stein and Jackson used when they were merged, Valentina exploded outside of the gulag, apparently killing her.

Power growth
During a fight against Nazi forces in 1944, Jax and Stein realized that their powers as Firestorm went beyond simply shooting fireballs, and they could actually alter the state of matter on a molecular level. Initially tapping into this power when they turned a Nazi soldier's weapon to sand, they later managed to use this to destroy one of the meteors Savage was using in his bid for more power by turning it into water. Despite this power growth, Firestorm tends to default to throwing fireballs around when in action, but he retains his molecular manipulation abilities when faced with significant problems, including turning the Dominators' anti-metahuman bomb into water after intense concentration, and turning a highly secure safe at the Vanishing Point into jelly beans.

Separating Firestorm
After a few months of 'retirement' from the Legends, with only weekly meetings to recombine as Firestorm to maintain stability, Jax and Stein rejoined the team to investigate new aberrations, but Stein was more uncomfortable with joining the team as he had recently become a grandfather. Recognising his partner's new responsibilities, Jax asked Ray Palmer to help him devise a means of breaking up Firestorm so that he could manifest the powers himself, but these efforts proved difficult; an initial attempt to block their psychic link saw Jax develop temporary short-term memory loss, and a technical attempt to block their link caused Stein and Jax to swap bodies until they next formed Firestorm, which resulted in Stein temporarily being the controlling mind and body of Firestorm until they separated into their familiar bodies.

While facing an invasion from Earth-X, an alternate Earth where the Nazis won the Second World War ruled by the counterpart of Oliver Queen, Stein sustained serious injuries while helping the rest of the heroes escape the concentration camp where they had been trapped. Despite the team's best efforts, they were unable to get Stein back to the Waverider in time to treat his injuries, with his last action being to separate from Jax and sever the psychic connection, saving Jax's life and removing the Firestorm powers while Stein passed on.

Personality
The personality of Firestorm is determined by the manner of how the individuals merged. If the individuals merged while fighting it, they result in an unstable form. While the more intellectual mind is in control, they still feel the consciousness of the other mind weighing on them. They also are unable to control their powers properly.

When merged while accepting the merge, both minds are consciously communicating with each other with the youthful mind in control of the body while the older mind can give advice to the youthful mind and guide them.

Powers

 * Nuclear physiology: Firestorm gets his powers from the nuclear energy his body creates. This energy is the source of his pyrokinetic powers.
 * 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 near source of energy that's near.
 * 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 and gliding. 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. How he achieved this skill or how he even does it is unclear. Also, Firestorm is able to cause an explosion by colliding with an object or surface, allowing him to perform feats such as blowing up nearby vehicles or bursting through a wall.
 * 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 into a different substance all together. He first used this by turning a rifle into dust by grabbing it. Using this ability, Firestorm is able to transform an alien meteorite and the The Dominators genebomb into water. Firestorm is also shown to be able to form complex structures with this ability such as turning the Legion of Doom's obelisk vault into accurately flavored jelly beans.
 * Nuclear 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 did so when he absorbed the blast from Vandal Savage’s nuclear warhead.
 * Nuclear pyrokinesis: The amount of energy being processed in his body is often released through his head and hands. He can use his control over the energy to project it willingly in the form of concussive blasts, in the form of fire. 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 (such as Vandal Savage and Reverse-Flash). Also, Firestorm is able to cause an explosion by colliding with an object or surface, allowing him to perform feats such as blowing up nearby vehicles or bursting through a wall.

Weaknesses

 * Intense wind: While Firestorm is on fire, he is extremely vulnerable to sheer wind as exposed by Eobard Thawne.
 * Ionized radiation: The Firestorm Matrix can be destabilized by bombarding its cellular structure with ionized radiation, temporarily disabling Firestorm's powers and weakening him.
 * Quantum splicer disabling: The Quantum splicer that allows for Firestorm's two halves to merge was disabled for at least a day by with an EMP-like device used by Rip Hunter, while he was controlled by the Legion of Doom, leaving the two halves, Martin Stein and Jefferson Jackson, without their powers.
 * Intense pain: When Malcolm Merlyn shot Firestorm with an arrow, Stein and Jax separated automatically, although the arrow only remained in Jax's shoulder with no indication that Stein was injured.

Equipment

 * Firestorm suit: It appears that in the intervening time between when they left for Pittsburgh and when they joined with Rip Hunter, Jax and Stein have started wearing a suit while merged as Firestorm. The suit contains a color scheme for bright yellow and orange and still includes the splicer on the chest. It is unknown at this time where the suit came from or what it is made of, since it only appears when the two are merged.

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Behind the scenes

 * The quantum splicer's shape (an abstract atom) is a reference to Firestorm's logo, worn on his chest in the DC comics.