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DC's nuclear hero Firestorm has had his ups and downs, in his stories and also behind the scenes. The 2017-2019 DC Comics event series Doomsday Clock rewrote the hero's origin story to say the accident that made the dual hero a metahuman wasn't an accident at all, and that it was all orchestrated by Professor Martin Stein as well as the US Government in what was called 'The Superman Project.' The current limited series The Fury of Firestorm is the first major series to pick up on that in the intervening seven years, but as series writer Jeff Lemire explains, he's also looking to "reconcile" the major changes Doomsday Clock writer (and former DC CCO) Geoff Johns did to the character.

Not that he doesn't like Doomsday Clock. The series actually spurred him to pitch the series to begin with. 

"It was actually the Doomsday Clock story that hooked me and really got my wheels turning. It was the catalyst for me doing the book, not because of any editorial mandate, but because it triggered my own ideas for what became my series," Lemire says during an AMA on League of Comic Geeks. "BUT I think if you stick with our book until it's ending you'll see me reconcile the retcon with the things older fans love and find a nice middle-ground."

While I won't go into spoilery detail on the changes Lemire has already made here at the halfway point of The Fury of Firestorm, Lemire says this comes from a long-held love of the character.

"I always loved the character of Firestorm since I was a kid reading about him in Crisis on Infinite Earths and JLA. And then when I read Geoff Johns' Doomsday Clock it gave me the idea that I turned into the new series," Lemire writes. "I was really inspired by bronze age Firestorm comics that I read as a kid.  I always loved the character. For me, the character seemed like a great opportunity to explore themes of identity."

Lemire cites John Ostrander's Firestorm run as his favorite in the character's history, but does lament that "unfortunately not a lot of Firestorm's stuff has been collected."

The Fury of Firestorm #5 (of 9) goes on sale on August 12. 

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