The Fury of Firestorm #9 review

Adding guest stars is a great way to put an ailing comic before a wider audience. Making no concessions to visiting readers isn't the way to flip them into becoming regulars. I came to this comic having found the first two issues of The Fury of Firestorm a mess. I tried again last month to see how new writer Joe Harris was gelling with continuing co-writer Ethan Van Sciver and it took four attempts to get through the comic. But I love the Firestorm concept, like the new JLI and so decided that #9 would be the make or break.

Well, it's break. As broken as the Eiffel Tower in this issue-long slugfest between good and bad Firestorms and the Justice League Interrnational. Folk blast things and repair stuff and shout at one another and there's nothing approaching a recap or introductions for non-regular readers. Van Sciver and Harris know what their story is, Yildiray Cinar draws it big and bombastic, the inks and colours are impressive ... but how the heck are newbies meant to know what's going on? I thought one of the tenets of DC's New 52 was that individual issues would be accessible? Instead, it seems to be that editors get to sleep on the job.

An example of the boneheadedness of this comic is Booster Gold and Batman grabbing the French Firehawk, mid-battle, for a chat about one of the Firestorms signing with their international team. Then there's JLI leader Booster ordering two of his colleagues to stop the massive tower toppling - Guy Gardner and ...Batwing?

Van Sciver draws the enticing cover which, of course, misrepresents the comic's events.

I don't know how much longer this series is going to survive, as sales aren't brilliant - JLI, which has more paying readers, is already losing its place in the New 52. Issues like this aren't a great argument for keeping it on the stands.