History: (Firestorm I #1) - Nobel prize winning physicist Dr. Stein spent years developing the Hudson Nuclear Power Plant to be automated and fail-safe. The day before the site went on-line his former assistant Danton Black, who he'd fired for theft, accused him of stealing the designs for the plant from him, and the Nuclear Regulations Council was forced to put off the plant's opening. Stein feared the negative publicity would keep the plant from ever opening, and decided to put the plant on line by himself. Edward Earhart and his Coalition to Resist Nuclear Power broke into the plant and knocked Stein out. They also knocked out new recruit Ronnie Raymond, who didn't realize they were a terrorist organization. Earhart and his Coalition set dynamite charges and left Raymond and Stein to die. The explosion blew apart the nuclear reactor, and it fused Stein and Raymond into a gestalt atomic being, Firestorm, who had control over radiation and the structure of atoms. Because Stein was unconscious during the explosion he served as Firestorm's subconscious, while Raymond acted as Firestorm's conscious personality. After Firestorm tested out his powers they broke up Earhart's Coalition and handed them over to the police. Firestorm then separated back into Stein and Raymond, with Stein retaining no memory of what happened.

(Firestorm I #2) - Raymond and Stein merged to become Firestorm, and saved a man from gangster Oscar Oswald's loansharks. Ronnie wondered if he could use his powers to impress classmate Doreen Day, but when he changed a newspaper into a flower bouquet to give to a woman she fainted. Firestorm split, and Stein went about repairing the Hudson Plant. Multiplex broke into the Hudson Nuclear Power Plant to augment his nuclear power, and assaulted Dr. Stein. Raymond sensed his danger, and from a distance he fused into Firestorm. Firestorm battled Multiplex, but he got away. Superman was observing the battle, scouting Firestorm for the JLA, and Ronnie was starstruck. He correctly guessed that Multiplex would target State U, which also had an atomic pile. Firestorm changed the pile into harmless phosphorescence, and the weakened Multiplex was easily overcome by the hero. Superman promised to keep an eye on Firestorm, and nominate him for JLA membership if he proved himself worthy.

(Firestorm I #3) - Stein was called to supervise Moholoe One, a project in the Artic designed to harness the heat of Earth's core, led by his former student Crystal Frost. She professed her love for him, but despite his attempts to make her more confident as a student he never had feelings for her. In distress Frost accidentally locked herself in a thermafrost unit, which turned her into the supervillain Killer Frost. Her hatred of male-dominated society made her wild, and she froze soldiers and scientists at Mohole One. Ronnie sensed Stein's distress, and they fused as Firestorm, who used his heat powers against her, but Stein realized she absorbed heat despite her cold-based powers. They lured her into a closed space, and turned it into a refrigeration unit, freezing her solid.

(Firestorm I #4, 5) - Firestorm stopped by Prince Charles Island to stop baby seals from being clubbed before splitting into Ronnie and Stein. Stein became seriously worried about the blackouts he suffered while part of Firestorm and hired PI Liam McGarrin to tail him and figure out what happened during the blackouts. After he left Liam Stein was drawn into the Firestorm Gestalt by Ronnie, who witnessed a warehouse robbery by "Spit" Shine's goons. After capturing the crooks Firestorm was attacked by the Hyena. Stein feared his latest blackout and started drinking when Ronnie saw Multiplex, who'd escaped from the hospital and was draining energy from a subway's third rail to power himself. Firestorm went into action and overloaded Multiplex with nuclear energy, causing him to split into a thousand duplicates that were virtually harmless.

(DC Comics Presents #17) - S.T.A.R. Labs, NYC called in Superman to use his heat-vision to defrost Killer Frost, so they could perform a scientific autopsy. Prof. Martin Stein, burst into the lab and warned them that Killer Frost could still be alive before he as dragged off by security. Superman used his heat-vision on Frost, reviving her, and she froze everyone in the lab, making them her icy slaves. She planned on creating a super-cooler unit like the one that gave her powers, and use it to turn every man on Earth into her slave. Stein unconsciously formed Firestorm, despite Ronnie resisting him. Ronnie reminded him that he’d given up heroics, but Stein explained how dire the situation was, and he agreed to help. Frost had Superman construct her super-cooler in the WTC, but Firestorm interrupted them and engaged Superman. The battle took them away from the WTC, and Firestorm lured Superman into Earth’s molten core, meting Frost’s freeze, and freeing the hero of her influence. They returned to the WTC and froze Killer Frost at absolute zero. Superman asked Firestorm why he disappeared for a year, and the young hero admitted that he couldn’t take the pressure or responsibility. Superman told him he was part of a team of heroes as a youth, and it did him a world of good. He mentioned that Firestorm might want to consider joining the Justice League.

(Justice League of America I #179) -

(Flash I #289) - Firestorm flew over the skies of Queens, celebrating his induction into the Justice League of America. He spotted a motorboat about to collide with a sailboat and created an ice ramp, allowing the motorboat to ride over it harmlessly and avoiding the crash. A kid had taken the motorboat on a joyride, and Firestorm created some fireworks to alert the harbor police. Firestorm flew to Jamaica, changing back into Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein. Stein thought he’d suffered a blackout again, not remembering his time as Firestorm. He bemoaned that his blackouts cost him his job at the Hudson Nuclear Facility as well as his reputation and friends. Ronnie realized he was destroying stein’s life by keeping him in the dark about firestorm, and decided to come clean with him. Ronnie sat Stein down and explained how they became Firestorm after the explosion at the Hudson Nuclear Facility.

(Firestorm II #21 (fb)) - Firestorm stopped some robbers as the sky turned red, signaling the beginning of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Ronnie told Stein he was worried about keeping his relationship with Doreen intact now that he was at college, and Stein replied that all relationships carried implicit risk, and few people ended up marrying their high-school sweethearts. Ronnie was annoyed, and said the only reason Stein was so nonchalant was because he never lost anyone.

(Firestorm II #21 (fb)) - Firestorm lived with the G’Nesh for years until the Thanagarians ruthlessly slaughtered them all and put Firestorm in a containment unit.

(Firestorm II #17) - Martin Stein’s elemental essence was discovered by Thanagarian’s during the Rann-Thanagr War, and they attacked him. He reached out to the new Firestorm, Jason Rusch, on Earth, and this causesed a cataclysmic release of energy from them both, but Jason had no idea what just happened to him.

(Firestorm II #19) - Stein senses that the new Firestorm was headed to space during the Infinite Crisis. He reflected that all fire elementals ended up in space just as he had done, and sought a vision of Firestorm’s future. He saw tragedy and destruction, so after dispatching the Thanagarians that were harassing him Stein set a course to intercept the new hero.

(Firestorm II #20) - Stein mentally contacted Firestorm and told him something terrible was about to happen during the Infinite Crisis.

(Firestorm II #21) - At the moment of Firestorm’s death Professor Stein appeared and absorbed him into his own matrix, preserving his lifeforce. Jason awoke inside the matrix, and was amazed to be alive, but felt great sorrow and guilt when Stein told hoim he was unable to save Mick, his best friend and the other component of the matrix. Stein wanted to know what had happened to Ron Raymond, and Jason said he’d died in action. Stein took a cavalier attitude, saying both Mick and Ronnie were just atoms and energy, and still existed on that level. Stein offered to rebuild Jason’s body, and he was terrified of rejoining the fight at the center of the universe. Stein thought he needed council, and asked him about where he’d come from, the journey his own atoms and energy had taken over the millennia. Jason was sure he’d had a dream of this very conversation, and Stein told him the matrix opened up glimpses of past, present, and future. Jason decided he wanted the power of Firestorm again, but he needed Stein for guidance, because his lack of experience kept getting people hurt or killed. Stein initially refused, but Jason used the matrix to see his past, and realized that his reluctance was due to all the loss he’d known in life. Jason told him all relationships had an element of risk, and again asked for his help. Stein accepted and began to rebuild Firestorm.

(Firestorm II #22) - Stein ran images of Ronnie and Jason’s death over and over, and theorized that when Ronnie died he was more energy than human, and the longer someone was Firestorm the more detached they became from reality. Jason appreciated the sentiment, but was unnerved at seeing his own death replayed. Stein decided they should pare down their powers, being in the matrix together gave them a unique opportunity to retool Firestorm. They kept most of the important powers, but dropped intangibility and manipulation of organic matter because of those powers instability. Stein marked each power they had with a visual, so if they both imagined it in their minds eye they could tinker with it in the future. They became Firestorm, and Stein warned him that they were both capable of forming a matrix with other people, but the matrix would be unstable and suffer from feedback. They noticed foreign energy in the matrix and decided to investigate. After a quantum battle Nanette Phaedon was revealed. She was a shrinking scientist who stowed away with Firestorm after a battle he‘d had at S.T.A.R. Labs, and when he became Jason she’d been locked in the matrix and gained the ability to manipulate her size at an atomic level. She left the matrix to explore the universe and Stein said he felt like a superhero again. They returned to the center of the universe to help Earth’s heroes battle Luthor.

(Firestorm: The Nuclear Man II #25 (fb, BTS)) - Prof. Stein convinced Jason to move to NYC and attend Columbia. Stein got a physics teaching post there to mentor Jason.

(Firestorm: The Nuclear Man II #30 (fb)) - Jason and Stein attended a Central Park rally for Lorraine Reilly’s senatorial bid. She asked them to forget about her recent adventurism as part of the new Justice League, a PR nightmare. She told the crowd her father was of the generation that never trusted anyone over 30, and believed they won when new blood was instilled in politics. She told the crowd they had to fight the new breed of authority figures that were lying to them and demanded their obedience, even when they were caught in a lie.

(Firestorm: The Nuclear Man II #24 (fb, BTS), 25) - Stein uncovered the schemes of nuclear apocalypse being plotted by the Pupil and his Dollies. He warned Jason, and kept all his knowledge in “The Neocaust Files,” but when the Pupil learned about him he had him abducted. Firestorm went looking for him, after forming an unstable matrix with Lorraine Reilly, but continually came up short. Firestorm briefly contacted Stein through the matrix, and Stein hinted that his files were hidden under the statue of Albert Einstein he had in his apartment.

(Firestorm: The Nuclear Man II #26, 27) - The Pupil pumped Stein for information, especially concerning his time as the fire elemental Firestorm, in tune with the cosmos. Stein said that was something he could never hope to understand, and the Pupil slapped him for his honesty. Firestorm Jason and Lorraine found the Prof. after reading his Neocaust Files, but the Dollies took them down. The Pupil put an inhibitor hood on Firehawk, taking away her powers. He presented the dead Stein to Jason, saying he’d been too rough on him seeking information, and offered him the chance to form the Firestorm-matrix with a dead man. Jason tried to make the matrix, and found a small spark of life in Stein. Firestorm’s girlfriend Gehenna removed the hood from Lorraine, and she joined the matrix, enabling them to bring Stein back from the brink. The Pupil captured Gehenna, and recognized her. He wanted to know all her secrets, and started torturing her, and Lorraine wanted Firestorm to stop him, but Jason said she could handle herself, and continued to pour energy into Stein. One of the Dollies recently developed empathy and staid the Pupil’s hand. Firestorm was revived and forced the Pupil and his Dollies to flee, but Pupil gloated he’d gained a great deal of intel on Firestorm to share with his associate. Stein said he was still dying, and told Jason to give up on him, but Jason wanted him to start thinking and stop indulging in self-pity. Stein remembered Pupil had used a cellular scanner on him, and Firestorm used it to restore his body at a molecular level. Stein then broke Firehawk from the matrix, and restored himself as the principle matrix partner. Lorraine was overjoyed, and left for Washington and her own life, but not before warning Gehenna that Jason clearly valued Stein over her.

(Firestorm: The Nuclear Man II #28, 29) - Gehenna wouldn’t answer Jason’s calls, so he convinced the Professor to join him as Firestorm and sweep the lab where she was born for clues about where her father disappeared to. They encountered a creature made of quark-gluon plasma guarding the lab, and defeated it, but found no clues, and Jason concluded that Gehenna’s father was just another deadbeat dad. Stein finally got Jason to open up about the family issues he was having, even though he had no similar experiences because he’d kept himself so distant from other people. Firehawk greeted Jason and Stein and introduced Pozhar, a former member of the Firestorm-matrix who’d regained his powers. Before they could get to talking they were attacked by a horde of Dollies. The heroes defeated them by combining their powers, and Stein realized there was a connection between the Dollies, the Pionic Man and the monster they fought in Montana. He suspected that whoever created them was the mastermind behind the nuclear accidents occurring worldwide over the past year. He planned on working out the details, and Jason traveled to Queens to have another talk with his father. The next day Firestorm, Firehawk and Pozhar traveled to S.T.A.R. Labs to see what they could learn from the Pionic Man.

(Firestorm: The Nuclear Man II #32) - Stein was incredibly upset with Jason for how he’d handled Tokamak, and refused to speak to him for a bit telling him he was busy with Chanukah. On New Year’s Eve Stein was sitting alone in his apartment reflecting on his life, and pleased that despite his troubles he was staying sober. Jason investigated a fierce winter storm, and Stein relented and agreed to talk with him. He knew there was probably no other way of dealing with Tokamak, but he wanted Jason to think his actions through, and remember that everything had a consequence. Stein revealed that tampering with organic matter had weakened the Firestorm matrix, making Jason and himself ill, and it had caused a few wormholes to open up that were affecting the weather. As Firestorm they sealed up the closest wormhole, returning the weather to normal. Jason, Stein and Gehenna rang in the new year, at Times Square and Jason was happy to be with the people he considered his family.

(Firestorm: The Nuclear Man II #33-35) - Firestorm confronted the Christian Identity Front, a supremacist group dedicated to removing black and Jewish judges from the bench. Firestorm easily handled them, but Stein criticized Jason for being frivolous with his powers, using a giant jack-in-the-box as a gag, and turning the rascist’s guns into peanut butter. He said Ronnie was never that bad, and Jason reminded him that he was sick of hearing about Ronnie. Jason and Stein split up, and Jason went to make a date with Gehenna while Stein caught the subway for a lecture. Upon arriving home they were met by Mr. Miracle, who’d broken into Jason’s apartment. Miracle warned him that the New Gods of Apokolips were interested in Prof. Stein because of his research into describing the Firestorm matrix. Jason summoned Stein, and Miracle told Stein there would be a battle for his soul. Orion of the New Gods arrived, demanding Stein come with him because his work had unlocked a part of the anti-life equation, which Darkseid coveted. He refused to listen to reason, so he fought with Firestorm, who subdued him by turning the air around him into metal. Darkseid’s Female Furies showed up to claim Stein, and Lashina managed to choke out Firestorm with her whip, while the others subdued Miracle. They opened up a Boom Tube to Apokolips when Gehenna arrived with Firehawk, telling them no one messed with her boyfriend. Lashina dove into the Boom Tube with Firestorm while the heroes defeated the other Furies. Firestorm recovered long enough to get the drop on Lashina and return to Earth. Metron appeared inside the Firestorm-matrix, and revealed that Stein had not unlocked anti-life, but life itself in understanding the elemental nature of Firestorm. The full life equation would threaten Darkseid, and Metron warned that the villsin wouldn’t rest until Stein was in his clutches. Darkseid sent his son Kalibak to Earth to claim Stein, and he was accompanied by Parademons that wrecked havoc in Manhattan. Kalibak attacked Firehawk, and threatened to kill her, so Firestorm distracted him, allowing Firehawk to escape. Stein added her to the matrix, and told her to drive a mile away from the conflict. Firestorm and Kalibak clashed, and when Firehawk was a mile away her unstable connection to the matrix caused a nuclear explosion, knocking out Kalibak. Firestorm created a star to send the Parademons away, and the day seemed won until Darkseid appeared, told Firestorm he was tired of playing games, and broke the matrix, grabbed Stein, and escaped through a Boom Tube. Gehenna asked Jason to form the matrix so they could save Stein as Firestorm. Jason knew she was aware of the risk, so they became Firestorm, and went off in search of Stein.

Comments: Created by Gerry Conway & Al Milgrom.

Professor Stein had a cameo in Firestorm II #11, 13 and Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1.

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