Cover Story - Top 20 Firestorm Covers

So, by now Legends of Tomorrow has managed to get through its pilot storyline and polish off its first major story arc, a sleek cold war spy thriller revolving around attempts to create a Soviet Firestorm.  Given that this show is full to the brim with superheroes pretty much everyone will get their day on Cover Story but the show’s emphasis on Firestorm in this first major story arc means he gets his shot first.  Specifically, I’ll be drawing from across Firestorm’s history rather than limiting myself to any one version like the show does, mainly because there’s not nearly enough of any one Firestorm to make up an entire Cover Story article.   

20.

I super love how defeated Firestorm looks on this, especially if you assume that the storm isn’t actually the work of the villain Typhoon and he’s just depressed cause the raindrops keep falling on his head.  It’s also pretty impressive that Firestorm’s flaming hair can somehow stay lit despite the torrential rainfall that’s literally drowned the guy right next to him.  All joking aside this is a wonderfully constructed cover, especially the way it balances the rain as a kind of blur on the background elements while Firestorm holds the foreground. 

The building color work fits perfectly with the steely light blue, especially that blueberry violet color.  The rain artwork overall is just great, especially the kind of water aura on Firestorm where the water is right up in close detail.  One thing that’s a little bizarre is the series of bright orange polygons that floating around in the background but I’m sure it made sense at the time. 

19.

This one gets double points for featuring the advertisement for Watchmen in the bottom left corner.  The ad stamp helps date this as a more modern iteration of the superhero cover, the big clue to which is the blend of literal scene representation with the gas, the choking bystanders, and Firestorm there in the center but it’s blended with a great big representation of the interior with that wonderfully rendered skull and crossbones looming in the background. 

Well, I’m assuming the skull and crossbones is a figurative element of the cover, there’s every possibility it’s actually in the comic as like a giant looming energy icon created by whatever professor poison bad dude whipped this up.  It’s really impressive how much the skull manages to blend with the gas, especially through the white streams of mist in the toxic cloud, not to mention that great inking and crosshatching around the bones themselves.  

18.

Now this cover is more Bronze Age IE late ‘70s and prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths.  The clue is partially through the style of cover image here but predominately it’s because Firestorm, The Nuclear Man was the comic that ran during that period.  What I mean about the content though is how it’s only kind of blending literal and figurative elements, in particular the array of clocks surrounding Firestorm as he falls backwards into what I assume is the time vortex. 

Though DC has managed some very unique visions of the time stream this one might actually be my favorite given how wonderfully out there the idea of giant symbolic clocks in this bizarre energy tunnel is.  It reminds me most of something out of like Regular Show or the like where “cartoonish and huge extrapolation of a concept” is all you need to convey an idea.  Bonus points for finding a neat place to fit the creative team’s credits on top of that grandfather clock, not to mention the way Firestorm’s flame hair manages to continue past the logo.  Actually, all the cover elements extending beyond the limits of the frame are a very nice touch, giving this a free and broad sense. 

17.

One of the weird things about Firestorm is his rogues gallery, which is one of the smaller bad guy conglomerations while also being curiously evocative and memorable.  A lot of that comes down to Gerry Conway, Firestorm’s creator and one of the all-time best Spider-Man writers/creators.  Killer Frost is one of those key impressive bad guys that tends to pop up a lot and this is one of her better covers.  Like a lot of mid-70s comics this is a blend of classic ‘60s “so weird you’ve got to read it” and a more story/character driven style of conception rather than emphasizing surreal craziness on its own terms. 

What’s more, the detail on this cover is just incredible, especially the ice and snow blanketing the city in the background.  I’m not sure what it is that’s making the sky violet but I’m willing to chalk that up to mystic freezing powers.  This is also a pretty notable cover for being one of the few instances of Wonder Woman riding ON her invisible jet, it’s certainly something you don’t see every day. 

16.

Goddamn this cover is amazing, easily an all time favorite based on just how god damn weird it is.  I’ve never read this comic but I’m now desperate to try and track it down to learn what in the hell is going on here.  I get the sense New York, in one of its rare appearances in the DC universe, has been turned into a giant dustbin for the detritus of some big unfriendly giant.  The only problem with that theory is all the big nonsense floating around like the giant phone attached to some poor bastard’s building or that giant sink looming in the foreground in front of Firestorm.  Incidentally, for someone who allegedly knows what’s wrong with this picture Firestorm looks every bit as confused as I am, though he seems pretty comfortable on that giant can of delicious “Cola.”  Also, bonus points for using the famous Guggenheim building as trash can for a giant bowl of soup. 

15.

This is such an ambitious cover I absolutely love it.  All black covers like this are a serious gamble and can easily wear out their welcome pretty quickly but this is not one of them, mainly thanks to how bizarrely eclectic it is.  There are plenty of pitch black covers where the darkness is used as a metaphorical emphasis or something like that but here I’m fairly certain it’s literal, especially given that bad guy is known as Black Bison.  I’m not totally on board with the whole “Native American spirit animal bad guy” thing going on, if only because it’s more than likely this bad guy uses some kind of native magic nonsense, but he’s still wonderfully designed. 

His look actually reminds me a lot of Super Chief from the old DC western comics only a bit more detailed and designed than Super Chief’s very stripped down visual design.  It’s also pretty great the war Bison is jumping over Firestorm’s logo, that’s a neat concept, though I’ve got no idea what Firestorm is doing with his leg, trying to crane kick the audience maybe? 

14.

Another Killer Frost related cover, this one directly referencing Conway’s earlier work with Spider-Man.  To get the significance of this cover we need to talk a little history.  One of the most fundamental and enduring Spider-Man images comes from Amazing Spider-Man #33, which featured Spidey trapped under a massive pile of rubble with water pouring down all over him.  It’s a great image and a true embodiment of the human spirit that’s come to define Spider-Man.  Firestorm may not have that same depth but this cover is a very good homage to the classic Spider-Man image.  Like all of the great Firestorm covers the detail work is superb, especially on the iceberg he’s holding up on his back.  The flames on his head are a pretty sweet design also, and the ice covered lettering is a nice touch. 

13.

Well this guy is terrifyingly freaky.  Face covers are, much like pitch-black covers, a very common and kind of overly used but this is a great iteration of the idea, mainly thanks to that brilliant reflective glasses design.  This guy’s face overall is incredibly bizarre, angular, and evocative on its own terms, especially given he’s not some pre-existing character or something.  That freaky bird nose and those skeletal high cheekbones are a great combo and the circular mirrored glasses combined with the fedora hat and leather gloves makes him seem a bit like a Nazi. 

He actually kind of reminds me of the SS bad guy from Indiana Jones crossed with the Nazi dentist from Marathon Man.  There’s also something about his snarling, clamped jaw on that smoldering cigarette that makes him look decidedly villainous.  Cap all that off with the image of a skeleton being charred by flames and there’s a lot of Nazi imagery in this cover overall. 

12.

Well this is rare, a genuine throwback cover.  Despite coming out in the ‘80s this is a cover completely steeped in the tropes of the Silver Age, in particular the trend of “so weird you’ve got to read it” craziness.  There’s none of the character or story driven elements that tend to pop up most of the times this kind of material is revived, it’s just a pure return to the craziness of an age gone by and in spectacular fashion.  The whole “bizarrely powerful single guy” aspect is a standard idea but this might be my favorite iteration of it because this guy just looks so ridiculous.  He’s an absolute dope, especially his GIANT mustache. 

Seriously, if you look closely at his face you can see his mustache is wider than his head and it’s curved into this hilarious waxed shape like he’s from the 1890s.  I also love that he didn’t even bother to unbutton his suit for this stomping around.  In keeping with the theme of Firestorm having weird physicality: what is he even doing?  I think he’s supposed to be like beaten but it looks like he’s kneeling for a knighthood from Mr. Green here. 

11.

Firstly: don’t bother asking about what “Millennium Week 1” means, it was a dopey event comic hat’s not worth going into.  Now this cover on the other hand is pretty great.  One of the weird things about Firestorm’s costume is that it generates automatically through like vaguely defined nuclear energy.  As such, we’ve never actually seen him without the weird hood/cowl thing around his head so we all kind of just assumed his head was all flame and nothing else. 

Seeing him with the ripped cowl and the fact that there’s something under there beyond the just flame is a pretty cool sight, punctuated by that great snarl he’s got on his face.  It makes it look more like he’s two people smashed together, which he technically is.  Firestorm’s power comes from being two humans fused into one being and this design makes him look ½ the equation is trying to tear its way out of his head. 

10.

Okay, I admit the overall content of this cover is pretty stripped down but that’s a big part of why I like it so much.  Firestorm just sitting around playing with his powers is dime a dozen, made only notable by his weird spinal contortions (seriously, he’s doing the whole butt and chest towards the camera at once.)  What I love about this cover is the way it’s imitating like a cover of Life or Time magazine.  When comics decide to mimic real world publications I always really love it, especially for someone as obscure as Firestorm. 

We see folks like Batman or Superman on magazines pretty often but Firestorm’s obscurity makes this seem more like an artifact from DC Comics’ own universe rather than our world.  The font work on the title is absolutely great at mimicking those elements as well.  There’s also a ton of great inking work in this cover as well, especially in terms of the heavy shadow on Firestorm’s outfit compared to the bright neon of his flaming hair and energy ball.  

9.

And now for a modern cover design, as should be obvious by how this cover is grounded entirely in figurative descriptions rather than literal iconography.  This cover comes from the revived series in the 2000s that started up after the death of Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch took over the role of Nuclear Man.  I’m not sure how much this cover describes the interior given that I think the two silhouettes are meant to be characters in the comics but there’s also the possibility they’re meant to be the writers, which would be a really nice twist.  

In either case this is still a great image, wonderfully evocative and I really love that scaffolding look. Additionally, the idea of the two people literally building Firestorm, like applying big chunks of his body like that weird eye being riveted onto his face, is a really great image and idea.  I’m not a big fan of the logo design, which overall looks decidedly grainy and dark in a way I don't care for but it’s nice the atomic structure icon still managed to get in there. 

8.

This cover is just a master class in structure and design, seriously beautiful even if Moonbow is one of those characters no one will ever care about.  Seriously, not even I know who this lady is and no one has felt the need to bring her back, even though she’d fit in perfectly on the CW fighting Arrow.  I’d also point out the, yet again, violet sky, which has pretty much become a staple of these Firestorm covers.  In a lot of ways the cover reminds me of the Typhoon cover all the way back at #20, mainly thanks to the visual design of the background buildings.

 Seriously, for things that are essentially little square blocks these are some of the most unique and persuasive window designs I’ve ever seen in a building configuration in a comic.  I look at these and wouldn’t be surprised if they were taken from the actual New York skyline.  What’s more, there’s that wonderful figurative design of Moonbow looming over the entire city to take aim at yet another really weird Firestorm pose.  Also let’s all take a shot for a moon so gigantic it’d destroy the Earth with ravaging tidal forces. 

7.

Another comic history inspired cover, this one drawn from DC Comic’s transformative 1986 event comic Crisis On Infinite Earths, which feature Superman holding the dead and broken body of his cousin Supergirl who died during the crisis.  This cover takes that incredibly mimicked imagery and uses it in a great subversive joke, emphasizing Firestorm’s convoluted and kind of unrewarding history.  This one happens to feature the original Ronnie Raymond Firestorm cradling the body of Jason Rusch, the Firestorm who briefly replaced him. 

What I love so much about this cover is the self-awareness and how incredibly comfortable it is making fun of itself.  A lot of superhero books have trouble admitting their heroes and continuity are kind of dopey and out there but this cover completely embraces it in a way that’s shockingly rare.  There’s also a lot of neat cameos in there like the Fire Elemental version of Firestorm in the bottom right hand corner. 

6.

It’s a first issue cover but it’s absolutely great.  My favorite part of the cover is how incredibly Jack Kirby-esc the design of Firestorm is in this cover.  It’s not actually Kirby’s work but stuff like the squared, right angles on the fingers and the hard angled jaw and broad shoulders look like classic Kirby elements of character design.  What’s more, you’ve got the great image design of Professor Stein and Ronnie Raymond slowly morphing into Firestorm along the bottom corner.  All of which is punctuated by that great big red explosion in the background and framed by a superb deep blue gradient. 

Given that there’s really not much more to this cover beyond the brilliant structure and great stylistic flourishes let me talk about the Firestorm outfit for a second.  I’m hard pressed to think of a character with such a complex yet deeply memorable and iconic looking design, especially given how kooky his atomic logo thing is.  What really sells this costume is the color balance, perfect red and yellow color design with the white highlights. 

5.

Bless you Firestorm, you’re saying what we’re all thinking.  I especially like that these aren’t actually meant to be funny cartoons or rogue animals but toys, he’s basically being buried under an army of evil beanie babies.  They just look so viscous with their beady little sinister eyes set in the most adorable bodies the artists could draw.  My favorite one is the evil teddy bear in a bow tie behind the unicorn with the evil eyebrows, he just looks so menacing yet completely incompetent. 

My favorite part though, is Firestorm, looking exactly how anyone else would if they were ever covered killer plushies.  This is actually pretty indicative of one of DC’s other major trends of the later ‘80s, which was a greater emphasis on humor in their superhero comics.  This is definitely one of their funnier covers but it naturally gets extra special points for having a speech balloon on the cover. 

4.

My God, Firestorm is just 10/10 on these speech balloon coves.  Firstly, I choose to believe this cover is completely literal and he’s actually being crawled all over by action figure sized versions of Firestorm’s bad guys.  I super love how much this cover highlights the dopiness of Firestorm’s rogues gallery like you’ve got the Hyena up in their right hand corner, Slip Knot over there in the left, who I think is twisted sister in the bottom left, and I have no idea who the right hand character is.  The only guy here of any real note is Multiplex wearing that amazing caped version of his costume. 

I’m a huge fan of this color scheme on characters especially mixed with that helmet, cape, and tunic combination.  Like the previous cover, however, the true genius of this comes down to Firestorm, especially his amazingly ridiculous face.  He doesn’t even look angry or scared or frustrated or anything, he just looks incredibly stressed.  That is the face of “too old for this shit” and that big “Oh No!!” reads like the tired, exasperated ranting of a man who desperately needs a vacation. 

3.

Finally, a Firestorm cover that just nails his physicality and harkens back to that Jack Kirby stylistic affect from the original issues.  I really actually really love the inking and crosshatching work on the jets and explosions here, adding this level of pencil detail is a tough line to walk but this cover just nails it, giving things a very Joe Kubert vibe that I like.  It’ll eventually become apparent that I’m an absolute sucker for covers with targets/crosshairs on them but I like this one especially thanks to showing us the villain’s point of view.  I do wonder if those jets are being autopiloted given that Firestorm blew that one right out of the sky and there’s no clear evidence that the pilot managed to eject.  Another fun fact: this issue is set right around the time the Russian Firestorm was created (don’t ask, I already wrote a whole article on it) so those jets are Soviet fighter jets Firestorm is blowing to smithereens.

2.

So, in the 2003 comic event Identity Crisis Ronnie Raymond got killed in one of the few truly excellent scenes of that comic.  He got stabbed by a mystic sword and, knowing that he would erupt as a nuclear reactor, he flew, without hesitation, as far as he could into the sky and exploded.  It’s an incredibly well written scene that uses almost no dialogue and wonderfully stripped down visuals.  This cover does a great job going right back to that moment, especially with the look of Ronnie collapsed by what can only be his own grave. 

The image does a great job with that blend of literal and figurative iconography that fits the brief and anonymous vision of Firestorm’s death.  I also really like the idea of Firestorm’s fire having burnt out as marked by that billowing black smoke drifting up from his slowly shrinking flame.  Add in the fact that nobody is here around him and this is a beautifully tragic image for the character. 

1.

And so we come to the heart of Firestorm’s cover history, featuring the perfect blend of figurative iconography through the feuding Ronnie and Stein bridged by Firestorm in the center, all looming over this incredibly strange looking scene of Pittsburgh celebrating a kind of burn book event for some unknowable reason.  Also Hawk is there but we really don’t have the time to delve into the Hawk given his own weirdness.   

What I really love about this cover is how well the figurative iconography fits into the literal scene bellow, with Firestorm standing in the middle of the burning book pile representing the most volatile aspects of this relationship.  It’s a little hard to tell if he’s pushing these two apart or if he’s trying to get them to stop feuding, partially because his arms are really weird and skinny.  Still this is an absolutely gorgeous image and a fitting embodiment for the Firestorm mythos. 

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