Martin Stein
Martin Stein is a male comic character who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Martin Stein
Years ago, he met Clarissa Clement with the two beginning a relationship and getting married. As Clarissa Stein, they were happily married until Martin won the Nobel Prize. He then devoted more time towards his wok rather than his wife which put a strain on the marriage. This only was heightened when he started designing the Hudson Nuclear Facility where she believed he had become obsessed with his work. This resulted in her seeking a divorce from Stein and she resumed taking her maiden name of Clarissa Clements. (Firestorm v2 #11) During his research, he was attempting to validate his theories regarding the Big Bang. Stein believed that there was an actual spark that preceded the universe and looked to find this trigger that brought about all of existence. (Brightest Day v1 #10)
Though bonded to Firestorm, Stein retained no conscious memories of his time in the Matrix. The result of this missing time led to Martin succumbing to feelings of guilty and resorting to alcoholism. Meanwhile, Ronnie retired from being Firestorm but was persuaded by Superman to return to being a superhero. (DC Comics Presents v1 #17) Such was his success that Firestorm was sponsored by Superman into joining the Justice League of America. (Justice League of America v1 #179) Afterwards, Raymond felt the need to be more honest to Stein with Ronnie telling Martin everything about their time as Firestorm thus allowing him to come to term with his mysterious blackouts. (Flash v1 #290)
This led to Arkadin becoming part of the Matrix instead of Stein though Martin did unconsciously shape the new Firestorm. He was later taken to a Nevada mental institution in order to recover from amnesia but he had been cured of his brain tumor. (Firestorm v1 #75)
Later on, the entity Brimstone threatened to destroy the sun which would have brought devastation to Earth. Around this time, Stein became deranged and managed to convince Firestorm to willingly dissolve the Matrix. Martin instead suggested that they recreate the Firestorm entity with himself as the sole user of its power. As a result, he took an experimental rocket into orbit. and managed to take Svarozhich with him with him exploding the craft once in space. This led to his transformation into Firestorm with only Martin Stein in control of the being. As a result, both Raymond and Arkadin were returned to normal where they resumed their normal lives.
Professor Stein came to have a student advisor named Adrian Burroughs who was a noted admirer of Martin's work. Some months ago, Burroughs was fired for asking very inappropriate questions of his advisees. In the aftermath, Adrian embarked on the life of a supervillain where he took the name of the Pupil. (Firestorm v3 #27)
He was kidnapped by the New God Desaad and tortured in order to draw out the Firestorm Jason Rusch. With the hero present, Desaad used Stein to tap into the Firestorm Matrix thus making the villain into the new Firestorm. (Countdown v1 #26)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of history was created with a different series of events.
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
Notes
- Martin Stein was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom where he made his first appearance in Firestorm v1 #1 (March, 1978).
Alternate Versions
- In Justice League v2 #26 (2014), the Earth-3 Martin Stein was introduced who was a scientist that specialised in theoretical biology. He sought the secret of creating life from death and experimented on many homeless people. His expertise saw him being hired by the enemies of the Crime Syndicate of America but he used their resources to achieve his own ends. This saw him merge his body with a dead corpse with the fusion transforming him into Deathstorm who joined the Crime Syndicate.
- In The Curse of Brimstone v1 #12 (2019), an alternate version of Martin Stein appeared with this version being a denizen of the Dark Multiverse. This version came from a world where dark events led to the death of Ronnie and Jason with Stein becoming a fire elemental called the Infernal. He joined a group of others all of whom embodied a different elemental nature where they sought entry onto Prime Earth. To achieve that end, they had followers such as the Salesman offer their abilities to people so that this would draw them to that plane of existence. The elementals came to collectively be referred to as the Home Office and the Infernal's power was channelled into Joseph Chamberlain who became Brimstone.
In other media
Television
- In Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, Martin Stein made an appearance as part of Firestorm's introduction on the series where he was voiced by Olan Soule. In "Bride of Darkseid", it was shown that he was working on experiments in molecular reassembly when an accident allowed him to fuse together with student Ronald Raymond allowing them to become Firestorm. Whilst Ronnie controlled the body, Professor Stein was present in his mind to help and guide him until the two separated back to their civilian identities. In "The Island of the Dinosoids", Batman took Professor Stein to the Tokyo Science Expo onboard his Batplane to showcase his Omnicaster that could communicate to people globally. The plane crashed on an isolated island due to a collision with a Rhamphorhynchus and both Batman along with Martin Stein were captured by the mutated Dr. Dan Corvin who was transformed into a hybrid Dinosoid. Dr. Corwin used the Geneto Ray to turn Batman, Professor Stein and later Wonder Woman into Dinosoids. He intended to use the Omnicaster to send his Geneto-Ray globally to transform all of Earth into similar such creatures. They were stopped by the intervention of Ronald Raymond, Robin and Apache Chief where they managed to reverse the process.
- In The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Martin Stein returned where he was once again voiced by Olan Soule. In the episode "Seeds of Doom", he read from a medical journal that explained the backstory of Victor Stone who was the superhero Cyborg.
- In the Arrowverse, Martin Stein made a number of appearances in the shared continuity setting.
- In The Flash, the character appeared as a guest star in the 2014 live-action television series where he was portrayed by actor Victor Garb and was first mentioned in the episode "Revenge of the Rogues". Professor Stein was a married man who was the head of the F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. project and co-authored an 800-page paper on it with Jason Rusch who would disappear. He was actually present on a train heading towards Central City to witness the Particle Accelerator experiment at S.T.A.R. Labs. Whilst at the Lab, he was secretly carrying the Firestorm Matrix when the Particle Accelerator exploded merging himself with Ronnie Raymond. The pair were fused into a single entity with Stein's intellect dominating Raymond's body that gained nuclear abilities such as the capacity to generate flames. In a confused state, he sought out friends and loved ones leading to S.T.A.R. Labs seeking him out where Caitlin Snow provided him anti-psychotics allowing Stein to think coherently. Harrison Wells discovered that the energies within the merged entity was unstable and threatened to detonate in a nuclear explosion. Despite an attempt by S.T.A.R. Labs to control the energy, Firestorm's body detonated in a remote region after Martin Stein wanted to prevent the death of people. However, the pair did not die in the explosion with no nuclear fallout with the two instead found separated. General Wade Eiling later had Martin abducted in order to extract the Firestorm Matrix from him and weaponize it but Stein was rescued by Ronnie Raymond along with the Flash. Martin Stein later went on the run towards Pittsburg with Ronnie Raymond to escape from the U.S. Military seeking the capture the two due to them being the Metahuman Firestorm.
- In Legends of Tomorrow, Martin Stein appeared as a cast member on the live-action television series where he was once again portrayed by actor Victor Garb. During the second season's "Invasion!" cross-over, it was revealed that Stein's earlier interaction with his younger self altered the timeline creating a aberration whereby he had a daughter with his wife Clarissa named Lily Stein. Lily was an adult by the modern day where she had a PhD in nanotechnology with her studying for 6 years at MIT. Initially, Martin intended to erase the aberration as he felt that he needed to restore the timeline but after a talk with Lily he had a change of heart as he came to care for her. Stein then asked Jax to hide the existence of this aberration from the other members of the Legends as he did not want to lose Lily. The character was shown to had died in the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover when he helped battle against the Nazi forces of Earth-X and was shot with him dying of fatal wounds.
- In Justice League Action, Martin Stein appeared in the animated television series where he was first shown in the episode "Nuclear Family Values" and was voiced by actor Stephen Tobolowsky. It was shown that when he was a graduate that he encountered a younger prodigy named Michael Holt with the two developing an adversarial relationship. During his time, Stein was designing his robotic S-Cubes with Holt creating the T-Spheres around the same time. As a result, Stein came to believe that Holt had stolen the technology from himself which continued their rivalry. A flashback was shown that he was a scientist when his nuclear plant was attacked by armed men that had a kidnapped teenager named Ronnie Raymond. An accident happened leading to Stein and Raymond merging to become the nuclear powered superhero named Firestorm. In their merged form, Stein appeared as a voice in Firestorm's head to advise Ronnie on their actions. This gave the impression to others that Firestorm spoke to himself and made people think he was strange.
Video games
- In DC Legends, Martin Stein appeared in the iOS video game with the Bio revealing that he was a scientist who had accidently bonded to Jason Rusch in the Firestorm Matrix.
- In Injustice 2, Martin Stein appeared as a playable character in the fighting video game where he was bonded to Jason Rusch in the Firestorm Matrix with him being voiced by actor Fred Tatasciore.
Appearances
- Firestorm v1:
- Fury of Firestorm v1:
- Firestorm v3:
- Countdown v1:
- Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men v1:
- Legends of Tomorrow v1:
- The Curse of Brimstone v1: (2019)
- Doomsday Clock v1:
External Links
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