Ronnie Raymond

Revision as of 08:30, 11 July 2020

Ronnie Raymond as Firestorm in Firestorm: The Nuclear Man - United We Fall.

Ronnie Raymond is a male superhero character that features in DC Comics.

Biography

Origin

Merging into the Firestorm Matrix in Firestorm v2 #1.

Ronald Raymond was a male human born in the modern age as the son of Ed Raymond and his wife Elaine Raymond. Around 15 years ago, his wife was killed and Edward hid the true nature of her death from their son. Raising Ronnie as a single father, Edward moved from city to city whilst he lived with the guilt over the death of his wife. (Firestorm v1 #4)

Whilst playing basketball, he received a summons from Stein to merge together with Ronnie merging to become Firestorm. He found himself locked in a kiss with Killer Frost Crystal Frost shortly after her transformation with her intending to freeze Stein to death. Surprised at seeing Firestorm, she left the hero frozen and thinking he would die from the freeze though Stein told Ronnie mentally to thaw himself out before their brain was affected by the cold. He then battled the new supervillain though his powers were simply absorbed and used to empower Killer Frost. Stein then suggested an alternative where they created a thermafrost unit around her thus trapping her in the cold chamber which immobilised her. (Firestorm v1 #3) The adventures as Firestorm caused him to miss a game at school and he returned many hours later causing him to be scolded by his father for his strange behaviour. Ronnie continued his activities as Firestorm where he capture a gang but then was confronted by a new supervillain called the Hyena. (Firestorm v1 #4)

The success of the young hero led to him being sponsored for membership in the Justice League of America. (Justice League of America v1 #179)

Modern

He attended Bradley High school trip to the New York Museum of Natural History that was showcasing a new Native American exhibit with relics from the Bison Cult. During this time, his teacher John Ravenhair underwent a startling transformation and became a supervillain called the Black Bison. Ronnie then used the chaos to summon Stein so that they could become Firestorm to battle the villain. (Firestorm v2 #1)

During a medical check-up, he was informed that he was suffering from an advanced stage of leukaemia with him only expected to live for the next 6-months or an year. (Extreme Justice v1 #0)

Whilst in college, he encountered a probe with a pre-recorded message from Batman stating that he along with the Justice League were presumed dead and that a protocol he designed was to recruit their replacement. Ronnie was to join the ranks of the new Justice League as Firestorm with the team being led by Nightwing. (JLA v1 #69) The new Justice League were dispatched to deal with the wave of natural disasters impacting the world with Firestorm helping his team mates in Japan. Afterwards, the team gathered at their headquarters where they looked to find solutions to the mystical draining of Earth's oceans. During this time, they came to learn that the waters of the world were converging on the site of fallen Atlantis. (JLA v1 #71) The League then confronted a powerful mage known as Gamemnae who had used a flesh spell to take over people at the site to gain their power and was responsible for the mystical threat to the world with Firestorm helping his team mates battle her. President Luthor, however, detonated a muon bath weapon at the site in an effort to eliminate the threat. (JLA v1 #73) They were then met with a construct from the supposedly deceased Kyle Rayner who had animated a version of himself to tell them the threat of Gamemnae and to get their aid to restore history. (JLA v1 #75)

Afterwards, Firestorm was sent to find the scattered pieces of Plastic Man so that his body could be reconstituted. Ronnie succeeded in his task and brought them to the Watchtower with Plastic Man reforming as a result. (JLA v1 #76)

The Justice League then responded to the threat of a large chink of mirror matter that was on a collision course with Earth. Firestorm suggested that to see the invisible mass that they sidestep the timestream. Thus, he and the Atom sidestepped reality in order to see the mirror matter whilst the rest of the League tried to slow down the large mass. Upon seeing it, Firestorm transmuted it into harmless normal matter where he turned it into marshmallow matter that Superman broke into pieces. (JLA v1 #78)

Ronnie continued with his English lessons for Manitou Dawn who was concerned about her husband. He later felt something drawing him to the Moon's surface and as Firestorm he went to investigate. Whilst there, he was attacked by an unknown assailant who had him transform back to his human form on the Moon's surface. (JLA v1 #84) Raymond would have died had not the Watchtower's proximity sensors registered him and allowed Superman to recover him before he perished where he made a recovery in the infirmary. (JLA v1 #85)

Post-Flashpoint

Ronnie Raymond on the right in Fury of Firestorm v1 #14.

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.

After the battle with the Atlanteans, the Justice League looked to expanding its membership with Firestorm being invited for the gathering as they decided on the new recruits. Firestorm was among those that were chosen for the team alongside the Atom and Element Woman. (Justice League v2 #18)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Martin Stein said of Ronnie that he had a good heart though he had a tendency on being immature. (Firestorm v1 #3)

A reason he wanted to be a superhero after gaining powers was because he wanted others to be proud of him. (Firestorm v1 #2) Ronnie felt that he could never measure by his fathers standards who always seemed disappointed in him no matter what he did to gain his approval. He noted that all he wanted to do was to make his father smile. (Firestorm v1 #4)

Ronnie's father was Ed Raymond who was noted for being close friends with Dr. Wallace Hapgood who was the principal at school. (Firestorm v1 #1) His father was noted to not approve of costumed vigilantes and believed that there should be a law to regulate crimefighters. (Firestorm v1 #2) Ed believed that fear was turning him into a cold hearted monster. He was noted to had deeply cared for his son and said that he could not survive losing him. (Firestorm v1 #4)

He considered himself and Martin Stein to be a team as they worked together to be Firestorm. (Firestorm v2 #1)

Manitou Raven considered Ronnie to be a generous and honourable young man wo was happy that he had befriended his wife Dawn and was teaching her English. (JLA v1 #85)

Powers and abilities

He was a composite hero in that he initially had to bond with Martin Stein to become Firestorm. During the merging, Raymond was the prime driver of the Firestorm form whilst Martin remained as a disembodied mind within their shared head. Upon returning to normal, Ronnie retained all memories of his time as Firestorm whilst Stein only experienced a gap within his memories. (Firestorm v1 #4) He gained a number of superhuman abilities ranging from the power of flight to re-arranging atoms that included his own as well as other objects. (Firestorm v1 #1) Through his atomic restructuring powers, he could lower his atomic density to zero allowing him to be lighter than air. (Firestorm v2 #1) By rearranging atomic structures, he was able to turn deadly into attacks into harmless objects that could not hurt anyone. (Firestorm v1 #3) Firestorm was even able to use his powers to turn more exotic masses such as mirror matter into more harmless normal matter-based objects. (JLA v1 #78) The ability to change his own atomic structure at will allowed him the power of phasing through objects. (Firestorm v1 #1) This allowed him to escape dangerous predicaments such as phasing through the ground to evade an enemy. (Firestorm v1 #3)

A simple glance allowed him to read the molecular structure of an object with this being invaluable to his ability to manipulate their atomic structure. (Firestorm v1 #2)

His body operated as a kind of atomic furnace whereby he was able to use the heat to thaw out being frozen. (Firestorm v1 #3)

Firestorm was able to channel the nuclear fire in his body into powerful heat blasts. (Firestorm v1 #3)

He had the ability to repair his injuries on an atomic level but this required time and concentration. (Firestorm v1 #2)

Notes

• Firestorm was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom where he made his first appearance in Firestorm v1 #1 (March, 1978).
• In the original Firestorm run, Ronnie's parents were referred to as Ed and Elaine with his mother being deceased.

In other media

Television

• In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Ronnie Raymond made an appearance in the animated series starting in the episode "A Bat Divided!" where he was voiced by actor Bill Fagerbakke. Unlike the comics, he was shown as an adult who worked at a coach at the school with one of his students being Jason Rusch. He later went for a school trip to a nuclear power plant that came under attack from Doctor Double X who sought to empower himself further. The nuclear meltdown caused Ronnie Raymond to fuse with Jason Rusch becoming a superpowered being. Firestorm. In this version, Jason operated as the body with Ronnie operating at the mind within the Matrix. The pair were aided by Batman and gained a costume to become the superhero named Firestorm. It was shown that he had previously been involved with Dr. Louise Lincoln but broke up with her and she later attacked him when she became the supervillain Killer Frost.
• In The Flash, Ronnie Raymond features in the 2014 live-action television series set in the Arrowverse starting with the episode "Things You Can't Outrun" where he was portrayed by actor Robbie Amell. He was shown as being a structural engineer who worked at S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator and met Caitlin Snow with him becoming her fiancée. Ronnie was present on the day when the particle accelerator was activated but an incident forced him to go to the core chamber to help contain the damage. Once inside, he had Cisco Ramon close the blast doors as part of a lockdown to contain any explosion. He was able to contain the blast from destroying the facility but this came at the apparent cost of his life.
• In Justice League Action, Ronnie Raymond appeared in the animated television series where he was first shown in the episode "Nuclear Family Values" and was voiced by actor P. J. Byrne. A flashback was shown that he was a teenager who was kidnapped by armed men that took him to a nuclear plant that was managed by Professor Stein. 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 Injustice 2, Ronnie was mentioned in the dialogue between the characters in the fighting video game.

Appearances

• Firestorm v1:
• Justice League of America v1:
• Firestorm v2:
• Justice League v1:
• Extreme Justice v1:
• JLA v1:
• Brightest Day v1:
• Fury of Firestorm:
• Justice League v2:
• Doomsday Clock v1:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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