Firestar #1 “Mark of the Mutant!” (March 1986)



Creative Team: Chris Claremont writing. Mary Wilshire penciling. Steve Leialoha inking.

Theme: New kid in town

The Story: Angelica Jones and her dad Bart are moving back in with Nana (grandmother) Jones due to his new job. In her first day at West Morris High School, she draws the eye of football hunk Chuckie Belson and the ire of a trio of mean girls. She gets detention when an unexpected flare of power from her hands causes her chocolate milk carton to explode, spattering a teacher. (Note the “climax” entrendre.)



Fast forward to mid-December. Angelica enters an ice sculpture in a school contest, but the mean girls break it under cover of night. Upset, Angelica radiates energy that melts all the ice sculptures, but no one was around to see.



Angelica races home to find more bad news; her beloved Nana Jones has died. After the snowy graveside service, Angelica’s dad is alarmed to see his daughter manifesting some sort of snow-melting power. Who can cure her from being a “blasted mutie”?



Both the X-Men and Emma Frost have detected Angelica’s emerging abilities with their respective versions of Cerebro. (Emma calls hers “Multivac,” a computer name borrowed from Isaac Asimov’s fiction.) The two schools race to Angelica’s family home in New Jersey, but somehow Emma gets there sooner (from western Massachusetts) than Xavier can get there (from northerly outlying NYC).

My Two Cents: “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends” produced new episodes 1981-3 and then entered re-reuns for a few more years. The heroes were Spider-Man, Iceman, and a new character, "Firestar," who was probably standing in for a contractually unavailable Human Torch. His TV rights were owned by another company, which is why the Fantastic Four cartoon didn't feature him either.  A Firestar comic book was announced in late 1983 but took almost three more years to appear.



The point of this issue is to show introduce Angelica and discover her discovering her mutant powers, and her dad’s revulsion for same. How to fill 22 pages with that? Typical high school woes (cute boy, mean girls) would do, but author Tom DeFalco gives us “new girl in school” as well as “dead grannie.” None of these events and schoolmates significantly impact the other three issues, sadly. I would rather have skipped right to her dad dropping her off at the Massachusetts Academy at the beginning of this issue, and then see more story about her and her peers in that setting.

Should children be told that they are exceptional? Nana Jones thinks so. She points to the intersecting lines on Angelica’s hand and says that they form a letter “M,” meaning somehow that Angelica is “one of the chosen few.” The mean girls at school respond mockingly that everybody has that same palm pattern, which is true. Angelica’s need for this sort of deceitful reassurance from her family speaks to an insecurity which makes her especially vulnerable to a predator like Emma Frost.

Art is on this series is not quite so stable. Pencils are by Mary Wilshire throughout, and Steve Leialoha provides inks on #1, 3, and 4, so a pair of recent New Mutants veterans are at work. Neither of them are copying Bill Sienkiewicz’ angular affectations this time around; the overall effect is more from an early 1960s romance comic.

As an Easter Egg, Angelica’s breakfast table has both Flintstones Cereal and a cylinder that says “Yabba Dabba Doo,” maybe containing Flintstones brand vitamins. I don’t know what it means, but it seems deliberate.



The weather is inconsistent. Page 2 shows barren winter trees. But all the subsequent pages show green trees everywhere.



Going along with the inconsistent weather is a coloring error in a New Mutants’ volleyball game. Sam and Dani are colored as if they’re wearing blue tights, but surely they have bare legs below their sports shorts, just like Rahne, who is the New Mutant least likely to bare her legs.



Xavier is in a wheelchair in this issue, which is not true in current X-Men and may speak to the long gestation of this project. The final issue will claim that three years have elapsed in-story over the course of four issues, which is preposterous by the “four real years equals one Marvel year” rule; it would have to take place concurrent with Marvel stories published in 1974! Xavier has been out of his wheelchair ever since he danced with Illyana in New Mutants #14 (April 1984), which was just prior to X-Men #180, when Emma captured Kitty Pryde.



Emma Frost’s license plate says “ICE-1.” That would be a really nice detail, if not for the previous dialogue specifying that this vehicle is an airport rental.



Speaking of which, simultaneous with the death of Nana Jones, Emma declares her intention to travel immediately by private plane and limousine to collect Angelica. Yet Emma doesn’t arrive until after Nana’s funeral. Surely there were a few days in between. Did she and Xavier both take that long to zero in on exactly where Angelica was? Cerebro at least is usually far more precise than that.

I still haven't forgiven Emma for Butter Rum.

Firestar #4 “Now Strikes the Assassin!” (June 1986)



Creative Team: Chris Claremont writing. Mary Wilshire penciling. Steve Leialoha inking. The cover is by Barry Windsor-Smith.

Theme: Graduation Day



The Story: Emma fakes an attack on herself and blames it on Selene, hoping to motivate Angelica for a planned strike against Selene. Angelica’s bodyguard Randall discovers Emma’s plans for Angelica but is captured by other Hellfire guards before he can warn her. Emma tells Angelica that Selene murdered him.



I’m not sure why the Hellfire guards left him alive to escape, which of course he does, dying in her arms after delivering his warning.



Angelica goes on a rampage, dueling with Emma and destroying the secret Hellfire base before returning to see her dad in New Jersey.



Dad has gotten enough over his fear of mutants that they can give each other a second chance.



My Two Cents: So, this is the end of the Firestar mini-series! It tied into X-Men continuity just enough to confuse new and old readers equally. The Empath plot was clearly dropped into X-Men and New Mutants comics to inspire readers of those series to buy this series also. But then almost nothing happened with Empath in this series, so that’s a swing and a miss. 

In this issue, Angelica lives in a mixed gender dorm. This is different from the last issue, in which Angelica lived in the same building with Emma.
Angelica uses her microwave powers to melt a stone wall. I wish they would just call them heat powers if that’s how they’re going to use them.

Angelica may be leaving the Massachusetts Academy, but she'd too young to be out of high school. In her next appearance, it's implied that she has re-entered public school. Why doesn't she go to Xavier now that she knows that Emma Frost was just feeding her a line about him being evil?

Marvel Presents #82-87 “Life During Wartime” (1991)

The Story: This arc unfolded over six consecutive issues in the Marvel Presents multi-story anthology title. Two other chapters were cut, resulting in discontinuous story which I will point out. I’m not sure where the eighth chapter was supposed to fall.

Chapter One (#82): Angelica Jones is forced to use her powers to rescue her soccer teammate Meg from organ harvesters from an organization eventually identified as Arms of Salvation. Angelica’s father Bart chastises her for almost blowing her cover, but she can’t promise him to never use her powers. Emma Frost, still smarting from the previous assault on her person and her base by Firestar, doxxes her to Freedom Force, the government-sponsored team of mutant hunters. This leads Mystique, Avalanche, and Spiral to burst in on Angelica and her dad at home.



Chapter Two (#83): When Mystique’s subterfuge (pretending to be Angelica's friend Meg) fails, violence erupts, and Bart is stabbed through the chest by Spiral. Angelica races him to a hospital, but it doesn’t look good; he needs a new lung. Mr. Fitch and Mr. Cross, leaders of the Arms of Salvation, set their sights on Mystique as a good experimental subject.



Chapter Three: In this installment never printed, apparently the Arms of Salvation approach Angelica with the offer that they will provide the lung that her father needs, if she will help them capture Mystique for supposedly harmless experiments.

Chapter Four (#84): The Arms of Salvation test Angelica’s combat skills. She wins! Returning to the hospital, she finds Mystique impersonating her in her father’s hospital room. A battle ensues, with Blob and Pyro arriving late to back up Mystique.



Chapter Five (#85): Angelica defeats Blob, Pyro, and Mystique. The Arms of Salvation kidnap Angelica’s friend Meg and Meg’s dad, planning to harvest organs including the lung transplant that Angelica’s father needs.



Chapter Six (#86): Angelica takes Mystique to the Arms of Salvation, then turns down an offer to join their organization. They attack her, but before they can kill her, the rest of Freedom Force arrives, having followed a tracker worn by Mystique. Angelica discovers where the donated organs are coming from and frees Meg, Meg’s father, and Mystique. Arms leader Mr. Cross bursts in wearing an armored exo-skeleton.



Chapter Seven (#87): Freedom Force and Angelica work together to defeat Hitch, Cross, and the rest of the Arms of Salvation. For some reason Spiral hates Angelica so much that Mystique gives up on her own plan to recruit Firestar. So instead she files a fake report that Firestar died, so now the government and Spiral will leave Angelica alone.. Bart somewhere gets the donor lung that he needed.



My Two Cents: I like the idea of Firestar and Freedom Force making common cause against organ runners, though it took a while for them to get to that point. I also like the gradual campaign to turn Mystique into less of a villain and more of an anti-hero, trying to keep a leash on her team of hot-tempered super-operatives. But this story Is mainly about Firestar, and how she might reasonably end up abetting organ thieves before discovering their secret. It’s a decent enough story, if non-essential. One of the more innovative choices was the “ticking clock” during the last chapter, which consisted of the EKG strip of Bart’s father, as hospital personnel struggled to keep him alive while his daughter was in the middle of a big battle.



Spiral’s characterization is off. She has a senseless hatred of Angelica for being a “princess,” and every single sentence out of her mouth contains a dance metaphor. As written originally by Anne Nocenti, Spiral is supposed to be full of dry sarcasm and doesn’t ever talk about dancing, even though her power involves dancing.

The art by Dwayne Turner and Jose Marzan is quite good. Firestar’s appearances in the New Warriors (beginning in issue #1, July 1990) were published prior to these Marvel Comics Presents issues but took place afterward.

The "communist" comment is very 80s/Reagan era.

Iceman #2 “Instant Karma!” (January 1985)



Creative Team: Written by J.M. DeMatteis. Penciled by Alan Kupperberg. Inked by Mike Gustovich. Cover by Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod.

Theme: Killing my old man

The Story: Officer Ratchit is disgruntled that Iceman is treated as a witness rather than a suspect at the police station. When Ratchit mouths off about it, he gets a snowball right in the face. That’s two unpunished assaults on a police officer! But we don’t see these cops again in this series.



Bobby’s parents already knew he was a mutant vigilante, but they’re embarrassed that everyone else from the retirement party knows it too now. Bobby’s mom warns that his antics will be the death of his father. It does not appear that the members of this family are very good for each other.

In the ruins of Marge’s house, Bobby finds a mysterious black box which teleports him to 1942. A frightened policeman shoots Bobby in the left elbow, and he receives medical care from a younger version of his own parents, who are still dating.



Oblivion incinerates White Light and Idiot then sends Kali, a four-armed spider-riding knight, to track down Marge. Instead, Kali follows the “bounce box” to 1942 and attacks Bobby. His father Willie leaps to his defense and is killed.

We find out where Marge and her brother went during the collapse of their house last issue: They went to England in 1892, of course! And they’re hiding in the past from Oblivion. Marge can watch Bobby’s adventures on a video screen. She’s reluctant to intervene, but eventually she issues a challenge to Kali, who disappears from 1942, presumably en route to confront Marge in 1892.



My Two Cents: The centerpiece of this issue is an extended off-panel conversation that Bobby has with his parents, who don’t know who he is. We’ve already heard him say to himself twice that he wishes he could understand who his parents had been as young people, and the central conceit of this mini-series so far is that his wish is fulfilled. The message is that kids are more likely to accept their parents' counsel if they can see their parents as real people rather than distant, perfect authority figures.



But then his time-traveling disrupts the relationship of his yet-unmarried parents, threatening his own future existence. Mind you, this mini-series came out several months before “Back to the Future,” which has the same basic theme, hit theatres in the summer of 1985.



The police believe Bobby when he blames the alien attack on communists. I guess commies could do pretty much anything during the Cold War.

Note the giant poster of John Lennon over Bobby’s bed. J.M. DeMatteis is a big Lennon fan, and the title of this issue is from a John Lennon song. On his blog, DeMatteis has detailed his two personal encounters with John Lennon in an NYC recording studio:



Under his ice, Bobby wears white briefs and a white X-Men belt, although he’s now affiliated with the Defenders. Does he dress like this in Defenders issues also?

Films playing at the 1940s cinema include Humphrey Bogart in “High Sierra” (1941) and Fredric March in “One Foot in Heaven” (also 1941). The latter is about a minister whose family wanted him to be a doctor, which fits the theme from issue #1. Would both of these A-features have been on the same movie marquee? Maybe.

A Daily Bugle headline declares, “M’Arthur in Australia.” This refers to the evacuation of General Douglas MacArthur from the Phillipines in March 1942 due to Japanese victories in the Pacific Theatre of World War 2.

A policeman confirms the date to Bobby and accuses him of being in the Liberty Legion. This WW2 hero team (Bucky Barnes, Patriot, Whizzer, Miss America, Red Raven, Thin Man, Blue Diamond, and Jack Frost) debuted in a story by Roy Thomas in Marvel Premiere #29 (1976). Thomas would assemble a similar WW2 team for DC a few years later in the All-Star Squadron (#1 of that series, 1981).

Bobby’s mother Madeline Bass is seventeen years old in 1942, thus born in 1925 and 59 years old in 1984. But she looks a good ten years older than that in the “present day” scenes, with white “Aunt May hair.” His father is five years older, thus retiring at age 64.

Marvel Presents #82-87 “Life During Wartime” (1991)





rberman ... The top picture is from Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and the bottom picture is a picture that you've found in bold (see above) and I've didn't realized that Firestar bad a different mask in the Comics. Anyay, I've wanted to point that out and wondering why the difference here?

Enjoyed your reviews here.