Firestorm

Bursting onto the scene in 2007's Justice League Wedding Special #1 — a key issue in any serious Modern Age collection — this incarnation of Firestorm was brought to life by the legendary Dwayne McDuffie and artist Mike McKone, a creative pedigree that immediately signals something worth paying attention to. A DC character forged in the thick of some of the publisher's most ambitious crossover storytelling, Firestorm moves through the pages of Justice League of America, Countdown, and Countdown to Final Crisis, rubbing shoulders with titans like Superman, Green Lantern, and Bruce Wayne. Though the catalog run is compact, the company kept and the contexts inhabited are anything but small — this is a character woven into the grand tapestry of late-2000s DC universe events at their most interconnected and consequential. For collectors drawn to that electric era of DC ambition, Firestorm is a fascinating thread to pull.