Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #2

History

The series was conceived as part of DC's 2023 Dawn of DC publishing initiative and spun directly out of a backup story by the same creative team in Power Girl Special #1 (May 2023), which established the inciting disaster that sent Fire and Ice to Superman's hometown. Writer Joanne Starer, previously known for The Gimmick and Sirens of the City, described the series concept to interviewers as a 'superhero Schitt's Creek,' deliberately evoking the small-town fish-out-of-water comedy format. Artist Natacha Bustos, co-creator of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, returned to Keith Giffen's classic L-Ron design for the book, acknowledging the debt the series owes to Giffen's Justice League International run of the late 1980s. Starer has noted publicly that the character of Charlie Rhoades — a wheelchair-using bartender introduced in this issue — was shaped in part by her own real-life experiences with disability.

Trivia · 9 facts

• Published October 3, 2023 (cover-dated December 2023) as issue #2 of the 6-part miniseries; written by Joanne Starer, pencils/inks by Natacha Bustos, colors by Tamra Bonvillain, letters by Ariana Maher, cover by Terry and Rachel Dodson.
• First appearances in this issue: King of Cats (Drew Dworkin) and Miss Congeniality (Mandy Perkins); also the first full appearances of Honey, Linka, Lot's Wife, and Smarty Pants (real name Seth Mozek revealed here).
• The real name of Beefeater — Michael Morice — is revealed for the first time in this issue, as confirmed by the DC Database.
• Charlie Rhoades, a new Smallville bartender who becomes a romantic interest for Fire, makes his first appearance; Starer has stated the character's experience as a wheelchair user was inspired by her own real-life disability.
• The Kawatche Caves — sacred ground first introduced in the early seasons of the Smallville TV series — are referenced and effectively canonized into DC mainline comics continuity for the first time in this issue.
• Fire's attempted viral-fame scheme involves staging a fight with Ambush Bug (Irwin Schwab) and posting the footage to an in-universe social media platform called 'Fabgab'; the video garners only 38 views, compared to 12 million for her earlier brawl with Guy Gardner.
• The issue is part of DC's Dawn of DC initiative, marking the first time Fire and Ice headlined their own comic series after decades as supporting players in Justice League International and related titles.
• The entire creative team — Starer, Bustos, Bonvillain, and Maher — is all-female, a distinction Starer highlighted publicly as meaningful given the book's thematic focus on women's friendship and autonomy.
• The full series (#1–6) plus the Power Girl Special backup story were collected in a trade paperback released August 6, 2024.

Cast · 11 characters

Full credits

Variants (2)