The Fury of Firestorm #23
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Fury of Firestorm #23 is the debut of Felicity Smoak, a character whose trajectory from minor DC antagonist to one of the most culturally prominent women in the Arrowverse illustrates how a single supporting-cast introduction can echo far beyond its original series. In her first pages, Smoak — a sharp-tongued computer-software executive whose firm is collaterally damaged during Firestorm's battle with the villain Byte — establishes a civilian accountability dynamic that was genuinely unusual for a superhero book of its era, anticipating later comics storytelling trends that foregrounded the real-world costs of cape-and-cowl conflicts. The issue simultaneously introduces the sibling villain duo of Byte (Blythe Bonner) and Bug (Bernard Bonner), adding a pair of tech-themed antagonists to a series that was already engaging with the computer age more directly than most of its contemporaries. Issue #23 thus stands as a snapshot of the Copper Age Firestorm series at its most grounded and character-dense, seeding relationships and rivalries — Smoak's adversarial rapport with Ronnie, Firehawk's continuing presence as the Nuclear Man's nuclear-powered foil — that the title would develop for years.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The story, titled 'Byte,' carries a co-writing credit that reflects the creative partnership at the heart of the Fury of Firestorm run: Carla Conway supplied the plot and Gerry Conway scripted, with Gerry also serving as editor on the series he had originally created alongside artist Al Milgrom back in 1978. Rafael Kayanan handled pencils and Rodin Rodriguez inked, with Carl Gafford on colors and a young Adam Kubert listed as assistant editor — an early credit for the future Marvel superstar. The issue shipped with a cover date of May 1984 and was distributed in at minimum four editions: the standard direct-market edition, a newsstand edition, a Canadian price variant, and a Mark Jeweler insert variant, all carrying the same January 10, 1984 on-sale date.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Felicity Smoak, created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Rafael Kayanan; she debuts as the combative manager of a New York computer software firm whose equipment is wrecked during Firestorm's fight with Byte.
- First appearance of Blythe Bonner, the villain known as Byte — described in DC lore as a woman composed of living electricity generated by a computer — and her brother Bernard Bonner (Bug), making this a dual debut for the sibling antagonists.
- The story is titled 'Byte' and is Part 1 of a 2-part arc, continued in The Fury of Firestorm #24.
- Credits: plot by Carla Conway, script by Gerry Conway (also editor), pencils by Rafael Kayanan, inks by Rodin Rodriguez, colors by Carl Gafford, letters by Adam Kubert (assistant editor); cover pencils by Rafael Kayanan, cover inks by Dick Giordano.
- Firehawk (Lorraine Reilly) appears in the issue; by this point she had been Firehawk since issue #17 and this marks her approximately seventh appearance in that guise, confirming her established role as Firestorm's nuclear-powered ally.
- Felicity Smoak's comic-book origins bear little resemblance to her Arrowverse counterpart: the original is an antagonist who threatens Firestorm with a class-action lawsuit, not a tech-savvy hero; she later becomes Ronnie Raymond's stepmother after marrying his father Ed Raymond.
- The issue was published in four editions: standard direct-market, newsstand, Canadian price variant, and Mark Jeweler insert variant — all sharing the same on-sale date of January 10, 1984, with a cover date of May 1984.
- A reimagined, Arrowverse-inspired version of Felicity Smoak was reintroduced into DC's New 52 continuity in Green Arrow #35 (2014), written by Arrow showrunner Andrew Kreisberg, illustrating the reverse influence the TV character had on the comics.
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Reprinted in DC Flash #9 (1986)
Key issues in The Fury of Firestorm
Variants (2)
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