The Fury of Firestorm #23

Issue #23 of The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man brings the Nuclear Man face-to-face with a foe unlike any he's faced before — a villain whose power is rooted in technology itself. Rafael Kayanan and Dick Giordano's cover captures the tension perfectly: Firestorm and a red-costumed female figure are sprawled across a massive bank of computer equipment, while the glowing, oversized face of Byte stares out from a monitor screen below them — her image repeated across multiple screens in the background, suggesting a presence that permeates the entire digital environment. Written by Gerry Conway, this May 1984 entry in DC's Nuclear Man series delivers the kind of high-concept superhero challenge that made early-'80s DC such an energetic read.