The Fury of Firestorm #62
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Fury of Firestorm #62 is the debut issue of Mikhail Denisovitch Arkadin — the Russian nuclear technician turned superhuman who would later become Pozhar and eventually merge into an entirely new Firestorm matrix — making it the pivotal launch point of writer John Ostrander's most ambitious restructuring of the character. The issue opens the arc in which Firestorm, acting on a dying Professor Stein's suggestion, threatens global nuclear powers with forced disarmament, one of the more politically audacious story premises DC published during the Cold War's final years. By introducing a Soviet counterpart whose origin is rooted directly in the Chernobyl disaster, Ostrander planted the seed for a Firestorm composed of two men from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain — a conceptual shift that would redefine the title for its remaining run.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
John Ostrander had taken over scripting duties on the series from creator Gerry Conway in 1986, bringing with him a taste for politically charged, morally complex narratives honed on titles like Grimjack and, concurrently, Suicide Squad. Working with penciller Joe Brozowski and inker Dick Giordano — who also handled cover duties — Ostrander used issue #62 to introduce the cast of characters his disarmament arc required, including Soviet intelligence operative Major Zastrow alongside Arkadin. The issue was edited by Dennis O'Neil with Barbara Kesel as assistant editor, and was published on April 14, 1987, carrying an August 1987 cover date.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Mikhail Denisovitch Arkadin, a Russian nuclear technician whose metagene is activated in the Chernobyl disaster, who will later take the code name Pozhar ('destructive fire') and become part of the Firestorm matrix.
- First appearance of Major Zastrow, leader of the Soviet Red Shadows intelligence unit, who recruits Arkadin as a weapon against Firestorm.
- Story title: 'To Regain Tomorrow.' Written by John Ostrander; pencilled by Joe Brozowski; inked by Dick Giordano; lettered by John Workman; colored by Nansi Hoolahan; edited by Dennis O'Neil.
- Cover date: August 1987; on-sale date: April 14, 1987.
- The issue opens Ostrander's disarmament arc, in which Firestorm — at the urging of a terminally ill Martin Stein — threatens to destroy nuclear stockpiles belonging to both the United States and the Soviet Union unless the superpowers agree to total disarmament.
- Amanda Waller and a fictional appearance of then-Vice President George H.W. Bush are among the supporting cast, reflecting the series' habit of grounding its nuclear-age plotting in contemporary geopolitics.
- This issue falls within the stretch of the series where the cover logo read 'Firestorm, the Nuclear Man' (issues #59–63), one of several title variations the book carried over its run before the indicia officially changed with issue #65.
- The arc that begins here — running through issues #62–64 and Firestorm the Nuclear Man Annual #5 — culminates in Arkadin and Ronnie Raymond being fused by an atomic explosion into a new, binational Firestorm, permanently displacing Martin Stein from the matrix.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Liga da Justiça #1 (1989), DC Finest: Suicide Squad: Trial by Fire #[nn] (2025)
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