Review: The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men Vol. 2- The Firestorm Protocols

Quick Summary

Pros: There are plenty of fun battles and entertaining moments from the two Firestorms. For the most part, the artwork looks good and helps make the battles even more impressive.

Cons: Unnecessary minor characters and subplots clutter the narrative. A number of plot twists appear inorganically and make the story harder to understand. The negatives distract from the book’s positives and make for a poor reading experience.

Overall: Though the action scenes are fun and look great, the plot throughout this volume is decidedly lackluster. At its core, there is a solid story about a unique superhero. However, complications arise when numerous minor characters are thrown in the mix and unnecessary subplots are given too much time. Then strange plot twists make the entire situation worse and dampen the entire experience. This book is a fun dive into action but not necessarily a satisfying story.

Story

The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men Vol. 2: The Firestorm Protocols, by Joe Harris and Ethan Van Sciver, is a flashy book, filled with action, that ends up being only mediocre when it comes to plot. The book’s main flaws come from an overly complicated and often messy narrative, filled with far too many minor characters and unnecessary subplots. This disallows readers from forming a meaningful connection with the main characters or the series in general. However, the action is still pretty fun and the storyline has a few decently exciting moments. This all makes for a book that could appeal to readers looking for a casual read full of explosions and fights, but not readers looking for a truly captivating narrative.

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The majority of the successes found throughout The Firestorm Protocols come from the book’s dedication to action. Readers have plenty of opportunities to see Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch go head to head with villains, often leading to explosive battles filled with great moments. Both heroes are also entertaining on their own and having them as lead characters makes the book easier to enjoy.

However, when it comes to story, the book is a bit more disappointing. There are a plethora of unnecessary subplots and characters clogging up an otherwise decent adventure. The Justice League International makes an appearance that provides little to Firestorm’s character; the Zithertech subplot remains underdeveloped the entire time; and almost every appearance of the hero’s parents feels pointless.

In addition, numerous minor characters are also being constantly introduced as the story progresses. Most of these are different versions of Firestorm, who are brought into the volume only to be discarded a short while later. All of these minor characters end up being shallow and only manage to distract from the book’s two most entertaining characters, Ronnie and Jason. The presences of unnecessary characters and subplots complicates the volume and turns a straightforward story into one that becomes hard to follow at points.

This problem is then exacerbated by a number of confusing or simply unexplained plot twists. Helix returns, despite dying in the previous volume; Martin Stein’s fate is never fully addressed; and, near the end of the book, the actions of Director Zither are almost nonsensical. In other books, plot twists like these work because they fit in with a larger narrative. Here they seem to be done just to inorganically strike up conflict or push forward the story. It heaps on more confusion to a volume already rife with problems.

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Art

Though the story falters in quite a few places, the artwork in The Firestorm Protocols looks solid throughout. Both Ethan Van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar do a great job in penciling this book. Their work here emphasizes the energetic nature of Firestorm and spotlights the hero on every page. This also helps complement one of the story’s best features, the action and fighting. Great looking and well organized fight sequences add a lot to this volume as a whole and really help make up for some of the story’s faults.

Continuity

The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men Vol. 2: The Firestorm Protocols continues the story started in The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men Vol. 1: God Particle (Review).

The story here is continued in The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men Vol. 3: Takeover (Review).

This volume also references another comic book, detailed below:

• The Justice League International makes an appearance in this volume. Their origin and recent adventures are detailed in Justice League International Vol. 1: The Signal Masters.