Firestar (limited series)

Infobox comic book title
title = Firestar


caption =Firestar #3
schedule = Monthly
format =
limited =y
publisher = Marvel Comics
date = 1986
issues = 5
main_char_team =
writers = Tom DeFalco
artists =
pencillers = Mary Wilshire
inkers = Stevie Leialoha
colorists = D. Graziunus
creative_team_month =
creative_team_year =
creators = "Dennis Marks", Tom DeFalco, Dan Spiegle, Christy Marx, Chris Claremont, John Romita, Jr.
subcat=Marvel Comics
sort=PAGENAME

"Firestar" was a four-issue comic book limited series, published in 1986 by Marvel Comics, that established the origin story of the titular character within Marvel Comics continuity. Firestar was previously a character created solely for the animated series "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends", as a "fire" counterpart for previously established character Iceman, and had no appearances in a Marvel comic book prior to the animated series. The limited series was not the first published, in-continuity appearance of Firestar (which was "Uncanny X-Men" #193, 1985), nor was it the first Marvel comic that Firestar had appeared in (which was 1981's "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" #1, later reprinted as 1989's "Marvel Action Universe" #1, a one-shot comic adaptation of the "Amazing Friends" pilot episode, "The Triumph of the Green Goblin"), but it did present Firestar's comic book origin for the first time in print, which differed significantly from the animated character's origin. The limited series covered events that happened both before and after the "Uncanny X-Men" appearance.

In 2006, the series was collected into one digest-sized paperback, "X-Men: Firestar" (ISBN 0785122001).

The Summary

Issue #1

Angelica Jones lives with her middle-aged father and paternal grandmother. Due to her father’s work (intimated to be a blue collar-level job), they are forced to move repeatedly, and "Angel" (her father's pet name for her) is shy and withdrawn, having had little chance to make lasting friendships with others her age. Though she loves her father very much, Angelica is much closer emotionally to her "Nana", who assures Angelica that she is special and destined for great things. Mr. Jones feels that his mother is building Angelica's hopes up too high, but Nana feels that her lonely granddaughter needs the encouragement.

At her new school, Angelica is taunted by a group of three girls, especially the ringleader Cassie, who is jealous that Chuck--the boy she’s interested in--is friendly towards Angelica. One day the girls pick on her at lunch; as Angelica becomes upset, her hand starts to glow, causing her milk carton to erupt and explode. Some distance away, at the Massachusetts Academy, the energy signature of an emerging mutant is noticed by Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, but the trace disappears before her technicians can pinpoint an exact location.

After Angelica is encouraged to enter an ice sculpting contest by Chuck, an enraged Cassie plans to get even. The next day, Angelica finds her sculpture ruined by Cassie and her cohorts; in her anger, Angelica's whole body begins to glow, causing all the ice sculptures to melt. Running away in fear, she finds a pay telephone and tries to call her Nana. When she grabs the telephone receiver, her hand glows again, and it begins to melt. The White Queen notices this child again through use of her mutant-detecting system Multivak, as does Professor Charles Xavier through his Cerebro system. They both want this young mutant for different reasons; both are mutant telepaths who seek to train young, emerging mutants, but Xavier wishes to help mutants integrate peaceably into society through training at his School for Gifted Youngsters, while the Hellfire Club's agenda is to create a social class of mutant elite, with themselves at the top.

When Angelica makes it home, she finds an ambulance outside her house, and that her Nana has died. At Nana’s grave, she is afraid and crying, feeling that Nana was the only one who would understand and help her deal with the strange new power she has developed. She displays this power to her father, who momentarily recoils in shock, and Angelica leaves the cemetery feeling rejected. Back at their house as Angelica's father wonders what to do with his "Angel", Emma Frost lets herself in. She explains that Angelica is a mutant, and she will be able to teach the girl about her powers and how to use them to her best abilities at Frost's Massachusetts Academy. Frost then enters Angelica's room and speaks to the girl much as her Nana once did, with reassurances of how special she is. As Angelica decides to go with her, Xavier arrives in a limousine, only minutes too late; he regretfully decides that in this instance, the White Queen has "won".

Issue #2

The story picks up months after Angelica arrives at the Massachusetts Academy, which is a private school for upper class and above average students; a select few are also mutants, and members of the Hellfire Club's training team, the Hellions, a fact that none of the non-mutant student body or faculty is aware of. Angelica is kept isolated from the other mutant students by orders of Ms. Frost; though she wears a Hellion uniform while training to use her powers, she does not train with the team, though she is aware of which students are members of the Hellions.

Angelica is still very withdrawn and socially awkward, her only friends besides "Ms. Frost" being her personal bodyguard, a Hellfire Club Guard named Randall Chase, and her favorite horse in the school's stable, Butter Rum. The other mutant students resent Angelica, thinking she is stuck-up because she will not associate with them, when in fact, Frost has told her to avoid close personal relationships because of the "danger" her powers pose to others. The White Queen has many plans for Angelica, whom she has given the code-name "Firestar", intending to groom her into an assassin and bodyguard, as well as using her to deal with internal political struggles within the Hellfire Club, such as the animosity Frost and her ally Sebastian Shaw, the Club's Black King and leader, have against the Black Queen, Selene. She starts to plague Angelica with nightmares through a device disguised as a bracelet given to the girl as a gift. Angelica's dreams are filled with horrid images of Xavier and the team of mutant superheroes he has established, the X-Men, to cause Angelica to fear and hate them. In her daily life, however, Angelica makes progress with her powers, learning that she can use them to fly.

A dance held at the Massachusetts Academy is attended not only by the Academy student body, but also by the New Mutants, a "junior team" of teenage mutants trained at Xavier's School, invited by the White Queen. At the dance, Angelica meets Sam Guthrie, also known as the New Mutant Cannonball, who is similarly shy and unassuming. After they decide to take a walk (at the White Queen's telepathic prompting), the two kiss (Angelica's first kiss), but the romantic moment is shattered when Frost berates her telepathically for putting Sam in danger. Breaking away, Angelica runs to the stable, which suddenly catches fire. She tries to save Butter Rum, freeing him from his stall and leading him out of the stable, but the horse collapses and dies as soon as it is clear of the flames. Believing that she killed Butter Rum and started the fire, Angelica starts to break down emotionally with fear of herself and her powers, feeling that she has no one left to trust but Ms. Frost, who comforts her as the stable burns; hidden in nearby bushes, Sam overhears their conversations and, knowing that Frost is the White Queen, seems to understand that Angelica is a mutant and blames herself for the fire. In truth, The White Queen started the fire through hidden devices, and telepathically killed the horse, knowing that breaking down Angelica's psyche will ultimately lead to the girl belonging to the Hellfire Club body and soul.

Note: "Uncanny X-Men #193

Chronologically, the events of Firestar's published debut in "Uncanny X-Men" #193 occur between issue 2 and 3 of the "Firestar" limited series. At some point between issue 2 and the "Uncanny" story, Firestar is given the unique masked costume that the character is best known for, which she is shown wearing in the "Uncanny" appearance. She is manipulated by the powers of the Hellion Empath to join him and his teammate Roulette in an attempt to aid another Hellion, Thunderbird (later known as Warpath), in a struggle against the X-Men. Firestar and the Hellions involved are all defeated, though the X-Men recognize that Firestar is under Empath's control after the X-Man Rogue incapacitates the girl through Rogue's power to absorb the minds and powers of others, and Rogue is thusly made aware of Angelica's true personality and Empath's manipulation. Rogue is utterly disgusted with Empath's actions and vows to make him pay if she ever gets her hands on him. Afterwards, Angelica and her classmates were brought to Xavier's School, and Xavier offers her a place at the school; Angelica is touched by the offer, but loyalty to Ms. Frost (and possibly mistrust of the X-Men fostered by the nightmares given to her by the White Queen, though they are not mentioned in the "Uncanny" story) prompts her to refuse. Xavier accepts her decision, saying only that he hopes Frost proves worthy of Angelica's loyalty. Thunderbird also refuses a similar offer, and the four teenagers are allowed to return to the Massachessetts Academy. (In a nod to the events of the "Firestar" limited series, which was published not long after the "Uncanny" story, Sam Guthrie appears in the background of the final scene at Xavier's School, angry at Empath's manipulation of Angelica.)

Issue #3

Firestar has come a long way in the use of her powers since she arrived at the Massachusetts Academy. Her maneuvering in flight is getting better, as well as her ability to control how she releases heat. She thinks she has it all down, but a robot in the form of Professor Xavier takes her by surprise, shooting her down with rubber bullets--a lesson from the White Queen to always be on guard. The White Queen tells Angelica she has a gift for her: she will be going home to visit her father.

Later that day a simple dance class session goes wrong for Angelica due to interference from Empath and Roulette. Roulette makes her clumsy with bad luck discs, while Empath causes the dance teacher, Mrs. Cohen, to overreact to Angelica's mishap and angrily chew her out in front of the entire class. When Angelica realizes that Empath is behind Mrs. Cohen's reaction, her own anger causes her microwaves to emit slowly from her, setting off the room's sprinkler system. Angelica is scolded by Ms. Frost for the incident, pointing out that Angelica risked revealing her mutant nature to Mrs. Cohen, but she still is granted her home visit, accompanied by her bodyguard Randall.

The visit seems too early for Angelica's father, who has not come to terms with her being a mutant. While Mr. Jones gives Randall a friendly greeting, he is distant when greeting his daughter. When Angelica happily greets the family cat by scooping it up into her arms, her father snaps at her and snatches the cat away; hurt and shocked, she storms off to her room. After a night of silence, Randall decides that he and Angelica should go back to the Academy earlier than they had intended. At the airport, Randall is paged to answer a phone call, only to encounter fellow members of the White Queen's Hellfire Club Guard, who prevent him from rejoining the Joneses. Meanwhile, a man bumps into Angelica and drops the radio he carries, which catches fire. He makes a scene, claiming that the radio caught fire when Angelica looked at it, and declares that she must be a mutant. The one man grows into a mob of people angry at the idea of a mutant in their midst. (A central theme of Marvel Comics' stories about mutants are the fear and mistrust of "normal" humans towards mutants.) They attack her and her father, and Angelica fights back with her powers, trying to chase the mob away by firing microwave blasts around them rather than attacking them directly. The man who bumped into Angelica pulls out a pistol and tries to shoot her. She melts the bullets before they hit her, but the man then aims the gun at her father; in desperation, she fires a microwave blast directly at the man, severely injuring him. Only when they hear the man's scream of pain do the other Hellfire Guards allow Randall to return to his charge. His encounter with his fellow Guards raises suspicions in Randall's mind about the events in the airport.

Later that night the White Queen reports the day’s activities to Sebastian Shaw. The "accidental" encounter in the airport was planned by the White Queen herself, intended to force Firestar to use her powers directly against a living target for the first time. (In her encounter with the X-Men, she had mainly used her power of flight to charge at the X-Men; she only used her energy projection power directly against Colossus, whose organic steel body could resist the effects.) Soon, according to the White Queen, their little Firestar will use her powers as an assassin, and the Black Queen will surely die!

Issue #4

With Angelica present, Ms. Frost almost becomes the victim of what seems to be a sniper attack-–in actuality a set-up to make Angelica believe in the menace of the Black Queen.

After a training session, Ms. Frost invites Angelica to a formal dance at the Hellfire Club in New York City. She and Shaw intend to use Angelica as an assassin against Selene during the event. Meanwhile, Randall's suspicions of Frost’s intentions towards Angelica have grown. Snooping around, he learns the truth but gets caught before he can tell Angelica, and is imprisoned by the Hellfire Guard; Ms. Frost tells Angelica that the Black Queen's agents killed Randall. When she mentions that the Black Queen will also attend the ball and expresses doubts that Angelica should accompany her, the girl practically begs Ms. Frost to allow her to attend and protect her mentor.

The evening of the ball, Angelica phones her father to make peace with him and tell him that she still loves him. At the same time, Randall has finally escaped from his captors. Though fatally injured in the escape, he still makes it to Angelica's room and tells her the whole truth before he dies. Furious, she tears the bracelet Frost gave her from her wrist, and goes to confront the White Queen in her underground complex as Firestar. Cutting totally loose with her powers, she humiliates the White Queen and makes her promise to leave Angelica alone. Forcing Frost to run for her life, Firestar causes an explosion, severely damaging the underground complex (though ultimately causing minor damage to the school buildings above; the White Queen uses her powers to convince authorities that a boiler explosion caused the damage). Shaw arrives to find out what happened, and talks Frost out of breaking her promise and immediately going after Firestar, deciding that there would be no profit in such action at that time and they would find another way to deal with Selene.

Angelica returns to her father, more confident now, as she knows that she can control her powers and always could; it was her own self-doubt and insecurity that kept her from doing so before. Her father, regretting his rejection of his "Angel" before, embraces her back into his life.

Characters appearing in the series

Main characters and supporting characters

* Firestar (Angelica Jones)
* Emma Frost, the White Queen
* Bartholomew Jones, Angelica's father
* "Nana" (last name presumably Jones), Angelica's grandmother and Bartholomew's mother
* Sebastian Shaw, the Black King
* Selene, the Black Queen
* Randall Chase, Angelica's bodyguard and a member of the Hellfire Club Guards

Cameo and minor appearances

* Professor X
* Shadowcat
* Cannonball
* Nightcrawler
* Wolfsbane
* Sunspot
* Empath
* Warpath
* Colossus
* Banshee
* Roulette
* Magik
* Magma
* Mirage
* Storm
* Wolverine
* Tarot

Notes

* The comic-book origin of Firestar does share a few similarities with her animated counterpart's origin, as shown in the "Amazing Friends" episode, "A Firestar Is Born". The animated Firestar was also raised by a single father in his middle years (though he is never given a name in the episode, and Angelica's grandmother does not live with them), who was a construction worker. The animated Firestar also contended with a female peer who bullied her, a girl named Bonnie; the difference being that in the cartoon, Angelica apparently lived in the same area throughout her youth, as she is shown dealing with Bonnie from childhood to late adolescence.
* Firestar joined the New Warriors several years later. She had another encounter with the White Queen and the Hellions when they came to "reclaim" Firestar from the Warriors. Despite the White Queen and Night Thrasher's mentor Tai attempting to determine Firestar's fate through the outcome of the battle between the Warriors and the Hellions, Firestar asserted that she would decide her own fate, and chose to remain with the Warriors. She eventually made her peace with Emma Frost in "Generation X #59".
* After many of the Hellions were killed by the mutant Trevor Fitzroy, Firestar and Warpath, accompanied by Warpath's X-Force teammate Cannonball, went on a mission to inform Empath and another former Hellion (and former teammate of Cannonball's in the New Mutants), Magma, of their teammates' deaths. The trio then went to the Massachusetts Academy, where they removed the few remaining files on record of the Hellions' existence. Currently, only Firestar, Warpath, Empath, Magma, and a resurrected Tarot remain of the White Queen's original team of Hellions; however, Emma Frost, now allied with Xavier's School due to guilt over her original students' deaths, would later train a new team of young mutants, Generation X, on the Massachusetts Academy grounds, and establish a training squad at Xavier's School called the Hellions.
* The "Firestar" limited series was reprinted as a Marvel Digest in May 2006, the year of the "Amazing Friends" TV series' 25th anniversary. In August 2006, Marvel further honored the anniversary with , a one-shot featuring the (chronological) first in-continuity team-up of Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar, set shortly after Firestar's public debut with the New Warriors, as well as a humorous comic strip starring the trio.

External links

* [http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/issues/showfaq.asp?fldAuto=114 Uncanny X-Men.net Summaries] of the 4-part issue.