A lifetime ago... more than 17 years, as it happens, I wrote a trio of posts about the then-history of Firestorm, arguably my favorite super-hero, specifically through the lens of Professor Martin Stein, who for much of Firestorm's history was one-half of the composite character. I observed that Stein had really been put through the ringer, and indeed when I was writing in 2009, it wasn't entirely clear what was going on with the character. I later learned that this was more or less the reality for the writers, as well. DC's publishers really didn't know what to do with the "old guy" (as they sometimes derogatorily referred to Professor Stein, despite the character having been consistently middle-aged at the most). Now that Firestorm is back on comic book shelves again, and selling extremely well by all indications, it seemed that it was time for a follow-up. While I'll try to avoid significant spoilers for the current series, be warned, I consider anything more than a few years old to be fair game.
First, let's go back to 2009, when Stein had recently reappeared (more or less out of nowhere, and with little attempt to explain his survival of earlier events) as part of the Blackest Night crossover event. While Stein survived that event, this seems to have been just so he could be set up to be killed off in the Brightest Day crossover that followed it. For real this time. Not a fake-out where he would be resuscitated by the end of the same issue. Not a terminal disease for which a miracle cure would be found. They killed him. What happened was that an undead version of Firestorm called "Deathstorm," who had infamously killed current Firestorm-component Jason Rusch's girlfriend by turning her into salt in Blackest Night, was about to do the same to Jason, when Stein heroically leaped in front of Jason, taking the blast upon himself. 
Professor Stein's death took place shortly before the end of the Brightest Day event in 2011. By the end of that year, the entire DC universe was reset with what they called "The New 52" (never mind the clear intentions to do some interesting things with the post-Brightest Day Firestorm. All of that was simply dropped and never explored), and the new continuity included a new Firestorm (still at that time comprised of Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond, although both were rebooted versions, and not quite the characters we used to know) and a new Martin Stein, who this time was a scientist who consciously created the Firestorm concept, intended to consist of powers given out to multiple heroes in several nations around the world. The specifics of this new continuity were themselves retconned pretty quickly, but suffice it to say, the "extra" Firestorms were mostly eliminated, and Jason and Ronnie were reset to something more closely resembling the traditional Firestorm within the next year, but Martin Stein was still a separate character, not part of the Firestorm matrix.
The next major change in the status quo came in 2016, when Jason Rusch was sidelined to make room for Professor Stein to rejoin the Firestorm matrix. Although the story ended with Jason intended to remain a part of the supporting cast, I'm not entirely sure he'd ever been seen since then before appearing in the current series.a Theoretically, we were moving things back to a semblance of the classic Firestorm within the then-current DC continuity. But, again, Firestorm remained largely unused for large stretches of time.I suppose I might have been happier if that was how things stayed....
The next major stage in the character's evolution came during the Doomsday Clock event in 2019. By this time, Firestorm's history been reset to something more closely resembling his original origin (presumably this was done off-screen. Other recent events established that DC's continuity was flexible, and everything could count, if it was helpful to any given story), but with a significant difference. The incident that created Firestorm was not an accident, but specifically engineered by Stein as part of a government program to create superheroes. More importantly, Ronnie's inclusion was demonstrated to be carefully orchestrated. He was no longer a random element (who hadn't even met Stein yet in the original continuity). He was a pawn maneuvered into Stein's program.Stein had been changed from a kindly mentor into a creepy, manipulative, monster.
Ultimately, this is why I've had trouble getting on board with the new series, which as I said, is doing extremely well. Rather than just ignoring this unforgivable change to Stein's character, it's doubled-down on it.b Yes, it's doing so while recognizing the rest of Firestorm's long and storied history, and clearly the writer has a deep love for the character, as well as for much of Firestorm's supporting cast (Firehawk hasn't gotten so much to do in many years). But this version of Martin Stein simply isn't the character I've loved for decades. He's no longer a hero, but instead has become a villain, and I simply can't see a way towards redemption while keeping those deeds within continuity.
I don't mean to rain on the parade of those who are excited for the fact that Firestorm is finally popular again after so long. As I said at the outset, the creators at DC Comics have long struggled with how to make Stein interesting, and the same can easily be said for Firestorm himself. Arguably, he's too powerful. I get that it can be hard to create interesting stories with a character who can, almost literally, do anything. Without conflict, there is no story. Whatever else can be said, the current version of Martin Stein is a character from which conflict naturally flows. If that's what's necessary to sell books featuring Firestorm, I won't stand in their way.
I just won't be one of those paying to read them. Not for now, anyway. Assuming that the character of Firestorm moves forward from here, perhaps leaving Stein behind permanently, I may give the new status quo more of a chance later. But that will be a new version. Much as I enjoyed the "blank slate" version when it seemed like Stein was gone for good the first time, and much as I enjoyed the "elemental" version when it seemed like both Stein and Ronnie were relegated to the past, and much as I even picked up Jason Rusch's original series despite my anger that they'd killed Ronnie off in what seemed at the time like the stupidest way possible. Firestorm has nearly always been subject to such changes, and this may well simply be one of them... once I can get back to ignoring what DC turned Professor Stein into.
aI did find a 2021 Winter Special featuring Jason Rusch, but in this story, he's still part of the Firestorm matrix with Ronnie Raymond, so I have to assume that it takes place at an earlier point in the timeline than the 2016 story.
bFor the sake of completeness, I should mention that, between Doomsday Clock and the current series, Stein was again removed from the Firestorm matrix in the 2023 Lazarus Planet event. It's glossed over here because Firestorm was essentially ignored again afterward until the current series, during which the implications of what happened in Lazarus Planet appear to be finally becoming relevant.
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