Ya know with all this shit going on with north korea and their nuclear program not to mention renewed tensions with russia and the threat of islamic terrorists trying to get their filthy hands on that shit for years now it got me thinking about Firestorm 64 written by John Ostrander. The issue came out in 1987 in which the Cold War was still going on here in the real world even though it would be only a few years later that the soviet union would collapse. For about the next two decades or so we really didn't think about nuclear war as something that we had to worry about any more.
So this issue was part of a story arc in which Ronald and professor Stein (who was dying of a brain tumor at the time) as Firestorm attempted to coerce the nuclear armed nations of the world into dismantling their nuclear arsenals under the threat of doing it for them if they didn't comply. A some what similar premise to the awful Superman 4 film which ironically also came out in 1987. Yeah that didn't go over to well and as a result Firestorm was declared an outlaw and become subject to arrest. As a result Captain Atom (prior to this issue), Task Force X, The Justice League mixed it up with Firestorm in an attempt to end his crusade.
The story line continues and comes to a head in Firestorm annual 2 in which The Squad and The League start to fight each other. Adding to the mayhem The Parasite who at the time was in The Squad goes rogue. Firestorm manages to deal with The Parasite and make his escape only to be confronted in the Nevada desert by a russian super powered agent named Pozhar. The show down happens shortly before professor Stein's tumor finally kills him and disrupts the Firestorm bond in the process which happens only seconds before both the U.S. and Soviet governments try to nuke both combatants. Good stuff, makes me miss the 80s all that much more.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/marvelmasterworksfansite/suicide-squad-the-complete-ostrander-run-1st-time--t24588.html
Brief thoughts on your own personal recollection on whether or not you were scared of nuclear attack by Russia back then?
ReplyDeleteNice Joe Browzowksi art, but didn't care for his rendition of Firestorm on the cover.
well, it's not like i woke up every day wondering if this was going to be the day where the world would be engulfed in a nuclear holocaust. but at the same time the stand off between the U.S. and the soviet union seemed to always loom in the back ground most of the time no matter where i was or what i was doing and we all knew what that could eventually lead to. plus there seemed to always be some kind of shit reminding me of some kind of impending nuclear death.
Deletethe Chernobyl disaster in 1986 for example scared the shit out of everybody all over the world there were even some fears about radioactive debris making it all the way to The West Coast. then there was the made for TV movie The Day After which came out in 1983. it actually holds up pretty good today but back in the early 80s it scared the shit out of everybody it felt so realistic. the movie was a big hit it's all everybody was talking about the week it aired. even in the music industry you had stuff like a hit song Sting did in 1985 called "Russians" which was an appeal to Reagan and Gorbechev to avoid nuclear war for the sake of the future of children from both sides. so there you go, the dark side of growing up 80s.
That is a good song.
ReplyDeleteI lived in West Germany at the time of Chernobyl, and my mom still maintains that any ailments we've developed since is because of living so close to it. It's possible since we weren't that far from the path of the fallout being blown throughout Europe, but thankfully nothing too horrible to deal with.
i didn't know that, what was your family doing in West Germany back then?
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