Firehawk

30 years ago - Lorraine Reilly is born in Houston, Texas.

26 years ago - 4-year-old Lorraine's father is elected to the US Senate.

12 years ago - 18-year-old Lorraine attends the University of Texas, double majoring in Political Science & Accounting.

10 years ago - 20-year-old Lorraine meets Ronnie Raymond. At first she thinks he's a cocky jock, but soon discovers that he is a decent guy, and they become friends.

9 years ago - 21-year-old Lorraine discovers Ronnie Raymond & Martin Stein’s secret identity as Firestorm. She begins to help them.

8 years ago - 22-year-old Lorraine graduates with her bachelor's degree. She begins Law School, interning in her father’s Austin offices.

7 years ago - 23-year-old Lorraine is kidnapped by Danton Black, and held by Henry Hewitt, who uses her exposure to the original Firestorm matrix to attempt to recreate the original accident. Lorraine sabotages the experiment, is infused with its energy and becomes Firehawk. She defeats Hewitt and frees herself, capturing Black with the help of Ronnie Raymond & Martin Stein.

6 years ago - 24-year-old Lorraine helps the Justice League navigate Washington DC after their battle with Chemo. She meets Michael Carter and begins an on-and-off relationship with him. She saves Ronnie Raymond & Martin Stein as Firestorm when they are nearly killed by Henry Hewitt.

5 years ago - 25-year-old Lorraine joins the Justice League in the aftermath of Superman's death. She meets Shiera Hall who becomes a mentor. She finishes Law School and passes the Texas bar exam.

4 years ago - 26-year-old Lorraine's father retires from the US Senate. She begins taking over his staff.

3 years ago - 27-year-old Lorraine fights the White Martians as they attack the Justice League Satellite. Her ability to access her powers is psychically shut off. She leaves the Justice League, moves to Washington DC, and begins a US Senate exploratory committee.

2 years ago - 28-year-old Lorraine returns to Austin when Firestorm is killed. She meets Jason Rusch, helping him learn to control the Firestorm Matrix, although her psychological block prevents her from bonding with him.

1 year ago - 29-year-old Lorraine Reilly finds Ronnie Raymond in his coma, connecting him with Jason Rusch. Her powers are reactivated by Superbia’s planetary signals and she joins the battle against Mageddon. She helps guide the creation of the Justice League Task Force through Congress, becoming a founding member.

now - 30-year-old Lorraine is elected to the US senate.

Despite appearing pretty prominently in lots of major crossovers, Firehawk seems to be subject to a disproportionate number of references calling her a newbie, or saying that people don't know who she is. Admittedly, she comes from a pretty obscure place, but it's not really accurate to say that she herself is obscure. She just sits right on a very particular divide between the mainstream characters and the real oddballs. She's either one of the least commonly recognized high-profile characters, or an incredibly high profile obscurity. Either way, taken as she is, we think she's a fun concept with some unique ideas at play, and a great candidate as we build out story.

Firehawk's Comic History

Lorraine appeared for the first time in Fury of Firestorm, the new 1982 ongoing series for Gerry Conway's crazy nuclear hero. Lorraine was introduced in the very first issue, the adult daughter of a senator who was falling in love with Firestorm. This sounds like standard comic book love interest material, but bear in mind, Firestorm was actually two people merged into one; an older guy who wasn't actually interested in Lorraine, and a teenager with a girlfriend. Ronnie was at least over 18, but it wouldn't fly today.

Lorraine was kidnapped by some enemies of Firestorm, and was subjected to nuclear testing by industrialist Henry Hewitt, until she emerged with her own nuclear powers. At first she was controlled by Hewitt and used to attack Firestorm, but her actual affection for the hero allowed her to regain control and help defeat Hewitt. She and Firestorm became openly romantic, with her regularly calling him 'lover', all while she became a pretty effective superhero in her own right.

A big change came about for Lorraine in the Crisis of Infinite Earths, where she actually got some fairly substantial screen time, as well as a new costume designed by George Perez. She seemed to be a pretty well-liked part of the Firestorm mythology, as she started turning up pretty often in a lot of group series, standing out because of her distinct silhouette.

This actually became her most prominent role for a good while; as a character that lots of artists seemed to like to include in those big group images. At some point it was clear that she'd ended her relationship with Firestorm (maybe because it's hard to date a guy that's two guys?) and began a sometimes-referenced relationship with Booster Gold.

Lorraine's penchant for being featured in crossover books really stood out in the pages of Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis in 2004. The whole book begins with Lorraine on a stakeout with Elongated Man, having a conversation about his wife. In his inner monologue, Ralph refers to to Lorraine as a "puppy", suggesting that she's still a very green superhero, which does seem odd, given that she had more than 20 years of history under he belt at that point. Ronnie Raymond was infamously stabbed in that series, setting up the new Jason Rusch series, but it also featured Lorraine retiring from super heroics by the end (although I refuse to believe that Firestorm & Firehawk can just take off their costumes like that)

Lorraine next appeared in Jason Rush Firestorm series, having retired from super heroics despite still having access to her powers. When the series jumped ahead in the One Year Later crossover she was an even more prominent part of the series, often serving as Jason's partner in the Firestorm Matrix while also still using her powers on her own. This is the series that first introduced the idea that Lorraine might actually follow in her father's footsteps and run for the Senate herself, and actually used her to make some surprisingly salient points. Lorraine hasn't made any appearances since the New 52.

Our Firehawk Story

Firehawk might have started out as a pretty standard issue superhero love interest, but she's really undergone quite an evolution to become a pretty prolific character on her own, even if she's never really been the star of her own story.

We left out the awkward romance angle of her initial relationship with Firestorm, just letting her be an ally of theirs that eventually gets powers of her own. The big next step for us was to find a way to represent her continual growth as a hero of her own, and finally the best way to do that was to go ahead and have her join the Justice League. We get to have her work alongside Hawkwoman, which just felt like a fantastic innovation. We did need to take her powers away for a time, since that whole JLA lineup is taken off the board for a time... but we found a great place for her moving forward; the new Government-managed Justice League Task Force is just being formed, and given that she's actually on her way to becoming a sitting senator, I can't imagine a better character to be a founding member of that group.

Firehawk's Costume

Firehawk is a fantastic example of how important a character's silhouette is. We definitely want to spend some time talking about her costume both because, like Firestorm, she's a very design-forward character whose look tells a lot of her story, but also because she's had a few pretty noticeable costume changes over the years that are fun to look at. Her original costume is very much in keeping with the world of the 80s Firestorm series, it gave us the language of the character with her trademark wings, and also had what I'd consider a pretty cool color scheme.

Obviously, her most famous costume, and the one we're using exclusively, is her cool George Perez asymmetrical outfit she created right in the middle of the Crisis of Infinites Earths in maybe the most Marv Wolfman costume change ever.

She did briefly have a new costume in the One Year Later portion of the original Jason Rusch series, it replaced her orange wings with wings of blue flame. It looked good on a few covers but was never quite as good in the book itself. There was also a character named Firehawk in the New 52 Firestorm Series, but it wasn't Lorraine, and like everything else in this series its not really worth your time.

Firehawk's Future

As we leave the timeline, Firehawk has undergone two major changes in her story; she's recently had her powers restored, and is helping to found the new Justice League Task Force. Government-led superhero teams are always stories about competing agendas between the heroes in question and their government handlers, but this particular group is coming together specifically to be able to manage that exact issue, and who better to do that than a newly elected US Senator?

That is the second new development for Lorraine. US Senators have to be at least 30 years old, which meant she needs to have JUST been elected, but frankly that works for us, it feels like the culmination of everything that's come before for her. Given the public's evolving feelings about superheroes, I actually wonder if she might actually make her identity public? What would that do to a politicians career for her to also be actively shooting nuclear fire at War Wheels?

Related Characters

Justice League Task Force

Comment Log