Pozhar
46 years ago - Mikhail Arkadin is born in Moscow.
28 years ago - 18-year-old Mikhail enrolls in the National Research Nuclear University in Moscow to study Nuclear Engineering.
24 years ago - 22-year-old Mikhail earns his bachelors degree in Nuclear Engineering and begins his graduate work.
20 years ago - 26-year-old Mikhail earns his doctorate in Nuclear Engineering. He begins his work through Rothatom exploring new forms of nuclear power.
15 years ago - 31-year-old Mikhail writes extensive documentation for Rothatom interpreting Martin Stein's noble prize winning research on Nuclear Matrix theory.
11 years ago - 35-year-old Mikhail begins to secretly construct a replica of Martin Stein's Matrix Reactor.
10 years ago - 36-year-old Mikhail attempts to shut down construction of his Matrix Reactor after destruction of Martin Stein's reactor, but Rothatom insists that it remain on schedule.
9 years ago - 37-year-old Mikhail's attempt to reproduce Martin Stein's Matrix Reactor results in catastrophe when the reactor melts down. Mikhail's body is almost completely destroyed, but when Stein & Ronnie Raymond arrive in Russia to review the aftermath, Mikhail is able to integrate himself into the Firestorm Matrix. After forcing Stein to fight for control, he is able to craft his own matrix and his own fire-based body. He takes the name Pozhar, and is selected to join the government- sanctioned organization The People's Heroes.
8 years ago - 38-year-old Mikhail's ability to maintain his nuclear matrix is disrupted when Ivan Illyich Gort removes his heart while transitioning into his nuclear form. He has to be placed inside a reactor to bleed off his accumulated energy while he regrows his own organs. When The People's Heroes are decommissioned he returns to his research.
3 years ago - 43-year-old Mikhail joins members of The People's Heroes to stop mad scientist Alexi Nicolai from creating a nuclear apocalypse.
Characters like Pozhar are fun. None of us are all that familiar with him; his footprint in the overall DC lore is pretty small. When you go back and read his actual appearances, however, you discover that he actually played a pretty big part of a pretty classic series for a WHILE. This is really the backbone of this whole project; tracking down these neat structural loadbearing characters and finding ways to make them do just that.
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Pozhar's Comic HistoryMikhail Arkadin appeared for the first time in The Fury of Firestorm #62 in 1987. He's a creation of John Ostrander, who seemed to be on a mission to single-handedly introduce new Russian characters across his various series. Mikhail was a victim of the Chernobyl meltdown who somehow managed to survive as a irradiated guy with a flaming skull. He's given a containment suit and sent after Firestorm, but he eventually wound up sacrificing himself to save Ronnie & Professor Stein.
Not to much later, after some changes to how Firestorm works, Mikhail actually became the second person in the Matrix with Ronnie while Professor Stein was lost. This was the status quo right up until Firestorm changed again, and Stein became the lone person in the Matrix. Mikhail did show up again during the Jason Rusch run, this time with a completely original appearance. Eventually, Mikhail returned in Doomsday Clock, the book that introduced the idea of The People's Heroes as Russia's superhero team, where he was their leader. |
Our Pozhar StoryInterestingly, When we saw Pozhar appear in Doomsday Clock, he had an appearance similar Firestorm's from the period when it was only Professor Stein. I tried to find him sporting this look elsewhere, but I think this was the first time. We decided to lean into this; we never use Stein's singular look, so we can just gave it completely to Mikhail. You can see here, we actually use some images of the Professor, but we're just going to say this was always Pozhar.
His story is actually all pretty straightforward. We did make sure he has some integration in Firestorm's story; making him temporarily disrupt their matrix before he is able to form his own body. Since we've made the People's Heroes a more important part of the overall lore, it actually dominates most of his timeline, but that's really the main reason we included him. We got to do a cool thing where his heart is removed while he's transitioning between forms (if you can get away with beats like that, you owe it to yourself to try them). Afterward, he goes on to be one of the members of the People's Heroes to reform in the modern day and help fight Mageddon. |
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