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Jason Rusch was a seventeen year old teenager living in Detroit, who wanted nothing more than to escape his home city. He lived with his father, who had turned abusive after he lost his hand in an industrial accident. His mother left his father sometime after the accident, leaving the young Jason with his father. Jason later recalled that his father had hit him on four occasions. With the loss of a job he needed to fund college, Jason turned to a local tough for money, accepting a job as a courier. It was on that job that he encountered the Firestorm Matrix, searching for a new host after Ronnie Raymond's death.
Ronnie had been fighting a supervillain called the Shadow Thief. Taking the Shining Knight's sword, the Shadow Thief drove it through Ronnie's chest. The magical sword ruptured the Nuclear Man's containment field, resulting in Firestorm's body exploding, and his residual essence funneling into Jason's body. In the aftermath, Jason struggled to cope with his new identity and powers - a struggle that led to the death of the man who'd hired him.
Eventually, Jason managed to develop a degree of control over his powers. Unfortunately, being Firestorm drew a lot of attention, some of it unpleasant, and Jason found himself up against a number of supervillains - some interested in Firestorm's power, others seeking revenge for the actions of Ronnie's Firestorm. However, when Jason initiated a merge with Lorraine Reilly, the superheroine Firehawk, something in the combination brought out Ronnie Raymond, or at least that part of him which remained in the Firestorm Matrix. Ronnie remained with Jason as part of Firestorm until he appeared to dissipate during battle with Cliff Carmichael, the Thinker.
Shortly after Jason's eighteenth birthday, a few weeks after Ronnie's dissipation, Jason was kidnapped by the new Secret Society of Super-Villains for use as a power source in a hidden complex. Freed when the new Secret Six launched a raid on the complex, Jason discovered two important things: he had a fellow prisoner (a mysterious girl named Gehenna), and his imprisonment by the Society had significantly depowered him.
Together, Jason and Gehenna escaped the complex, destroying it in the process. Gehenna disappeared in the aftermath but telepathically promised Firestorm that she'd see him again. Donna Troy recruited Firestorm - this time comprised of Jason and his best friend Mick Wong - for her outer space team to fight the oncoming disruption from the Infinite Crisis.
Firestorm was fatally wounded in the line of duty during the Crisis, but Jason was rescued by Martin Stein, still alive in space as the "Elemental Firestorm" (unfortunately, Martin had been unable to save Mick). Martin linked with Jason in a variation of the merge, promising him a new Firestorm body to let him return to battle, and asking him about the fate of Ronnie Raymond. While Martin had retained his link to the Firestorm Matrix, he had been unaware of Ronnie's death, and the Matrix's transfer to Jason.
Accepting Martin's offer, Jason asked him to become the permanent second member of the Firestorm Matrix. Sensing his "errors", including Mick's death, were the result of his youth and lack of experience, he sought the experience and maturity of the elder Professor Stein. Martin refused at first, but Jason managed to find a spark of humanity in the distanced and apparently cold Martin - his sorrow for both Ronnie's death, and the deaths of a planet of aliens he had watched over. Martin finally accepted Jason's request, thus ensuring both a new Firestorm body and the reconstruction of human bodies for both Jason and Martin.
Firestorm returned to action, confronting the source of the instability, the cosmological interference of Alexander Luthor, which had torn a rift in space. Firestorm's intervention stopped Alex's interference at a critical moment, closing the rift.
The sealing of the rift unleashed a reality-warping wave across the region. The assembled heroes attempted to use a Zeta Beam to teleport themselves back to Earth, but something went wrong, and the fractured Zeta Beam ended up either drastically transforming the heroes, or sending them to places far removed in space or time. Firestorm ended up back on Earth a month after the Crisis, fused with Cyborg in a twisted parody of the Firestorm merge, their nervous systems joined together. Fortunately, the two were eventually separated.
Over the months that followed, Martin helped Jason in dealing with the trauma of the Crisis, talking him through it, being patient with him. As Jason managed to get his life back in order, he thought of going to Lowrance University, near Detroit, but Martin encouraged him to go to Columbus University in New York. Martin got himself a job teaching physics at Columbus, and assisted Jason in getting financial aid.
Firestorm also joined a shortlived Justice League, which quickly fell apart following a devastating attack by a possessed, upgraded, Skeets.
When Gehenna's father disappeared, she turned to Jason for help, as the only other person she knew. Jason agreed to help Gehenna find her father, once his life settled down. Unfortunately, things only got more complicated when, shortly afterwards, Martin was kidnapped.
Jason turned to Lorraine Reilly, asking her to be his temporary partner until they found Martin, but the two soon discovered that they were now unable to be more than a mile apart, forcing the two to share each other's lives. Eventually, they managed to find Martin, who had been captured by a villain called the Pupil, eager to learn as much as he could about Firestorm. With Martin back, the unstable bond between Lorraine and Jason was broken, and Martin returned to being Jason's partner.
That settled, Jason turned his attention to tracking down Gehenna's missing father, only to find it was Henry Hewitt, the supervillain Tokomak. He had given Gehenna to the Society, knowing that Firestorm would rescue her - and that in time, she would seek Firestorm out. In an attempt to restore his lost powers, Tokomak had arranged to set off nuclear explosions worldwide, intending to collect and absorb the energy into himself. Jason managed to stop him, leaving Tokomak on the verge of death.
Before dying, Tokomak claimed to know who Jason truly was, and why he had become Firestorm - and that once he died, Jason would never find out. Also left unanswered on Tokomak's death was the question of why he had arranged for Gehenna to find Jason.
Some time later, Jason and Martin were attacked in quick succession by Orion of the New Gods, and the Female Furies of Apokolips. During the ensuing conflict, Martin and Jason learned that one quarter of the Life Equation - the counterpart to the Anti-Life Equation - was embedded within the Firestorm Matrix, the Matrix being the source of power for Earth's Fire Elemental. The other pieces were contained within the power sources of Earth's other Elementals.
The forces of Apokolips and New Genesis were seeking Martin for his work in trying to solve the part of the Life Equation represented by the Firestorm Matrix. Ultimately, it was Darkseid who triumphed, taking Martin captive. In need of a new partner to become Firestorm, Jason merged with Gehenna, and together, the two of them set out to find Martin.
Firestorm assisted the new Justice League of America when they were attacked by a new version of the Injustice League. Afterwards, Batman recruited Firestorm to the League, saying he was too powerful to be left unsupervised.Atomic Fusion: Jason has the ability to atomically fuse his body with that of another human being in order to form a composite entity known as Firestorm. While in this form, Firestorm has access to a wide variety of superhuman abilities. Jason also possesses an enhanced version of the original "merge"; he could become Firestorm by merging with anyone he made eye contact with. Although the 'preferred' form of Firestorm would now be composed of Jason and Martin, Jason retains the ability to merge temporarily with another person; while the need for a battery has gone, someone can still be used to substitute for the other main member, and can share all his or her knowledge with an improved mind-link through the Firestorm Matrix.
Firestorm possesses superhuman strength which is at least lets him lift over 100 tons.
Atomic Fusion: There were originally two problems with the merge. The first problem was that the other person's body chemistry affected Jason for the duration of the merge; if the other person had been taking drugs, Jason would find himself affected by the drugs to a lesser extent. The second problem was even more dangerous; if either Jason or the other person in the merge overstretched themselves, the other person in the merge could burn out and die. Martin's redesign adjusted things so that host burn out is, theoretically, no longer a risk, and the partner's body chemistry is not a problem.
Absorption Overload: The Firestorm Matrix now draws its power from the Sun, or any nearby stars; should it be overcharged - for example, by spending too much time in the Sun's vicinity - then the Matrix burns out, severely crippling Firestorm's ability to control his own power.
Unlike previous incarnations, this version of Firestorm can affect biological matter without experiencing harmful biofeedback. As of this writing, Jason and Martin have chosen to leave this ability off the table, to be used only when there's no other choice.
Extra-dimensional Attack: The other partner in the merge is usually safe from external harm. However, they can be attacked by someone with the ability to become extra-dimensional.
Removed From Humanity: The greatest danger of the Firestorm Matrix is a long-term one; beyond a certain power level, the host slowly becomes distanced from their humanity. Martin became mentally and emotionally distanced, while Ronnie had become the effective equivalent of a walking energy containment unit by the time of his death.
Firestorm Costume: The focus of Firestorm's costume was made more practical by Martin's redesign, including control devices able to contain and direct the hero's nuclear energies. Firestorm's newer powers, such as his ability to control organic matter, were left out of the new design out of a fear that they might be too difficult to control without making the Firestorm hosts less human over time.
Tools and Gadgets: The Firestorm costume can now manifest various minor tools and sensors out of energy.
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In chronological order
  This character is or was a member of the Justice League of America, or the Justice League in any of its various incarnations, sworn by a duty to act as guardians of America and the world by using their skills and/or superpowers to protect Earth from both interstellar and domestic threats. |
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