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Ronnie Rockwell was born in New York City, the son of Edward and Elaine Rockwell. When Ronnie was a young boy, his father testified in court against a gangster named "Shoe" Shine on charges of racketeering. His testimony sent Shine to prison, but on the day that "Shoe" was to begin his sentence, he had his thugs plant a car bomb on the Rockwell’s family vehicle. The blast killed Elaine Rockwell forcing Ed to seek the aid of the Justice Department. An officer for the Organized Crimes branch of the DOJ placed Ed and Ronnie in the Witness Protection Program and arranged to have their surname legally changed to Raymond.
When Ronnie was a sophomore in high school, the Raymonds relocated to Manhattan Island where he began attending school at Bradley High. There he met Cliff Carmichael, an insufferably arrogant genius, who would prove to be the bane to Ronnie's existence throughout his entire academic career. He also met Doreen Day, an intelligent blonde-haired girl, whom had become the object of Ronnie's affections. Ronnie desperately wanted to impress Doreen, so he attempted to become politically active by joining an activist group led by Eddie Earhart known as the Coalition to Resist Atomic Power, aka, CRAP. Ronnie believed that he was merely joining a harmless protest group. Little did he know however, that Eddie Earhart was actually an ecological terrorist with a violent history. One evening, the Coalition decided to conduct a raid on the recently established, Hudson Nuclear Power Plant.
The creation of the Hudson power plant was the brainchild of Nobel Prize winning physicist, Dr. Martin Stein. Before committing himself to the field of atomic research, Stein was a physics professor at Hudson University. It was here that he met several impressionable young students, including Crystal Frost and Louise Lincoln. Frost had developed a schoolgirl crush on Stein, but the older man was unwilling to reciprocate her affection as he was married to a woman named Clarissa Clemens. Frost's amorous feelings towards Stein would return to haunt him many years later.
Stein eventually came to develop the layout for the Hudson Nuclear Power Plant, the country's first completely safe atomic testing center. His committment to the plant became an obsession with Stein, and he sacrificed everything, even his marriage, to see it come to fruition. Unwilling to play second-fiddle to Stein's career, Clarissa Clemens sued for divorce. Marital issues only represented the beginning of Stein's troubles however.
Working under Stein's employ was an unscrupulous man named Danton Black. Black began covertly stealing Martin's research in the hopes of selling it to a rival firm. Martin discovered his colleague's transgressions however, and promptly fired him. Danton swore revenge against Stein and returned on that fateful night when the Coalition to Resist Atomic Power staged their attack against the plant.
Coalition leader, Eddie Earhart raided the reactor core room and confronted Martin Stein. Taking him by surprise, he easily overcame the older man knocking him out cold. By this point, Ronnie Raymond realized that there was a lot more to the Coaltion's aims than he previously believed. Ronnie attempted to stop Eddie, but the terrorist punched the high school student in the jaw, knocking him out as well. When Ronnie came to, he discovered that the Coalition had wired several pounds worth of TNT to explode inside the reactor. He grabbed the unconscious Stein and attempted to drag him out of the building. They were nearly out the front door when the TNT exploded. Both men (as well as Danton Black) were consumed by the brilliant burst of radiation. The excess power fused Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein into a single composite being – Firestorm.Elemental Transmutation: Firestorm had the ability alter the atomic structure of inanimate matter down to the molecular level. He could affect an object's density and mass as well, reconfiguring it into any shape or design that his imagination could conceive. This power was exclusive to inert material and could not successfully affect living biological mass. Any attempt to molecularly alter the characteristics of a living entity would result in a massive biofeedback of energy.
Firestorm's power caused an atomic backlash if used against organic objects.
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