Deadpool 2 introduced us to a handful of comic book characters that most of us never thought
we’d see end up on the big screen.
Heads up, spoiler alert friends!
Most of these characters were part of the X-Force – Deadpool’s ragtag team of superheroes
that he compiles in the movie.
This includes the show-stealing Domino, a mutant merc with the ability to manipulate
luck, Terry Crews’ Bedlam, Bill Skarsgard’s Zeitgeist, Negasonic Teenage Warhead (who
was a super obscure character that producers thought would be funny because of her name
to introduce in the first Deadpool film) her girlfriend who may or may not be Surge, a
powerless mans named Peter, a cameo from Brad Pitt as Vanisher, an invisible man.
While a handful of them died in that helicopter scene – something that was particularly
funny because of Zeitgeist's actual history of immediately dying after being introduced
in the comics – one other character who was integral to the film’s narrative and
didn’t die was Russell Collins - a young mutant with pyrokinesis that is being hunted
by Cable.
Russell is actually another comic book character brought to life – Firefist – who in the
comics is often considered to fall into the realm of obscurity.
So today, we’re giving you a low down about Firefirst with our list of the Top 10 Firefist
Facts You Didn’t Know.
10 Julian Dennison For starters, let’s discuss the cinematic
adaptation of the character that most of you are likely the most familiar with.
Firefist’s portrayal in the film by actor Julian Dennison is quite different than what
the character is like in the comics.
Ryan Reynolds had a major hand in this – he saw Dennison’s breakout performance in the
film Hunt for the Wilder people from 2016, in which the New Zealand actor acted alongside
Sam Neill, wowing critics.
Reynolds made sure that Firefist was “tailor-made” for Dennison, and he was the only actor ever
considered for the role.
In addition to that, Russell, for the most part, is portrayed as a villain of sorts in
the movie, which not only subverts the tradition take superhero films have on villains in general,
but made for a more interesting narrative, too.
Dennison also stated that he felt the role was special because of his chubbiness, saying
that he had never seen “anyone like me” in other superhero movies and was “excited
to be that for other kids who look like me”.
9 He’s An Orphan Russell Rusty Collins first appeared in the
comics back in 1986 in X-Factor issue 1; a superhero created by Bob Layton and Jackson
Guice, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
When he was young, his father, a sailor, died in a war.
His mother would die afterward, too, leaving the orphaned Rusty to go live with his Uncle
Ted.
But that living situation didn’t last long – after a while Ted, grew to see Russell
as a ‘whiner’ and sent him off to the Navy.
His figurative families have been various – the X-Factor team, the New Mutants briefly,
and even Magneto’s Acolytes – a team that Rusty joined because he felt he owed Magneto,
but a team that ultimately cost him his life – which was pretty unfortunate because he
and his girlfriend Skids were having doubts about joining right before he died.
8 Appearances Firefist only has a handful – no pun intended
– of appearances in the comics.
Aside from his debut issue, he appeared in X-Factor up until 1989 in 28 issues of the
series, along with its X-Factor Annual issue #3.
He also appeared in X-Terminators, The New Mutants for a few brief stints, Fantastic
Four issue 342, X-Force, two Cable solo series and two issues of the second volume of X-Men.
Also, fun fact, he also appeared naked in his debut appearance.
While his origin story was right smack dab in the first X-Factor issue, his stories became
less prominent as one of the members of the groups small mutant wards.
During the Inferno story arc, he and the other wards, including Skids, a former Morlock that
Rusty gets into a relationship with, take on the name the X-Terminators – lolz – and
teamed up with the New Mutants to help rescue mutant babies.
He eventually catches the attention of the Freedom Force, and he’s severely injured
by the Blob.
During his recovery, he and Skids are forced into joining the Mutant Liberation Front,
and brainwashed.
7 Obscurity Firefist, up until the character’s new iteration
in the Deadpool 2 movie, is often considered to be an obscure hero.
And, if our last number was any indication of that, he started off strong, with solid
involvement in X-Factor, but then started to fizzle out, competing with the many other
strong personalities that that title boasted.
And there were a lot – it was the original X-Men team, for heaven’s sake.
Aside from that, perhaps his obscurity is also due to other pyrokinetic mutants in the
Marvel Universe, specifically the aptly named Pyro, who even got his own cinematic adaptation.
Pyro had debuted a few years earlier than Firefist – in 1981’s Uncanny X-Men issue
141 as a villain who became part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
This was the first of two characters to don that mantle through – the first being St
John Allerdyce, and the second, Simon Lasker, who emerged in 2017 in X-Men Gold Vol 2 issue
1.
Lasker was also a villain briefly before approaching the Xavier Institute to make amends.
6 His Powers Rusty has got some pretty cool powers.
He’s a pyrokinetic who could psionically generate and manipulate heat and flame.
Typically the flames generate from his body, but over time, he started to generate them
remotely.
He can control his fires’ shape, size and intensity with precision through mental manipulation.
In addition to this, he can generate heal shields without having to bust out flames,
and can also cook food if he concentrates.
After his powers revealed themselves while Rusty was in the Navy, he was captured by
military police and tossed in prison cell with a straitjacket, his superior Chief Jack
Fisher tried to kill him, but Rusty broke free when his powers burst out of him.
Fisher called up the X-Factor, who he believed were actually mutant exterminators, but were
the original X-Men in disguise, and in X-Factor issue 1, they took Rusty into their care,
after slamming his Chief with a hefty $42,000 for their services.
Rusty was one of the trainees to appear in that issue, and it was his first appearance
in the Marvel Universe.
5 His Creators Bob Layton and Jackson Guice may not be remembered
for creating Firefist, but they’ll definitely be remembered for all of their other comic
contributions.
Let’s start with Guice – he’s an artist who has worked on Action Comics, The Flash,
Micronauts and Ruse.
He got his start with the toy spin-off Micronauts at Marvel after Al Milgrom offered to give
him a shot.
He would go on to draw the Marvel comic adaptation of Indiana Jones at the Temple of Doom, and
ink Dazzler’s solo title before penciling X-Factor and contributing pencils to The New
Mutants in 1986, and later worked for DC on The Flash post Crisis on Infinite Earths,
which involved the new Flash Wally West.
He would go on to be the artist on Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, and in 2000, for
DC’s Birds of Prey.
In 2007, Brian Michael Bendis sought out Guice to work on Ultimate Origins, saying “I’ve
been a fan of his for years and years, and when I saw what he was doing in Iron Man,
I had to have him.”
Bob Layton on the other hand is known for A LOT – not only his work on Iron Man and
Hercules, but also for being a co-founder of Valiant Comics with Jim Shooter.
But long before that, he was publishing his own zine called CPL, Contemporary Pictorial
Literature.
This led to a partnership with Charlton Comics and the production of the Charlton Bullseye
magazine, which was conceived in order to compete with both DC and Marvel who were publishing
in-house fan publications at the time.
From there, Layton became the apprentice of comics legend Wally Wood, using that opportunity
to get his foot in the door.
And he did – while he was working at the Marvel Offices with him, he overheard John
Romita on the phone looking for someone to ink an issue of Iron Man, and he offered up
his services.
Layton moved on to ink the covers for The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Iron Fist
and more.
He would launch one of Marvel’s first limited issue series – Hercules: Prince of Power
– and designed the Marvel Secret Wars toy line for Mattel.
After starting Valiant, he would return to DC and work on their Elseworlds imprints,
and continue working for Marvel on Iron Man.
4 He Likes Prostitutes Sort of.
Much of his origin story is tangled up in an encounter with one.
Rusty has had a slew of different occupations over the years – aside from being an adventurer,
he was also a terrorist, a sailor, and a hardware clerk.
The latter wasn’t just the result of being a high school dropout – his uncle Ted worked
at a hardware store, and got him a job there we he moved to live with him.
His Navy career, as we mentioned, was also prompted by his Uncle’s doing.
It was while he was docked at the San Diego Naval Yard that his powers came to fruition
– he was making out with a prostitute named Emma la Porte in an alley, and his pyrokinetic
powers kicked in, giving her multiple serious burns.
He fled, panicked, but was eventually captured by military police.
Later on, Rusty, feeling guilty, would cut a deal with Masque in order to sacrifice his
looks in order to restore Emma’s face to one of beauty.
Emma, finding out about the deal, didn’t want to get her looks back at the expense
of someone else.
3 He Died Rusty was killed by Holocaust – a mutant
survivor of Age of Apocalypse.
But let’s backtrack for a sec here.
Rusty joined Magneto’s team, the Acolytes, after Magneto had broken him and his girlfriend
Skids out of the mind control that Mutant Liberation Front leader Stryfe – aka Cable’s
clone – had them under.
As we mentioned earlier, Rusty, along with Skids joined the team because he felt he owed
Magneto.
They were on board the team’s ship, Avalon, when an ice cocoon was spotted floating in
space and was brought on board in X-Men Prime issue 1.
And guess who was in that cocoon?
Holocaust – who went on a rampage, still believing he was in his own time.
Holocaust drained many of the Acolytes’ lives, which included Rusty, before Exodus
clashed with the mutant in defense.
Rusty’s death is depicted in X-Men vol 2 issue 42.
2 He Was Resurrected Luckily that wasn’t the last we saw of the
character – like most comic heroes and villains, Rusty would be revived.
Sort of, though.
In X-Force Vol 3 issue 21, Rusty was revived with the Transmode Virus – a techno-organic
virus that feed upon the infected beings and drain their energy.
This virus was a modified version that had the ability to bring mutants back from the
dead into part of a hive mind.
This was done so that he could serve as part of Black Queen Selene Gallio’s army of deceased
mutants to lay siege on Utopia, the mutant nation.
Her army also included the likes of the first Pyro St John Allerdyce, Banshee, Caliban,
Cypher and the Hellions.
Poor Firefist hasn’t been seen since in the comics.
1 Television Appearance While Deadpool 2 has rejuvenated the character
and brought him back to life – although, in a quite different but arguably more loveable
manner – this isn’t Firefist's first rodeo.
Or, rather, adaptation.
The character also appeared on the small screen – a much younger version in the 1992 X-Men
animated series, in an episode titled No Mutant is an Island.
The story finds Rusty, still, an orphan, encountering Cyclops while he visits his orphanage in Nebraska.
Rusty, having problems controlling his pyrokinetic powers, appeals to the X-Men member.
But, that’s when Killgrave shows up and offers to adopt Rusty.
Later it is revealed that he wants to use Rusty, along with other mutants Skids, Boom
Boom, Rictor and Whiz Kid to aid in his attempt to take over as governor.
Cyclops is able to reach through to Rusty, snapping him out of Kilgrave’s control,
along with the other mutants affected.
There we have it friends!
What are your thoughts on Rusty?
Would you have liked to see his character adapted, or are you loving the version that
we got in Deadpool 2?
I’m gonna have to vote for Julian Dennison on this one – there’s a reason why the
original Firefist is so obscure, and it’s cause he’s not all that interesting compared
to the other compelling characters out there in the Marvel Universe.
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