Hey youtubers it's Charlie and Robbie Amell has just been cast as the Ronnie Raymond Firestorm
on The Flash.
I know everyone wanted him to be Nightwing on Arrow, but this is going to be just as
awesome.
Trust me.
This video is going to be a breakdown of the Firestorm character in the comics and my thoughts
on how he's going to fit in with Team Flash as well as Arrow Crossovers.
Amell Wednesdays are making a comeback.
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Arrow videos all summer.
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In case you want to travel down the youtube Arrowverse Rabbit Hole I've got a bunch of
links in the description.
So somebody blew one of their genie wishes and Robbie Amell was brought into the ArrowVerse.
He's actually going to debut as Ronnie Raymond and will eventually become Firestorm.
There have been a bunch of different versions of the Firestorm character but the Ronnie
Raymond one is the original.
What was His Origin Story You Ask?
Ronnie Raymond was a High School student who was caught in a nuclear explosion with Nobel
Prize winning Physics Professor Martin Stein.
As a result of the explosion they fused to form Firestorm "The Nuclear Man".
Because professor Stein was unconscious during the blast, whenever they formed Firestorm,
he manifested as a ghostly head talking to Ronnie.
Ronnie was the one operating the controls so to speak.
This all started back in the late 1970s, then this big thing happened where DC cancelled
most of it's ongoing series in what was later called the DC Implosion.
After that Firestorm was written into the Justice League Comics and then later he got
his own short stories at the end of the Flash Comics.
Sometimes they'll do that with really popular comics, add short stories for lesser characters
at the end.
Like bonus stories.
So there's a long history of Firestorm being paired up with the Flash.
So it's kind of historic letting the character debut on The Flash instead of Arrow, even
though Arrow is the bigger show right now.
The Firestorm character mostly was based out of Ivy City and New York.
If you remember, here's where we start to get some crossover with Arrow.
The new character Brandon Routh is playing, the Ray Palmer version of the Atom.
He was a professor at Ivy University.
After Ronnie Raymond graduated High School and went to college, Ray Palmer became one
of his professors.
Arrow and The Flash will probably change their backstories a little, but even when they mess
with comic book stuff, they're always really good about including that stuff as
easter eggs.
The Firestorm character is the physical person you're looking at when
he's flying around.
The Firestorm Matrix is what the combination of the two people are when they are operating
Firestorm.
Think of it like a Transformer Combiner.
One person is capable of being Firestorm by himself, but Professor Stein speculated that
the Firestorm Matrix wasn't designed to be operated by just one person.
And later in the comics, when Ronnie Raymond was being Firestorm by himself he ended up
causing a huge accident when he became unstable.
When Firestorm becomes unstable, he can cause a massive Nuclear Explosion.
How is The Flash TV Show going to deal with the Character you ask?
They're probably not going to do the two in one.
But if they decide to make Firestorm the combination of Robbie Amell and a Star Labs person, they
might make it look like when Tony Stark is inside the Iron Man Suit and you see his Heads
Up Display.
If that's the case, the closest analog to Professor Stein we know of is Tom Cavanagh's
character.
And if you've seen the Pilot Episode you know they're probably going to be doing something
different with that character.
I don't think he'll be the professor Stein.
I think they'll just make it simpler and make Robbie Amell be Firestorm all by himself.
But I do think they'll tease him going nuclear if he can't learn to control his powers.
What are his powers you ask?
In the comics he has the ability to reorganize the atomic structure of anything that has
mass.
So any object can be turned into any other object.
But he has to obey the laws of the conservation of energy.
So the new things he creates have to have the same mass as the original objects.
He can't turn a rock into a car.
When you think about him using his powers, think of it more as looking like the Green
Lanterns making constructs with their rings, only Firestorm can make things permanent.
The Green Lantern Constructs only last as long as the Green Lanterns are thinking about
them.
One Firestorm turns your headphones into a keyboard and flies away, they keyboard doesn't
disappear.
Oh yeah, and he can fly.
So as of right now, we have our first flying superhero on The Flash.
Although technically, the Flash can run fast enough to run on air.
Just in the comics, I don't think they're going to show Grant Gustin running through
clouds or anything on the show.
What about his Origin Story on the Show?
It all goes back to the Particle Accelerator.
Due to Robbie Amell's age being pretty much the same as all the other characters, it's
possible they could either make him a Star Labs technician or a normal person living
in Central City who was just caught in the blast.
Expect there to be a lot of easter eggs when they show him getting his powers.
Since Firestorm is a hero and not a villain, it's easy to assume he'll eventually work
with Team Flash even if he's not a series regular.
It's possible in the grand tradition of Arrow, they could wait till the mid-season finale
to introduce the character.
They will probably reveal something about it at Comic Con.
Based on the CGI from the Flash Pilot, I'm really excited to see the Firestorm special
effects.
Right now they've kind of tuned down the Flash's powers so they might do the same thing for
Robbie Amell.
There is a precedent for The Flash running slower in the comics.
When he's the only Flash around he can tap into more of the speed force and go faster.
The Speed Force is like a faucet, if two flashes are drinking from it at the same time.
Each of them gets less power.
So they both run slower.
If Barry is the only Flash in town, he can run so fast he can travel through time.
So if he seems like he's running slow on the show, it's most likely because Professor Zoom
is nearby.
The funny thing about Firestorm is that almost anybody can merge with Robbie Amell to form
the Firestorm Matrix.
People that merge don't retain memories of what they did while they were part of Firestorm
until they form Firestorm again.
So if Robbie Amell sucked in Cisco Ramon to make Firestorm.
When they split again, Cisco wouldn't remember being Firestorm until they merged again.
I'm interested to see if they have some fun with this idea and just make Robbie Amell
merge with multiple characters over the course of the series.
When are we going to see full on Firestorm though?
Probably not right away.
Just like Arrow did with Barry Allen, they introduced the human first, then turned him
into a superhero.
Because they've already shot the pilot episode and the Star Labs explosion happened 9 months
ago in the timeline, they might have to retcon the story a little if they want Ronnie Raymond
to become Firestorm for the first time during season 1.
Or they could tell his origin story in a flashback.
Either way It's really exciting.
What about Crossover?
Didn't you say that Brandon Routh was his College Professor?
That's in the comics, but don't be surprised if Arrow and The Flash find some common ground
for the characters backstories.
They haven't said which bits from the comics they're incorporating into The Atom and The
Firestorm characters yet.
But they are usually pretty good about setting that up in the first couple scenes to feature
the characters.
So when Brandon Routh and Robbie Amell appear on each show for the first time, they'll tell
you where they came from.
Just as an example of something big Arrow has already changed, Felicity Smoak was Ronnie
Raymond's step mother.
Obviously Emily Bett Rickard's version of the character isn't going to be Robbie Amell's
step mom.
But it's possible the shows could use MIT as a common point of origin for them.
Just my opinion, but if Brandon Routh is supposed to be a tech genius it only makes sense and
because of Star Labs Ronnie Raymond whatnot, tying him to MIT too wouldn't be a huge stretch.
Just think of him calling Felicity Mom, wouldn't that be funny.
Will he Cross over onto Arrow or will Stephen Amell share any scenes with him?
Probably not at first, right now we only know for certain Stephen Amell is going to be on
The Flash, at least at first.
The other characters might cameo eventually.
But until Robbie Amell is introduced in his own Flash episode, and starts to develop his
relationship with those characters, don't expect him to interact with any of the Arrow
characters.
But yes, the big question is Television Justice League team up.
I do think both shows will build towards a mega team up.
Hopefully by the end of the season.
I totally understand if they can't make that work right away, but at least by Flash season
2 and Arrow Season 4.
Whoever burned the genie wish to get Robbie Amell on the Flash, burn one more to get our
Arrowverse Justice League team up this year.
I know everyone wants to see the tv characters in a movie, but that's not the way Warner
Brothers is doing things.
They're not Marvel, so even though Clark Gregg and Sam Jackson bounce back and forth, it
doesn't mean stuff owned by a different studio will work the same way.
But that doesn't mean they can't do Justice League with their own characters on Arrow.
So let me know if you think we'll see a mega team up by the end of this season.
Next week there's lots of Comic Con stuff happening.
Be sure to subscribe to get everything.
I'm going to be doing giveaways for a bunch of different shows and movies.
I'll explain all that when I start posting comic con videos next week.
Right now click here to learn about Brandon Routh's Atom character coming to Arrow.
And Click here to learn about the new Katana Character.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tomorrow.
High Fives!