After the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator exploded he became one half of the transmuted and conjoined meta-human superhero Firestorm alongside Ronnie Raymond and later Jefferson Jackson. In early 2016, Martin Stein was recruited by the rogue time-traveler Rip Hunter to form the Legends, a team of heroic time-travelers. During several missions he used the aliases "Elon Musk" and "Max Lorenz". In 2018, during the Nazi invasion from Earth-X, Martin was shot multiple times by the Sturmbannfuhrer and in his dying moments, he severed his connection with Jax to save him from joining him in his fate. Martin was born on March 16, 1950, on a roadside in Ivy Town after his mother went into labor.
Publication Information
- Flash : Martin Stein
- Version : The Flash Series
- Alter Ego : Firestorm
- Known As :
- Professor Martin Stein
- Firestorm
- Meta-human
- Type :
- Formerly Professor of Physicist
- Formerly Rabbi
- Formerly Vigilante
- Member of the Legends
- Formerly Member of Team Flash
- Formerly Scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs
- Relative :
- Unnamed : Father
- Unnamed : Mother
- Unnamed : Uncle-in-law
- Henry Stein : Great-great grandfather Clarissa Stein : Wife
- Lily Stein : Daughter; current timeline
- Ronnie Raymond : Grandson
Shortly after being born, his father gave him to Rip Hunter and Mick Rory who were posing as doctors in order to kidnap newborn Martin to protect him from the Pilgrim, a villain who was hunting down past versions of the Legends through time to easily eliminate their present selves. He was brought to The Refuge under the care of Mary Xavier. Rip Hunter later retrieved baby Martin from the Refuge and returned him to his parents, restoring his existence in the timeline.
In October 1975, he was mingling at his university campus when he came upon a strange older man and his two friends. He didn't realize that the man was, in fact, his older self from the future who had come to find his tracker. He invited the three of them to come with him and have some fun and he brought them to his lab where he shared some marijuana with them. He even flirted with Sara Lance, much to the annoyance of his older self, before he was called away. When he came back, he found that they were stealing his ionic tracker and wanted to know who they all really were. But, he was then knocked out from behind and left unconscious.
The day of the particle accelerator explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs and afterwards
- Main Article : Ronnie Raymond
New Firestorm
Six months after Ronnie's death, Martin became the new mentor of Team Flash. After meeting and speaking to Jay Garrick, he discussed the implications of the multiverse including Earth One, Earth Two and Zoom. He later helped save Patty Spivot and stop Eddie Slick/Sand Demon and questioned Cisco about his odd behavior. He then learned Cisco was a meta-human and persuaded him to use his abilities for the better and tell the team. Stein began talking to the team when he fainted which was found to be the effect of not being merged with his second half for a long period of time.
Joining Rip Hunter
- Main Article : Jefferson Jackson
Protecting the timestream
After spending some months protecting the timeline from other threats in the absences of the Time Masters, the now-named 'Legends' tasked themselves with undoing any disturbances to history. They began to notice that there was someone causing a number of time aberrations, namely giving blasters to assassins to kill the King Louis XIII of France in 1637. Martin was a little happy to be in that time period, dressed in the clothes of the era, to Mick's annoyance.
Changing his past
Jax began to propose that with the Waverider, they could go and make their own changes to history to try and make it better though Stein argued that they could do just as much damage as their enemies by manipulating the timeline. When the Legends detected an aberration in Washington D.C. in 1987, Martin went off with Jax to the White House to find the cause. He knew that he was in Washington for the nuclear peace summit but was surprised to find his younger self in the White House as he knew that he hadn't been there and knew that time was already changing.
The Legion of Doom
Stein stumbled upon Rory who revealed that he had been seeing a ghost of Leonard Snart. He asked Stein for his help but told him to not tell the others that he was seeing him. He was trying to help Rory learn what could be causing this when Sara came and told them that Rip had been found in 1967. He had been arrested and to get him out, Stein played the role of a psychiatrist. He, Rory and Sara was shocked to see Rip again, though the man didn't recognize them and was now Phil Gasmer.
Legion of Doom's altered reality
Six months later, Martin Stein was working in S.T.A.R. Labs under Eobard Thawne, now the owner again, and also the mayor of Central City, and he had memory of his time as a Legend, nor did any other Legends member, minus Rip, who was miniaturized and trapped in a miniaturized Waverider. However, he still had memory of his family. Mick later realized his mistakes, and he and Nate went to Ray's basement, where Ray invented a gun that would restore memories of the previous timeline. Eventually, all the Legends but him had their memories restored.
Becoming a grandfather
After the Legends were disbanded by Rip Hunter, Stein went back to his home in Central City. He would periodically meet Jax and merge with him so they wouldn't explode. Eventually, he discovered that Lily was pregnant and was overjoyed that he was to be a grandfather. When Jax returned one day and revealed that he had dropped out of college, the Waverider returned along with the other Legends minus Amaya. He rejoined the team, but he was not as united to stay unlike Jax, but he decided to stay and pretend he wanted to stay.
Crisis on Earth-X
Just days before Barry and Iris's wedding in the present day, Stein is with the rest of the Legends in England in the year 1183 AD. He is standing the oath of what seems to be knights, which are in a rush to get somewhere. A fight breaks out, but during the chaos, the fact that they did not RSVP comes up which is a breach of courtesy to Stein. The Waverider shows up, which Stein points out, giving them their ride back to present-day Central City for the wedding.
Death
While invading a Nazi stronghold containing a breach gateway, Stein noticed that the power needed to be hotwired in order to activate the breach. He suggested that he and Jax separate in order to do both tasks quickly before Red Tornado came to destroy the doomsday weapon. Jax managed to divert power but was surrounded by enemy fire. Stein decided to activate the breach himself and ran towards the switch. Before he was able to reach the switch, he was shot by a Nazi and the Sturmbannfuhrer of the New Reich from behind and collapsed as Jax looked on in horror and disbelief.
Legacy
Martin's death was an especially devastating blow to both the Legends and Team Flash, with whom he had most associated, even bringing Mick Rory to tears as well, but none more so than his wife, his daughter, and Jefferson Jackson. Many members of each of the teams grieved for him in silence alone, in pairs or in small groups; Ray looking at a photo of him and Stein in the Old West with Nate, Amaya and Zari, Cisco comforting Caitlin, Iris comforting Barry. Only two of the team leaders, Sara Lance and Oliver Queen, who had the most experience dealing with death remained stoic and focused on their next objective. The death of Stein also marked the end of the Firestorm Matrix and Jax's time as a superhero for without Stein to bond with, he is powerless.
Abilities
- Firestorm Matrix connection / Meta-human physiology : After Martin was struck by the energy of the particle accelerator explosion, this altered his DNA and supercharged his cells, augmenting his physiology into well-beyond peak human condition. When Jax merges with Martin, the two create the nuclear-powered composite being Firestorm. The F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. Matrix were controlled by two individuals, or "halves"; when they achieve physical contact, the Matrix takes over their biology and merges them into a singular being. When the two halves of Firestorm merge, the Matrix has them take on the form of the individual that has the stronger body. If bereft of another half, Martin will still exhibit some of Firestorm powers, but only for a short time, as a symptom of approaching death.
- Energy absorption : Firestorm has shown the ability to not only generate nuclear power, but also contain the energy coming from outside sources by absorbing its output. He has done so, for example, when he absorbed the blast from Vandal Savage’s nuclear warhead and also when he short-circuited the Pentagon's alarms. As shown by Martin, while separated, he is still able to passively absorb energy, albeit on a smaller scale and with a greater strain for himself. It appears that it takes a great deal of time and concentration to trigger the absorption of energy, as shown as when he was unable to absorb a blast of the Flash's lightning when it was launched at him.
- Matter transmutation : While fighting Nazis in 1944, Jax and Martin discovered that their nuclear powers can manipulate matter at an atomic level and arrange its subatomic structure so that it becomes a different substance altogether. Firestorm first used this by turning a rifle into dust by simply grabbing it. When the two minds focused, Firestorm was later able to transform a radioactive meteorite into water
- Nucleokinesis : Firestorm is virtually a living reactor, and as such, creates great amounts of nuclear energy via the numerous atomic reactions constantly occurring in his body. That and his mental capacity to process both fission and fusion, allow him to harness the energy emitting from his either his own body or any source of energy that’s near.
- Psychic link : Jefferson can hear Martin Stein's disembodied voice while the two of them are merged into Firestorm. Even when they are separated, their link allows them limited communication of sensations or emotions. This link can be so strong that if Stein wanted to prevent whoever he merged with from attacking, he can restrain the nuclear energy from being shot out.
- Pyrokinesis : Due to the unique nature of the transmutation between the two bodies, Firestorm is able to produce nuclear energy in the form of fire from parts of his body. He can use his control over the energy to project it willingly in the form of concussive blasts. These "nuclear blasts" are often shown to be quite powerful and have shown to be able to knock unarmed humans out unconscious and are hot enough to burn through solid structures and even cause harm to meta-humans. Stein has exhibited some pyrokinetic ability even without another half to join with him, though it was a sign of approaching death.
- Flight : Firestorm has so far seen to have at least two methods to achieve flight. The first and most common is when he uses fires nuclear blasts downward at a consistent rate, thereby generating enough force to defy gravity and allow for stable propulsion. This flight style is his preferred and most practiced choice. The second method is unclear, as he is shown to be able to fly at impressive speeds without the need of his blasts. He displayed this ability when he attempted to disarm Vandal Savage's missile. How he achieved this skill or how he even does it is unclear.
- Genius-level intellect : From a young age, Martin showed exceptional intellect as skipped from 10th grade all the way to college and by age 25, he had two PhDs as well as nearing a third, plus was a leading expert in a field of study. Martin's profound knowledge of the quantum physics is shown by the many awards he won; not only is he good at theorizing, his project, F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M., has put into practice that which has yet to be successfully done by mankind. He is also especially interested in the concept of time travel and has several ideas on this topic alone.
- Eidetic memory : Given his extraordinary level of knowledge and understanding of physics, Martin most likely possesses an eidetic or photographic memory, which allows him to process and utilize his vast intelligence effectively. An eidetic memory would be necessary for the usage of Morse code without a codebook to create a message in an emergency situation. Yet, despite this, he always forgets his keys, and also seems to have forgotten who Eobard Thawne is.
- Sharpened mind : When they first successfully fused into Firestorm, Martin was able to detect enemy presence behind them before Ronnie could.
- Hand-to-hand combatant : Martin has proven himself to be a skilled fighter to an unknown degree. This is evidenced when he managed to fight, defeat, and disarm an armed time pirate.
- Indomitable will / Tolerance for pain : After getting captured by General Eiling, he was tortured in order to get the secrets of Firestorm, so they could weaponize it. However, he resisted without saying a word. He endured a similar treatment when he was captured by Valentina Vostok and Vandal Savage in 1986, only giving in when they threatened Ray Palmer and Mick Rory rather than himself.
- Multilingual : Martin is capable of fluently speaking English, Hebrew and German. Rabbinical knowledge: Having attended a seminary or a Jewish theological college, Martin has become a fully legitimate Rabbi, and as such, he is able to read in Hebrew and is licensed to pronounce marriage.
- Singing : When masquerading as Max Lorenz in 1942, Martin proved to be an exquisite singer, able to impress fans of the actual Lorenz. He was also able to distract the NASA mission control with his singing.
- Skilled in using morse code : Martin is familiar enough and able to construct morse code messages without having to look it up.
- Ionized radiation : The Firestorm Matrix can be destabilized by bombarding its cellular structure with ionized radiation, temporarily disabling Firestorm's powers. Though it will not separate them, it will cancel Firestorm's powers for a small amount of time.
- Limited control : As Firestorm, Martin has very little control what the Firestorm will do, unless he has the superior body of the two. If the host will have superior body to Stein and is in control, Stein has to count on that they will separate or he will be stuck in that particular body as long as the host wants to. However, when Valentina, a mad Russian scientist who wanted to become Firestorm herself, had merged with Stein and was attacking everyone, and was even about to attack Jefferson, Stein was able to restrain her from launching a blast and was able to separate from her with help from Jefferson.
- Prolonged separation : Martin's exposure to the dark matter explosion left his body unstable at a cellular level. Over time, Martin's body will continue to weaken from the build up until eventually killing him. Only by periodically merging with another meta-human of compatible nature will restore his health and stabilize him while separated until the next needed merger.
- Kinemortophobia : Martin has a fear of zombies to the point where he couldn't say the name.
Former equipment
- Power cane : During the search for a new host for the Firestorm Matrix, Cisco created a cane using parts from a Speed Force battery to stabilize his condition. However over time, the device became useless.
- Main Article : Martin Stein (Earth Two)
