DC Creates A New Location Named After John Ostrander (Spoilers)

Posted in: Comic Spoilers, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: firestorm, jeff lemire, John ostrander, Rafael De Latorre

DC Creates A New Location Named After John Ostrander (Spoilers)

DC Comics creates a new location named after John Ostrander in The Fury of Firestorm #6 by Jeff Lemire and Rafael de Latorre (Spoilers)

Published Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:57:11 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• John Ostrander’s influential Firestorm run reshaped the hero with Cold War stakes, elemental mythology, and eco themes.
• DC honors John Ostrander in The Fury of Firestorm #6 by naming a new Texas location after the legendary writer.
• Ostrander, Texas appears in Jeff Lemire and Rafael de Latorre’s series and may be tied to a brand new Firestorm.
• The tribute tops an earlier Gerry Conway nod, giving John Ostrander a larger place in DC’s current Firestorm revival.

Comic book writer John Ostrander is known for revitalising comic book characters and teams, particularly noted for his run on Firestorm in the 1980s, but also for co-creating the modern-day Suicide Squad, Grimjack, and Amanda Waller, as well as runs on The Spectre, Martian Manhunter, Hawkworld, Oracle, and Mister Terrific. Born in 1949 in Evanston, Illinois, he is one of the longest-working comic book professionals. So while Firestorm was created by Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom in 1978. John Ostrander took over writing in the mid-eighties, introducing more Cold War nuclear themes that led to major conflicts with the Justice League, governments, and villains, and introducing Mikhail Arkadin, a Soviet nuclear-powered hero empowered by the Chornobyl disaster, as well as the revelation that Firestorm was intended to be Earth's Fire Elemental (there's been a lot of that about today) along with a shift toward an environmental/ecological focus, with a new look and more elemental, less conventional superhero presentation. Something that has been very influential on the current DC Next Level revival of the character.

Now, in the current Fury of Firestorm series by Jeff Lemire and Rafael de Latorre, they have found new way to pay tribute to John Ostrander. He has already had the John F. Ostrander Federal Building in the Suicide Squad film named after him, but that's just a building. In Fury Of Firestorm #6 out today…

… he gets a whole town. Or at least where a town was. Or one day, will be. Ostrander, Texas. And maybe the birthplace of a brand new Firestorm… Which is one up from Gerry Conway's credit a couple of issues ago…

To be honest, Gary would have found that funny. I mean Gerry…

FURY OF FIRESTORM #6 (OF 8)
(W) Jeff Lemire (A/CA) Rafael de Latorre
ATOMIZED! Firestorm has the city of Pittsburgh trapped and is going to start dismantling it atom by atom. Can Firehawk finally break through the Matrix's control and reach Ronnie before it's too late?! $3.99 9/9/2026

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