Application for Route 666

[invisiblefloatinghead]

Player: Airdra
Contact: Airdra
Age: 40
Other Characters: N/A

Name: Martin Stein
Canon: DC Comics
Canon Point: Immediately post Fury of Firestorm #40, so he is coming straight from June 1985 and is pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths
Age: 43 (I am still reeling from his going out and saying it in issue 34 like I mean I thought he was in his 50s)

Backstory: Comics canon is about 1000 kinds of bonkers, so I'll try to keep it brief and spare you a wiki dive--and in the interest of kind of dodging a lot of the bonkers, I'm also ignoring the last 40-ish years of canon because that's so much to unpack (Also I think he's a villain in the modern continuity for some reason? Maybe?) and I am keeping this solely locked into the year 1985, pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths in an attempt to keep things more manageable.

Martin Stein was a Nobel Prize winning nuclear physicist working at the Hudson Nuclear Plant on a highly experimental reactor. He was hellbent on getting the reactor, which was not actually ready for prime time, online when terrorists broke into the plant and set up explosives. Among these terrorists was a high school student who thought he was joining up with environmental protestors in a bid to impress a girl. This teenager, Ronnie Raymond, was knocked out and left by the terrorists as a patsy to take the blame for the attack (why the terrorists thought there would be anyone alive to take the blame after sabotaging an already experimental nuclear reactor with explosives is anyone's guess). Professor Stein did not want to see this poor dumb kid get blown up with everything, so he went to help, but was knocked unconscious by the terrorists, only for Ronnie to revive and try to drag him out of there. The two were touching when the bomb went off--Ronnie was conscious, but Martin was not.

Because this is superhero comics we're talking about, the explosion gave both parties superpowers, but not in the ordinary fashion. Stein and Ronnie were given the ability to fuse into a singular being: Firestorm, the Nuclear Man. And since Stein had been knocked unconscious at the time of the explosion, he was relegated to the passenger seat while offering advice and scientific knowledge while Ronnie did all the driving, so to speak. M any of the supervillains they faced as Firestorm were scientists from Stein's past who had encountered other dramatic accidents and ended up with superpowers and a grudge against Stein for some reason or another. Perhaps the most personally troubling was Stein's ex-wife Clarissa joining up with the 2000 Committee, who had the goal of overthrowing the government by the incredible near future year 2000. By the time that long-running plot came to light, his reaction was more along the lines of "hm, seems about right" than anything else. Currently, Martin is a teacher at Vandemeer University where he's being fast-tracked for the position of department head and has put in a good word for Ronnie to attend as an incoming freshman.

Personality: Martin Stein is a bit of a rarity in that he has actual character growth in a comic from the late 70s and early 80s. In his first appearance, he's arrogant, convinced he's smarter than everyone else, and that he knows better and that his experimental nuclear reactor will be fine (narrator voice: it was not fine). After originally becoming half of Firestorm, he could not recall any superhero shenanigans, leading to what he viewed as unexplained black-outs. He ended up looking for answers in the bottom of a bottle, but with Ronnie's help, he was able to dig himself out of that coping mechanism. He'd been extremely stressed over the blackouts but when presented with undeniable proof of his being half of Firestorm, things clicked for him. Knowing what was going on instead of being at the mercy of mystery blackouts allowed him to come to terms with everything and start to retain memories of what was happening.

All things considered, being Firestorm has actually been good for him. Under optimum circumstances without any input from anyone else, he'd end up holed up somewhere endlessly doing research. He's actually out interacting with other people and trying to do good...even if most of the do-gooding is in the backseat giving Ronnie advice. He's gotten good at it to the point that Ronnie seeks him out for advice on the soap opera that is Ronnie's life. And yet...the Professor's own personal soap operas tend to fluster him more, like he doesn't know how to end an awkward date he still doesn't know how he ended up mixed up in and gets real relieved when Ronnie summons him for Firestorm, causing him to mysteriously vanish from said date.

He's been humbled by life and his own failures (man got himself fired in record time from a fast food job he had to take after getting fired from his research science job after various Firestorm-related activities gave him some serious attendance issues) and he is so, so tired. At his current canon point, he's hoping teaching in a more mundane classroom setting might give him some sort of semblance of peace and direction in life. He has found, to his surprise, that mentoring The Youth (or, at least, Ronnie) agrees with him more than he'd care to admit. He's happiest in the lab discovering new things, embracing the infinite possibilities of science, but it's nice to share that with the younger generations, too.

As of late, he and Ronnie have become aware of the fact that they're really rubbing off on each other. Ronnie, an average-at-best student, recently passed his chemistry finals without studying in such a spectacular fashion that it became a whole Thing at the school and almost had the chemistry teacher have a "how did I miss that this kid may be a genius" nervous breakdown, and he's not quite sure how Ronnie may have rubbed off on him. While he's historically been adverse to fisticuffs and would much rather talk his way out of a situation, well, Ronnie's always been hotheaded and quick to throw a punch if need be, and sometimes, it's a skill you need when your back is against the wall.

And while it's not really relevant, my singular regret with this canon point is the fact that it does not include the time he ended up with Ronald Regan calling for his arrest as Firestorm. He is the sort of man Ronald Regan literally tries to nuke in the middle of the desert.

Powers/Abilities: So, funny thing about powers...without Firestorm's other half, Ronnie Raymond, anywhere nearby, there really isn't much Professor Stein can do in a superhero powers sense, aside from perhaps being unnaturally durable when it comes to surviving large amounts of nuclear radiation. He's a middle-aged physicist who spends too much time in the lab and absolutely no time in the gym save for when a fitness nut friend drags him there under duress, and he is not a trained combatant. He is, however, a Nobel Prize winning nuclear physicist being played by someone who noped right on out of physics class in high school and took "science for non-science majors" in college so there are probably some inherent limitations there and can pretty reliably create comic-book-tier scientific gadgets with the right resources. He's had some experience with psychic combat but he's definitely not used to going at things alone and the thought of starting anything up in that regard on his own just wouldn't occur to him.

Inventory: What your character has on their person when they arrive in game.
Glasses, wallet, keys, pocket protector, ink pens, slide rule

Game Plans: I want him to stand on his own two feet! He's been in strictly an advisory role in canon, and he's at a point in life where he's made a few changes and is wondering if he's making the right choices. He's described himself as feeling like a tired old man even though he's 43, Lord help me and there's nothing like a madcap solo adventure to climb out of a rut.

Monster Choice:
Elemental - Fire Genasi. I am endlessly amused by the thought that his head could be on fire from a transformation and he genuinely wouldn't notice it until someone pointed it out. Much of his recent life experience has been defined by fire, and this above all other monster forms seems like it would tie more into the hard science he's comfortable with. (Full disclosure: he does become a fire elemental 60 issues after his canon point but that is an eternity in comic book time and I'm wanting to go in a different direction.)

Celestial - Unicorn. His lot in life is to spend it in Mentor Mode (tm) and this could work with that. Why Unicorn vs Angel? Because I find that very funny for reasons I cannot explain.

Drakonis - Sphinx. The obsession with puzzles and riddles feels like it'd fit well with a scientist-type for whatever reason.

Vehicle Choice: 1985 Dodge Caravan with the Spacious attribute
Sample: Here!