Doomsday Clock, the unauthorised sequel to Watchmen by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, published by DC Comics, has made a number of references to the John Ostrander run on Firestorm in the eighties.

Published concurrently with Watchmen, the run saw Firestorm become politically active, with a government looking to control superheroes, holding Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev to ransom in an attempt to persuade countries to disarm nuclear weapons and going up against Captain Atom in the process.

And spawning all manner of new characters, many of which have shown up or have been referenced in Doomsday Clock, including Pozhar as an Elemental Firestorm, Soyuz, Steel Wolf, Firebird, Morozko, Perun, Rusalka, Vikhor and more.

Ryan Lee, Bleeding Cool's Senior Firestorm Correspondent by dint of him picking up a back issue run and binging through it, noted the Martin Stein/brain tumour plot, and a very familiar scene.

And the parallels are clear.

It does appear to be in the same position,

That accidental origin of Firestorm was responsible for being resistant to treatment of the tumour.

If it was an accident of course. As well as panels that seem right out of Dark Knight, also published concurrently.

But of course, as we all know these days, there shouldn't be politics in comic books. Apparently.

In the light of Doomsday Clock, and the character's appearance in DC's Legends Of Tomorrow could DC Comics consider a reprint of this run in the near future? Maybe Doomsday Clock could be the unauthorised sequel to Firestorm instead?