Firestar

Angelica Jones is thirteen. It’s an awkward age for anyone, but it’s been especially difficult for her. Her mother died, and her father’s job kept her constantly on the move. Today she would start at her new school, where she would once more desperately try to fit in.

But today would be different. Today she would discover that she is a mutant, possessing the ability to emit incredible amounts of heat simply by thinking. Suddenly, she would be sought out by two powerful forces—the X-Men would try to teach her to use her power for the good of mankind, but the evil Hellfire Club would do everything in its power to add her to its arsenal.

This mini-series tells the tale of Firestar before she first appeared in the Uncanny X-Men #193. Angelica has a lot of problems at thirteen…the chief one being survival!

From the Comics Buyer’s Guide:

Can you believe Firestar has been around for 25 years? For the uninitiated, she was introduced outside the Marvel universe proper via the early 1980s cartoon Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, where she was a former member of The X-Men.

Chris Claremont brought her into the mainstream Marvel universe in—appropriately enough—Uncanny X-Men. While she wasn’t a member of The X-Men, she was a member of The Hellions and under the thrall of The White Queen (who is now a member of The X-Men). When Firestar got her own mini-series in 1986, writer Tom DeFalco and artist Mary Wilshire provided the backstory on how Firestar hooked up with The White Queen. (Professor X arrived too late to recruit her.)

Timid and naïve, Firestar hangs on the White Queen’s every word, until she realizes that she’s been duped. In the end, Firestar confronts the White Queen and becomes her own person. There’s also romantic tension between her and Cannonball of The New Mutants, who appears in the story. This series paved the way for her strong character development under Fabian Nicieza in New Warriors and under Kurt Busiek in Avengers. Let’s see her back with The Avengers or The X-Men in current continuity and let her have it out with The White Queen, especially since they’ve both grown since this series.