There are a lot of comics out there, but some stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This,” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This time, it is misadventures through mundanity with “Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville” by Joanne Starer, Natacha Bustos, and Tamra Bonvillain!
Who Is This By?
Writer Joanne Starer is relatively new to the comic book scene, with most of her credits being in the past few years in fact, each of her bigger projects, “The Gimmick” with AHOY! Comics and “Sirens of the City” with BOOM! Studios, were each published in 2023. Her very first story with DC Comics was the prologue for this one, the backup story in “Power Girl Special” #1.
Similar to Starer, illustrator Natacha Bustos does not have much experience at DC Comics, but she has a good deal more with other publishers. At Marvel Comics, Bustos worked on “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” from 2015 through 2019, and illustrated both the “Love Unlimited” Infinity Comic and the backup stories to “Wakanda” in 2022. For BOOM! Studios, Bustos penciled “Go Go Power Rangers” from 2017 to 2018, “The Thrilling Adventure Hour” in 2018, and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow” in 2020.
Colorist Tamra Bonvillain’s bibliography is rather extensive. Just listing a few books she has been on for numbers of issues in the double digits, her work still spans multiple publishers. With DC Comics, she has colored books for all three of the famous trinity: “Wonder Woman” from issue 770 through to the issue 800 milestone, from 2021 through to 2023; and “Batman/Superman: World’s Finest,” the ongoing series run since 2022. At Marvel, she colored the very same “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” run as Bustos (see above), as well as the 2019 to 2020 run on “Captain Marvel.” At Image Comics, she provided her expertise to “Wayward” from 2014 to 2018. Her most famous recent work, however, might be her colors on BOOM! Studios’ “Once & Future” from 2019 to 2022.
What’s It All About?
This six-issue miniseries follows the adventures, or shall we say misadventures, of relatively unknown superheroes Fire (Brazilian ex-model Beatriz “Bea” da Costa) and Ice (Norwegian tribal princess Tora Olafsdotter), a duo who are best friends despite rather different upbringings and diametrically opposed power sets that are exactly what they sound like (perhaps the only surprise being that Fire’s flames are green). After the nearly-disastrous events of the backup story from “Power Girl Special” #1, ‘Fire & Ice in… Hot Water,’ the older Superman has sent the two to have a “self-care” vacation in his hometown of Smallville, Kansas.
In a small town, the two members of the currently-defunct Justice League are forced to deal with a “threat” very different from their usual fare: normalcy, irrelevance, and mediocrity. From the duo have their own reactions to their “vacation” that fit very well with their elemental motifs, with the hotheaded Fire bristling at her lack of clout and the cooler Ice trying to calmly mend relationships.
Accompanied by the helper robot L-Ron (in his first full appearance since the mid-2000s), what could possibly go wrong?
What Makes It So Great?
Barring the “prologue” in the ‘Hot Water’ story, this tale seems rather easy to get into. The stakes are deliberately low, focused more on the irrelevance of the various characters (aside from some of the Superman mythos supporting cast like Martha Kent). Furthermore, as a six-issue miniseries, it is a rather bite-sized tale regardless.
Fire and Ice play off of one another very well, from Fire making problems to Ice trying to smooth them over. L-Ron is relatively low key as a character, but is rather humorous on the whole with his introductions and random appearances in different scenes. Even the normal civilians are given plenty of room to shine, from those who are new to the setting to those who have established histories.
In a way, from the art style to the story, “Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville” kind of feels like a comic book set in Archie Comics’ Riverdale, just with some people happening to have superpowers. Tommy with, one of the most entertaining, outright comedic parts of “Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville” is its adherence to a fairly mundane world in spite of superheroes. Even battles are played for laughs, illustrated with the classic cartoonish cloud of violence instead of one hard hit after another.
Continued belowEven so, there are hard-hitting moments, such as Ice’s desire to genuinely help people clashing with Fire’s seemingly pathological need for attention and recognition. The first issue’s flashforward indicates things will not stay as happy as they have been, but readers are invited to come along for the ride regardless.
How Can You Read It?
“Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville” #3 released on Tuesday, and is available wherever comic books are sold. Issues #1 and 2 are also currently available on DC Universe Infinite Ultra.
