Snap Into Marvel: Firelord Is At Least Better Than His Old Buddy
by Austin Gorton
Real Name: Pyreus Kril
First Appearance: Thor #225 July 1974)
Powers and Abilities: Possesses the Power Cosmic, which imbues him with heightened strength, stamina, the ability to fly faster than the speed of light and survive the rigors of space as well as mastery of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, he wields a flaming staff from which he can project blasts of cosmic flame. As a former member of the Nova Corps, he possesses advanced training and skill in combat and space navigation.
Comic Book Chronicles
Shortly after writer Chris Claremont and artist Dave Cockrum introduced Phoenix in the pages of X-Men, the wanted to have her fight Thor — generally considered one of the more powerful characters in Marvel’s stable of characters — in order to establish just how powerful Phoenix was (especially relative to Jean Grey, who spent much of the Silver Age being depicted as one of the weaker members of the X-Men). Their idea was ultimately nixed by Marvel editorial (according to Cockrum, because of sexism; they didn’t want one of Marvel’s male big guns getting beat by a woman). So instead, they applied the transitive property and in X-Men #105, had Phoenix fight — and defeat — Firelord, a former Herald of Galactus and a character who, at the time, had held his own against Thor a few times. Thus, strong enough to beat Firelord, strong enough to beat Thor.
That, and Amazing Spider-Man #270, an issue designed to show the resiliency of Spider-Man by having him fight the vastly more powerful Firelord, were my introduction to the character, and thus, he’s always existed as a kind of “benchmark” character in my head, the sort of characters writers bring in to puff up other characters, but he’s actually an intriguing character in his own right. As the first herald of Galactus to represent fire (after Silver Surfer/Water and Air-Walker/air), Firelord continues the proud herald tradition of being introduced and then quitting Galactus’ service in the same story, after helping Galactus (alongside Thor and Hercules) battle Ego, the Living Planet (aka the MCU’s Kurt Russell) and then offering the Asgardian Destroyer weapon as a replacement herald.
Freed from Galactus’ service, Firelord became a more general purpose “cosmic” character, appearing in Thor, Avengers (where he teamed up with Starfox to seek justice for the destruction of his homeworld by Nebula), Silver Surfer (where he teamed up with other former heralds to battle Morg), and, yes, to serve as a benchmark antagonist when a hero’s power levels need to be established. His origin — as a member of the Nova Corps serving alongside his buddy Gabriel Lan who entered into Galactus’ service in order to find out what happened to Gabriel after he disappeared (and became Galactus’ herald Air-Walker, who ultimately died and was reborn as a robotic simulacrum of Gabriel) — lends him a touch of the melancholy, and helped establish his characterization as kind of well-meaning but often hot-headed (pun intended) seeker of justice cosmos-wide.
Fit & Finish
Firelord’s base card features a more generic “flaming humanoid” look against a cosmic background, eschewing his original “orange deep V on orange” look, which is a shame (fingers crossed for an eventual Bronze Age variant).
Like Air-Walker, Firelord has a bunch of unreleased variants in the files. At least one of which, by Creative House Pocket, approximates his classic look.
Form & Function
As discussed in my “Snap Into Marvel” column on Air-Walker, Firelord’s ability seems designed to work in concert with his buddy’s, enabling Firelord to revive Air-Walker after Air-Walker destroys itself to summon Firelord. But Firelord’s ability is more broadly useful, potentially serving as a useful addition to Destroy and Phoenix Force decks (buff Venom, destroy it with Kid Omega, then revive it with Firelord) as well as Silver Surfer (since it revives a three cost). Thus, Firelord will probably prove to have more staying power in Marvel Snap than Air-Walker, just like their comic book counterparts.
