Origin

Firehawk’s real name is Lorraine Reilly. She is the daughter of Senator Walter Reilly. She was kidnapped to see if a similar result could be produced as with the development of Firestorm’s powers. These powers did eventually manifest after she was put in a sensory deprivation chamber for an extended period of time. She was then subjected to nuclear radiation which activated her metagene. She was originally pitted against Firestorm as one of his enemies, but he was able to remind her of her past and the two teamed up together against Henry Hewitt who was using the nuclear process to become Tokamak. The two eventually overcame him and became partners.

Creation

Her first appearance as Lorraine was in The Fury of Firestorm #1 in 1982 and she was created by Gerry Conway and Pat Broderick. Her first appearance as Firehawk was in issue #17 of the same series.

Character Evolution

She has gradually come into her role as superheroine over the course of her appearances. She is now considered an experienced veteran after partaking in numerous adventures and conflicts. Her love for Ronald Raymond has served as a point of friction throughout her history. This caused problems for Firestorm (the first version) as Ronald was still a teenager with his own girlfriend and Professor Stein was in his late forties and not interested in her. Still in the early years the heroes remained fairly close.

Major Story Arcs

Firehawk’s appearances have been closely tied to those of Ronnie Raymond through the years. She was initially a relatively popular hero but as Ronnie Raymond took on a different focus through different incarnations she had varying degrees of popularity. If there is any continuity in her first stories, it’s that the Parasite was established as one of her arch-enemies. She played a part in Crisis on Infinite Earths as a secondary character and has shown up sporadically in other crossovers since then. During Identity Crisis she renounced her superhero identity completely as she was disenchanted with the superhero community and the actions which they perpetrated. She soon started focusing on her political career to follow in her father’s footsteps. She has nonetheless continued to play a role in various incarnations of Firestorm

After Infinite Crisis she formed a part of a hastily created Justice League of America alongside Firestorm, Super Chief, the Bulleteer, and Ambush Bug. There was only one appearance of this team, but soon after she became able to fuse to create Firestorm. This was soon resolved by Professor Stein.

The New 52

In the New 52 reboot, Firehawk connects to Jason a lot more than Ronnie.

The Firestorm protocols have been sold to powerful countries worldwide by ZitherTech, so each powerful country has its own Firestorm. Ronnie never really meets Firehawk, as he is questing for more power with the Russian and Indian Firestorms. Instead, Jason meets her and the Britsh Firestorm while searching in France for terrorist Firestorms. He helps her, Hurricane and the Justice League International save the Eiffel Tower after the terrosrists self-destruct. Zither uses her computer to kill Hurricane, as JLI member O.M.A.C. loses control. Jason sees that they can't defeat O.M.A.C. alone, and remembers fusing into the powerful Firestorm monster Fury with Ronnie. He surprisingly kisses Firehawk, causing them to fuse into an unstable Firestorm monster, Scorn, as Jason and Firehawk watch from the magnetic field inside it. As Scorn begins to break down, Jason hallucinates seeing Professor Stein in the field. Firehawk saves Jason and Scorn breaks down, teleporting them to a snowy, abandoned research base in Russia. As they explore, Jason explains how Zither has planned everything and can destroy most of the Firestorms with a single hit of a button, like she did with Hurricane and Raksashi, the Indian Firestorm. As they look around, Jason hallucinates Stein again. Stein says Ronnie needs help, and Jason is teleported to Ronnie's location, leaving a saddened Firehawk behind.

As Jason helps Ronnie, Zither hits a button that can destroy every remaining Firestorm except Ronnie and Jason. As she flees Zithertech in a hurry, she falls. She looks up to see Firehawk, critically unstable. Firehawk explodes, supposedly taking Zither and all of ZitherTech with her.

Powers and Abilities

Firehawk is capable of commanding nuclear forces on a molecular level and can use this ability in a variety of ways. The most common is the creation of massive amounts of heat, enough to melt metals or ignite combustibles. When she changes into Firehawk her clothing which she was wearing changes unharmed. A bluish fire surrounds her wrists, calves and hair, which shields these areas with intense heat. This also allows her the ability to fly.