Merge:Firestar

Firestar (Angelica "Angel" Jones) is a superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. She has the ability to generate and manipulate microwave radiation, which allows her to generate intense heat and flames and to fly. She has been a member of the Hellions, the New Warriors, and The Avengers.

Character history
The character was originally created for the animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends as a replacement for the Human Torch, the rights to which were tied up in a possible movie venture. Kathy Garver provided her voice. In the series, Firestar is identified as being a former member of the X-Men, along with Iceman, with whom she occasionally appears to have a romantic relationship, although at times she also has dated Peter Parker (Spider-Man) as well, resulting in a love triangle of sorts (though Iceman stated in the episode The Prison Plot that, despite his feelings for Firestar, "fire and ice don't really mix"). In the series, she also had a romance with Sunfire.

Later, Firestar appeared in comic books as well, beginning with Uncanny X-Men #193. Although she was initially a pawn of the X-Men's enemies, she quickly became a superhero in her own right. A self-titled miniseries then presented Firestar's definitive, in-continuity origin. Angelica Jones, a lonely girl raised by her widowed father and paternal grandmother, was recruited by Emma Frost, the original White Queen of the Hellfire Club, for the Club's team of young mutants, the Hellions. (Firestar was later to become one of the few surviving original Hellions, after most members were murdered by Trevor Fitzroy.) Angelica was manipulated by Frost into believing that the White Queen was a kind and loving maternal figure, unaware that Frost was secretly grooming her to be a potential assassin and bodyguard. The mini-series depicts events both before and after Firestar's first in-continuity appearance in Uncanny X-Men, showing her development from a shy, insecure girl afraid of her developing powers to a confident young woman; she eventually learns of Frost's duplicity, attacking the White Queen and decimating the hidden training complex beneath Frost's Massachusetts Academy with the control of her powers gained through the White Queen's training. Afterwards, Jones returns to living with her father (as she was still a minor at the time), but keeps the unique costume and identity of Firestar given to her by Frost. The mini-series also established that Firestar's powers were microwave-based, rather than the simpler, Human Torch-esque generation of flame that her animated counterpart displayed; the comic-book Firestar essentially harnesses ambient microwave radiation from her environment, making her powers potentially limitless in an environment such as space, where the concentration of microwaves is much greater than within a planetary atmosphere.

Despite the mini-series' efforts to flesh out the character, Firestar seemed destined to fade into obscurity until she became a founding member of the New Warriors. There, she fell in love with and became engaged to fellow teammate Vance Astrovik (also known as Justice, formerly Marvel Boy). Late in the first volume of New Warriors, she discovered that her microwave powers were damaging her ability to have children, and further use might render her completely infertile.

Firestar also provided vital assistance in helping Spider-Man tackle Carnage during the "Maximum Carnage" storyline, when he was also forced to ally himself with Venom, Black Cat, and Morbius to stop Carnage's reign of slaughter. Her flame powers proved the only weapon truly effective against Carnage following his 'upgrade'- his vulnerability to sonics having been weakened- but she still refused to kill Carnage, even to stop his murders.

Firestar and Justice later joined the Avengers for a time. During this period, Henry Pym determined that the cause of her potential infertility was that her natural immunity to the effects of her own powers (which all mutants possess) had never fully developed. He designed a costume for her that would siphon off the excess radiation, give her natural immunity the opportunity to manifest fully, and heal the damage already done. After a distinguished tenure with the Avengers, including facing a horde of Ultron robots and struggling against Kang the Conqueror's attempted takeover of modern-day Earth, she and Justice left the Avengers and later resurfaced alongside the New Warriors.

Angelica started college and enjoyed a "normal life", but she abandoned wedding preparations, leaving Vance with all of the responsibility. When Vance confronted her about this, she confessed that she needed more life experience before settling into married life. Vance left in anger and presumably ended their engagement.

Firestar is one of the few mutants left on the planet with her powers intact, after the Scarlet Witch changed reality at the end of the House of M crossover event. Firestar was not among the New Warriors that died in the catastrophe that sparked the events of Marvel's "Marvel Civil War" publishing event. She was presumed to be among the Warriors who confronted the operator of an anti-Warriors hate site created in the wake of the catastrophe, revealed to be former Warriors associate Carlton LaFroyge (Hindsight Lad), in She-Hulk #8 (2006). Though not depicted in detail, a flaming female form is depicted flying in the background, above the confrontation; it could be inferred that Firestar agreed to join her former teammates in a show of force against LaFroyge, but wished to keep her distance from Justice, shown in the foreground, due to their recent estrangement.

As depicted in Civil War: Front Line #2, Firestar has responded to the Superhuman Registration Act by effectively retiring from her career as a costumed heroine. Whether or not this is truly the last we have seen of Firestar remains to be seen.

Powers
Firestar has the ability to absorb, generate and manipulate microwave radiation. She can focus microwaves on a specific target, and cause it to burst into flame, or explode, or melt. She can also sense microwave signals (such as cell-phone signals or even remote-control devices) and disrupt electronics with her own microwave emissions. By superheating the air around her, she can surround her self with an aura of flaming plasma, and if she projects her plasma aura downwards in a tightly focused stream, she can generate enough upward thrust to fly at high speeds. Firestar's powers appear to become more powerful when in space, and she was once able to power a massive stargate with virtually no effort.

Alternate versions
In the Mutant X Universe, Firestar's powers had evolved to the point where her entire body was composed of microwave energy. In Mutant X Annual # 1, she was one of the many people trying to resist the rule of Madelyne Pryor.

An alternate verion of Firestar was forced to join the team known as Weapon X, a group of alternate reality-hopping super-people bound to repair broken world. Joining the team in Exiles #40, Angelica was soon killed in a mega-blast unleashed by her own powers. Because her body was reduced to ash, it was not returned to its native universe.

Other appearances
Firestar has also made other media appearances besides Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends:


 * In a scene toward the end of the short lived TV series Once A Hero, Captain Justice returns to the "Real Earth" and a group of comic book characters can be seen cheering for him. The group included Spider-Woman, Firestar, and Skeletor.


 * In 1987, Marvel Comics decided to re-enact the wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson with live-action characters on the field at Shea Stadium. Live actors portrayed Spider-Man, Iceman, Firestar, The Hulk, and Captain America.  Another note is that in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Firestar actually resembles Mary Jane.