Issue(s): Firestar #4
Cover Date: Jun 86
Title: "Now strikes the assassin!"
Credits:
Tom DeFalco - Writer
Mary Wilshire - Penciler
Stephen Leialoha - Inker
Ann Nocenti - Editor

Review/plot:
We saw in Uncanny X-Men #189 and New Mutants #23 that Selene was challenging Sebastian Shaw's leadership of the Hellfire Club. In response, Emma Frost has been training Firestar as an assassin to kill Selene on Shaw's behalf. Considering Selene's power level, it's an ambitious gambit, especially considering that it'll be pretty obvious who sent Firestar, so you'd think this would be considered a declaration of war.

In any event, it never pans out because to set up the attack, the White Queen tries to have Firestar's friend Randall killed and blame it on Selene, but Randall escapes and lets Firestar know the truth. So we get a confrontation between Firestar and Emma Frost instead.

Overall, this series was something of an odd move. After Uncanny X-Men #193, you'd think that Marvel might want to do something to redeem the idea that Firestar, a popular cartoon character, was just a mentally manipulated dupe, but this series actually reinforces that, making her now a dupe of both Empath and the White Queen, and a trained assassin to boot. Considering the X-Men issue, i suppose you'd have to start with that premise, but you'd really think you'd create a story that was more redeeming and that worked towards setting up a light-hearted teen drama status quo a la early Spider-Man or Nova that would be more welcoming to people coming in from Amazing Friends. I suspect that resentment about having to work with a character that originated in the cartoon series had a lot to do with which writers were interested in working with this character and what was done with her, but i'm obviously just speculating here.

To be fair, the series does end with Firestar returning home and reuniting with her father, so the type of series that i'm describing could have come out of this, but there was nothing in this mini that would give readers a taste for that.

The redeeming factor in this book is Mary Wilshire's art. Wilshire mainly drew Marvel's Barbie series, and sometimes that style exerts itself...

...but i also really like her facial expressions.

Sometimes her action panels are awkward (i know this panel is supposed to show Firestar acting awkwardly, but it's awkwardly portraying awkwardness, in my opinion)...

...but for the most part it's ok.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: At the end of issue #3, the White Queen tells Sebastian Shaw that it'll be "a few months at most" before Firestar is ready for a real assignment, so presumably some time takes place between issues #3 and #4. It's said in this issue that it's been "three years" since Firestar first discovered that she was a mutant in issue #1, leading me to push that issue further back in publication time.

References:

• There's flashbacks to Firestar #1 and Firestar #2.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? Y

My Reprint: N/A

I see I've answered my own question on the Firestar "MCP" serial why Angelica wasn't in "New Mutants" #39 and 40, especially since this issue came out shortly before those two.

I also agree about Wilshire's art. For superhero action, she's mediocre at best - no June Brigman, that's for sure - but the more realistic scenes and body language are great. In this issue, if Selene doesn't look like the evil Black Queen (which she doesn't) she still looks like a gorgeous woman preparing for a fancy ball. In the same panel, Shaw looks like a middle-aged industrialist with a taste for old-timey clothes and who's getting a paunch. I don't think Wilshire's great at faces, although she's certainly good, it's the body language that sells it. Angelica playing with her hair is just adorable.