Continuing our coverage of the Pittsburgh Comicon, we caught up with Jamal
Igle, the artist behind DC’s Firestorm, to talk about his love for the
DCU, “One Year Later,” 52 and just where Jason Rusch stands
in the reshaped DCU.

Igle, who is a self-proclaimed DC fan, has been
doing freelance work for DC for the last few years and is now in an exclusive
contract with the publisher.

“I’m a DC Comics Fanboy and I have
been since I was five years old,” remembers Igle. “I started my
career at DC as a 17-year-old intern; my first published work was Green
Lantern #52. So to me, DC Comics is a family affair.”

After
helping to bring back Martin Stein and Larraine Riley, Igle feels that fans can
get a different dynamic from Martin and Jason than they experiences from Martin
and Ronnie and from Jason and Lorraine. Jason has suffered and been strengthened
from that suffering, while Martin has this new “universal” view of
the world.

“Jason is a far more serious person because of his
experiences. He started out as this shy, abused kid, has been through the loss
of his best friend Mick Wong, Infinite Crisis and everything that has happened
to him over the missing year,” said Igle. “He’s a much more grounded
hero. With Jason and Lorraine, it’s been very interesting because Lorraine sort
of has this “been there, done that” attitude towards Jason, and
looks on him as sort of the annoying younger brother. It makes for good
drama.”

According to Igle, Jason will spend much of the missing
year between the end of Infinite Crisis and “One Year Later”
developing a relationship with Martin while dealing with his own inner
demons.

“Jason came back from Infinite Crisis suffering from a
version of survivor’s guilt. I liken Jason’s situation to that of a solider
returning from combat. He’s seen his friends die around him and he came back a
little lost,” Igle reflected.