I love how these first appearance issues are always about how the heroes are coming. This one is called, “The coming of Sunfire!”
Too bad the guy he came with was Don Heck.
He’s raised by his father to hate Americans.
Daddy dies in the end. In the issue Sunfire proves himself to be as powerful as all the X-Men combined.
Letter page banner:
Sunfire is Japanese, not Chinese.
Of course he is. Thanks.
Mr. Ekko- you are being a tad rough on the late, great, Dashin’ Donnie Heck- when it became apparent that Nefarious Neal would not be available to draw this most epochal issue of ‘X-Men’, Stan approached Dashin’ Donnie and asked him to fill in by making his artwork look “as much like Neal’s stuff as possible.” Now, I get that that’s like asking Phyllis Diller to pass for Jenna Ortega, or for a Volvo to run like a Maserati, but with the astonishing assistance of inker Tom Palmer- he ACTUALLY PULLED IT OFF!!!!! Seriously!!! I was around for the last few years of the original ‘X-Men’ series, and when I first read this issue, I honest-to-God-Almighty thought the art had been done by Neal Adams!!!! ( of course, I was a dangerously gullible little goof back in those days, as well ) But my eyes were not opened to the truth of the matter until I finally caught the little footnote on the matter at the bottom of the splash-page, upon my third reading of the issue! The fact of the matter is, Stan told Heck and Palmer to make it look like Adams, and by God, in a colossal testament to the talents of both of these late, great men, they DID it!!!! And, yes, Sunfire, regardless of what his real name actually is, be it ‘Shiro’, or ‘Tomo’, or ‘Yashida’, or ‘Yoshida’, ( personally, I have always understood the gentleman’s name to be “Shiro Yoshida” ) is one seriously-powerful mutant. As per several interviews with his creator, Roy Thomas, Sunfire was deliberately created to be an analogy of Japan’s “Solarman”- apparently, Roy liked the character, and wanted to give him the “Marvel Treatment”, which he did. I have always liked the guy in spite of his being a “knockoff”, and am sorry that Marvel/Chris Claremont has mostly decided to not use/disregard this awesome character. He certainly fits Marvel’ politically correct “diversity” directive, so why has Marvel been so coy about using him-?? Sunfire has always been in my own personal top-three “Which mutant/X-Man would you like to be??” list. He checks all the boxes: He flies at jet-speed, has above-average ( but not superhuman ) strength, and, best of all, fires super-destructive, nuclear-powered firebolts out of his hands!!! Who wouldn’t want to sign up for all of THAT-???!!! Word!!!