Eddie Earhart was the founder of the activist group known as the Coalition to Resist Atomic Power.
History
Eddie and his followers believed that nuclear power only served to pave the way for a destructive future. They would frequently hold protest rallies at power plants and college campuses. Their true motivations however, were darker still. Eddie was actually an eco-terrorist and used his coalition as a vehicle to stage bombing attacks against nuclear power plants.
One afternoon, Eddie recruited an impressionable young high school student named Ronnie Raymond to his cause. Ronnie was indeed concerned about the dangers of nuclear power, having recently studied about World War II in school and realizing that the bombing of Nagasaki had caused great pain and property damage. However, his main interests were more akin to a adolescent moreso than a concerned citizen; he wanted to impress a girl named Doreen Day. Raymond joined the Coalition and became an enthusiastic member in the hopes of making Doreen think that he was politically active. Although an ostensibly well-meaning man with his valid concerns about the dangers of fission; he no idea what the Coalition's true aims really were. Eddie told Ronnie that they were going to stage a protest at the new Hudson Nuclear Power Plant. When they arrived however, Ronnie discovered that Eddie planned on destroying the building. They found one lone researcher inside the planet – a physicist named Professor Martin Stein. Eddie leapt upon Stein and knocked him out with one blow to the jaw. Ronnie tried to stop Eddie, but the angry young activist turned on him and rendered him unconscious as well. He left Ronnie's body slumped in a corner next to Professor Stein and planted the TNT explosives. He intended on using Ronnie as a scapegoat should the authorities ever question him about what took place at the Hudson facility.
Eddie and the other Coalition members quickly left the building moments before the bomb detonated. What he didn't realize however was that neither Ronnie nor Stein died in the explosion. The nuclear radiation, coupled with the concussive power of the TNT fused their bodies together into one composite being – the super-hero known as Firestorm.
Firestorm flew out of the burning ruins of the power plant and tracked Eddie down, where he was preparing more detonative charges in anticipation of his next terrorist attack at a nuclear facility to be determined. Terrified by seeing such as being, Eddie panicked. When he realized he had nowhere to run, he sniveled to himself how everything has gone wrong for him in life, such as bilging out of college and losing every job he had, and made a rash act that his final activity in life would not be a failure. He detonated a TNT charge and tackled Firestorm, much like the manner of a suicide bomber or kamikaze pilot in World War 2, and the bomb detonated. Earhart then awoke not in the afterlife, but still on Earth and unscathed, and was now shocked to see Firestorm unscathed and accompanied by three policemen. As the policemen arrested the mastermind behind the Hudson Nuclear bombing, Eddie was perplexed why they had not all been blown to kingdom come. Firestorm explained that due to his origins, his body absorbed the TNT blast, akin to a three-course meal.
What became of Eddie Earhart after prison has yet to be revealed. As there have been no further environmental terrorist attacks on power plants in the comic series, it could be assumed that without Eddie Earhart's leadership, the Coalition to Resist Atomic Power fell apart.
Notes
- Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
Related
- 7 Appearances of Edward Earhart (New Earth)
- 1 Images featuring Edward Earhart (New Earth)
- Quotations by or about Edward Earhart (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Edward Earhart (New Earth)
Footnotes
  This character, team or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of Firestorm and any of his supporting cast or members of the Firestorm Matrix. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Firestorm Villains category." |