Published by Quality Comics from August 1941 to November 1942, Rod Reilly was the bored and wealthy socialite son of a steel tycoon, who decided to fight crime with his servant and friend, "Slugger" Dunn. Originally drawn by Reed Crandall, Firebrand appeared in Police Comics, issues #1 through 13, at which time his series was canceled. Firebrand's costume consisted of a transparent shirt and red pants, with a bandana mask covering the top half of his face.
After DC purchased Quality Comics, Firebrand was largely left on the sidelines until 1981, when DC collected most of their '40s characters into the All-Star Squadron. At this time it was retconned that Rod had been injured in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and replaced by his sister, Danette Reilly. Rod Reilly later recovered and joined the Freedom Fighters. He was killed in a fight with the Silver Ghost, but that occurred only in a photocopied issue of Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, which was never released to public and thus unsure as to whether it is considered part of the current DC Universe. In Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #12, it is strongly implied that Firebrand was killed by the Dragon King.
In All-Star Squadron No. 5 (Vol. 2, 1981), Rod's sister Danette discovers that Rod is Firebrand while staying at his penthouse. Musing about Rod's relationship with his bodyguard, Slugger Dunn, she wonders "though what a confirmed bachelor playboy like my brother needed with a bodyguard, I never understood", and then finds a hidden closet that leads her to think that "from the look of these clothes, I didn't know my brother quite as well as I thought I did!"
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Famous quotes containing the words rod and/or reilly:
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”
—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs 29:15.
“While you continue to grow fatter and richer publishing your nauseating confectionery, I shall become a mole, digging here, rooting there, stirring up the whole rotten mess where life is hard, raw and ugly.”
—Norman Reilly Raine (1895–1971)