Vault Comics Announces A New Cosmic Hero Working Out Of Milwaukee With ‘The Blue Flame’ Maxi-Series

Vault Comics announces The Blue Flame, a new cosmic superhero maxi-series from writer Christopher Cantwell, (Iron Man, Doctor Doom, Halt and Catch Fire), artist Adam Gorham (Punk Mambo, New Mutants, The Violent), colour artists Kurt Michael Russell (Money Shot, The Plot, Brandon Sanderson’s Dark One), letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (Black Stars Above, Engineward), and designer Tim Daniel. A new blue-collared comic hero working out of Milwaukee!

“The Blue Flame is a cosmic hero. The Blue Flame is a DIY vigilante that fights crime on the streets of Milwaukee. The Blue Flame is a blue collar HVAC repairman named SAM BRAUSAM. In the wake of a horrific tragedy, the boundaries of the Blue Flame’s identity blur even further. Now, before a universal trial, the Blue Flame must prove that humanity is worth saving. But in order to do that, Sam Brausam has to save himself. Can he?”

That’s the synopsis, but Cantrell wanted to expand on this and explain how our current contemporary anxieties can lead to some highly creative ideas:

“Contrary to what Adam’s incredible cosmic art might suggest, the concept of Blue Flame was actually born out of a real feeling of helplessness. So far the 21st century has provided some truly intense and infinitely complex tragedy that I believe challenges the very idea of what it means to be human, let alone superhuman. Personally — in the face of so much compounding unprecedented anxiety and strife — I’ve recently been in full retreat mode culturally as an adult. I have found myself dreaming of farther and farther away places, and escaping into the more and more fantastical, if just for some way to stay sane. That’s because the truth remains that we are all struggling in a very difficult contemporary reality with all sorts of seemingly insurmountable problems that don’t seem to be easily solved by anything.”

So as someone who has found solace in super hero books since a young age, I thought, what if we took that very solace away, even from the super hero who is supposed to provide it? Our story is bifurcated into two “worlds”: one is a high stakes cosmic quest that is so daunting it threatens to overwhelm even this idealized noble hero, and the other is the daily survival of a real man in a real world beset by all kinds of real problems. It feels at times that we are all constantly living in the wake of tragedy or on the crest of impending doom. Has the weight of that become so heavy that the idea of an ever-reliable hero is now irrelevant?”

The Blue Flame #1 will hit store shelves in May 2021, and will debut with a special Vault Vintage cover from Nathan Gooden and Tim Daniel that pays homage to Dave Stevens’ legendary cover to Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #1. But, ahead of the launch date we have a first look at interior pages: