Naiad (comics)

Naiad
Naiad from Firestorm vol. 2 #91, artist Tom Mandrake
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Firestorm, the Nuclear Man vol. 2 #90, (October 1989)
Created by	John Ostrander (writer) Tom Mandrake (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Mai Miyazaki
Supporting character of	Firestorm
Abilities	Hydrokinesis/Aquakinesis.

Naiad is a fictional water elemental published by DC Comics. She first appeared in Firestorm, the Nuclear Man vol. 2 #90 (October 1989), during the four part Elemental War storyline that ran to issue #93, and was created by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake.

Mai Miyazaki was a Japanese environmentalist who was murdered by operatives of the Shogun Oil Company. While protesting at a Shogun Oil drilling rig in the sea off the coast of Alaska, she was set on fire by a Shogun Oil employee under orders from his superior. The employee deliberately fires a flare gun into the oil spill surrounding her dingy. Mai died but was reborn as the Water Elemental Naiad. She destroys the drilling rig but oil and other chemicals which spill into the waters poison her, and drive her mad. Enraged and out of control Naiad attacks Firestorm because he is the incarnation of fire, and the last thing she remembers is death by fire.

Swamp Thing begins looking for Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond/Mikhail Arkadin) because his attempts to terraform and heal an African desert valley which ended up mutating and scarring the "Green". Firestorm is able to temporarily calm a mindless Naiad and a discorporate Red Tornado, both of whom were being pushed to attack humanity due to pain being caused them by poisons in the air and water, they believed the only way to "heal the planet" was by eliminating humanity. Naiad and the Red Tornado discover that no elemental can attack another elemental directly, so they use earth to bury Firestorm underwater and head for Japan intending to terminate the island nation's entire population.