Maybe it was originally that they just wanted to beat the Russians into space after all - in the real world Yuri Gagarin went to space four months before FF No 1, but the origin story in that issue IS a flashback, so maybe their flight was in Christmas of 1960 or something
Kelley Jones and John Beatty's completely unhinged Mister Freeze design stands head and shoulders above the competition as the best villain design of the 1990s