Is any better without the BG?

Or something like this?

hmm.. bit large.. I think it would be better if the guy was placed to the left.. and then the rest blank.. but in center it looks not so good.

as jal pointed out, the composition isn't too good.. well there's no composition here yet :D

but aside from that, I think both the BG and the character are amazing!!! I just love how you incorporated the blue flame colors here :D

you know what would be cool? if you'd animate the dude's fill. even without movement, just make the fill gradient go in a cycle

I totally see why the character is not shown at its best. The canvas size is not proportionate to the character. Much less height and character moved to the left will fix this very nice pixel.

I like the design of this, especially the bg.  But the character isn't very appealing for some reason.