Speed Force

Twenty years ago, William Messner-Loebs started a four-year run on The Flash. Seven years ago, out of work, he and his wife lost their house. Michigan Live writes about how his life has turned around since then. (via The Beat).

Another former Flash scribe, Mark Waid, talks to CBR about his arrival on Spider-Man.

Flash: The Fastest Man Alive “Full Throttle” writer Marc Guggenheim’s TV show Eli Stone has not been renewed beyond the network’s current 13-episode commitment. Update: Newsarama also has an interview about Guggenheim’s “Character Assassination” arc on Amazing Spider-Man

Flash: Iron Heights and Impulse artist Ethan Van Sciver, currently working on Flash: Rebirth, has started a weekly column at Newsarama, Your Time Is Now Mine.

Update: One more: Geoff Johns talks with CBR about bringing the Legion of Super-Heroes to Smallville.

We’re moving into the home stretch, with the second-to-last issue of the current Flash series. Part 3 of “This Was Your Life, Wally West” is written by Alan Burnett with art by Carlo Barberi.

The book was originally solicited with a more story-related cover by Brian Stelfreeze. Normally I prefer covers that have something to do with the story over iconic covers, but I have to say this is one seriously impressive cover by Freddie Williams II.

Carlo Barberi’s art continues to work surprisingly well with the serious tone of the book (I’d previously known his work only from Impulse), and the cast list is combined with the issue’s splash page.

The threats of the Queen Bee and power loss take a back seat to a more personal story: Wally West faces the possibility that he might lose the love of his life, Linda Park West. Much of the first half of the issue is a look back at Wally and Linda’s relationship, starting with their first meeting as reporter and story subject at the end of the “Porcupine Man” saga (Flash v.2 #24–28), working through their tumultuous courtship, interrupted wedding, all the way through to the worldwide memory wipe between Blitz and Ignition.

The flashback is well-integrated with the main line of the story, as it brings up several elements that factor into the second half of the issue as the Queen Bee case takes center stage again.

Oddly, I noticed my local comic store didn’t have any copies of this issue on the shelf. I meant to ask, but forgot, whether they had reduced their order, whether they’d sold more than usual, or whether they simply hadn’t finished putting everything on the shelf. (They were still sorting through customers’ pull lists at the point I got there.)

Spoilers after the cut: Read the rest of this entry »

Comics sales continued to drop in October, and The Flash was no exception.

02/2008: Flash #237     —  37,719 (-  9.0%)
03/2008: Flash #238     —  35,606 (-  5.6%)
04/2008: Flash #239     —  33,741 (-  5.2%)
05/2008: Flash #240     —  31,944 (-  5.3%)
06/2008: Flash #241     —  30,810 (-  3.6%)
07/2008: Flash #242     —  30,325 (-  1.5%)
08/2008: Flash #243     —  29,647 (-  2.2%)
09/2008: Flash #244     —  29,180 (-  1.6%)
10/2008: Flash #245     —  28,085 (-  3.8%)

The combined effects of the recession, poor reaction to the current run on the book, and a feeling that everything from now until April is just filler* — Flash: Rebirth was announced just days after this issue was solicited in July, so this is likely the first issue for which sales responded to the announcement — have combined to produce the largest drop in several months.

Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, on the other hand, actually saw a slight increase in sales over the previous issue after the standard second-issue drop.

07/2008: Rogues Revenge #1     —  62,482
08/2008: Rogues Revenge #2     —  54,404 (- 12.9%)
10/2008: Rogues Revenge #3     —  55,056 (+  1.2%)

Given Geoff Johns’ presence on both mini-series, this looks promising for Flash: Rebirth.(link via The Beat)

*You know what else was “just filler” prior to a relaunch? Alan Moore & Curt Swan’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Now considered a classic Superman story. I’m not saying the current storyline compares, I’m just pointing out that “filler” isn’t always mediocre, and the current trend among fans to follow only “important” books can cause us to miss out on good stories.

DC’s website lists several more Final Crisis–related delays.

• Final Crisis #5 has been pushed back two more weeks to December 10.
• Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3 has been pushed another month to January 14. This one is particularly annoying since it’s supposed to finally answer the question of who the Legion resurrected in “The Lightning Saga” back in June 2007.
• Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4 — originally due in late December — has been rescheduled for February 25.

Unless the final issue Final Crisis itself gets pushed back even further (as rumored by this week’s Lying in the Gutters), it looks like Legion of Three Worlds will keep going several months beyond the main series.

This week the Flash appears in The Flash #246 as well as the last volume of Countdown to Final Crisis, Tangent: Superman’s Reign and more.

The Flash #246

Written by Alan Burnett; Art by Carlo Barberi and Drew Geraci; Cover by Brian Stelfreeze

As Queen Bee circles in closer for the kill, everything The Flash holds dear starts slipping away from him. His powers, his wife – what’s next to go?

Team books and more behind the cut. Read the rest of this entry »

Collected Editions has spotted the listing for the Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds hardcover, due next August.

Silver Age Comics looks at the second issue of DC: The New Frontier, which spotlights Barry Allen as the Flash.

Now Read This! reviews Flash: The Greatest Stories Ever Told.

The Daily P.O.P. talks about the state of the Flash over the last few years.

Finally, Comic Bloc’s Pureclint links to three video clips of fan-made fighting games featuring Captain Cold vs. Superman (with cameos by Inertia and the Rogues), multi-colored Flashes battling each other, and Bizarro vs. Superman (with a cameo by Zoom).

Once again, there aren’t any Flash comics in February, with the current series ending in December and Flash: Rebirth launching in April. But the Flashes aren’t missing from the DC line that month, appearing in their usual team books and in Trinity.

Guest Spots

Booster Gold #17

Written by Dan Jurgens
Art and cover by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund

Featuring an “Origins and Omens” backup story! Part 3 of the 4-part “Reality Lost” arc finds Booster Gold transported back to a seminal day in the history of The Flash! Here’s a hint: it has to do with a bolt of lightning and a chemical bath!

On sale February 11 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Team books, events, collections, action figures and more after the cut. Read the rest of this entry »

I just found out that Speed Force won the October 2008 Project Fanboy Award! (That explains the traffic I was getting from them last week!)

I remember the first ever website award I got was for the “Site of the Week” award from what was then called Jonah Weiland’s Comic Book Resources. A lot of fan sites would give out awards back in the late 1990s, and then it sort of fell out of fashion. It’s cool that there are sites still doing it — and it’s cool to have actually been honored by one!

Thanks to whoever nominated Speed Force for the award, and thanks to the Project Fanboy staff!

New feature: a digest of my Twitter posts for the week.

• Did some minor updates to site, including list of series & trades. #
• Oh, good: Madame Xanadu is continuing past the origin story. With nothing listed for Jan, I was afraid it had been canned. #
• Heroes & Sarah Connor both really good tonight, even if Heroes got their timeline all wonky. #
• OTOH, sick of them trying to make poor widdle Sylar into an innocent victim of circumstances.It’s not HIS fault he’s a serial killer! PLEASE #
• If I had to choose, I would rather see more Pushing Daisies than Brian Fuller returning to Heroes. #
• Despite his WW2-era origins, there’s a distinct lack of covers showing the Flash beating up on Nazis. #
• Justice Society & Justice League of America are better titles than JSA & JLA because you don’t need to already know what the letters mean. #
• More than half the comics I’m buying are ending within 4 months. Some are minis; some are being canceled. #
• IDW sale: Hmm, how many trades would it take for the discount to offset the cost of driving to San Diego? #
• Theory: fan casting choices are usually more “Who looks like this character?” than “Who can play this character?” #
• Positive spin on DD’s “meant to do that” w/Flash: IF they planned it all along, they had time to experiment a bit. DC should do that more. #
• Nifty: Victorian-era Justice League custom action figures. #
• With maybe 2 exceptions, a Flash comic has come out the third week of every month since June 2006. That streak ends after next month. #
• Is it my imagination, or does EVERY EPISODE of The Batman take place during a full moon (at least in Season 5)? #
• New Flash figures. #
• Sorry abt downtime earlier. Made a config change, too harried to check it until an hour later. Oops. #
• Watching “The Batman” finale #
• Finally got around to reading Crecy. A Warren Ellis book narrated by a total bastard. Who would have thought? #
• Imagine Kristin Chenoweth as Harley Quinn. #
• Finally read Chrono Mechanics. Didn’t like it as much as I expected to. #

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Comic Bloc is holding a Flash fan art contest.

Top Cow has a page for their upcoming Velocity series. They’ve also solicited the second issue, which has (IMHO) much better covers. More action girl, less swimsuit model.

Comics Make No Sense looks into how Quicksilver can fly.

The Comic Treadmill discusses Adventure Comics #373-375, including the first appearance of the Tornado Twins Don and Dawn Allen.

The Exponent (Purdue University’s student newspaper) contemplates that age old question, Who would win in a fight, Flash or Green Lantern?

Not directly speedster-related, but the Occasional Superheroine ponders the shift in emphasis from stories to events in comic books since the early 1980s.