February 5, 2009
Some Flash-related guests appearing at New York Comic-Con this weekend:
Writers:
- Todd Dezago (Impulse)
- Geoff Johns (Rebirth, long run on Flash vol.2)
- Mark Waid (long run on Flash vol.2)
- Len Wein (several issues in early 1970s)
- Marv Wolfman (Crisis on Infinite Earths, New Teen Titans)
Artists:
- Doug Braithwaite (cover on Flash vol2 relaunch)
- Brian Bolland (run of covers in early 2000s)
- Tony Daniel (Flash: The Fastest Man Alive)
- Irwin Hasen (1940s)
- Carmine Infantino (co-created the Silver Age Flash, long run as artist)
- Joe Kubert (original 1940s series)
- Greg Larocque (long run as penciler during late 1980s/early 1990s)
- Jay Leisten (inker on Flash: TFMA)
- John Livesay (inker during mid-2000s)
- Todd Nauck (Young Justice)
- George Perez (Crisis on Infinite Earths, New Teen Titans)
- Craig Rousseau (Impulse)
- Alex Saviuk (1970s)
- Brian Stelfreeze (final covers on Flash vol.2)
- Frank McLaughlin (inker during 1970s and 1980s)
Other:
- Gina Going (colorist)
- Barbara Kesel (editor on Flash vol.2)
I’m sure I’ve missed some — I just went through the full guest list (and it’s a long list!) looking for names I remembered working on Flash or Impulse, then made a second pass searching for “Flash” in the bios. Plus there’s Artist’s Alley, and I’m sure there are more who aren’t on the official list who are still going.
February 4, 2009
This will be less of a full review and more of a first reaction to the issue.
I’m sure some people won’t believe this, but I actually felt more lost reading the first half of this book than I did reading Final Crisis itself. It’s been months since the last issue came out, and I’ve never been very familiar with the three incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The only time I read them on a monthly basis was the “Five Years Later” period that started around 1989 or so — and it’s not represented in this story! I have read the occasional issue of other series, particularly the “Reboot” Legion with its connections to Impulse. After a while I just went with it.
That settled out later in the issue, especially as it began to focus on XS and the various lightning-powered Legionnaires as they learned about the legacy of Barry Allen’s brief sojourn in the 30th Century. Geoff Johns attempted to clear up some of the questions of whether Bart Allen was from an alternate universe, and while I think the answer ended up being more complicated than was necessary (since they had already established that sometimes time travelers will end up in an alternate universe), I suspect it’s in the service of setting up threads that will tie into either Flash: Rebirth or the inevitable Flash ongoing that spins out of it.
And speaking as a Flash fan, the conclusion of this issue was fantastic.
Spoilers after the cut: Read the rest of this entry »
Hey guys, its Mo! Really happy to be here, this is a really cool opportunity to share my reviews with people not on the ‘Bloc! Thanks Kelson!
Alright, here’s the first review, and when I did this one, I was just getting used to how I was going to go about this, so don’t worry it only gets better!
Flash #1, June 1987
Story overview:
In the beginning, Wally buys lotto tickets and 6 Baby Ruths. He gets home for a ‘surprise’ party, which he knew about. The Titans and Wally’s girlfriend Francine throw it for him and for about 5 minutes and they have a great time. Wally gets a pair of shoes with ‘a special fiberglass sole which is good for 100,000 KM at 700 MPH’ made by S.T.A.R. Labs from the Titans. At the party, Wally eats an enormous amount of hamburgers, as eating is a theme throughout the issue. Before they even get to the cake, the party is cut short by a phone call from a Dr. Aikens who tells him that he needs to deliver a heart for a transplant that won’t make it in time due to bad weather. Note that when Wally walks in his office, Dr. Aikens calls him Kid Flash, which is corrected by Wally as Flash. Wally says he’ll do it for a price which the Doc isn’t too happy about. The deal finally is decided for the hospital to call on Wally whenever they want, as long as they take care of his medical bills. On his way out, an unnamed doctor calls him Kid Flash again, to be corrected by another unnamed doctor. He runs for quite a while when he sees Vandal Savage killing a detective who was on Savage’s case. Wally runs the detective to the local police station and as he runs to give the heart transplant, he can’t get Savage’s name out of his head. He gets to the hospital just in time for when he passes out, and sleeps for seventeen hours before awaking in perfect health. He runs to McDonald’s and gets five double cheeseburgers and four chocolate malts before he comes back to the hospital to see the patient who he ran the heart for. She happens to be an author that Wally has read books from and talks with her for a while before returning home on an airplane. On the airplane, he stops a hijacking and sprains his hand in doing so. He has six dinners and sleeps until he gets off the plane. When he gets to his apartment, nobody is there but his happy birthday banner is still up. He turns on the TV and realizes he won the lotto when the lottery comes on. He sees a present which he didn’t see before he left, opens it and in it there is a heart. Like the type you’d find in a human. The issue ends with Vandal Savage in Wally’s apartment.
Review:
The story seemed a little flat to me and although there were some surprises (Vandal Savage and the heart present), I just didn’t feel like it was that intense. In the issue, Wally can’t top the speed of sound which really sets a slow pace for the book. It takes him something like three hours to get to Seattle from the hospital, which frankly isn’t that impressive. Of course at the time, his top speed was 705 MPH and that was very fast for him at the time, which compared to his speed today is fast. I guess if I was reading this in 1987 and I was used to Wally being that fast, I wouldn’t think twice of it. My favorite part of it was when he was stopping the plane hijackers, which took him all of three seconds. The way that part was paced was perfect. And when he jumps back into his seat, the guy next to him asks Wally, ‘Did you see that?’ which was a nice way to end the scene for me. The ending did make it so I want to read the next issue, so I’m going to go do that now!!
Rating:
Writing: four out of five stars. I really liked this issue, but I’m holding back that one star because it didn’t seem like a first issue of a series to me.
Art: five out of five. I had no problems with the art.
Favorite Quote:
“All of a sudden, I’m a millionaire.” –Wally, page 20
Keep reading for issue #2! Read the rest of this entry »
I’ll be following the news sites all weekend, but if any of you Flash fans are at New York Comic-Con and pick up any neat Flash-related news, announcements, costumes, creator stories, etc., please let me know.
You can email me at speedforce [at] pobox [dot] com, or direct message me on Twitter at SpeedForceOrg.
Thanks in advance!
February 3, 2009
Flash fan momoney433 has been re-reading all of Flash vol.2 (1987-2008) starring Wally West, and started reviewing them on the Comic Bloc forums (currently up to issue #6). I’d like to announce that Mo’s Flash Volume 2 Reviews will soon be joining Speed Force as a semi-regular feature!
Welcome on board, Mo!
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3 of 5
The Legion of Super-Heroes call in the reinforcements against Superboy Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains as the Crisis of the 31st Century continues. While Superboy Prime comes face-to-face with the last of the Green Lanterns, Brainiac 5 and XS attempt to ignite an electrical storm using the lightning rod, which is destined to turn the tide of the war. And what are Polar Boy, Dawnstar and Wildfire up to in the 20th Century?
Written by Geoff Johns. Art by George Pérez & Scott Koblish. Covers by George Pérez.
Notes: Yes, it’s finally coming out! Newsarama even has a 5-page preview of the book. In theory, we’ll finally find out who was actually resurrected in the lightning-rod ceremony from The Lightning Saga!
Trinity #36
Written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza; Art by Mark Bagley and Art Thibert, Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens, Tom Derenick and Wayne Faucher and Mike Norton and Ande Parks; Cover by Shane Davis and Richard Friend
The war to save all of reality rages on and is waged in the memory of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. But the legendary Trinity battle to end the conflict themselves by becoming more than just a memory!
Tangent: Superman’s Reign Vol.1 (TP)
Written by Dan Jurgens, Ron Marz and Dwayne McDuffie
Art by Jamal Igle, Fernando Pasarin, Matthew Clark, Joe Benitez, Robin Riggs, Jesse Delperdang and Victor Llamas
Cover by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund
The Tangent Earth and our DC Universe collide in this collection of Tangent: Superman’s Reign #1-6 and Justice League of America #16.
160 pg, FC, $19.99 US
Tiny Titans: Welcome to the Treehouse TP
Written by Art Baltazar and Franco; Art and cover by Art Baltazar
Discover what life is like for the young heroes of Sidekick Elementary in this new collection featuring Tiny Titans #1-6! Kid-friendly versions of the Teen Titans and their rogues gallery star in this fun, light-hearted, all-ages romp beautifully written and illustrated by Art Baltazar and Franco (Patrick the Wolf Boy)!
144pg. | Color | Softcover | $12.99 US
February 2, 2009
Newsarama’s latest 20 Questions with Dan Didio is in video form, broken into 4 video clips with 5 questions each. The first clip includes the following:
OddballUK wrote: Flash: Rebirth begins in April. While I’m looking forward to the mini and reading about Barry, my question is how happy you think fans of Wally will be over his involvement in the mini and status in the DCU when it concludes?
I think we’re going to treat Wally with the same level of respect Kyle was treated in with the Hal Jordan Rebirth. So I’m hoping Wally fans are going to be excited. We’re going to be bringing Wally back to some of his roots, and more importantly, there’s going to be plenty of Wally in the DCU in 2009 with Rebirth and following Rebirth as well.
On one hand this is good news for Wally fans: Wally won’t be simply racing off into the sunset. On the other hand: What exactly does he mean by returning Wally to his roots?
His roots as a hero in the public eye, loved by the people he protects for being one of them and not hiding his identity? (I could go with that.)
His roots as the speedster who has to eat 50,000 calories a day to maintain his speed? (I could deal with it, but it would be annoying.)
His roots as a single guy who “moves fast?” (Throw Linda and the kids under a bus so that he won’t seem “too old.” No, thanks.)
His roots as the Titans’ resident conservative caricature? (Do we really need this?)
His roots as a teenage sidekick?
It really depends how far they want to go back, doesn’t it?
And of course Kyle Rayner fans are divided as to how well he’s been treated since Hal Jordan’s return.
People can get very worked up about their hobbies, and comic books are no exception. Final Crisis, for instance, has inspired some very passionate responses. Between that and Barry Allen replacing Wally West*, I’ve seen a number of people say things like “I’ll never read another DC comic again!”**
I don’t understand this reaction.
To clarify: I understand dropping comics because you’ve lost interest in them. (I’m down to one ongoing DC book, Flash, and it’s technically been canceled.) I also understand dropping a series because of something you disliked in that series. If you don’t want to read it anymore, then by all means, you shouldn’t be obligated to read it anymore (but be prepared for people to tell you that you aren’t a “true fan,” whatever that means).
What I don’t understand is protesting something that happens in one book by refusing to buy other books. It just doesn’t make sense to me. If you like, say, Booster Gold but dislike the direction that Batman is going in, dropping both series isn’t going to encourage DC to make more books like Booster Gold.
Maybe it’s because I’ve never been one to refuse to buy a company’s comics. I might have held Marvel and Image in disdain back in my teenage years, but if something looked interesting, that didn’t stop me from buying it. (Not that I found much of it interesting, but it wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule.)
So I’m curious: Who out here has done this? Or are you planning to? What tipped you over the edge? Why did you decide to drop all of the company’s books and not just the ones that bothered you? Did you extend it to other brands owned by the same company (Vertigo, Icon, etc.) or only the particular division? How long did you keep it up, and if you went back, what did it take?
*Yes, Barry is replacing Wally. Wally has highlighted the main Flash book for most of the last 23 years, and after Flash: Rebirth is over, Barry will, and it looks like Barry will be taking the Flash spot in Justice League of America as well, leaving Wally in Titans. Just because they haven’t actually killed Wally doesn’t mean he’s not being replaced.
** Update: Lying in the Gutters reports that a lot of retailers have been hearing this, too — from their customers.
February 1, 2009
Two quick items:
A new podcast, Flash-back, plans to review The Flash on a monthly basis. So far they’ve posted an introduction to their podcast and an overview of Flash history. (thanks to Heatwave the Rogue on Comic Bloc)
The forum Speedster Site also launched a few days ago, and is focused exclusively on the Flash (thanks to younglionsimba)
Update: In the Comic Bloc thread on “Flash-back,” Chris Hansbrough pointed to another podcast, Tom vs. the Flash, a series of 5–10-minute reviews of classic Silver Age Flash episodes.
Focus on Final Crisis
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