Speed Force

Full solicitations are coming soon, but DC’s Brightest Day comics for October are already up…and the Rogue Profiles are back!

The Flash #7

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by SCOTT KOLINS
Cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:10 “DC 75th Anniversary” Variant cover by DARWYN COOKE

The Rogue Profile issues return as BRIGHTEST DAY zips on with a spotlight turned toward the resurrected Captain Boomerang! He knows why he’s back and what he needs to do. But does he still have what it takes to be a Rogue?

On sale OCTOBER 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Notes: I’d been speculating that we might see a done-in-one story after “The Dastardly Death of the Rogues” finished, though it didn’t occur to me that it might be a Rogue Profile.

For those who weren’t reading The Flash during Geoff Johns’ first run on the title, in between major storylines he would take a break and focus on one of the villains for an issue, often with a guest artist. He started with Captain Cold, then Pied Piper, Zoom, Mirror Master and finally Heat Wave. These off-format issues were a highlight of Johns’ previous run, and I’m glad to see him returning to the concept.

Scott Kolins is really carving out a niche as the artist for the Rogues. His initial run on The Flash, Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, Blackest Night: The Flash, and now this Captain Boomerang Spotlight.

Update: Not that this should come as a surprise, but Francis Manapul confirmed on Twitter that he’s still on the book and will return for the second story arc.

Last year at Comic-Con, DC announced that they had acquired the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a covert team of international super-heroes operating under the authority of the United Nations. The characters were originally published in the late 1960s by Tower Comics, and have been revived several times over the last few decades.

Among the classic members of the team is Lightning: former Special Forces agent Guy Gilbert wears a suit that gives him super-speed…but every time he uses that speed, it ages him.

Today at The Source, DC announced that the new series will launch in November, featuring lead stories by writer Nick Spencer and artist CAFU and backup stories by a team still to be announced. The series will focus on a new team of recruits. Editor will Moss describes it this way:

The new series casts the team as a covert special ops force dealing with global threats the rest of the DCU don’t even know exist — all the while struggling with their own choices to become agents and the tortured pasts they’re running from. With character-first storytelling and threats exploding from real-world headlines, this relaunch of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS will offer something new, different, and daring for both today’s broader comics audience and fans of the original team.

A few months ago, La La Land Records released a 2-CD soundtrack album for the 1990 Flash TV series, featuring Shirley Walker’s score and Danny Elfman’s theme. Now, to commemorate the release of an expanded Batman soundtrack, they’ll be putting The Flash on sale for $19.98. It all starts July 27, when La-La Land returns from Comic-Con.

Album info and order page.

(Thanks to Jeff Murphy for the link.)

The Fwoosh has the first look at the San Diego Comic Con 2010 Exclusive Starro the Conqueror set featuring the original Justice League of America. This of course includes Barry Allen, the second Flash:

Big surprise from what I was expecting. Compared to past Infinite Heroes offerings this one takes the cake, especially in terms of articulation. The Fwoosh has more photos of the complete set at their site. You can get to the main article HERE.

-Devin “The Flash” Johnson

The confusion over when The Flash #4 is shipping has been resolved! A few weeks ago, Diamond listed an update changing from July 28 to August 4, but DC never changed the date on their website. Now, Diamond lists a change from August 4 to July 28. Presumably the initial update was an error.

Some weekend linkblogging…

That F’ing Monkey continues its Friday Flash focus with a Flash Sackboy and a piece of original art from Flash: TFMA, the series following Bart Allen’s brief career as the Flash. Let’s just say it’s from the storyline that had Marc Guggenheim as writer and Ethan Van Sciver on covers.

Robot 6′s regular feature on collections spotlights Hugues Charron, headlining the profile with a Todd Lauzon painting of a Zombie Flash.

Heroes’ speedster Brea Grant is this past week’s Geek a Week. (via Bad Astronomy)

DC is finally reprinting Young Justice!…sort of. They’re releasing a set of eight DC Comics Presents one-shots reprinting various hard-to-find stories, including JLA: World Without Grown-Ups as DC Presents: Young Justice.

Collected Editions reviews Justice League: Cry for Justice, concluding it’s both better and worse than advertised. Of course, when the introduction to the book is essentially an apology by the writer, you have to wonder…

Comic-Con

Warner Bros. promotes this year’s giant bags for Comic-Con…and their wardrobe possibilities.

Dark Horse sponsors events at more than 50 comic stores for fans who are #NotAtComicCon.

Ethan Van Sciver has posted promotional art for Montreal Comic-Con featuring a Superman/Flash race and Green Lantern with the starting pistol.

Update: Here’s one more. Kerry Callen (of the excellent Halo and Sprocket) redraws Flash v.1 #133 for Covered. That’s the classic Abra Kadabra story in which the Flash thinks to himself, “I’ve got the strangest feeling I’m being turned into a puppet.”

I usually wait for ICv2 to post their sales figures so that I can be sure the month-to-month numbers are comparable, but I don’t see them yet, and I believe these CBR estimates for June are based on the same numbers.

So: The Flash #3 climbed from #12 to #11 in sales rank, while the number of comics sold dropped 10.1% to 68,799 copies.

Let’s compare that to the other recent Flash relaunches again:

It’s still selling less than Flash: The Fastest Man Alive and dropping as quickly as “The Wild Wests.” That’s kind of disappointing. Though the real test is still going to be looking at orders for #4, because that’s where retailers will have had a chance to react to the way #1 actually sold, and how their customers actually liked it.

On the plus side, it did a lot better than Velocity, which clocked in at 8,171 copies sold. But then, Velocity was Top Cow’s #2 title, just behind The Magdalena at 8,326.

The size difference between the Marvel/DC superhero audience and the indie superhero audience is just astonishing. Numbers that would signal immediate cancellation (like, say, cutting off Magog in the middle of a storyline before part 1 goes on sale) from DC can be respectable successes for smaller publishers. If you want an eye opener, check out The Beat’s indie sales analysis series sometime.

TNI reports that Toyfare has announced Mattel’s third annual DC Universe Classics Fan Choice Poll:

DC UNIVERSE FAN CHOICE POLL 2010
The stakes are larger than ever (literally!) in our third annual DC Universe Classics Fan Choice Poll
You know what they say: once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is really friggin’ awesome. Especially when the third time is bigger and better than ever before!

ToyFare is honored to host the third Mattel DC Universe Classics Fan Choice Poll. You’ll remember that in 2008 fans chose The Question, and last year you guys selected Teen Titans’ own Raven (who’ll be appearing in Wave 15 this fall). But for this third poll, the winner will actually become a wave-anchoring Collect and Connect build-a-figure figure for 2011’s DCUC Wave 20, standing between 8 and 10 inches tall. Choose from a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a nominee list populated mostly with big baddies and assorted other n’er-do-wells. The winner will become a larger-than-life plastic reality. And the choice is in your hands!

Have a hands-down favorite? Cast your vote today—voting ends August 31!

The list of names looks pretty familiar:

BLOCKBUSTER
We don’t want to call Blockbuster a hulking character, but…he is a super-strong but mindless scientist in torn purple pants. Unfortunately, under the influence of his criminal brother (who would later go on to be the second Blockbuster, and a major crime boss), the brutish Blockbuster committed a series of crimes armed with only his brute strength and a burning hatred for Batman and Robin. Seeking a cure for his condition, he was recruited into the very first incarnation of Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad…and promptly killed by Brimstone (himself a previous Mattel Collect-and-Connect figure!) Hey, hulking characters in torn purple pants have made successful figures before…

GIRDER
One of the coolest looking new villains of the past decade, Girder is a nouveau-Flash Rogue, first encountered in Keystone City’s metahuman prison, Iron Heights. Girder has one of those classic “falling into a vat of something” origin stories–in this case, a vat of molten steel that turned his body into living (but continuously rusting) metal. Aside from continually clashing with the Flash, Girder has run up against the Teen Titans and the Justice Society. Also, he has a beard made out of metal. Dude would make one awesome looking toy.

KING SHARK
Sure, DCUC already has a humanoid shark guy (GL villain The Shark), but this is King Shark! The former Superboy villain cuts a much more imposing figure than the aforementioned regular Shark, and he’s used his size and strength to take on guys like Superman. Supposedly the son of a shark god (that’s even better than a king!), King Shark took a heroic turn for a while as a mentor to the new Aquaman, but he’s been back to his villainous ways of late. Which is exactly what we like from giant, hideous shark people.

NEKRON
Nekron, embodiment of Death in the DC Universe—well, one of them, at least—has been around for nearly 30 years, but his profile got a huge boost earlier this year when he was revealed as the big bad behind the mega-event Blackest Night (plus the guy behind every superhero resurrection ever.) Nekron’s one of the only guys on this list to actually have an action figure (as part of DC Direct’s Blackest Night line), but 2011 is going to be a huge year for Green Lantern, and there should be no shortage of DCUC Lanterns of every shade for Nekron to battle with or to control. Are fans dying for a giant Nekron figure?

SHAGGY MAN
The super-strong and indestructible Shaggy Man was initially only defeated by the creation of a second Shaggy Man. Of late he’s been best known in a much less shaggy form, ever since a dying General Eiling transplanted his brain into the Shaggy Man’s body, shaved it and called himself The General. Fun fact: on the cover of his first appearance, Shaggy Man is depicted holding Flash and Batman in each hand, slamming them into each other. If that’s not the set-up for an action figure display, we don’t know what is.

WILDEBEEST
Hero or villain—take your pick with this figure! It could be the robotic exoskeleton worn by the evil members of the Wildebeest society, who wore identical suits to obscure their crimes and befuddle their enemies, and clashed with the Teen Titans. Or it could be Baby Wildebeest, a baby genetically created by the Wildebeest Society who could occasionally grow to adult sizes and was a member of the Teen Titans. Either way, put this guy on your Titans shelf and you’ve got a big, bad-ass centerpiece to display.

GIRDER!!!

Can you believe it? Not only would he make an awesome Collect and Connect Figure it would be a chance to get some more Rogues in the DC Universe Line. I’m all about sooner rather than later but I don’t know if he has a chance. Nekron, Blockbuster, and Shaggy Man could all easily take the top spot due to their higher profiles over the last few years. Which means it falls to us. We Flash Fans have a chance to bring another Rogue to the DC Universe line. Please vote for Girder by following the link below:

You can vote HERE, and if you are a Flash Fan at all, please vote Girder.

-Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Top Cow has released its list of Comic-Con Exclusives, including a variant edition of Velocity #1.

I’m not sure, but I think this might be the first cover for the series that features her new costume (which I have to assume is glued on). The standard covers for #1 and #2 were originally going to be pin-up variants for the series that was scrapped, and had her previous costume. The ChrisCross variant was originally going to be a standard cover for that series, and featured a new costume that ChrisCross designed.

I like the detail of her holding up the Comic-Con badge, but…sometimes I wonder whether there are two Kenneth Rocaforts: the one who draws the incredible interior art, and the one who draws the covers that belong on something like Maxim. Yeah, I know it’s Top Cow, but I always feel like I need to explain that no, really, I read it for the articles.

As for the issue itself, I thought it was quite good.

I’ve gotten out of the habit of putting together the full “Out this week…” posts except when a new Flash issue is out, mostly because of the time it takes (more than you’d expect, especially if I include images), but Jesse reminded me that this week’s issue of Magog features Flash Wally West…in a cover appearance, no less!

Also this week is the collected edition of Blackest Night: The Flash!

Magog #11

Written by SCOTT KOLINS • Art and cover by SCOTT KOLINS

The Psy-cho Twins are seeing flashes of the future, and for Magog that appears to mean KINGDOM COME! In part 1 of a 5-part* story written and illustrated by Scott Kolins, Magog races across the U.S./Canadian border to stop an experiment gone wrong at S.T.A.R. Labs, and it becomes clear he’s witnessing the birth of N-I-L-8, a major player from KINGDOM COME!

Note: I told myself that my days of picking up every random appearance by my favorite character were over, but (a) it’s Scott Kolins, (b) I doubt we’re likely to see Wally much of anywhere else until Flashpoint, and (c) Jesse reports that it’s got Tina and Jerry McGee in the issue as well.

*DC canceled the book with issue #12. Instead of finishing in the pages of Magog, the story will wrap up in Kolins’ JSA Special in September.

Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps Vol.2

Written by JAMES ROBINSON, GEOFF JOHNS & GREG RUCKA • Art by SCOTT KOLINS, NICOLA SCOTT, EDDY BARROWS & RUY JOSE • Cover by RUDOLFO MIGLIARI

The Flash, Wonder Woman and the JSA come face to face with their greatest foes and long-lost loved ones, newly undead as evil Black Lanterns, in this collection of three 3-issue BLACKEST NIGHT miniseries:

• Blackest Night: Justice Society of America
• Blackest Night: The Flash
• Blackest Night: Wonder Woman

240pg. · Color · Hardcover · $24.99 US

Order from Amazon (shipping next week) or buy it at your local comic shop today!

Note: Volume 1, featuring the Blackest Night Superman, Batman and Titans miniseries, is also out this week.