Speed Force

DC’s full November solicitations are out, featuring two more major Flash appearances in addition to the Flash #8 Reverse-Flash one-shot.

DC Comics Presents: The Flash and Green Lantern: Faster Friends

Written by RON MARZ, MARK WAID and BRIAN AUGUSTYN
Art by BART SEARS, VAL SEMEIKS, RON LIM, ANDY SMITH, TOM GRINDBERG, JEFF JOHNSON and others
Cover by DAVE JOHNSON

Collecting the two-part miniseries from 1997 that brought together two Flashes and two Green Lanterns to battle the menace called Alien X in a story that begins in the 1940s and concludes in the modern era!

On sale November 3 • 96 pg, FC, $7.99 US

Notes: This story stars Jay Garrick and Alan Scott in the 1940s, and Wally West and Kyle Rayner in the modern era. Naturally, they’ve put Hal Jordan on the cover.

Fun Fact: This is the comic book with the polar bear that Walt was reading in the first season of LOST.

Time Masters: Vanishing Point #5

Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and cover by DAN JURGENS & NORM RAPMUND

None of the Time Masters’ problems in the time continuum compares with what’s in store for them when they cross paths with the Reverse Flash! In fact, nothing will be the same for the entire universe after this fateful meeting!

Don’t miss this companion series to the best-selling “Return of Bruce Wayne” storyline!

On sale November 17 • 5 of 6 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US

Notes: That Thawne guy sure is going to be busy in November, isn’t he? Can you say Flashpoint setup?

Other DC Speedsters

Justice Society of America (with Jay Garrick) picks up the new run by Marc Guggenheim and Scott Kolins.

Justice League of America (with Jesse Quick) battles the Crime Syndicate.

The Teen Titans meet Robin.

DC Comics Presents: Young Justice continues with #2, reprinting The Secret, stories from the Young Justice Secret Files, and Young Justice in No-Man’s Land. We seem to be getting the specials reprinted – how long before DC reprints the series itself?

DC has posted its Brightest Day solicitations for November, including…

The Flash #8

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by SCOTT KOLINS
1:10 Variant cover by STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU

“Reverse Flash Rebirth!” In this FLASHPOINT prelude, don’t miss the epic telling of the origin of Barry Allen’s greatest foe, Professor Zoom! Eobard Thawne’s story is just beginning — and he intends to finish it with The Flash!

On sale NOVEMBER 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Thoughts

So, one more stand-alone issue before Francis Manapul returns for the second story arc. It’s hard to complain when the fill-in artist on The Flash is Scott Kolins, though.

That said…I’m kind of disappointed that we’ll only have one Flash story before jumping into Flashpoint. It’s odd that on one hand, DC is absolutely determined to establish Barry Allen as THE Flash before widening the scope to other speedsters, but at the same time they’re jumping straight into this big event.

That and I think I just don’t really like Eobard Thawne that much. He’s too much of a mustache-twirling caricature villain. Hunter Zolomon was far more interesting a character…though IMO neither should appear too often, or else they risk losing their impact. (That pretty much happened with Zolomon during the Villains United/Infinite Crisis period.)

So, who wants to take bets on just how much of Mark Waid’s classic “The Return of Barry Allen” gets trampled by this new origin?

Update: Full solicitations are up. Here are some more Flash appearances in November.

Some weekend linkblogging…

Neil Patrick Harris has definitely picked up a following as a choice for Barry Allen, judging by how often he shows up in fan casting lists. This one from Comic Book Movie pairs him with Felicia Day as Iris, and adds Anton Yelchin (who recently played a young Kyle Reese in Teminator Salvation and a young Pavel Chekhov in Star Trek) as Wally West.

That F’ing Monkey reviews a Giant Sized Flash figure from SDCC.

The Best Comic Covers highlights 9 Superman vs. Flash covers.

Wizard World returns to Anaheim next year on the weekend of April 29 through May 1. Tickets are already on sale. (Whatever happened to tickets for the canceled WWLA 2009, anyway? Did people finally get refunds, or free tickets to Anaheim 2010?)

The Word Balloon podcast interviews Francis Manapul. In part 1 they focus on The Flash and Adventure Comics, while the upcoming part 2 will go into Beast Legends.

Robot 6 offers some website usability tips for comic book publishers.

The Aquaman Shrine and Firestorm Fan have teamed up for “Unresolved Issues” – the behind-the-scenes spat between Firestorm and Aquaman. But what role does the Flash have? The answer may shock you! (Okay, not really, but the promo phrasing seems like it fits the era.)

Adam Komar has put together a Flash on Android graphic.

It’s been three weeks since Comic-Con International, but costume photos are always in season. Here are some of the people who came to the con dressed as the Flash. I’ve posted a few of these before, but not all of them. Some of the photos are mine, but most of them are from other photographers on Flickr. In each case, clicking on the photo will open the original page with larger images.

Authentic Custom Costumes

These are the costumes that were clearly home– or professionally-made, but that stuck to the standard designs.

First up is Mike Rollerson’s photo of a really impressive female Flash. I’ve seen her in a number of other costumes at various conventions, including Catwoman and Psylocke. Keep reading – there’s another picture of her later on.

The Superman/Wonder Woman/Flash trio on the right made a huge impression, judging by the number of photographers who snapped pictures of them at the con. The Flash is a very exact copy of the costume from the game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, down to the boots and the armbands, though he’s thrown back the hood and put on sunglasses instead. I’ve seen at least one picture of the group where he’s tossed on a red sweatshirt over the costume that looks like Bart’s from Smallville.

This group includes a more traditional Flash. As with many large groups, I’m not sure how many knew each other and how many were just invited to join in for having a costume with the same theme.

Read the rest of this entry »

Alright finally another installment of “Recent Acquisitions”.  I haven’t posted an update since March, and I’ve actually acquired a lot more than what I’m about to show. But as I explained last time the feature is called “Recent Acquisitions” and I personally think “within the last month or so” when I think “recent”. Still not a bad haul to show off. First the group picture:

Clockwise from the Top: Pull-In Brand Flash Boxer Briefs, Blue Lantern Flash T-Shirt, Funko Flash Plush Doll, Infinite Heroes 3-Pack feat. Wally West, The Trickster and Heatwave, Flash Silhouette T-Shirt, and Sterling Silver Flash Bracelet

More after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

It looks like the delays on The Flash aren’t over quite yet. SpeedsterSite spotted a change on DC’s website: The Flash #5 is now coming out on September 8 instead of its previous August 25 date. So far, issues #6 and #7 haven’t been changed.

This week is light on Flash appearances, the main highlight being the hardcover release of Team-Ups of the Brave and the Bold Vol.1, featuring the first seven issues (#27-33) of the J. Michael Straczynski/Jesus Saiz run on the team-up book. This includes the time-traveling Flash/Blackhawks WW2 team-up from last October.

Other team-ups in this collection include Green Lantern and Dr. Fate, the Atom and the Joker, Batman and Dial H for Hero, Batman and Brother Power the Geek, Aquaman and the Demon, and Wonder Woman, Zatanna and Batgirl.

I’m not sure which of these is the actual cover. The one on the left is from DC’s website and the one on the right is from the Amazon listing.

Written by Paul Cornell
Art by Elena Casagrande
Cover by Jenny Frison
5-page preview at Marvel.com

Marvel Comics’ Spitfire one-shot, released last week, looks like a speedster story from the cover…but it’s really a vampire story. Once I realized that, I found the second read much more enjoyable.

The Basics

Spitfire is Lady Jaqueline “Jac” Falsworth, a World-War II–era speedster who got her powers from the combination of a vampire bite and a blood transfusion from the original Human Torch. After she lived out a normal lifetime, a second transfusion restored her youth and activated vampire traits, like fangs and, most importantly for this story, immortality. She works for British intelligence service MI:13, along with vampire slayer Blade, whom she is dating.

The plot involves Spitfire and Blade pursuing a suspected spy — who is also a vampire — to New York. Through the course of their pursuit, Spitfire has to confront the similarities between their quarry and what she herself has become. Will immortality leave her jaded and empty, like it has so many of the vampires she’s met? Will she become what they hunt?

New Readers? Really?

As someone who doesn’t follow Marvel Comics very closely, and hadn’t even heard of the character until a few days ago, I appreciated the text page at the beginning. It’s a bit dense, but it covers Spitfire’s origin, her history with vampires and fighting Nazis, her recruitment by MI:13, and her relationship with Blade. It’s also easily skippable by readers who are familiar with the character.

The cover is labeled “Women of Marvel,” which seems to be some sort of event like DC’s ill-titled “Girlfrenzy” set of one-shots during the 1990s. Most of what I can find online has to do with a series of variant covers for established books like Captain America, Iron Man, and the Avengers, so I’m not sure what other books are involved.

So How Is It?

Mild spoilers after the cut. Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, I know it’s been two weeks, but coverage is still trickling out.

High Five Comics has posted their con report.

I write about the Gaslamp Crush — the bottleneck in Downtown San Diego just outside the convention center which has become a sort of geeky version of the Las Vegas Strip.

The Source posts highlights of DC Comics’ photos from Comic-Con

CBR TV talks to Geoff Johns.

Gamer Live has a video interview with Marv Wolfman talking about DCU Online.

Mark Evanier considers the role of other media at Comic-Con.

This weekend I updated a couple of entries on Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning including the profiles for Captain Boomerang and Captain Boomerang, Jr. I also updated the Variant Covers list for the current series, adding the covers for Flash #4 and the second printing of Flash #1 (Thanks, Hyperion09!).