December 31, 2010
2010 was a big year for the Flash. After five years of meandering (since DC decided to cancel Wally West’s series during Infinite Crisis because, hey, you can’t have a Crisis without a dead Flash, but couldn’t figure out what to do with the relaunch), it’s beginning to look like DC has finally gotten the character back on track.
The year opened with the wrap-ups of the Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night: The Flash miniseries, then ran headlong into the Flash vol.3 relaunch in April by Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul. The new series starring Barry Allen has completed its first story arc, introduced new characters in the form of reverse-Rogues, and presented two Rogue Profile spotlight issues. On the downside, the series has been plagued by delays since summer, and those two Rogue spotlights were added to help get the book back on schedule.
Speedsters Really Get Around
Barry Allen has been all over the place: The Flash, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, Green Lantern… A number of Barry Allen/Flash action figures have also been released or announced this year.
Bart Allen, as Kid Flash, has rejoined the Teen Titans.
Jay Garrick continues to be a mainstay of the Justice Society of America.
On TV, Batman: The Brave and the Bold featured a Flash-focused episode starring Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West (as Kid Flash)…with John Wesley Shipp voicing Professor Zoom. Cartoon Network’s Young Justice launched with Kid Flash as a main character. And of course there’s the continuing presence of Flash fandom on The Big Bang Theory.
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Today’s guest post is by Christine Adamo.
I recently bought a Funko Flash plush, and it inspired me to create a similar plush of my favorite character who doesn’t get much love these days in toy form — Bart Allen. Especially as Impulse (Don’t get me wrong; I love that he still exists as Kid Flash, but I, like many, long for the Bart of old).
The Professor Zoom spotlight in The Flash #8 (review coming soon) reminded me of something that’s been bugging me about the current version of the character. In Flash: Rebirth, it’s pointed out that while Eobard Thawne can change history to make Barry Allen’s life a living hell, he can’t prevent Barry from becoming the Flash. Without a Flash, there’s no Reverse-Flash, and without the positive speed force that Barry Allen generates, there’s no negative speed force for Thawne.
Somewhere along the line, it turned into the idea (stated in The Flash Secret Files 2010) that Thawne can’t kill Barry Allen because he needs Barry’s speed force to power his own.
Why?
They made a big point that the speed force, once generated, stretches out and touches all times, past and present. That’s why Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick and Max Mercury could have super-speed before Barry was even born. That’s why John Fox and Eobard Thawne could have super-speed centuries after Barry’s death. That’s why Wally West, Bart Allen, Jesse Quick, and the surviving older speedsters could all have super speed while Barry was gone.
Thawne can’t erase Barry Allen from history, but he can still kill Barry anytime he wants…after Barry becomes the Flash!
December 30, 2010
Today’s guest post is the second in a series of interviews by Greg Elias on The Art of Speed.
With a Flash resume spanning a presidential election, trips to Hell, living clothes and a cosmic death-race, Paul Ryan’s work on the title is some of the most diverse of any artist to ever pencil those pages.
Starting with issue 119, a crossover with the Final Night mini-series, Ryan was paired with Flash scribe Mark Waid. From the Presidential Race storyline through Hell to Pay, Ryan was present for the return of The Top, Wally’s temporary relocation to Santa Marta and the raging comeback of the undead Rogues.
When Waid took a break from Flash in 1997, well-known writers Grant Morrison and Mark Millar took over for a year’s worth of stories. The tone of the book changed with the reintroduction of temporal challenges, mystical concepts and sci-fi elements reminiscent of the Silver Age Flash, as well as the expansion of more recent tropes like the Speed Force and Wally’s childhood.
Ryan also illustrated Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths, by Crisis architect Marv Wolfman, which tells the story of Barry Allen’s time on Earth D.
Previously an artist over at Marvel Comics, Ryan co-created the New Universe series DP7 and spent a notable, lengthy run on Fantastic Four. Most recently, he has illustrated The Phantom comic strip.
Recently collected for the first time, Emergency Stop and The Human Race showcase much of the second half of Ryan’s run on Flash.
Ryan answered our questions via email, revealing some of the process and his favorite Flash.
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December 29, 2010
The webcomic Comic Critics presents its take on Grant Morrison-style minimalist origin retellings of various super-heroes, including the Flash.
Head over to Comic Critics to read the conclusion (and the rest of the origins).
As for the Flash one: Harsh, but so, so true.
December 28, 2010
I’m trying out another web hosting option to see if it’ll clear up some of the database issues on the site. The switchover should happen around midnight Pacific Standard Time. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes, and the home page & posts should still be visible during that time, but of course with any server change there’s a possibility that something will go wrong or take longer than expected.
Update: It looks like the merge went smoothly. Yay!
This week sees the release of The Flash #8, a one-shot Rogue Profile story focusing on the Reverse Flash.
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!
If you haven’t seen it, DC released a preview last week at the Source and at CBR.
December 27, 2010
I ended up going to four comic book conventions in 2010, mostly in Southern California (plus one in San Francisco). Based on this year’s experience and past experiences, here are my thoughts on each show.
1. Comic-Con International
Comic-Con International in San Diego is the ultimate pop culture fan experience. They have everything you could possibly want to see, including comics, movies, video games and more. The downside: they have everything everyone else could possibly want to see, too. So it’s crowded, hectic, and requires planning months ahead in order to make sure you have a ticket and (if you need one) a hotel room. Comics publishers have a major presence, as do movie and video game studios, collectibles manufacturers, etc. and there are so many events on the schedule that you’d need a group of 20 people to see everything. If you can, try to go more than one day. This is the con I’m most familiar with, having attended every year since 1990.
CCI 2010 report.
2. WonderCon
Comic-Con International’s little sibling, WonderCon in San Francisco, is a nice balance of everything San Diego has to offer, but less crowded and less, well, insane. Comics take up a bigger part of the show, with the major publishers always well-represented, but movies and TV have a presence here as well. I’ve been to the last 3 cons.
Wondercon 2010 report.
3. Long Beach Comic Con
Only in its second year, Long Beach Comic Con makes a great impression as a convention that’s actually focused on comics and the people who make them. The artists and writers area is the central feature of the main floor. Programming is light, but the mid-level comics publishers have a strong presence. The emphasis on authors and the light crowds (this was only its second year) make it a good place to meet artists and writers without standing in incredibly long lines.
LBCC 2010 report.
4. Anaheim Comic Con
Wizard World’s return to the LA/OC area, despite the name change, is more focused on pop culture than comics. There’s little publisher presence, minimal programming, and a major emphasis on celebrities and dealers. Good for costume spotting. It’s fun, but if I had to pick one or the other, I’d definitely go with Long Beach. Technically this was its first year, but I understand Wizard World is trying to make all of their shows the same type of experience.
Anaheim 2010 report.
And Beyond
There are a lot of smaller cons that I either haven’t been to at all or haven’t been to recently. The roughly-bimonthly Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention at the Shrine comes to mind, for instance, and the California Comic Con in Yorba Linda. And aside from WonderCon and APE, I’m not really familiar with the Northern California scene — or, for that matter, the Inland Empire here in Socal.
Are there any other California-based fans here? What cons do you like to attend?
December 26, 2010
December 25, 2010
So for Christmas this year I decided to make a Gingerbread Flash. Pretty appropriate considering the old Gingerbread Man story and the taunt that he would yell while running at cookie crumbling speeds: Run, run as fast as you can; You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.
I made two attempts with varying success. This is the first time I had done anything by myself involving Gingerbread men and even then I was using a Trader Joe’s Giant Gingerbread Man as a template. I used a combination of cake and cookie frosting (should have just used cake frosting) and it was a fun learning experience overall.
Flash 1.0 (Barry):
My first attempt at Gingerbread Flash. You can tell it is Barry because of the belt and the blue eyes.
Flash 2.0 (Wally):
My second attempt came out a little better. This is kind of a mix of looks for Wally: JLU/New Comic Costume emblem, with exposed green eyes and centered belt that meets in the middle.
The Fastest Gingerbread Men Alive!
Merry Christmas, from everyone here at Speed Force! And a very special thanks to all the guest contributors helping out over the last couple months; Shag, Dave Huang, Liquidcross, Brandon, Frank Lee Delano, KC Flash, Dave Sun, Ken O, Greg Elias, Kojo Manu, Adam Komar and anyone I might have left out, You guys are awesome! Can’t wait to see more fantastic stuff from a very talented Flash community.
Keep it Flashy
-Devin “The Flash” Johnson
