Speed Force

FLASHPOINT: REVERSE FLASH #1
Cover: Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes
Writer: Scott Kolins
Art: Joel Gomez

“He’s more powerful than ever!”

One of the one-shots announced at The Source.

DC is announcing the remaining Flashpoint creative teams today at The Source. They describe it as the eight remaining miniseries and four one-shots, so it sounds like they expanded the line from 15 to 16 miniseries, and the two new series announced last week don’t replace anything previously announced.

Just like last week, I’ll put the Flash-related titles at the top, and update this post throughout the day. Click on the covers to jump to the original posts at the Source.

Flash-Related Titles

Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost Starring Bart Allen

Covers: Francis Manapul
Writer: Sterling Gates
Art: Oliver Nome

“Where is he? Or should we say when?”

Perfect: We’re finally getting a Kid Flash/Bart Allen story by Sterling Gates! I kind of hope the full title is just “Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost,” though, because the “starring…” part gets kind of unwieldy. (Not that it comes close to “Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Yet Another Subtitle.”)

Flashpoint: Grodd of War (one-shot)

Cover: Francis Manapul
Writer: Sean Ryan
Art: Ig Guara

“Africa belongs to him!”

Flashpoint: Reverse Flash (one-shot)

Cover: Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes
Writer: Scott Kolins
Art: Joel Gomez

“He’s more powerful than ever!”

Kolins really has cemented himself as the go-to guy for Flash villains, hasn’t he?

Read the rest of this entry »

Straight from The Source:

FLASHPOINT: KID FLASH LOST STARRING BART ALLEN #1
Covers: Francis Manapul
Writer: Sterling Gates
Art: Oliver Nome

“Where is he? Or should we say when?”

Finally! Sterling Gates was attached as the writer for the Kid Flash series that Geoff Johns announced way back in Comic-Con 2009, the one that ended up being scrapped before launch. And Francis Manapul is of course the perfect choice for the covers. I’m not familiar with Oliver Nome, I found his DeviantArt page, including a drawing of Kid Flash.

Yes, you read correctly. McDonald’s latest Happy Meal toys will be featuring the stars of the hit new Cartoon Network series, Young Justice. Not only that but they will be featuring two characters extremely well known to fans of The Flash, Kid Flash and Captain Cold:

More pics after the jump

Read the rest of this entry »

I replaced a couple of performance-enhancing plugins on this site today, and ran into some glitches during the switchover.

For various reasons, I’ve switched from W3 Total Cache back to WP Super-Cache. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and the only thing stopping me was W3TC’s built-in support for uploading images to a CDN (Content Delivery Network). I found a plugin that works with WP Super-Cache, and made the switch.

Unfortunately, it’s built for a newer version of PHP than I have available, so I had to jump through some hoops to get it to work right. So if you’ve seen broken images here today, that’s why.

I think it’s all cleared up, but if you still have any problems, please let me know.

Popular action figure collecting and customizing site, TheFwoosh.com is holding 3 giveaways for 3 different sets of Justice League Unlimited Convention Exclusive 3 packs. Two of which feature characters that have been central to the Flash at one point or another.

From The Fwoosh:

To help get things started, The Fwoosh is going to give you the first chance at owning these exclusive three-packs with not one, not two, but THREE giveaways, each with a prize of one of the three packs. We know you have been waiting a long time for a lot of these characters and now you have the chance of getting your paws on them ahead of the curve. Pretty neat, eh?

We have all of the official rules and entrance criteria listed for each giveaway below so please read all of the fine print carefully. The best part is that you can enter all three contests so don’t forget to follow all of the steps. We want to send a big thank you to Matty and crew for sending along these exclusive sets to make these great giveaways possible.

Now, hurry up and get your entries in, all of the details are listed after the jump!

Are you ready? Here we go!

Pretty cool huh? The three packs in question are:

1) Firestorm (who ran as a back up story in Barry’s series for 15 issues), Angle Man and Killer Frost (who was a boss in the GBA gameJustice League Heroes: The Flash).

2) Kyle Rayner, Evil Star and Goldface (who had a role as a villain during Barry’s series and returned in Geoff John’s run of The Flash as Keystone City’s Union Commissioner)

3) and last but certainly not least Barry Allen (previously released as a single), and classic Flash Rogues, Heatwave (available for the first time) and Mirror Master (previously released as a single and in a 3 pack along with Copperhead and Lex Luthor).

I have zero interest in the Firestorm pack (sorry Ronnie), and almost the same in the Kyle Rayner pack (I just want Goldface). The Flash 3 pack however is a no-brainer except that I already have Barry and Mirror Master. I might have to try and track down Heatwave and Goldface as singles in the secondary market. I just can’t believe that Mattel does something really awesome and then screws it up almost immediately after (for me at least) by making these convention exclusives. I’m also not thrilled about the fact that they MAY have some left over at the END OF THE YEAR for those who couldn’t make it the cons. I understand that they didn’t have to make these sets and that its cool that they are releasing them in some way, but man I can see these sets making some scalpers a lot of money.  Of course if I were to win one of these that would solve half of my problem.

If you plan on entering all three contests keep in mind that you need to have a valid Fwoosh account (sign up is free) and a Facebook account (sign up also free).

Entries are due by 11:59:59 pm CST Saturday, March 12th, 2011 so you’ve got about 2 days left. So get to it!

Good luck and thanks for reading,

-Devin “Flash” Johnson

iFanboy has a regular feature where fans send in questions and they answer in the persona of a comic book character. This week featured questions answered by Dazzler. Next week, it’s Ask the Rogues.

Submit your career/relationship/meteorological/psychological/pet care queries to ask@ifanboy.com by Sunday at 5pm EST and the appropriate Flash rogue or rogues (Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Heatwave, Trickster, Weather Wizard) may answer next week!

(via The Rogues Kick Ass)

Hotel reservations go on sale in just half an hour for Comic-Con International, and fans across the world are gearing up for a grueling session of reloads and busy signals. I’m sitting it out this year — which actually feels kind of weird, since I’ve dealt with it every year since 2006 (and possibly 2005, but I think that may have been the last year it went smoothly) — but with the baby, we figured it would be better to make it a one-day trip this year.

To those of you planning to wade into the fray, I wish you the best of luck. And if you don’t manage to score a room through the convention block, I hope these tips for staying in San Diego that I wrote last year will help you find an alternative.

This week features the Kid Flash/Superboy race over in Superboy #5 (preview). Meanwhile, a new speedster villain named Slipstream is introduced in Batgirl #19 (preview).

Superboy #5

Written by JEFF LEMIRE; Art by PIER GALLO; Cover by EDDY BARROWS & J.P. MAYER; 1:10 Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL

Get ready for the first-ever Superboy/Kid Flash race! Bart Allen may have the speed, but Conner Kent has the power – who will win?! Meanwhile, a dangerous threat is nipping at their heels, one that may mean the end for Superboy, Kid Flash and all of Smallville!

Batgirl #19

Written by BRYAN Q. MILLER; Art by DUSTIN NGUYEN & DEREK FRIDOLFS; Cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN

Patience may be a virtue, but can Batgirl stand still long enough to stop a super-speedster foe? “The Lesson” continues as the mysterious Order of the Scythe unleashes its first weapon in their war on Batgirl – Slipstream!

I remember staring at the Greg LaRocque cover for Flash #48 for the better part of an afternoon, terror frozen in time while a flare of hands stopped a hail of bullets.

Weekly trips to the general store turned into transparent check-ins for the latest issue of Flash.  Galvanized by the TV show, fandom took over.  After receiving and wearing-out a copy of The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told, I saw the avenues and inroads throughout Flash’s fictional history.

I had fallen in love with the concept of moving faster than humanly possible, and the implications and consequences therein.  Challenging the limits of time and reality, while remaining grounded in a world of human limitations…what more could comics offer?

As I grew up, I was especially thrilled by something I had managed to overlook: the prose piece in the Greatest Flash Stories, “The Final Flash Storyline”.  I sought out each original installment at once.

Those waning days of almost unending tribulation and tragedy, spent in the constant specter of death, were unlike any other hero story I had read.  Written by longtime Flash scribe Cary Bates, the issue-by-issue cascade of the Final Flash Storyline broke my heart.  It also provided context, and weight.

The new world of The Flash’s protégé, carrying on in his name and dealing with a different set of challenges, made it simple for me to stay dyed crimson in the comic book wool.  What an amazing hook.

Along the way, I immersed myself in Kelson’s unparalleled Those Who Ride the Lightning site, a major source of information and reading material when I was putting together the bulk of my Flash collection.  I was of course very excited, as a fan, when the Speed Force blog launched.  Concentrated Flash news!

I hope I’m able to do justice to the standard set by Kelson, and Devin.
With a few interviews on the board, I’m looking forward to working and collaborating on some projects for this space, including:

• Annotations for the contents of the upcoming Trial of the Flash reprint, and related reading
• Reviews and analysis of the Flashpoint event and tie-ins
• More interviews with creators, and others linked to the generation of Flash stories, artwork and other media

You can follow me on Twitter, www.twitter.com/greg_elias.
Many thanks to Kelson!