April 4, 2011
If you happened to drop by the site on Friday, you may have noticed it looked…a bit different.
Yes, we re-branded Speed Force as Cobalt Blue Online, complete with multiple articles about the “Chain Lightning” villain. What with WonderCon starting and it being Flashpoint Friday, we thought about posting some joke news about the real villain behind Flashpoint, but the closest we got was Devin’s Cobalt Blue T-shirt design. Everything else we posted was true, speculation, or opinion…just a bit out of the usual topic range.
Cobalt Blue Online wasn’t the only blog to do this. A whole slew of comics character– and team-focused blogs reinvented themselves for a day to focus on Red Star, Vibe, the Osprey, Dreadstar, Marshall LAW, Valkyrie, B’Wana Beast…and the Top.
Update: The Idol-Head of Diabolu has a great recap of the whole group event.
Update 2: The Irredeemable Shag has another recap with screenshots of all the participating blogs over at FIrestorm Fan.
You can read all our April 1 articles, including the Flashpoint and WonderCon news, or just the Cobalt Blue (and related) posts.
Thanks to Devin, Greg and Lia for all their help, and the readers who dropped by for playing along – it was a blast!
April 3, 2011
If the first rule of Flashpoint is “Don’t talk about what happens after Flashpoint,” the second rule must be “Don’t talk about Wally West.”
At least, that’s the impression I get from the way they deflect any questions about him at conventions. At C2E2 DC Nation, they even started referring to other questions they weren’t going to answer as being “Wally West territory.” If they aren’t going to do anything with the character, why can’t they just say so? And if they are, why go to such effort to hide it?
Not that much Flashpoint news came out of WonderCon in the first place. Between DC Icons, DC Nation, and DC Universe, pretty much all they revealed is that Rocket Red is not in the event. But for the most part, Didio and co. seem to be a lot less snotty when not answering questions about other characters. The “Who was that again?” treatment seems to be reserved for Wally West and Cassandra Cain.
As usual, the Flashy links first:
More comics stuff.
April 2, 2011
With all the April Fool’s Hoopla on Speed Force and Fastest Fan Alive, I managed to miss this very important and awesome announcement from Matty on Facebook:
JLU Fans,
After much struggle, I was able to convince management to put two of the remaining eight JLU 3-packs up on MattyCollector.com in the fall. This will be a big test to see if it’s a viable option for selling figures this way. If we’re successful, it opens the door to the remaining six packs. If not, we may be out of options.
Here’s the deal… there will be no changes to the packs from the original 3-pack configuration because that would require additional development. We know some of these packs are more “retail friendly” instead of just for collectors (like the inclusion of Superman and Aquaman with fan-demanded Toy Man) but honestly, it is what it is and we can’t change things at this point.
The two packs sold on MattyCollector.com in September will be the Golden Age pack with Hawkman / Green Lantern / Flash and the Space Pack With Starman / Animal Man / Adam Strange. These packs were chosen because they were the farthest along in development, plain and simple.
I’m super stoked to reveal the 3-packs over the weekend at WonderCon so check Facebook to see when I’ve posted pictures of them. And if you’re in the San Francisco area, be sure to stop by WonderCon to meet me and the team!
-Matty
P.S. This is definitely NOT an April’s Fool’s Day joke. I’d never kid about something like this.
Definitely good news. Very pleased that I won’t have to be dropping 70 bucks or so on a JLU Jay Garrick “prototype” on eBay. Even happier that this is going to be sold on Mattycollector.com, so everyone has a chance at it. I just hope the website is working properly cause I have a feeling this Golden Age set is going to sell out fast. It features figures that appeal to a wide variety of fans; Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, JLU, JSA and even Golden Age fans are going to want a crack at it.
Action Figure Insider had some of the first legit pics up and the set looks absolutely stunning:
Picture Courtesy of AFi
Sculpts and details are all spot on. Only thing now is the waiting, September is sooo far away. I’m almost tempted to bid on one of those Jay prototypes on eBay. Almost. One thing I’m learning is that patience goes a long way for certain collectibles as far as getting the best price. Only thing is you could miss out on an item entirely by waiting for the cheaper deal when dealing with limited items like the Con-exclusive White Lantern Flash. Only 1000 were made, making it extremely rare, and once they are gone, they are gone. The only chance is the after market and then expect to pay even more the longer you wait.
Anyone throwing their hat in for the JLU Golden Age Set?
-Devin “Flash” Johnson
April 1, 2011
Spoilers if you’re trade-waiting Flash: The Road to Flashpoint, but if you’ve read The Flash #9, you know that…
Read the rest of this entry »
All right! With wild speculation concerning the identity of the individual(s) behind Flashpoint swirling about, we have a surprise exclusive being released first through VA Comicon coming up April 9, 2011 in Richmond, VA. The remaining t-shirts will be distributed through various outlets until they are gone.
Check it out:
The T-Shirt retails for $19.99 and will only be available in limited quantities.
I think the timing of the shirt is indicative of what I’ve known all along; Malcolm Thawne is behind Flashpoint and Barry Allen has no hope of stopping him.
Who plans on picking this baby up?
-Devin “Zoom” Johnson
Cobalt is an element obtained from the smelting of metallic ores such as cobaltite, copper, and nickel. The smelted form is a hard silvery metal with magnetic properties.
Cobalt-based blue pigments have been used since the Bronze Age (3000 BC) for glass, ceramics, jewellery, and paint. In modern times, the element is also used as part of a superalloy metal (which is a combination of metals) for diverse items like prosthetics, batteries, jet engines and turbines. A radioactive isotope of cobalt is commonly used in medical tests and to sterilize food and equipment.
Cobalt Blue is the name of a deep blue pigment used in ceramics, paint, glass, and even ophthalmology filters. It’s made from cobalt salts of alumina, and its popularity is in part due to its stability (meaning it doesn’t degrade or break down quickly). However, it’s toxic if ingested, much as I’d imagine Malcolm Thawne to be.
Cobalt Blue Tarantula
The Cobalt Blue tarantula is a spider species native to Myanmar and Thailand, notable for its iridescent blue legs, speed, and aggression. Somehow…this seems fitting. This site describes them as “a psychotic, high-strung burrowing species”, which makes them seem even less appealing.
There are many similarities between a blue tarantula and Malcolm Thawne: one is despised by most people and looks ridiculous. The other is a spider.
At the WonderCon DC Nation panel, DC announced a series of one-shots coming this summer called “Retro-Active.” Each set features three one-shots set in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s continuity re-uniting the characters with the creators most associated with of classic runs from that era.
The Flash issues will be written by:
- Cary Bates for the 1970s
- William Messner-Loebs for the 1980s
- Brian Augustyn for the 1990s.
Each issue will feature 26 pages of new story and 20 pages of reprinted material and will run $4.99. No word yet on artists or release dates. Other characters announced include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Justice League of America.
It’s odd that they’ve broken up the Waid/Augustyn team. Given that Waid has expressed willingness to work for DC again, I figure this means one of two things:
- DC doesn’t want to hire Mark Waid for now.
- Mark Waid doesn’t want to return to The Flash after the disaster of “The Wild Wests.”
Source: CBR coverage and Newsarama coverage.
Update (Monday): DC has released the logos and writers for the event.
DC released the cover to Flashpoint #3 today at The Source. It looks like they’ve found Kal-El…
Collected Editions spotted a number of late-2011 DC collections last week, including Flash Vol. 2: The Road to Flashpoint
, on Amazon’s schedule for November 1. Since Amazon gets its books on Tuesdays, that means the collection is likely to hit comic shops on the previous Wednesday, October 26.
Vol. 1: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues
contained issues #1-7 (and the story from The Flash Secret Files 2010). DC has stated that they’re ending The Flash at #12, though they’ve solicited #13 as the conclusion of “The Road to Flashpoint,” and it’s still on their website. It looks like this volume will cover either Flash #8-12 or Flash #8-13. If the latter, the main story will be bracketed by two Reverse-Flash specials.
» Pre-order The Flash Vol.2 at Amazon
