Monthly Archives: April 2012

Collected Editions Reviews Flashpoint

The Collected Editions blog has been reviewing the Flashpoint trades over the past week. The tie-ins were collected in five trade paperbacks, grouped around one of DC’s big five characters, titled The World of Flashpoint Featuring…

The miniseries less directly related to the major characters were spread around the other books, some thematically and some apparently at random, but the Flash collection is actually filled with stories focusing on Flash characters: Citizen Cold, Kid Flash Lost, Reverse-Flash, Legion of Doom (starring Heat Wave) and Grodd of War.

The site has also put together a Flashpoint trade reading order.

Speed Reading

Two weeks’ worth of linkblogging.

First, the Flashy links

Flash writers’ other work

More comics links

Creators’ Rights. This is an ongoing discussion, but here are a few key posts.

Geoff Johns’ Flash: All About Speed?

Monday’s post about how Wally West’s dynamic character makes him harder to reboot than Barry Allen got me thinking about something Geoff Johns said to Hero Complex when he took over the book back in 2009:

But you look at what the theme of Flash’s book has been for the last 200-something issues with Wally West and it’s been about a man trying to fill someone else’s boots. It doesn’t really have anything to do with speed. I mean, it has something to do with speed, but it was not totally what the book was about. The new Flash that I’m doing is all about speed.

At the time, I found it disingenuous because Geoff Johns wrote six years of that run himself, and he could have focused more heavily on speed with Wally West if he’d wanted to. And I found it worrying because he felt Wally’s defining characteristic was wanting to be like Barry Allen. Not the journey of becoming a hero, not learning to be an adult, but specifically trying to be someone he’s not.

But now I find the quote even more annoying, and here’s why:

Geoff Johns’ Flash, from Rebirth through Flashpoint, is not all about speed. It’s not even about hope, as suggested in Blackest Night.

It’s about a man so driven by grief that he nearly destroyed the world. Not even through speed, but through time travel.

The great over-arching Flash story from 2009-2011 might have been more appropriate for Booster Gold or Rip Hunter. (Or maybe Green Lantern/Hal Jordan, considering that it sounds a little like Emerald Twilight and Zero Hour when you break it down that far.)

Oh, well. Time to chalk it up as one more missed opportunity from that run, and Move Forward.

Flashpoint Animated Feature on the Way?

In this clip from Comic Book Club, Kevin Conroy says he’s working on an animated version of Flashpoint.

Oh I just, just last night, I recording a new animated movie…that features The Flash, it’s more about The Flash, but Batman is in it as well. It’s a Flash…Flashpoint! Flashpoint? I think it’s Flashpoint.

As ComicsAlliance points out, there’s been no official announcement past Superman vs. the Elite (which, though it won’t be released until summer, is finished — I saw it at WonderCon last month).

It’s an odd choice for a Flash film until one remembers that Warner Bros. is utterly focused on Superman and Batman, and Flashpoint is a Flash/Batman team-up story. Chances of getting a truly solo Flash animated film are slim for now.

And while it might seem strange to do a stand-alone movie based on a crisis reboot, I think the timeline of when things happened (JMS states that the reboot was given the green light after Superman: Earth One sales figures hit) shows that Flashpoint wasn’t originally intended as a universe-wide reboot so much as it was a story about fixing a broken timeline. Take out that splash page in #5 and change the costumes in the last three or so pages, and it works just fine as a stand-alone story.

So, what do you think: Is this the Flash story you want to see?

Brian Buccellato’s Foster #3 and Foster Anthology Kickstarter

Flash co-writer/artist Brian Buccellato’s creator-owned comic book, Foster, has added a new chapter. Issue #3 is now available in the limited edition from his website and at upcoming convention appearances, while issue #1 (and soon #2) is available in a standard edition with cover by series artist Noel Tuazon. All three issues are available digitally for $1.99 (less than a new DC comic!)

For Comic-Con International, Buccellato plans to release a Foster Anthology featuring five short stories with different artists, set in different time periods and fleshing out the universe. Unlike the main series, this one is being funded through Kickstarter, seeking to raise $5,000 by May 20.

If nothing else, you need to look at the list of perks you get for various donation amounts. Some of them are obvious, like the “It’s just like pre-ordering it” level, or free-sketch level, but for $30 he’ll let you win at Words With Friends, for $150, he’ll meet you at an LA-area gas station and pump your gas, for $250 he’ll play basketball with you…

Foster, a haunted war veteran trying to forget the world at the bottom of a bottle, becomes the guardian of a 6 year-old boy who is the offspring of a woman and a primal race of supernatural creatures that lurk on the fringes of society and need him to repopulate. In a world where technology is stuck in the analog ’70s and danger lurks around every corner, three rival factions want the half-breed child. Now Foster must navigate the shadow world, twisted scientists and his own past in order to keep the boy safe while winning his trust, nurturing his humanity, and trying to prevent him from giving in to the monster within.

It’s a great book, very different in tone from The Flash but in a way that fits the story and genre. Definitely recommended.