Speed Force

One of the themes in “Thy Kingdom Come,” the storyline that’s been running through Justice Society of America this year, has been exploring the link between the present-day DC Universe with the future shown in the groundbreaking 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come. This week’s Justice Society of America #21 looks into the mystery of the Kingdom Come version of the Flash. (more…)

In this week’s 20 Questions w/ Dan Didio, DC’s Executive Editor is asked about the status of Bart Allen (Impulse/Kid Flash/Flash) and Conner Kent (Superboy). His answer:

I think there’s always value in a Kid Flash and a Superboy.

A classic sidestep. But then they may both be back very soon.

As far as Conner goes, there’s speculation that he is the Kryptonian Nightwing who just appeared in “New Krypton” (bolstered by DiDio’s remark earlier in the column that he “is a character that we’ve known in the DCU for a little while, but he’s new to the Nightwing costume as well.”)

And Bart? There’s still the question of the Lightning Rod from the Justice League/Justice Society of America crossover, “The Lightning Saga.” It was supposed to resurrect someone, and All-Flash #1 showed that it activated at virtually the exact moment of his death. We’re supposed to find out who was resurrected in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3…two months from now. (It was originally supposed to be out in October, but it’s been pushed back to January 14, 2009. I wouldn’t count on it making that date.)

Comics sales continued to drop in October, and The Flash was no exception.

02/2008: Flash #237     —  37,719 (-  9.0%)
03/2008: Flash #238     —  35,606 (-  5.6%)
04/2008: Flash #239     —  33,741 (-  5.2%)
05/2008: Flash #240     —  31,944 (-  5.3%)
06/2008: Flash #241     —  30,810 (-  3.6%)
07/2008: Flash #242     —  30,325 (-  1.5%)
08/2008: Flash #243     —  29,647 (-  2.2%)
09/2008: Flash #244     —  29,180 (-  1.6%)
10/2008: Flash #245     —  28,085 (-  3.8%)

The combined effects of the recession, poor reaction to the current run on the book, and a feeling that everything from now until April is just filler* — Flash: Rebirth was announced just days after this issue was solicited in July, so this is likely the first issue for which sales responded to the announcement — have combined to produce the largest drop in several months.

Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, on the other hand, actually saw a slight increase in sales over the previous issue after the standard second-issue drop.

07/2008: Rogues Revenge #1     —  62,482
08/2008: Rogues Revenge #2     —  54,404 (- 12.9%)
10/2008: Rogues Revenge #3     —  55,056 (+  1.2%)

Given Geoff Johns’ presence on both mini-series, this looks promising for Flash: Rebirth.(link via The Beat)

*You know what else was “just filler” prior to a relaunch? Alan Moore & Curt Swan’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Now considered a classic Superman story. I’m not saying the current storyline compares, I’m just pointing out that “filler” isn’t always mediocre, and the current trend among fans to follow only “important” books can cause us to miss out on good stories.

DC’s website lists several more Final Crisis–related delays.

• Final Crisis #5 has been pushed back two more weeks to December 10.
• Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3 has been pushed another month to January 14. This one is particularly annoying since it’s supposed to finally answer the question of who the Legion resurrected in “The Lightning Saga” back in June 2007.
• Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4 — originally due in late December — has been rescheduled for February 25.

Unless the final issue Final Crisis itself gets pushed back even further (as rumored by this week’s Lying in the Gutters), it looks like Legion of Three Worlds will keep going several months beyond the main series.

Once again, there aren’t any Flash comics in February, with the current series ending in December and Flash: Rebirth launching in April. But the Flashes aren’t missing from the DC line that month, appearing in their usual team books and in Trinity.

Guest Spots

Booster Gold #17

Written by Dan Jurgens
Art and cover by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund

Featuring an “Origins and Omens” backup story! Part 3 of the 4-part “Reality Lost” arc finds Booster Gold transported back to a seminal day in the history of The Flash! Here’s a hint: it has to do with a bolt of lightning and a chemical bath!

On sale February 11 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Team books, events, collections, action figures and more after the cut. (more…)

Comic Bloc poster elias6 noticed that DC has posted a new cover for next week’s Flash #246.

DC initially released the cover on the left by Brian Stelfreeze, showing Wally’s wife Linda West vanishing into thin air. (Stelfreeze did the covers for issues #244 and #245, as well as the cover that’s been solicited for #247, the final issue.) The newly released cover, showing a profile of the Flash’s head with reflections running along his costume, is by Freddie Williams II, who recently wrapped up a 10-issue run on the series.

An interesting revelation from the latest 20 Questions with Dan Didio at Newsarama. He’s previously claimed (though many fans remained unconvinced) that Bart Allen’s death in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13 was planned from the start, but we’ve got a new twist. Here’s part of his answer to question #15:

Bart was always going to go away, and I think the mistake was that we probably pulled Bart a little too soon, but quite honestly again, that was the problem of lining stories up with Countdown. The Bart story was due to be extended a little bit longer, but due to how things were lining up, he had to leave sooner.

That story’s not complete yet. We’re going to see more of what that story was about shortly – it was always the plan for Bart. He was going to be the Flash of the moment as we made our way back to Barry. [emphasis added]

Okay, not a big surprise that they shuffled things around to match with Countdown.* But am I reading that right? Is he saying that they planned to bring Barry Allen back as long ago as Infinite Crisis? Didio continues:

I think Mark Waid did an admirable job of stepping in and trying to find a different slant to Wally and the family, which we found out, was a more difficult story to tell than when we planned it. I think Mark did as best a job as possible – he put so much thought and effort into fleshing out that family, and I think we have a couple of rich characters in the children because of that.

This is the other thing that gets confusing, depending on who tells it: When was the plan made for Wally to return, and when was the plan made for Bart to be killed? Mark Waid’s interview in The Flash Companion suggests that he, at least was led to believe that Bart’s move up to lead Flash was intended to be indefinite, not a fill-in gig, though he predicted it wouldn’t catch on. And Didio’s remarks here about Waid “stepping in” suggest that they did bring him on unexpectedly — though that could simply be the result of moving up the timetable. (Which, now that I think about it, might explain artist Daniel Acuña’s sudden departure.)

I’ll agree with Didio on this: the West Twins are promising characters, even if most of the comics readership seems to want to throw them under a bus.

But at the end of the day, there’s a certain expectation of what a Flash story is, and what you want to see in a Flash comic book. While we expanded the Flash family, people really wanted to see the Flash.

And that seems to have been the main criticism of issues #231–243: Not enough of the Flash in The Flash.

But the goal for me, always, was to get back to Barry in the same way the goal was to get back to Hal in Green Lantern.

Whoa, hold on a second. Now he is saying that they were planning to bring Barry back from the beginning?

Well why didn’t they do that in the first place?

Seriously, Infinite Crisis would have been a perfect time to bring Barry back. Sure, a lot of us would have been pissed off that they were getting rid of Wally just because it was a Crisis and going back to Barry just so that they could bring back the guy who was the Flash when they were twelve — but you know what, we’re pissed off anyway. Plus we’ve got the frustration of three years of mismanaged Flash stories on top of that.

So, to sum up: DC considered Bart as a temp from the beginning. And DC never had any intention of bringing Wally back after they kicked Bart out, at least not as the primary Flash. It was all about Barry from the start.

*I find it amusing — in a banging-my-head-against-the-wall way — that people were so annoyed with the way some stories were stretched out during Countdown for the sake of lining books up, and people are annoyed now with Final Crisis because they’re not trying to line everything up.

There hasn’t been much in the way of announcements out of Wizard World Texas, but one item from Aron Head’s Blog@Newsarama write-up stands out:

Matt Sturges will be writing the post-Final Crisis story Run!, which will feature a pivotal super-villain character from Final Crisis as the central character. [Senior Story Editor Ian] Sattler said the book will be surprising with three-water-cooler-moments in every issue.

Freddie Williams will handle the art.

With a title like Run! a speedster seems likely. And Zoom just lost his powers, not to mention his ability to walk. It could be about Hunter Zolomon trying to regain his ability to run…but then, Zoom hasn’t been that “pivotal” in Final Crisis itself, only in Rogues’ Revenge.

On the other hand, there’s all that speculation, fueled by the return of Barry Allen and the way he’s been contrasted with Libra since DC Universe #0, that Libra might be the long-dead Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash.

Update: To make matters more confusing, ComicMix suggests that the mini is actually titled, Final Crisis: Run, and is “the last miniseries tie-in to their mega-event.” I guess that would make it like the “52 Aftermath” books. Personally, I suspect this might prove counterproductive, given that even though Final Crisis has had fewer tie-ins (post-Countdown, anyway) than most big comic-book events of its stature, people have been complaining about too many tie-ins for months.

Fellow Flash blogger Dixon of Crimson Lightning writes about catching up on his Flash comic index and launching a new feature, “Fast Talk,” all about the technobabble with which the Flashes breeze past the laws of physics.

Wizard Magazine’s 2009 preview, shipping in December, will feature an interview with Geoff Johns in which he talks about Flash: Rebirth. (via Comic Bloc’s BESTBUY)

That Flash neon sign coming in June? Comics Infinity is offering pre-orders for 10% off. (via aeryncrichton)

Aspen Studios’ planned tribute to founder Michael Turner has been making the rounds at The Pulse and elsewhere, and Newsarama has followed up with a short interview with Vince Hernandez.

The Pulse interviews Brea Grant, speedster Daphne from Heroes. Anyone else notice that they still keep dressing her in red?

Finally, Comics Should Be Good has a list of the Top Five Flashes. I’m sure most Flash fans will find something to disagree with in this list.

First up, the new Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe trailier that shows us a bit of the story (via Blog@Newsarama)

Additionally, CBR has some new footage from the game that features the Flash’s finishing moves. Or so I’m told, since I can’t get it to play.