Speed Force

• Retweet @CBR - LITG: How Mark Waid almost got Superman http://tinyurl.com/5byjz5 #
• Argh! http://tvtropes.org ATE MY BRAIN! AGAIN! #
• I have finished re-reading ALL of Girl Genius from the beginning! #

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Superheroes-R-Us has been posting clips from the 1968 record album, Songs and Stories About the Justice League, including the album’s Flash story: “The Three Faces of Mr. Big.”

Ethan Van Sciver’s second Your Time Is Now Mine column is up. No Flash news, just ramblings. Meanwhile, the site talks to Geoff Johns about Superman: Secret Origin.

This week’s Heroes graphic novel, #113: “The Caged Bird” begins the origin story of the show’s morally gray speedster, Daphne Millbrook. (I am waaay behind on these. I’ve read a few here and there, but I really left off somewhere around the start of season 2.)

GamePro is not impressed by the “heroic brutalities” in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, singling out the Flash’s tornado slam to represent them in the 12 Lamest Fatalities in fighting games.

In last week’s Trinity #25, a surprise guest star showed up: Barry Allen. Morgaine Le Fay and Enigma have altered history so that Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman never existed. In this timeline, the Justice Society International became a force that took protecting the world too far.

Spoilers for Trinity #25: (more…)

• Retweet: Blog@Newsarama contributor Carla Hoffman & her husband were injured & lost their home in this weekend’s fires http://tr.im/162u #
• Watched Stan Lee’s Lightspeed this weekend. *shudder* Review forthcoming. #
• Also read this weekend: Harley & Ivy TPB. Quite enjoyable & funny. #
• *sigh* Eclipses do not work that way! #
• Also: Wondering how much fanfic has ALREADY filled in the gaps in the Sylar/Elle scene. Afraid to look, but I’m sure there’s megabytes of it #
• Goal for tonight: Finish enough of The Batman Season 5 writeup/review that I can send it back to Netflix tomorrow. #
• Flash: Rebirth’s Ethan Van Sciver has started a weekly column at Newsarama: http://tinyurl.com/5hzp73 #
• Best search-term misspelling yet: “wally the movie” #
• Tim Kring: will avoid time travel stories “at all costs.” What power would he most like to have? “Time travel.” http://tinyurl.com/5thvg9 #
• 90% done w/ Batman S5 review. 90% done w/ Lightspeed review. I think I’ll hold them for a bit & focus on the new Flash issue this week. #
• Today: Hit comic store at lunch, jot down 1st impressions, groceries after work, review new Flash, watch Pushing Daisies, dig out Flash DVDs #
• Titans readers: Does Raven still have her empathic healing powers? #
• I was a big fan of LEGION 89 back in the day, but can’t decide whether I’m interested in this new REBELS book. http://tinyurl.com/69u53m #
• New weirdest search term: “sumo wrestler comment blog:.org” #
• Trying to figure out how best to link site to Facebook. Yes, on Saturday night. #

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Comic Coverage looks at an old letters column in which a fan confesses her crush on Kid Flash.

Speaking of letters colums, Clandestine Critic talks about comic shops, including one that was once co-owned by Paul Gambacinni, the radio personality and former Flash letter writer who inspired the Rogues’ tailor, Paul Gambi.

The Continuity Blog looks at Flash #231–246.

Variety reviews Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

The Dork Review suggests collecting Cary Bates’ run on The Flash in two volumes: The Murder of Iris Allen (Flash #275, #281–284, #321–326) and The Trial of the Flash (Flash #340-350). The first volume would feature Iris’ murder and Barry’s subsequent battles with Professor Zoom, including the one years later that would lead to the villain’s death.

More reviews of this week’s Flash #246 at Men in Tights and Comix 411.

Collected Editions has spotted the listing for the Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds hardcover, due next August.

Silver Age Comics looks at the second issue of DC: The New Frontier, which spotlights Barry Allen as the Flash.

Now Read This! reviews Flash: The Greatest Stories Ever Told.

The Daily P.O.P. talks about the state of the Flash over the last few years.

Finally, Comic Bloc’s Pureclint links to three video clips of fan-made fighting games featuring Captain Cold vs. Superman (with cameos by Inertia and the Rogues), multi-colored Flashes battling each other, and Bizarro vs. Superman (with a cameo by Zoom).

New feature: a digest of my Twitter posts for the week.

• Did some minor updates to site, including list of series & trades at http://tinyurl.com/5q578w #
• Hmm, Matt Sturges & Freddie Williams II on a mini called “Run!” focusing on a villain central to Final Crisis. I wonder… http://tr.im/ynk #
• Oh, good: Madame Xanadu is continuing past the origin story. With nothing listed for Jan, I was afraid it had been canned. http://tr.im/yqb #
• @ryanoneil I’m thinking it gives some *ahem* legs to the rampant Libra=Prof Zoom speculation in reply to ryanoneil #
• @ryanoneil I’ve seen a couple of threads suggesting it, and it’s certainly plausible if you assume he’s not the original Libra. in reply to ryanoneil #
• Heroes & Sarah Connor both really good tonight, even if Heroes got their timeline all wonky. #
• OTOH, sick of them trying to make poor widdle Sylar into an innocent victim of circumstances.It’s not HIS fault he’s a serial killer! PLEASE #
• If I had to choose, I would rather see more Pushing Daisies to Brian Fuller returning to Heroes. #
• Er… I’d rather see more Pushing Daisies THAN Brian Fuller returning to Heroes. #
• Despite his WW2-era origins, there’s a distinct lack of covers showing the Flash beating up on Nazis. #
• Justice Society & Justice League of America are better titles than JSA & JLA because you don’t need to already know what the letters mean. #
• Disturbed that “wonder woman hentai” etc are STILL among the top search hits to other blog since HFH commentary. Is that Rule 34 or Rule 36? #
• More than half the comics I’m buying are ending within 4 months. Some are minis; some are being canceled. #
• And if Didio’s telling the truth in that quote, I’m seriously pissed off. #
• IDW sale: Hmm, how many trades would it take for the discount to offset the cost of driving to San Diego? http://tinyurl.com/55wrc2 #
• @wlybrand The question is: are they lying now, or were they lying before? in reply to wlybrand #
• Theory: fan casting choices are usually more “Who looks like this character?” than “Who can play this character?” #
• Positive spin on DD’s “meant to do that” w/Flash: IF they planned it all along, they had time to experiment a bit. DC should do that more. #
• Nifty: Victorian-era Justice League custom action figures. http://tinyurl.com/62tmsm #
• With maybe 2 exceptions, a Flash comic has come out the third week of every month since June 2006. That streak ends after next month. #
• Is it my imagination, or does EVERY EPISODE of The Batman take place during a full moon (at least in Season 5)? #
• I like the covers for Velocty #2 a lot better than the covers for Velocity #1. http://tinyurl.com/5zflow #
• New Flash figures: http://tinyurl.com/5pw6rk #
• Sorry abt downtime earlier. Made a config change, too harried to check it until an hour later. Oops. #
• Watching “The Batman” finale #
• Finally got around to reading Crecy. A Warren Ellis book narrated by a total bastard. Who would have thought? #
• Imagine Kristin Chenoweth as Harley Quinn. #
• Finally read Chrono Mechanics. Didn’t like it as much as I expected to. #

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Comic Bloc is holding a Flash fan art contest.

Top Cow has a page for their upcoming Velocity series. They’ve also solicited the second issue, which has (IMHO) much better covers. More action girl, less swimsuit model.

Comics Make No Sense looks into how Quicksilver can fly.

The Comic Treadmill discusses Adventure Comics #373-375, including the first appearance of the Tornado Twins Don and Dawn Allen.

The Exponent (Purdue University’s student newspaper) contemplates that age old question, Who would win in a fight, Flash or Green Lantern?

Not directly speedster-related, but the Occasional Superheroine ponders the shift in emphasis from stories to events in comic books since the early 1980s.

To keep the lengths of time in perspective, I’ve put together this timeline from the end of Geoff Johns’ well-regarded run on The Flash through several relaunches and two Crises to next year’s Flash: Rebirth. I’ve taken the cover dates from the GCD and shifted them back two months, since that seems to track with the release dates that I remember.

So from the point DC essentially gave up on Wally’s series (September 2005) to the point that DC will stake everything on a relaunch with Barry (April 2009, assuming it doesn’t get delayed) we’re looking at 3½ years. The longest run of a series during that time would be All-Flash with Flash #231–347 — just 1½ years, of which barely one year focused heavily on Iris and Jai West. (Alan Burnett or his editor shoved the kids off to the side pretty quickly when he came on board to do the wrap-up.)

Fellow Flash blog Crimson Lightning has returned to a regular update schedule, including the latest in its series reviewing each episode of the 1990 Flash TV Series: “Fast Forward.”

Newsarama’s Grumpy Old Fan contemplates what “the most definitive” version of a character means.

More Mortal Kombat vs DCU trailers, including video of Flash vs. Scorpion. Something must be funky about the player CBR uses, because this is the second time they’ve posted video clips on MKvDC that I couldn’t get to play. YMMV.

This Week in Geek interviews Brea Grant (via @breagrant)

And speeking of geeks, check out the 56 Geeks Project (via Once Upon a Geek)