Our #speedforce5th photo challenge has some great entries so far! It’s open until Friday: Just follow @speedforceorg on Instagram, then post a photo of your favorite Flash item tagged #speedforce5th.

We’re also getting some great entries in our fifth anniversary contest! Write in to year5@speedforce.org and tell us why you like the Flash for a chance to win prizes. The contest is open through Monday.

The post Reminders: Photo Challenge & Write-In Contest appeared first on Speed Force.

Join us after the jump, as we journey back to 1944, 1963 and 1992 in search of Flash history, original artwork and more!

JAY GARRICK:

Flash Comics #1 went on sale November 10, 1939, introducing super-speedster Jay Garrick to the world.  Five years later, Jay appeared in the first story of Flash Comics #61, the “The Magic of Ultra-Speed” by Gardner Fox and Martin Naydel.

Here is a synopsis of “The Magic of Ultra-Speed” from the DC Comics Database:

The Flash disguises himself as a magician to perform feats of “magic” for children in a hospital ward. While using his speed to grant the wishes of his young audience, he unwittingly stops crimes in progress perpetrated by his old nemesis, Midget Joe.

Midget Joe, repeat Golden Age Flash villain and World War II icon!

Jay also appeared in the one-shot Big All-American Comic Book, published around October – December 1944 (depending on where you look).  The whole comic, including the then-new Flash story “The Million Dollar Apple” by Gardner Fox and E.E. Hibbard, is reprinted in the amazing DC Comics Rarities Archives, Vol. 1.  Featuring the Three Dimwits, here’s a synopsis from Mike’s Amazing World of DC Comics:

Jay Garrick prepares to meet his explorer friend Robert Cromwell, who is returning from an expedition where he discovered a million dollar emerald. Cromwell hides the emerald inside an apple to protect it from thieves. When the gang of Jocko Wolfe tries to find the gem, the Flash interrupts them. However, in the scuffle the apple is lost.

While Flash and the police search for the missing apple, the crooks continue to search among Cromwell’s possessions. However, the emerald has really fallen into the hands of a fruit peddler. While attending a stage show, the peddler throws the apple at Winky, Blinky, and Noddy, whose stage performance is terrible. The dimwits find the gem, then are nearly swindled out of it by Wolfe. Flash arrives in time to recover the gem and capture Wolfe.

November of 1944 was a busy month for Jay, as he also appeared in the Comic Cavalcade #9 story “The Tale of the Winged Horse,” by Gardner Fox and Jon Chester Kozlak.  Could not find a full synopsis on this one, but this page states that the plot involves the Liars Club.  All-Flash #17 came out in early December and had three more new stories by Fox!

BARRY ALLEN:

Not counting the Showcase issues, Barry Allen’s own series began with Flash #105 on December 23, 1958.  Five years later, Barry appeared in two stories in Flash #142, out December 9th.

In the first, “Perilous Pursuit of the Trickster,” we have a classic James Jesse tale by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella.  “Puzzle of the Phantom Plunderers” follows, this time with John Broome on script.  Both of these stories have been reprinted in the Flash Archives (volume six) and Showcase Presents: Flash (volume three).

Check out the following pages of amazing original art, via Comic Art Fans: page six, page seven, page eight, page nine, page 10, page 11, page 12, page 14 and page 23.

Over in Justice League of America #25, Gardner Fox handles writing duties for a change as Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs deliver the classic “Outcasts of Infinity“.  Here is the original splash page, also via Comic Art Fans.

WALLY WEST:

Flash #1, kicking off the third volume of the series, was released on March 5, 1987 with Wally West in the wingtips.  Five years later, Flash #65 and the fourth story of Born to Run appeared, courtesy of Mark Waid, Greg LaRocque and Jose Marzan, Jr.  I wasn’t able to find any original art online, but if you find some please post in the comments!  A fitting tale for an anniversary, Flash #65 was a modern look at Wally West’s days as Kid Flash and brought new depth to his origins.

Here’s to five more years of speed reading!

The post Speed Force Fifth!: The Flash, Years Five appeared first on Speed Force.

So far, all they’ve really released is the creative team and Howard Porter’s designs, including this one for the Flash.

While the team is best known for the humorous “Bwahaha” Justice League International, they’ve written their share of serious stories as well. (You don’t get more serious than Giffen’s “Five Years Later” Legion.)

No doubt this is what’s behind both the end of the current Legion of Super-Heroes and the Justice Legion rumors: Presumably the LSH has been shifted to another timeframe, since I imagine the two concepts wouldn’t coexist very well.

Also, it’s worth noting: The Flash of JL3000 has red hair and green eyes. I’m not going to read too much into that. Other Wally West fans may be more optimistic, but I’ve been burned too many times to get my hopes up.

The post A Future Flash Appears in Justice League 3000 appeared first on Speed Force.

The idea is simple: just tell us why you like the Flash. Any Flash –- it can be Jay, Barry, Wally, Bart, or all of them (or even just the Flash as a concept). Or perhaps tell us about what he/they mean to you. You can write about it or draw it, whatever suits your talents, and we’ll post the entries after the contest is over. To enter, send your submission here.

The contest will run from Monday June 17 to Monday June 24, with a deadline of 11:50 PM Pacific Time. One entry per person, please. The five Speed Force writers (Kelson, Devin, Greg, Ed, and myself) will select our favourites from the submitted entries and award the prizes.

Good luck, and have fun!

The post Speed Force Fifth Anniversary Contest appeared first on Speed Force.

FULL SPOILERS AHEAD!

As we begin this issue, Grodd has immobilized Wally and Jay…and Spin! Grodd answers to no one, and Spin has made a serious tactical error bringing Grodd into this fight. Grodd mentally orders Wally to find and bring back Nzame, the sacred Ape Child. He then tells Jay that there will be some future task that Jay will hate…but will be still forced to accomplish. Finally, Grodd orders Spin to tell him how he brought him here…and what he has done to the city.

Meanwhile, the kids are escaping, but as they do we find that Iris is aging again and is now an adolescent! Jai has not aged similarly, but he confesses to Iris what he has known for some time…that their parents have reason to fear they may suddenly become very old and die far too soon. Iris has already surmised this…which makes sense since their actual age at this point in the series is only three months!

We flip back to Spin telling his origin story – to find that the kids are now on the scene, taking the fight to Grodd and giving enough distraction for Wally to free himself and end this fight quickly. After the battle we find out that Spin is actually the head of KN News, and that he has been using his powers to build his own media empire and to commit crimes while turning the people against the Flash!

We have a very touching scene between Wally and his daughter, with Wally trying not to show the fear any father would have when faced with the potential mortality of his children. But, this scene is cut short by the need to get to the Flash Museum, where an out of control crowd is ready to burn the place to the ground. Wally wants to save one particular exhibit…Intertia!

This story takes place after Inertia has caused the death of Bart Allen. Wally has taken away Inertia’s speed and left him so immobile as to resemble a statue, permanently on display at the museum while facing Bart’s image. We see the internal conflict Wally feels about saving the person responsible for Bart’s death, but in the end we know Wally’s true character will win out, and he does pull Inertia out of the burning building….to find that Iris has aged yet again to adulthood!

That’s where this issue ends, and the “Fast Money” story arc continues from there. It’s also where this site begins…five years ago! As for the story – this issue shows some of the best qualities of Wally West as the Flash. He still has internal doubts and fears and doesn’t always make the best choices (hence this story arc that begins with Wally’s conflict over whether to cash in on his powers and fame to provide for his family). But, he is still at his core a really good guy and a great father. He is, in short, a very compelling character – a very human Wally dealing with the joys and burdens of immense power. This story line was the starting place for Tom Peyer as writer on this series, taking over for Mark Waid just in time to start the “Fast Money” arc. Freddie E. Williams II provided the art, with Tanya and Richard Horie on colors. This was an excellent story to me, and it’s fun to bring this back to you now.

I can’t end this review without a personal note here. I have been a fan of Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning and Speedforce.org for more years than I care to admit. Thanks to Kelson for making all this possible, and for allowing me to become a part of this amazing site. Thanks to Greg, Devin and Lia for being so welcoming and for their excellent posts here that I enjoyed reading long before joining the team. Finally, a special thanks to everyone who follows this site! Thanks so much for following us here!

The post Five Years Ago in The Flash…Review of Flash #241 appeared first on Speed Force.

Speed Force turns five years old tomorrow (hard to believe, huh?), and one of the ways we’re celebrating is with a photo challenge. (See, I told you we had something in store for our Instagram page.)

To participate, follow @SpeedForceOrg on Instagram and post a photo of your favorite Flash item tagged #speedforce5th.

It can be a comic book, a toy, a statue, a costume, a poster, a piece of original art, a DVD, a shirt or towel, a game piece, anything. It can be official or custom-made. It can be something you own, or something you’ve seen.

We’ll post the highlights next Friday. (Please post your own photos only.)

If you aren’t on Instagram, don’t worry — we’ve got something else planned that you can participate in too!

Wow, five years. Big thanks to Devin, Greg, Lia and Ed for joining me on this journey, to everyone who’s guest-posted, to my wife and son for putting up with me spending time on it, and to all of you for coming along with us!

When you get home from “Man of Steel” this weekend, check on Speed Force. We’ve got a lot more in store as we celebrate our fifth anniversary!

The post Photo Challenge! Speed Force Fifth appeared first on Speed Force.

With Man of Steel opening this week, it’s no secret that the future of DC Comics’ super-heroes on screen is tied to the success of the new Superman film. The question, of course, is what form might that future take? With the success of The Avengers, there’s been a lot of talk about a possible Justice League movie, but of course Marvel didn’t launch the Avengers on its own: They launched four solo films featuring different heroes, then brought them together. If “Man of Steel” does well, DC could jump straight into the team movie, or they could do a Marvel-style slow build — and Mike Ryan at Huffington Post suggests that Flash might be the ideal viewpoint character to tie them together.

DC has had a Flash movie officially in development for almost a decade now. Back in 2004, Warner Bros. announced David Goyer was writing a script and would direct. It’s since been through multiple directors and writers. Early treatments would feature both Wally West and Barry Allen, while later treatments focused exclusively on Barry Allen. The last real news came in 2010, when DC announced the Green Lantern script team would be writing a Flash film based on Geoff Johns’ work. Of course when the Green Lantern movie performed less than WB had hoped, everything non-Superman or Batman went on the back burner again. We’ve heard a few rumblings since then, but little else. Everything’s riding on “Man of Steel”: If it succeeds, we can count on more DC movies. If not, we can expect more years of development hell.

But if it does succeed…

Warner Bros. will probably go straight to the Justice League, and if that does well enough (WB seems really big on testing the waters for every. single. move.), start spinning off other characters into their own films.

Barring an ensemble breakout, the Flash is probably in the best position to be the next solo hero. No one at WB seems to have a clue how to make Wonder Woman work on screen. Green Lantern didn’t exactly thrill audiences the first time. As for Batman, the Nolan trilogy is still fresh in everyone’s minds. And the Flash has collected several stories and scripts over the past eight years.

Until then, we’ve got the animated Flashpoint Paradox coming to home video this summer, and we can always look back at the 1990s TV series.

And of course there are fan films, like “Iris” and this fan trailer for The Flash in the style of Zach Snyder:

What do you think? Are the odds in favor of a Flash movie in the next few years? Or will we still be waiting when the New 52 is old, Didio and Johns have retired, and the hot new talent of 2026 is bringing back his childhood favorite Wally West in the all-digital Flash: Re-Rebirth?

The post What Does “Man of Steel” Mean for a Flash Movie? appeared first on Speed Force.

A short Flash fan film called “Iris” has been making the rounds lately. It’s a deceptively simple concept: Barry Allen and Iris West have an important conversation, and works out as a great character piece.

A second film is in the works, and I’m definitely looking forward to it.

My name is Ross Howard, together with my cousin Patrick and our friend Sam we wrote and made a fan film based on the fastest man alive called “Iris”

Growing up together Patrick and I made short films in his living room and back yard (Martial arts shorts, superheroes, ghostbusters etc) and through out both of our lives we’ve been reaching towards a dream of making and creating films that entertain and inspire like the films and comics that did for us growing up.

Patrick’s mom was an amazing woman who encouraged all of our crazy antics, a talented artist and actress she made a Flash costume that was truly spectacular.

This short is our first attempt at creating something together, after he’s been acting and I recently graduated from film school. Now, were both getting ready to move to LA.

This is our humble first film. We hope you enjoy it…

Regards,
Ross Howard

Ever since I was a little kid I dreamed of being a superhero. Before I could even read my mother purchased me my first comic book. Her and my father always encouraged us to never give up and always go after our dreams. One of the last costumes she made for me was an awesome homemade Flash suit. I won a prize at school for it and definitely hammed it up.

I began acting at a theme park out of high school after a year of college and after many years moved here to New Orleans.

Recently, some friends from a film entitled “Jake’s Road” got together to help bring “Iris” to life. “Iris” was a short film concept by myself and Ross Howard who is a graduate of Jacksonville University film school and also my cousin. “Iris” was rewritten and directed by my very good friend, Sam Sullivan. Sam was instrumental in getting us all together and making this happen.

Everyone involved did this just for the sheer love of doing what we do.

We hope you will share it with fans and dreamers like us. I hope this encourages more people out there to keep going after their dreams. Find out what you’re passionate about and make your dream a reality!

Hope this email finds you all doing very well and keep up the good work!

God bless!

Patrick Dennis Flanagan

The post Flash Fan Film: Iris appeared first on Speed Force.

A few days ago, the Injustice Facebook page posted this alternate look for The Flash in the Blackest Night DLC pack for Injustice: Gods Among Us. IGN has a video showing it in action along with Superman and Doomsday.

The post Black Lantern Reverse Flash Skin for Injustice appeared first on Speed Force.

AME-COMI GIRLS #7
Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by HORACIO DOMINGUES, EDUARDO FRANCISCO and RUBEN GONZALEZ
Cover by EDUARDO FRANCISCO
On sale SEPTEMBER 4 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T • DIGITAL FIRST

Meet the Hellions—a team of misfit Ame-Comi Girls out to have fun and save the world. It’s not easy for Black Flash being the only undead, crime-fighting teenager in school. But when she meets Red Raven and her badass besties, she may have finally found a place to fit in.

The Black Flash statue was originally a repaint of the Jesse Quick-as-the-Flash statue. I find it interesting that the Ame-Comi comics have expanded to include the repaint characters. Presumably the chapters featuring her will appear digitally in August. Does anyone know if Jesse Quick/The Flash has had a spotlight story in this series?

SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 VOL. 3: HAUNTED TP
Written by BRYAN Q. MILLER
Art by JORGE JIMENEZ
Cover by SCOTT KOLINS
On sale OCTOBER 16 • 144 pg, FC, $14.99 US

In these stories from issues #9-12, mysterious speed storms have struck across the globe, and a familiar face returns to help Clark to stop them. Then, Lex moves against Tess to reveal what she knows about The Man of Steel, and the secrets of Earth-Two Chloe are revealed!

This collects the full story that quest-starred Bart Allen as Impulse and Jay Garrick as the Flash of the Justice Society in the Smallville universe.

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