December 30, 2008
2008 was a busy, if tumultuous year for the Flash.
The Main Series
As 2008 opened, the Flash was just wrapping up the six-part story “The Wild Wests,” the relaunch featuring Wally West as head of the Flash family and introducing his super-powered twins, Iris and Jai. To put it mildly, it was not received well by fans, and former fan favorite writer Mark Waid quickly left the book.
After a one-shot by Keith Champagne, Tom Peyer picked up the regular writing chores and Freddie Williams II stayed on for the 6-part “Fast Money,” which resolved the twins’ super-speed aging problem and gave us a glimpse of an adult Iris West II.
The series wrapped up with the year, as Alan Burnett, Paco Diaz, and Carlo Barberi brought us “This Was Your Life, Wally West.” The four-part story arc looked back at Wally West’s career as Kid Flash, then the Flash, and his relationship with his wife Linda and their children.
Rogues’ Revenge
The Rogues’ Gallery were off-limits to start with, as they were off-planet for Salvation Run. Early in the year, DC released the news of Flash: Rogues’ Revenge, a miniseries that would spotlight them after they returned to Earth, going after Inertia for tricking them into killing the Flash. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins would return to the speedster mythos for six issues.
By the time the series was launched, it had become Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, and instead of six regular-sized issues it was three oversized issues.
Read the rest of this entry »
August 17, 2008
The post on sexual harassment at Comic-Con on Comics Oughta Be Fun has been making the rounds. It’s disturbing, but worth a read. It lists a few examples of women being harassed during the con, then points out that there’s no written policy against harassment, and no clear procedure for reporting it.
In theory, it shouldn’t be necessary to spell out “Don’t stalk or assault people” in the program. We’re talking about behavior that’s already unacceptable and, once you cross a certain line, illegal. Unfortunately some people either lack basic social graces (I’m trying to keep the language family-friendly, here), or think that costumes give them a free pass.
I do think the convention needs a clear reporting procedure. Let people know they can report incidents to security, and follow through.
They also need better coordination between convention staff and security. My wife and I spent an hour and a half dealing with what we thought was the theft of her purse. She stood up at the end of a panel and it was gone. She reported it to security, filled out a missing property report, checked lost and found, canceled her credit card…and in the end it turned out that the room’s staff had removed it from under her seat during the previous panel break, thinking someone else had left it behind, and put it at the back of the room. But they hadn’t said anything to security about it, and security didn’t ask them.
(Found via several blogs.)
August 5, 2008
While many fans seem to be taking it as given that Bart Allen will return in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, there’s been considerably less certainty as to where he might continue to appear afterward. Will he return to the present, or stay in the 31st century? Will he return as Impulse, Kid Flash, or the Flash? Will he appear on any sort of regular basis, or just be an occasional guest star?
Rumor column Lying in the Gutters suggests he might be staying with the Legion, or at least be available in that setting:
One San Diegoer tells me, “I was waiting at the Aspen booth at Comic-Con getting a sketch done by current Legion Artist Francis Manapul, when Geoff Johns came over and interrupted to talk to him for a second. Johns had a copy of…his first Teen Titans trade, and handed it to Manapul, which Manapul said, ‘I eventually did get my hands on a copy and read it last night.’ The two of them talked about Bart Allen for a couple of minutes, with Manapul being very complimentary of how he was written. Johns looked around, saw people were watching, and turned his back and the two of them continued to talk inaudibly for about 10 minutes about something before Johns left.
“Combine that with the vague question that Johns asked at one panel: ‘Does anyone miss Bart Allen?’ and there has to be something there.”
Rich Johnston gives the rumor a yellow light on his traffic-light scale of reliability, so even he isn’t sure what — if anything — the conversation means. It could mean absolutely nothing.
August 1, 2008
According to CBR’s coverage of the J.G. Jones Spotlight panel at Comic-Con, the artist used himself as the reference for the iconic Flash cover on Final Crisis #2:
Finally, who did Jones use for photo reference for the Flash image on the cover of “Final Crisis” #2? “I used me!” But self-reliance has its price, Jones revealed, because the posing process slows things down. “I have to pose, take a shot, look at it, pose, take a shot, look at it…” Fortunately for readers, Jones’s patience tends to pay off.
In case anyone missed the update to my earlier post, I’ve uploaded a Photo Gallery of Comic-Con and San Diego for this year.
CBR reports on last week’s Spotlight on Ethan Van Sciver at Comic-Con. Among other things, he talked about redesigning Wally West’s costume and how he sees the personalities of Barry Allen and Wally West.
“I’m redesigning Wally West’s costume right now, and it’s terrifying.” While Sinestro’s costume, with its seemingly random blue color and “jester collar,” was ready for a redesign in Van Sciver’s eyes, “Wally West is the most perfectly designed costume ever, aside from Green Lantern’s costume, in my opinion.” Van Sciver said the challenge was to redo the costume without either making it less cool or more cool than Barry Allen’s and thus implying that one character is better than the other.
“I want Barry to come back and be King Arthur. He’s the most straight-laced, perfect Flash, rigid in his morality and his ethics,” making the looser, cooler, more laid-back Wally a Lancelot figure. Van Sciver told the audience “Kick me in the ass if I fail.”
So there’s at least some hope for Wally fans that he won’t be totally shoved off to the side. Maybe.
On the other hand, he also confirmed that the monthly Flash series will “stop” for Flash: Rebirth. How it will be relaunched afterward — picking up where it left off, or where Barry’s series left off — or with a new #1 — he wouldn’t say.
July 29, 2008
Some Flash news bits from Comic-Con panels that I missed this weekend, dealing with DC news in general and Flash: Rebirth in particular.
DC: A Guide to Your Universe at CBR
A fan asked whether Flash Wally West would be replaced by Barry Allen. “You’ll have to read ‘Flash Rebirth,” Johns said. “I hope I’ve shown I am a Wally West fan–I wrote the book for five years.”
On the final page of “All Flash” which includes an image of a Batman costume coming out of a Flash ring, Johns said “I think Mark [Waid] just wanted to put a Batman suit in a ring.”
A fan asked whether Flash Wally West would be replaced by Barry Allen. “You’ll have to read ‘Flash Rebirth,” Johns said. “I hope I’ve shown I am a Wally West fan–I wrote the book for five years.”
Newsarama adds:
Any chance of a Hal/Barry team-up book? “It’s too early for that,” said Johns, but adding that Hal Jordan will be in The Flash: Rebirth.
As for the Geoff Johns Spotlight, CBR’s write-up has a ton of Flash-related info (and now I’m really annoyed I couldn’t make it). Some highlights:
Were the Rogues’ statements that they didn’t mean to kill Bart Allen a retcon on Johns’s part, or a self-justification on the part of the Rogues themselves? Johns said it was a bit of both, and that more will be revealed regarding their motivations in the next two issues…Johns said he thought they’d be smart enough to know that killing a Flash would bring down a lot of heat, which it did….they mostly feel bad about being caught. Johns teased that we would soon discover that one of the Rogues actually was trying to kill Bart.
He then quoted from his “Flash: Rebirth” script: “One of Barry’s good friends says, ‘Has the world gotten too fast for you?’ Barry smiles and says, ‘The world’s finally catching up.’”
As I said, there’s a ton of Flash info in that panel, and I highly recommend reading the whole thing.
CBR has a video interview with Geoff Johns, which I have not yet had time to watch.
CBR also interviewed Ethan Van Sciver about Rebirth.
I didn’t manage to try out DC Universe Online myself — there was always a longer line than I wanted to wait for — and I missed the two gaming panels on Friday. (I think it was Friday. It’s all sort of blurred together.) So here are some write-ups I found online.
Newsarama’s J.K. Parkin writes about playing a speedster in the DCU Online demo:
The coolest part, though, was when I hit the right joystick and turned on the Speed Force. Throwing rocks at my enemies and slamming them with my staff was cool and all, but you’d expect that in any superhero-based MMO. Having my character run through the streets of Metropolis at super speed, trailed by what looked like the Speed Force that all comic fans know from the comics? That’s the kind of detail this game needed to really set it apart. And from what I’ve seen so far, it has it in spades.
They’ve also got an article on the DC Universe Online presentation that Sony made Wednesday night.
IGN has extensive coverage of the gaming side of the con, including a write-up of Friday’s DCUO panel, video clips, an interview with Jim Lee before the show, and Greg Miller’s demo experience:
I chose to quit, take Jim Lee’s advice, and try out the speedster.
Named Rock Solid and decked out in black and gold, the speedster was just about everything I could want in a low-level superhero. Clicking L3 put the dude into super-speed mode so that he could scoot around Metropolis with a wicked speed effect at his feet, run up the sides of buildings, and get away from foes, but being earth-based gave him some more nifty powers.
Moving on to Mortal Combat vs. DC Universe, Newsarama’s article on the MK vs. DC panel, includes a description of one of the fights in the preview video:
Finally, the Flash darted around Soyna, leaving her spinning and dazed before running her off a cliff, the pair trading blows all the way down before the Flash got the upper hand and whipped his opponent into the ground, creating a small crater.
Each brutal blow drew “oooohhhs” from the crowd, who also cheered when Superman cut loose with his heat vision, and when Flash delivered several attacks at his trademark speed.
IGN had its own panel write-up, including the video clip, and added that gameplay is structured in chapters, with each character associated with a chapter. That might explain why we keep seeing the same match-ups in the demo footage.
(Images via IGN)
July 28, 2008
I’m back from San Diego, and I had an absolute blast at this year’s Comic-Con International. I’ve been posting coverage here and at K-Squared Ramblings, and will be posting posted a photo gallery sometime this week (between catching up at work and, well, sleeping.) Links to my full coverage:
I’ll also track down write-ups from events that I missed, and post links to Flash-related info in the next few days.
July 27, 2008
I stumbled on Freddie Williams II’s Artist’s Alley table at Comic-Con today, and commissioned a sketch of Iris West II in her Flash phase.
I had time, so I waited around while he did the sketch, looked through his portfolio, and talked about the book. Several other people came by to talk, or to look at his art, or to commission sketches of their own. When he was almost done, Dan Didio dropped by to say hello. (To the artist, of course!)
He had original art for sale, including a few pages from the last few issues of The Flash. I was seriously tempted by the page that showed Wally, Iris and Jai running into battle from #241, but I just don’t have the spare $250 lying around…
I mentioned that I’d really liked his run with Tom Peyer, especially the last few issues, and he mentioned that the editor had previously asked him to go with a more open, flat, happy style to his art, and he actually felt better about the art the last few issues. We talked about the harshness of internet fandom — when people like something, they don’t always go out of their way to post about it, but when they dislike it, and when they can hide behind anonymity, it’s almost a compulsion to say so, loudly, as brutally as possible.
