December 24, 2009
What Were They Thinking?! has found a…novel way to see at super-speed.
recommends Geoff Johns’ original Flash run.
Grumpy Old Fan considers the likely structure of Legacies and its implications.
IGN’s top 100 covers of 2009 gives Flash: Rebirth #1 the #3 spot.
Toycutter has a Steampunk Legion of Doom set of custom action figures, featuring Sinestro, Black Manta, Joker, Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold, and Bizarro. (via Great White Snark)
Flash fans will probably get a kick out of this Shortpacked! strip. (via @batmansgirl)
November 16, 2009
Yes, according to Diamond, Flash: Rebirth #5 is actually shipping this week! As if that weren’t enough, there’s the JSA 80-Page Giant, new issues of Tiny Titans and Super Friends, the trade paperback of JSA: Thy Kingdom Come vol.2, and a Showcase volume featuring Superman Team-Ups from DC Comics Presents…opening with a Superman/Flash race.
No sign yet of the final cover for Flash: Rebirth #5, or the variant cover, or a preview. UPDATE! While I was at lunch, DC posted a 5-page preview with the covers. I’d like to say two things: First, that alternate cover with Max and Bart is seriously making me cnosider picking up the variant again. Second…I called the coloring change on the main cover back in July!
The Flash: Rebirth #5
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver
The greatest threat to face the Flash Family in decades stands revealed! A new hero will step into an old speedster’s boots! And Barry Allen will make the ultimate sacrifice: his life! Oh yeah, you read that right, but you’ll never believe just what it means! They always say nothing will ever be the same, but trust us, this one will rewrite the history books!
This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver).
5 of 6 · 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Other books shipping this week behind the cut: Read the rest of this entry »
October 11, 2009
CBR Live found themselves “Flashed” by Warner Bros. — or rather, by an advertisement for The Big Bang Theory at their studios in Burbank, California.
What Were They Thinking? uncovers the amazing science behind Jay Garrick’s origin and more Golden Age “science.”
High Five! Comics notes a pair of Flash cover homages: the latest Irredeemable’s homage to “Flash of Two Worlds” and a tale of two Flash #105s.
Mark Waid has found the Flash’s ultimate adversary: the atomic banana peel. No, I am not making this up. And neither is he.
Matthew Cody looks back at the (not so) final fate of the Flash.
Breaking off-topic a bit, here’s the *ahem* cerealized Blackest Night that’s been making the rounds the last few days.
October 2, 2009
Comics Should Be Good wraps up the month of iconic covers with the Top 5 Most Iconic Barry Allen Covers.
Ain’t It Cool News has a preview of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next direct-to-home video DC animated film. It’s based on a number of Earth-2/Earth-3 stories in which the Justice League goes up against their evil counterparts from another world, the Crime Syndicate. There’s a few frames of the evil Johnny Quick in the preview, sporting an entirely new costume. (Thanks to Jesse for the link.)
Speaking of evil, the “Mark Waid Was Evil” teaser turns out to be for a new series, Incorruptible, intended as the flip side to Irredeemable. This series follows a super-villain who decides to become a hero in response to the Plutonian’s fall to the dark side.
Newsarama evaluates Wednesday Comics, giving the Flash strip a B+.
Avatar Press has started a collaborative map of comic shops around the world. You can help by adding the local store where you buy your comics.
Over at my other blog, I made an amusing discovery about Wizard World Los Angeles, the Long Beach Comic-Con, and two convention centers.
September 18, 2009
IGN has posted an interview with editor Eddie Berganza about upcoming Blackest Night tie-ins, including a cover gallery of all the Blackest Night-related covers coming in December.
Including Blackest Night: The Flash, with a cover that looks…oddly familiar!
If you look at the full-sized image, you can see “Thanks, Ethan” under Scott Kolins’ signature. I’ve got to say, Kolins looks like a perfect choice for this mini.
Full solicitations will be out on Monday.
So who wants to start taking bets on which Flash is in the reverse pose?
Update: I didn’t notice at first, but the second page of the article has the solicitation text for the issue:
Blackest Night: The Flash #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and cover by Scott Kolins
Variant cover by Francis Manapul
The Flashes of Two Cities – Barry Allen and Wally West – battle the undead Rogues. Will the legendary speedsters be able to handle the Black Lantern Rogues’ revenge?
Plus, witness the resurrection of Barry’s greatest enemy, the Reverse Flash in this hyper-speed miniseries event reuniting the fan-favorite Flash creative team of Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins!
This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Scott Kolins), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Francis Manapul).
On sale December 2 – 1 of 3 – 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Notes: Francis Manapul, of course, was recently announced as the artist on the new, ongoing Flash series. And may I say I like the description of Barry and Wally as the “Flashes of Two Cities.”
August 24, 2009
The Source has posted a four-page preview of Flash: Rebirth #4, due out Wednesday. DC has also posted the final version of the main cover and the variant cover.
I think this is the first time I’ve really liked both covers on this series. With issues #1 and #2 I liked the main covers much more than the variants, and then with #3 I liked the variant much more than the main cover. (I did manage to track down a copy at Comic-Con International.) This time…I may actually try to get both.
Dash over to The Source and check it out!
July 30, 2009
DC has delayed Flash: Rebirth #4 again to August 26, making it a full 2 1/2 months after issue #3. Additionally, they’ve rescheduled issues #5 and 6.
That pushes them up to a deadline, because Blackest Night: Flash is supposed to spin out of Flash: Rebirth and start in November December [Edit: see comment thread]. Presumably it will need to line up with the rest of the Blackest Night tie-in miniseries (though we saw how well that worked with Final Crisis). Fortunately, Blackest Night: Flash is being drawn by a different artist, so Scott Kolins can start work on it while Ethan Van Sciver is still working on Flash: Rebirth.
Update August 13: On DC’s website, issue #6 has been pushed back another week to November 25.
Covers
On a related note, Ethan Van Sciver has posted the final cover to Flash: Rebirth #4 on his Facebook page. It’s very similar to the solicited one, with some color alterations. He mentioned on the Half-Hour Wasted podcast a few weeks ago that the solicited covers for #4-6 were all altered to prevent spoilers. I’m going to go on record here and predict that the final cover for #5 will be exactly like what we’ve seen, only the Black Flash carrying Professor Zoom’s lightning wand will be recolored as Professor Zoom.
June 5, 2009
RikDad identifies a precedent for those lightning-bolt blades seen in Flash: Rebirth…way back in the Golden Age.
Comic Bronze Age tries to identify…What IS the Bronze Age of Comics? Considering that many fans today are of the opinion that the Silver Age lasted through 1985, it’s a good question.
The podcast Views From the Longbox has their second installment of Views from the Speed Force, focusing on Flash: Rebirth #2.
Newsarama asks retailers, do variant covers sell more books? Personally, when a comic has alternate covers that are distributed equally (like they’ve done with the Final Crisis books) I’ll just pick the one I like better. When the variant is rare, like the 1-in-25 alternate covers they’re doing for Flash: Rebirth, I usually won’t bother. Though I am going to try to pick up the alternate cover for #3, which is 100% more interesting than the standard cover.
Speaking of variant covers, it looks like I forgot to link to the site updates I did last weekend: I updated the collections of variant covers and cover homages to include current and upcoming Flash: Rebirth covers. Still need to work through an email backlog of homages, though.
Crimson Lightning is back from a three-week hiatus with new posts.
Mania’s Top 20 writers of all time includes long-term Flash writers Mark Waid, Geoff Johns and Gardner Fox.
Speaking of foxes, and still somewhat relevant to this blog’s topic, Firefox is holding a video contest called “Show Us Your Speed“ to promote the upcoming Firefox 3.5 release. Submit a 30-second video of your fastest talent to www.fastestfirefox.com.
May 28, 2009
Or rather, what would have been Flash #500 if the series had never been renumbered. Flash Comics starring Jay Garrick ran 104 issues, and The Flash starring Barry Allen picked up that same numbering with #105 in 1959 and ran through #350. The relaunch in 1987 with Wally West started over with Flash #1. If DC had started Wally’s series with #351, instead of Flash vol.2 #150 this book would have been Flash #500.*
So why post this cover?
Because this is my 500th post on Speed Force!
To celebrate, and inspired by Major Spoilers’ Ten Superhero Party Drinks, my wonderful wife came up with a Flash drink — two versions, one alcoholic and one not.
Recipe: Flash Drink
- 4 oz Izze Pomegranate soda (or other red soda that goes well with cranberry)
- 2 oz cranberry juice cocktail
- 2 oz vodka (for non-alcoholic version, replace this with more cranberry juice)
- 1 Lemon
- Peel zest from entire lemon in one long spiral with vegetable peeler.
- Cut jagged bits into lemon peel to give it a zig-zag or lightning bolt look.
- Cut lemon peel strip in half crosswise (use one half for each of two drinks).
- Mix all liquid ingredients cold and pour into glass.
- Place lemon peel decoratively in glass.
Ideally, you should have something else you can use the rest of the lemon for.
Enjoy!
*Yes, there was a Flash v.2 #0 in between issues #94 and #95, but all DC books that month were numbered #0, so it doesn’t figure into the sequence any more than annuals do.
May 13, 2009
I’m working on a round-up of reviews of Flash: Rebirth #2, but that’s taking a while. For now, here’s some general Flash linkblogging.
Current Events
The webcomic Comic Critics takes on Wardrobe Origins. (If you’ve read Flash: Rebirth #2, you can probably guess where this is going.)
Major Spoilers’ Stephen is impressed to see DC unveil a variant cover he actually wants.
Star Clipper looks at Flash: Rebirth in the context of reviving a failing franchise.
CBR talks to Mark Waid about the “24/7″ arc in Spider-Man.
Edit: Just after I posted this, I saw this scan of Tiny Titans‘ Battle for the COW joke.
The Tops
The Judge declares Flash Comics #1 to have the Best.Cover.Ever.
POP puts Professor Zoom on its list of 25 coolest comic book villains.
IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time includes Shade at #89, Mirror Master at #79, Zoom at #37, Gorilla Grodd at #35, Professor Zoom at #31 [Update:] Captain Cold at #27. (At this time, the top 30 20 is not up yet.)
