Speed Force

After fans learned that the DC Universe would be massively revised after Flashpoint, DC insisted that it was a relaunch, not a reboot. But with a complete line-wide new start, with many characters being reimagined and given new backstories, it certainly falls under the conventional meaning of “reboot” as applied to a fictional universe. It’s at least as much of a reboot as the DC Universe that emerged out of Crisis on Infinite Earths in the 1980s.

But I’m not sure the metaphor’s correct. It comes from the idea that when you reboot a computer, you start fresh…except usually when you reboot, you have exactly the same “universe” (the operating system, the apps, the files, etc.) as you had before. That’s not the case with a fictional reboot, which tends to alter the settings, characters, histories, and more.

A better comparison might be an operating system upgrade. Going from Windows XP to Windows Vista, or from Vista to Windows 7. Lots of things change about the way the system works. Some apps are altered. Some stay the same. Some might not be compatible and need to be removed until new versions are available. You might even lose some of your data (or access to it). Some changes are improvements, but there’s always something you wish they’d left alone.

The New 52 fits this metaphor. So does the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths relaunch, which took characters from DC’s Earth-1 and Earth-2 settings, plus the characters they had bought from Charlton, Quality and Fawcett, and merged them all into a single timeline. Some characters were erased (Supergirl), others were changed significantly (Superman, Wonder Woman), some stayed more or less the same (the Flashes’ history was mostly unchanged). Most of Superman’s villains were reimagined and introduced as if they were new.

Smaller retcons, those that affect a single character or team, can be looked at as patches. The John Byrne Doom Patrol, which quietly relaunched the Doom Patrol as if they were new characters, but left the rest of the DCU unchanged. The Time Trapper/Glorith mini-reboot in the “Five Years Later” Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Threeboot Legion.

Really, anything that could be explained by a “Superboy punch” can be treated as a patch.

In between are the events that retcon a bunch of characters across the line, but only change the distant past and behind-the-scenes events. The DC Universe after Zero Hour was very much like the DC Universe after Crisis on Infinite Earths. The DC Universe after Infinite Crisis were very much like the DC Universe after Zero Hour. Zero Hour…aside from the reboot Legion, most of the retroactive changes were details. Infinite Crisis may have set up the return of the multiverse, but it happened in a way that no one in the main universe noticed for over a year. I’d compare these to service packs.

So in a way, DC’s right: it’s not a “reboot.” It’s a reinstall.

DC Comics has announced a “Flash 101″ sale on digital comics. All listed Flash titles will be only 99 cents for 48 hours starting August 13. They don’t say where, but I think it’s safe to assume it’s at ComiXology, because they’re DC’s exclusive online vendor at this point.

And they’ve added a lot more issues.

Up to this point, ComiXology has had everything from Flash: Rebirth onward. Over the last few days, readers have spotted early issues from Wally West’s series, the beginning of Impulse, and a few scattered issues from the Bronze Age. Check out the full list of titles on sale after the jump:  Read the rest of this entry »

I understand DC’s decision to pick a single Flash. They want to make a fresh start (sort of — more about that in part 2). They don’t want incoming readers to be intimidated by 70 years of history. And they want a world in which super-heroes have only been around for a few years. But there’s value in the legacy concept, and I’d argue that it’s helped The Flash and its readership.

Crisis Management

We Flash fans have been extremely lucky. From 1940 to 2005 we’ve had three great versions of the character. We’ve had solid, long-running creative teams. Gardner Fox wrote most of the Golden Age and half the Silver Age. John Broome wrote the rest of it, with Robert Kanigher straddling the two eras. Cary Bates authored the entire Bronze Age, and I’d wager that nearly everyone reading this has experienced the incredible Flash runs by Mark Waid and Geoff Johns in the 1990s and early 2000s. We’ve had amazing artists like Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino, and Mike Wieringo, and more recently Francis Manapul.

And unlike fans of Superman or Wonder Woman, we’ve never had to deal with DC outright erasing the stories we know and love. Because Barry Allen and Jay Garrick were different characters, DC was able to build a shared history in Crisis on Infinite Earths, and because they had promoted Wally West to the lead spot, they could start at the beginning of a hero’s (solo) career, again without wiping out what had gone before. Read the rest of this entry »

Today we’re featuring the first of two guest posts by fellow blogger The Irredeemable Shag (from ONCE UPON A GEEK and FIRESTORM FAN)!

Dear Speed Force readers,

Welcome to Mayfairstivus! That’s right, it’s time once again for the beloved annual celebration of Mayfair Games’ DC Heroes Role-Playing Game! This time honored tradition dates back to 1985 when the first edition of this role-playing game was released … or maybe this is a fake holiday some comic book bloggers just cooked up as an excuse to post related content from Mayfair’s long-running DC Heroes line.

Today we’ll look at a few different Flash entries from the role-playing game (RPG) and learn how the first box set shattered my fragile little comic reader world.

Read the rest of this entry »

A while back (OK, a year ago — I’m trying to get my email inbox under control again), David Fulton sent in a link to this image from the 52 back-up feature, History of the DCU.

The panel appears in part three of the story, which summarizes the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths and explains the original Multiverse. I’ve labeled the Flashes I recognize, but I believe the rest are new creations. The mask in the upper right with the goggles reminds me a little of the Crime Society Johnny Quick (who would not make his first appearance until the end of 52). The full face mask directly below Barry Allen reminds me a bit of the suit in the JLI Elseworlds Annual.

So why create new Flashes just for one-time cameos instead of using existing obscure characters? There actually weren’t that many alternate realities explored before Crisis — at least, not realities that were similar to the mainstream Earth-1/Earth-2 dynamic with DC’s major heroes. Once you got as far as Earth-4, they were dealing with the Charlton heroes, or the Quality heroes, or the Fawcett heroes, worlds that didn’t have a Flash.

They could have pulled in some examples from Grant Morrison’s “Second Crisis” story in Animal Man, or from some of the settings retroactively added to the pre-Crisis multiverse like Kingdom Come or the Tangent Comics Flash, but they may have wanted to stick with “real” characters who were actually around at the time of COIE. That leaves the Zoo Crew’s Fastback or the Justa Lotta Animals’ Crash, but they were going for a serious tone with this story. A talking turtle with super-speed might have spoiled the mood!

Some recent sightings of Flash history around the web.

4thletter!’s 4×4 Elements series looks at what made “Blitz” work.

Two more Flash moments appear in Comics Should Be Good’s list of 75 Memorable Moments in DC History: Barry Allen’s sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths and the first Superman/Flash race.

Bleeding Cool noticed a similarity between the universe-changing conclusion of Spider-Man’s “One More Day” and a story point in Flash’s “Hell to Pay,” and asked, “Where was the outrage when Wally West did the same thing?” Hmm, on one hand you have someone who makes a deal with the devil to retcon away 15 20 years of stories and create a new status quo that has lasted three years so far. On the other hand, you have someone who makes a deal with the devil for the sake of a story, and he finds a way to beat the Devil at his own game the next issue. Yeah, they’re totally the same.

Random Happenstance’s series on 1999′s JLApe event continues with a summary of the Flash installment, featuring Max Monkey and Chimpulse.

The Hooded Utilitarian, after reading Flash: Rebirth, decides to go back and read some Silver-Age Flash starting with Showcase #4.

Absolute Justice, the Geoff Johns-penned two-hour Smallville episode featuring the Justice Society of America, airs this Friday at 8:00 PM on the CW. The Flash doesn’t appear himself, but we’ve seen screencaps with Jay Garrick’s helmet and a painting featuring the classic JSA.

But Smallville isn’t the only show that references the Flash this week. Canadian viewers have already seen this week’s episode of Human Target, “Sanctuary.” @hastily spotted a character trying to explain what the Anti-Monitor did to Barry Allen in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The episode airs in the US on Wednesday at 8:00 PM on Fox.

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.

Some more linkblogging…

CSBG’s Cool Comic Book Moments #245 features the death of Barry Allen from Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Crimson Lightning finishes up the Super-Powers retrospective with the original mini-comic that came with the action figure.

Silver Age Comics brings up 3 extremely lame bits about Kid Flash. Coincidence, costume change, and…do you dare read on to learn the third?

Indie Squid Kid presents the golden age of octopus fighting. No, really!

Update: Newsarama’s Friday Flashback looks back at the classic Flash #0 by Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo. This classic post-Zero Hour book told a stand-alone story of Wally West bouncing around in time and, at one point, meeting his younger self, reassuring him that everything would work out. It also set things in motion for the epic Terminal Velocity, which started the following month.

CBR has posted a write-up of the DC Nation panel at Bristol Comics Expo last weekend, and Dan Didio has (as usual) some interesting things to say about the Flash.

All modern concepts of The Flash stem from the Silver Age Barry Allen version of him, and ‘The Flash: Rebirth’ does not negate the all of the stories that have gone before, it merely brings back the star character of the franchise in order to revitalize and expand the Flash universe, using the core concept as the foundation.

Well, sure, it doesn’t negate them…except for the stories that have been negated. For example, anything that involves Barry’s parents being alive during his career as the Flash, like the Identity Crisis tie-in, “The Secret of Barry Allen.” Hmm, I wonder who wrote that one?

Undoing Crisis on Infinite Earths

He also explains that since the “pillars of ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’” — the deaths of the Flash and Supergirl, and elimination of the multiverse — had long since started falling, they might as well knock them all over. I’m not sure I’d consider those “pillars.” Things that happened, sure, but the key purpose of COIE was to combine DC’s multiple universes’ worth of characters into a single, cohesive history — and that still stands. There may be alternate realities, alternate timelines, hypertime, a multiverse, whatever you want to call it — but they’re all variations on a theme.

There’s still a main DC Universe which is home to all the Golden Age DC characters, all the Silver Age DC characters, all the characters DC bought from Fawcett, Quality, Charlton and other companies, even the Milestone and Archie/Red Circle characters that they just licensed last year. They’re all part of “The DC Universe,” which itself has become a brand name.

Just adding a multiverse that contains worlds for the Tangent characters, popular Elseworlds concepts, and new alternate realities? That doesn’t undo the Crisis. Really undoing it would mean splitting off groups of characters into separate universes, and at this point DC couldn’t do that without a much more substantial reboot than they did with Zero Hour or Infinite Crisis.

Waiting for the Trade

One last note: Didio’s perspective on trade-waiting, and DC’s focus on periodicals:

We have to make it feel like you can’t wait for the trade. I hate the expression ‘wait for the trade.’ It’s the thing that upsets me the most, because it means in my opinion that what we’re creating isn’t worth reading now. ‘I can pick it up a year from now.’

It’s an interesting take on the issue. It reminds me of a remark someone else made about how if you wait for the trade, you might not remember to pick it up a year from now, whereas if you’re buying something every month, you’re a lot less likely to forget. I suppose there’s some truth to that, but I’ll say this much: when it comes to prose authors I follow, if I’m following a series or really looking forward to their new book, I’m going to either pre-order it or go straight to the local bookstore the week it comes out.

I mean, how many Harry Potter fans forgot to pick up the last book when it came out?