February 21, 2010
It’s always interesting to see what searches bring people to the site. Every once in a while I look through for questions, or implied questions, that aren’t already answered here.
Current Events
Why did Reverse Flash have a Brightest Day symbol?
We don’t know for sure yet, but the implication is that Brightest Day is related to characters who come back from the dead after or at the end of Blackest Night.
Is Jesse Quick back?
Well, she seems to be…but then she’s still appearing as Liberty Belle in Justice Society of America and the second features in JSA All-Stars, so it’s hard to tell. Maybe those take place earlier, maybe she goes back to the other costume, or maybe she’s just going to switch costumes depending on who she’s teaming up with that day.
Did Jay Garrick die in Smallville?
He only appeared in flashback, when Checkmate was rounding up the Justice Society and arresting its members on false charges. He was mentioned by other characters as if he was still alive. (Spoilers for Absolute Justice.)
Is DC working on an animated Flash movie?
If they are, they haven’t said anything about it. A Newsarama article more than a year ago included the Flash in a list of upcoming projects, but there’s been no mention of it since then.
Looking Back
What comes before Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge?
Rogues’ Revenge concludes a sort of trilogy, which you can follow in these collections:
- Flash: The Fastest Man Alive – Full Throttle
- JLA: Salvation Run
- Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge
It also takes place after the end of Flash vol.2 and during the first three issues of Final Crisis.
What year did the Flash superhero gain lightning?
That depends on what the lightning in question is:
- The symbol dates back to Jay Garrick’s first appearance in 1940.
- Lightning in the Flash’s origin goes back to Barry Allen’s first appearance in 1956.
- Lightning effects used to convey speed were used occasionally in the early 1990s, became more prominent when Mike Wieringo worked on the book (1993-1994), and really became established during Terminal Velocity (1995).
Slightly Off-Topic
What is Dan Didio’s twitter name?
As far as I’m aware, Dan Didio isn’t on Twitter.
Who was the female speedster in Heroes?
The character’s name was Daphne Millbrook, and she was played by actress Brea Grant.
Flashforward novel how did it know the pope’s name?
It’s off-topic, but I get a lot of these since I posted a review of the novel.
Author Robert J. Sawyer explains in this video interview that he looked at the list of past popes’ names for those that had good reputations and might be “ready for a comeback.”
January 11, 2010
DC has announced over at The Source that DC will be following Blackest Night with Brightest Day, a yearlong, 26-issue biweekly series by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi that’s being described as “DCU: Rebirth.” Like Blackest Night, it will tie into just about everything, with some series (including the two Green Lantern books) getting a “Brightest Day” Banner…including The Flash.
I think it’s safe to say this is the cover for The Flash #1.
Dan Didio explains:
We’ll be launching the new FLASH ongoing series, by Geoff and Francis Manapul in April with a BRIGHTEST DAY banner, and there will be several more titles utilizing it come May and June.
With this book, Geoff and Francis are really bringing Barry Allen back into the spotlight and cementing him as the premiere Flash in the DCU in his own monthly. It’s no secret that I’ve been waiting a long time to see this. I’ve always been a huge Barry fan, and I can say that Geoff and Francis are reinvigorating him as a character in much the same way Geoff did with Hal Jordan. Should be fun.
Well, you can’t say they aren’t giving the new series a major push. (Now I’d really like to see numbers on Blackest Night: The Flash.)
I’d like to believe that Brightest Day represents the long-promised, well, brightening of the DC Universe we were told would happen after Infinite Crisis, but if Flash is a major component, and it’s going to be all about murder mysteries, I’m a little concerned. On the other hand, Pushing Daisies had a new murder mystery each week, and still managed to be a light-hearted comedy, so who knows?
Here’s hoping Brightest Day will live up to its name!
Update: The news on Brightest Day: Titans seems to suggest that Brightest Day will be continuing the grim-n-gritty approach that DC has taken from Identity Crisis onward.
Update 2: IGN interviews Geoff Johns about the project.
January 7, 2010
At the Source, Dan Didio talks about Who’s Who and Legacies with a little more solid information than last month’s teases.
Who’s Who will start in May and take 18 issues (initial reports said 12, then 15), covering thousands of characters, and the DC Universe should be a little more settled (“no longer in flux”) after Blackest Night.
It turns out that the “new History of the DC Universe” hinted at last month is not a separate project, but rather the the concept behind Legacies. Instead of a literal history, they’re telling “a detailed and weaving story of two families whose lives have been impacted by five generations of super-heroes.”
December 21, 2009
So…DC’s latest 20 Questions with Dan Didio video has some bad news for fans of the extended Flash family. He answered my question about the Flash and Kid Flash books, explaining that they’ve decided to go back to “the original game plan” and focus on a single Flash book starring Barry Allen.
Wally West’s backup stories, by Geoff Johns & Scott Kolins? “On hold.” [Edit: This may be the result of DC restructuring the second features.]
The Kid Flash book by Sterling Gates? “On hold.”
He goes on to say, “Your Flash fix will be Barry Allen, pure and simple, for 2010.”
Warning: Rant Ahead
Edit: The rest of this post is a rant, bashed out in the heat of the moment immediately after watching that video. If I’d had the sense to wait until I’d cooled down, I wouldn’t have written it.
To clarify what I did write, it’s not just that Barry’s getting the limelight that has me pissed off. I’ve had a year and a half to get used to that. What really has me steamed is that DC announced ongoing stories starring Bart and Wally, then changed their minds and yanked that away.
I picked up Flash: Rebirth hoping that it would convince me to like the idea of new Barry stories. It hasn’t. If it had, this news would have still been disappointing, but wouldn’t have gotten me so angry.
Anyway, onto the original post…
Read the rest of this entry »
November 16, 2009
Dan Didio let slip some more information about the upcoming Kid Flash series in his latest 10 Answers column at Newsarama. First he reminded readers that Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates will be working closely together to keep the Flash and Kid Flash books linked, similar to the way Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps have been linked. Then he added something that fans of the Impulse series may find appealing:
You’ll still see the dynamic between Kid Flash and Max Mercury, if I’m not mistaken. And I think that’s new information, so you did get something out of me. But Max will be featured in this series as well. So if somebody’s a fan of Impulse, they’ll get that relationship back in the Kid Flash series. Because of the Max/Bart relationship, I think they’ll be very pleasantly surprised about what the plans are for the book.
This book is sounding better and better! Only two one more question:
- Who will do the art?
When will it launch?
I suspect the artist hasn’t been finalized yet, though they could be waiting until they get closer to a firm launch date. And on that score, “About a month after Flash” is certainly more specific than certain other series (*cough* Zatanna *cough*) have gotten, but it’ll be nice when DC can give us a firm “April 2010″ or “May 2010.” Edit: As Andrew points out, Dan Didio does indicate that the book will be launching in May 2010.
November 15, 2009
Some linkblogging for the weekend…
Artists and a Publisher
Karl Kerschl shares a sketch of Iris West he did while in Italy.
Francis Manapul shares a black and white version of his variant cover for Blackest Night: The Flash #3.
Dan Didio talks to CBR about a number of things including Flash. He reiterates some of the reasons they let the book fall behind rather than put a new team on it to bring it out quickly, like they did with Final Crisis:
That ran with some delays, but at the end of the day we looked at the full package of how that will look as a book, and we wanted to maintain consistency all the way through. The events of that book weren’t essential to what happens with the Flash in “Blackest Night.”
Nothing new. In fact he said more or less the same thing a couple of days earlier to Newsarama. Interestingly, he describes the new Flash series book as spinning out of Blackest Night. Whether that’s simply in publishing terms, or in story terms as well, is not clear.
Fan Commentary
The Flash makes IO9′s 10 Favorite Faux Deaths In Science Fiction. If you want to get technical, it’s really their 12 favorite fake/reversed deaths, because the Flash entry includes Barry Allen (Crisis on Infinite Earths), Wally West (Infinite Crisis) and Bart Allen (Flash: The Fastest Man Alive). Or maybe 13, since it’s got both Phoenix and Jean Grey.
Collected Editions compares the Final Crisis and Blackest Night collections.
The Flash in New Frontier makes Comics Should Be Good’s 313th cool comic book moment. They’re also accepting nominations for a top 100 comic storylines poll.
Other Stuff
Comic Wallet is selling wallets made from pages of Flash: Rebirth.
A bit off-topic, I’ve been running a photo blog, updating three times a week, mostly with shots from around the Orange County, California area. I’ve also reviewed The Gathering Storm, the new Wheel of Time novel that kept me away from the computer for a week.
October 24, 2009
Some linkblogging for the weekend…
Fortress of Baileytude starts JSA Week by declaring that Jay Garrick is the Man.
Once Upon a Geek looks back at a Justice League Monopoly board game from 1999.
For the ladies: A Comic Blog starts off their Top 10 Sexiest Comic Guys list with Wally West.
Joey Cavalieri talks about the Battle of the Bulge and Brave and the Bold #28, this week’s J. Michael Straczynski/Jesus Saiz team-up between the Flash and the Blackhawks. IGN reviews the issue.
Billy Tucci talks about his Flash/Superman race in this week’s DC Universe Halloween Special.
Dan Didio talks about legacies and characters growing up in his latest 10 Answers column.
September 28, 2009
In the latest 10 Answers with Dan Didio (it’s now 10 questions every week instead of 20 questions every 2 weeks), Dan Didio answers some questions about the upcoming Kid Flash series being written by Sterling Gates.
Launch date: “somewhere around April or May of next year. It will launch about a month after the launch of the new Flash book.” Note: Last we heard, Flash was going to launch in March 2010, which would place it a month after the planned end of Blackest Night: Flash
Artist: “I’ve got a couple of artists who are under consideration,” but right now they’re focused on coordinating stories.
He also reiterates what Geoff Johns has previously said about the Flash and Kid Flash books being aligned much in the same way that Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps are aligned.
There are, of course, 9 more questions and answers in the original article, including some interesting remarks on solicitations and spoilers.
(Thanks to @SpeedsterSite for the link)
September 20, 2009
Rounding up a week of links:
Major Spoilers has the Top 300 Comics for August 2009, and Flash: Rebirth #4 is #14. They’re also holding a costume contest.
Dan Didio’s latest 20 questions explains how Geoff Johns & Francis Manapul moved from Adventure Comics to The Flash. He adds, “my goal now is to get those guys going on Flash as soon as possible.”
High Five! Comics lists their top ten second-string couples, featuring both Barry & Iris Allen and Ralph & Sue Dibny. Their latest Things I Learned From Comics feature covers How to Gain Superpowers.
Collected Editions has updated their DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline and moved to its new, post-GeoCities home.
Humor
The Onion brings the “news” that melting ice caps are exposing hundreds of secret arctic lairs. Does anyone remember whether Dr. Impossible had one?
Noah Van Sciver continues his comic-strip Flash: Rebirth Recaps with issue #4.
Movies
We Are Movie Geeks has made a list of five projects for DC Entertainment to jump on, starting with the Flash.
And finally, Crimson Lightning has the results of the casting poll. Fans cast Neil Patrick Harris as the Scarlet Speedster. Next up: Who’s your favorite Reverse Flash?
August 29, 2009
Between Ethan Van Sciver’s presence and the fact that Flash: Rebirth #4 had just been released two days earlier, there was a lot of Flash talk at Friday’s DC Nation panel at Fan Expo.
Newsarama’s article has a lot of Flash coverage, including this interesting statement by Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver:
I’m having a great time. It’s the book I pestered [Dan Didio] for over three years. I love Barry Allen. I love the Flash. The Flash is probably my favorite superhero. Barry has been gone 25 years and I though that was a pretty fair homage to pay for Crisis, but it was time to bring him back. When Geoff and I finally convinced Dan to let us do it, we built a huge gigantic story that really needed every single Flash, even some that had been missing, in order for it to work.
Flash Rebirth is Part 1 of that. It’s assembling all the pieces, putting them back together where we needed them to be, and then explain one little segment of what the speed force is. Again, Geoff is only giving you a taste of what it is. It’s so much more broad. Professor Zoom ties into it big time and it’s going to lead to a long, fruitful, and very successful ongoing series after this.
Jesse Quick
He added that Jesse Quick/Liberty Belle “has a great scene” in issue #5, and Dan Didio remarked that DC will be “exploring more about” Liberty Belle and Hourman. “They could be one of the more fun DC couples coming out right now.”
Bart Allen
CBR’s coverage includes some remarks that Ethan Van Sciver made about Kid Flash:
“How great is it to see Bart Allen again? I started on Impulse…I fed my family drawing Bart Allen as a young husband,” Sciver recalled “the look on Bart’s face in issue #4 was the look on my face when I drew it.”
Wally West
Joey Cavalieri Ethan Van Sciver joked that, as far as Wally West’s role in the rest of the series, we should “See Blackest Night.” Nice.
Didio went on to state that, unlike with Green Lantern, “Wally was the perfect replacement. Everybody had moved on so now it’s not a story about somebody who has to fix something broken in his absence, but somebody who is coming back to see if he was relevant still. What I’m talking about actually plays into what the story is about.”
Nasty Trick?
There’s also apparently a “nasty trick” coming up, regarding which EVS said, “Keep reading, it’ll all make sense.” I’m beginning to wonder whether Cavalieri’s joke about Wally may have been hiding the truth in plain sight.
We know Blackest Night: Flash focuses on Barry and Wally and has live Rogues vs. dead Rogues. What if Wally West dies at the end of Flash: Rebirth, and Blackest Night: Flash has live Barry vs. Black Lantern Wally West? There has been speculation that at least some of the Black Lanterns will return to life by the end of Blackest Night, and Wally could be brought back by the end of the event. Kind of like the way Kyle Rayner was temporarily bonded to Parallax during Sinestro Corps War.
Ongoing Series
And now for a scoop by @liabrown1: At the DC Universe panel on Saturday, they announced that the Flash ongoing series will launch in March 2010. This lines up with the 3-issue Blackest Night: Flash miniseries starting in December. With any luck, September may be our last month without a Flash book for a long time!
She adds that DC is “not ready to announce” the artist on the Kid Flash series, which implies that they’ve at least got someone in mind.
Update: CBR’s coverage of the DCU panel is up.
Update 2: Newsarma’s DCU Editorial write-up is up too, and there’s a bit of confusion as to how many Flash books are launching when.
