Speed Force

On the road to today’s release of Flash #7, the creative team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato has been making the interview rounds.  Here’s a roundup of the past few days, covering their appearances in multiple outlets.

First up, Manapul stopped by iFanboy’s Word Balloon podcast to talk about his work on the title, include the nature of his collaboration with Buccellato.  From the description:

Artist/writer Francis Manapul is back to tell us what’s been happening in the pages of The Flash for DC Comics. We talk about his unique art choices to display the hero’s super speed, and the Flash’s point of view when faced with the choices of how to stop a crime or disaster from happening.

More after the jump!

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The Flash creative team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato made the rounds again this week, popping up over at MTV Geek! and at Yahoo! Associated Content to talk about the science behind the new Flash series and its roots in the real world.  The MTV article also included an exclusive look at Flash #5, which is located just below:

The duo talked about concepts like Augmented Cognition, which showed up in issue #2, as well as some of the science behind Mob Rule.  For excerpts, see you after the jump…

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Newsarama interviews Cary Bates about his work on The Flash and Justice League of America back in the 1970s, and his upcoming DC Retroactive specials revisiting those books.

With the books closer to release (DC Retroactive: The Flash: The 70s comes out next week), he’s able to say a little more than he did in our interview back in May, plus of course we weren’t asking him about the JLA! There’s some strange spoilery information about “Son of Grodd,” but what really caught my eye was what Bates said about the timeframe of the DC Retrocative books:

The deadlines for the retro books were very tight, so once I signed on I had to come up with the plots for both books within 24 hours.

24 hours! Wow! I’d gotten the impression that the Retroactive specials were a last-minute addition to the schedule, and this seems to confirm it. My suspicion: After DC decided to push full-steam-ahead on the reboot/relaunch/whatever it actually is, they decided to give the previous versions of the major characters a “last hurrah” before moving on.

When you’re done reading the Newsarama interview, jump back and check out our two-part interview in which Cary Bates talks more about his 1970s Flash run, the Death of Iris Allen, and where The Flash would have gone if it hadn’t been canceled during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Just a quick note since I’m kind of swamped today. DC has posted the first half of a two-part interview with Geoff Johns where he talks about his history with the Flash back to watching Challenge of the Super Friends and what he likes about the character. On the new series, he says:

All you need to know when you read the Flash #1 is how to read. Flash 101, and a few twists and turns, are within the pages. Francis did a stunning job, raising his art even from the amazing Adventure Comics.

On a key characteristic of Barry Allen:

Barry Allen is someone who has made a decision to help others during his own life and he made that decision even before he became the Flash.

The Rogues of course will be a big part of the new series, but they won’t be the only villains:

Barry will be meeting some new villains, one in particular that is going to be the strangest killer he’s ever faced. And I think with 64th Century magicians and talking gorillas that’s saying a lot.

Head over to The Source to read the whole interview. Or the whole first half, anyway. Part two goes up tomorrow.

I finally finished listening to last week’s Word Balloon Podcast with Ethan Van Sciver this morning. During the 90-minute interview, he talks about Flash: Rebirth, the personal issues that caused the delays, redesigning Wally West’s costume, bringing back Impulse, the balance of power between writers and artists, and Cyberfrog.

Some points that Flash readers will find interesting:

Last spring, Ethan Van Sciver started experiencing chest pains and was told that if he didn’t do something about his health, he was going to have a heart attack. So he embarked on a complete lifestyle change, which threw off his work schedule, slowing down Flash: Rebirth. The final issue, originally scheduled for September 30 of last year, will be out in two weeks on February 24.

It was his idea to make Iris “Irey” West II the new Impulse. He wanted the character back, and deliberately made Iris and Jai younger than they had been previously because of that (and because he didn’t like them as tweens). He also made an effort to draw Bart Allen as Kid Flash looking a bit more like he appeared as Impulse: round face, big feet, slightly exaggerated features. On a related note: Geoff Johns has plans for Jai.

He had a really hard time redesigning Wally West’s costume. The way he put it was that it’s easy to design a speedster costume, but it’s hard to design a Flash costume. Whereas with Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night he basically had free reign with new designs, this time he kept getting notes and had several designs rejected. The final version was quite literally a composite of other Flash costumes: EVS wanted the straight cowl from the TV series & Dark Flash, to make it look like a knight’s helmet (in line with his Barry = King Arthur and Wally = Lancelot metaphor), Geoff Johns came up with using the animated-style emblem, etc. To this day, Van Sciver isn’t happy with the way it turned out.

There’s a lot more in there — it is an hour and a half long — and it’s worth listening to if you have the time. There’s also a discussion at Comic Bloc that’s gotten into the writer/artist balance.

Related note: Daniel Way interviews EVS in connection with Cherry Capital Con.

CBR has posted their latest Geoff Johns Prime question and answer column. in it the Flash: Rebirth author talks about Blackest Night, Flash, Superman and a lot more.

Some Flash items that stood out:

Wally’s Costume

Back in June, Ethan Van Sciver said that Wally West’s new costume debuts in Flash: Rebirth #6, but Geoff Johns says here that it appears in #5. If that’s correct and not a typo, then I feel a lot more confident about the schedule for Blackest Night: Flash not being pushed back to avoid spoiling the costume debut.

He goes on:

And it’s very much a Flash costume. It’s tweaked, but it’s certainly not crazy. It’s not blue and white. It’s Flash. We never wanted to completely change it. We just wanted to accentuate what makes Wally’s costume, Wally’s costume. It will feel very familiar.

Hmm, hard to say, but I’m going to guess two things:

• Barry keeps the straight-across belt and Wally keeps the V-shaped belt.
• Wally loses the top of his cowl, making his hair visible.

XS

There are very big plans for XS in the future of the Flash universe. “The Flash” book and the “Kid Flash” book start next year

I think this is great. I haven’t read much of the DnA Legion of Super-Heroes, but I liked her appearances in Impulse during and around “Dead Heat.” Jenni and Bart really connected during that story, and I can see a lot of potential with two teenage speedsters who have spent significant amounts of time in the future. Plus it’s got to be a big change for Bart to go from having one blood relative around (Iris) to three (Iris, Barry and Jenni).

On the other hand, I hope XS will still be tied to the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I hope her Flash appearances are in addition to the “new” female speedster hinted at in San Diego and Long Beach.

Hey, wouldn’t it be weird if she ends up in the Justice League? (Okay, not going to happen, but she would be an “interesting” choice, wouldn’t she?)

The Speed Force

His longest Flash-related answer is to a question about why he changed the nature of the speed force in Flash: Rebirth. It’s several paragraphs long, but the part that stood out for me was this:

And literally if [Barry] builds up enough energy, just like anything else that builds up energy, boom, there’s a discharge somewhere or somewhen. A stray lightning bolt from the Speed Force that…strikes somebody that shares the same sense of justice that Barry Allen has.

This picks up from something suggested during William Messner-Loebs’ run on the book, in which he suggested that Barry Allen might somehow have subconsciously willed the accident that gave him super-speed to repeat itself with Wally. It explains the mysterious behavior of the speed force “noticing” people, though it doesn’t quite explain, for instance, Savitar — who certainly didn’t share Barry Allen’s sense of justice. Maybe he did before he gained his powers. Or maybe he gained them through a discharge from Thawne’s “negative speed force?”

(Personally, I think that these changes overcomplicate a plot device that was designed to simplify speedsters’ origins, but that’s just my opinion.)

Flash Movie

Geoff Johns says that he’s “working on The Flash” and Shazam but can’t say anything more at this time.

Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers interviews Ethan Van Sciver about Blackest Night and Flash: Rebirth. I found one segment particularly interesting:

Flash is the same way [as Green Lantern]. Throughout 60-70-some years of DCU history, there have been lots of little pieces and hints and clues about what the speedsters are or where they come from or what they mean. A plucky couple of creators could get together and put those clues together to mean something much bigger. And that’s what we’re attempting to do.

So Flash: Rebirth is what Green Lantern: Rebirth was in the sense that we’re trying to get all of our ducks in a row here and prepare for the much, much bigger story that will come from it. And that’s got to include every single Flash character.

I find this interesting for a couple of reasons.

The first is that linking all the speedsters together and examining what’s behind their existence is exactly what Mark Waid did with the speed force back in Terminal Velocity and Dead Heat. So in a sense, what he’s talking about has already been done.

The second is that there definitely are further implications to the power of speed, particularly when time travel is added to the mix. There’s that “Green Lantern is to Space as the Flash is to Time” analogy that Geoff Johns made a while back. There’s the nature of Zoom’s powers as a shifting timeline that mimics super-speed — a theory which had been tossed around by fans as an explanation for the Flash’s own powers. And then there’s the suggestion in the novel Flash: Stop Motion that super-speed is simply one aspect of a power based on quantum mechanics.

And of course the implication that they have a big story planned for the future that involves the entire Flash family.

Also, regarding the upcoming Flash: Rebirth #4:

Major heroics and fireworks on the part of Jay Garrick and Bart Allen, who have never been made to look this kick-ass before. They’re going to really get their moment to shine in Issue #4. It’s fantastic stuff. It’s a big action issue. It’s good. It’s scary.

Some Friday morning linkblogging…

Creator Interviews

Remember that interview with Carmine Infantino last week? The legendary artist was unhappy about how he was portrayed in the article, and has fired back a complaint at the interviewer. The Beat has the whole story.

CBR goes in-depth with Ethan Van Sciver, talking with the artist about everything from Cyberfrog and Impulse to Green Lantern: Rebirth, Blackest Night, and Flash: Rebirth.

The Half Hour Wasted podcast devotes its latest episode to Ethan Van Sciver. Despite the name, it’s actually over two hours long, and the artist talks about topics as varied as his recent trip to South Africa, balancing previews against spoilers (apparently none of the solicited covers for Flash: Rebirth issues 4-6 are the “real” cover — I’m guessing that the cover for #5 is mostly the same image, only with Professor Zoom instead of the Black Flash), redesigning Sinestro, and much, much more.

CBR presents the second monthly Geoff Johns Prime question-and-answer column.

Marc Guggenheim will attempt to re-imagine the campy Battlestar Galactica spin-off Galactica 1980 as a comic book.

Flashing Back

Comics in Crisis has Attack of the Cartoon Heroes part 2, including a Justice League clip.

Castle Vardulon presents: the amazing single-sentence continuity error from Flash v.1 #133.

Comics Should Be Good looks at DC’s June 1965 covers, including Flash v.1 #153, featuring Professor Zoom and the Mightiest Punch of All Time!

Silver Age Comics looks back on Neal Adams’ Brave and the Bold run, including his take on guest stars like the Flash.

More

A nifty series of superhero illustrations, with several nice Flash pieces in part 2.

Blog@Newsarama has an interesting idea: What if the JLA membership were chosen by DC’s sales rankings?

The Word Balloon podcast interviews Ethan Van Sciver about Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night. The post has a few excerpts in which he talks about Barry Allen’s origin pre-figuring the Marvel-style accident-based origin (of course Jay’s fits the same pattern), about returning to draw Bart Allen years after his run on Impulse, about the Flash Museum and Central & Keystone Cities’ obsession with the Rogues, and about the challenge of drawing a monthly comic.

I’m really going to have to listen to this when I get home (or maybe at lunch if I can find a USB cable).

Fellow Flash blog Crimson Lightning has returned to a regular update schedule, including the latest in its series reviewing each episode of the 1990 Flash TV Series: “Fast Forward.”

Newsarama’s Grumpy Old Fan contemplates what “the most definitive” version of a character means.

More Mortal Kombat vs DCU trailers, including video of Flash vs. Scorpion. Something must be funky about the player CBR uses, because this is the second time they’ve posted video clips on MKvDC that I couldn’t get to play. YMMV.

This Week in Geek interviews Brea Grant (via @breagrant)

And speeking of geeks, check out the 56 Geeks Project (via Once Upon a Geek)