Yes, folks — in the post-FLASHPOINT world, Barry Allen has not only never dated Iris West, but he’s dating someone else entirely in issue #1! And that someone is…his longtime coworker Patty Spivot!

Long-term Flash readers may remember Patty Spivot as Barry Allen’s lab assistant in the late 1970s and early 1980s. More recent readers have seen that in the modern continuity, she was a full-fledged police scientist in her own right, and that she had been romantically interested in Barry Allen during their years as colleagues. In “The Road to Flashpoint,” Barry gave her the “Let’s be friends” speech, and in Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost, she stole Hot Pursuit’s bike and gear to take on the role of a time cop. (This being the Flashpoint universe, the new career didn’t last long.)

Editor Brian Cunningham continues:

But don’t fret—Iris West remains an active supporting cast member. And a wonderfully entertaining one, at that! Who else could possibly hit up Barry for anonymous crime-story tips to fill her blog on the Central City Citizen’s website? No one but the go-getter Iris could consume so much caffeine and live to tell about it.

And who knows, maybe someday we’ll have the opportunity to see why Barry and Iris fell in love in the first place. Or maybe not! Stay tuned — I can assure you Barry’s love life will never, ever be boring!

In the original history, Barry Allen and Iris West were married in The Flash #165, way back in 1966, still in the Silver Age.

His Love Life Will Change — In a Flash! is a post from Speed Force.

There were aspects I liked, of course: as in the previous issues, Trixter is a lot of fun — I cracked up at his hilariously bad car — and the art is of the same good quality. The flashback scenes of Wally and Piper are touching, and the history of friendship between them could probably fill an entire issue. Cold’s blunt and awkward flirting with Iris continues to be interesting and consistently handled. So for these reasons, it’s all the more unfortunate that the story follows the old trope of killing off (nearly) everyone in an alternate universe tale. The deaths themselves don’t bother me, and most if not all of the characters will be back after the reboot, but I was expecting everybody to die and most of them promptly did. The only survivors who surprised me were Iris and arguably Cold himself, although his end is left open to interpretation, and perhaps Iris or Piper might kill him off-panel for murdering Wally. It’s a nice touch to leave his fate ambiguous, allowing the reader to wonder or imagine an end for him.

The colouring continues to have the same darkness problem as the previous issues, and that’s too bad. From a technical standpoint, it’s clearly the series’ greatest flaw.

Regarding the series as a whole…

I like that Scott Kolins was able to write and draw his own story, as it gave him an unusual level of control over the details, and the reader knows this is exactly what he wanted to tell. He does incredibly detailed art and clearly puts a lot of thought into it — for example, look at the hideout and all the gear he designed for Piper. In the first issue, Piper’s garage wasn’t put together carelessly; it’s got all the equipment and engineering needed for the upkeep of his vehicles, it’s full of musical instruments as one would expect from him, and of course he’s got the consistent design scheme. There’s even a cameo of the skull-faced harp seen in his hideout in Rogues Revenge! While Kolins’ art occasionally veers into territory that’s too cartoony for my tastes, his planning and sense of detail can’t be beaten. It’s good to see it here, and writing his own story presumably allows him the freedom to do this to an even greater degree.

One way the series surprised me is the portrayal of Cold; based on the details we heard about him being Central City’s hero and (let’s face it) the way Geoff Johns is clearly a huge fan of him and likes to make him awesome and the best at everything, I was fully expecting Flashpoint Cold to be a perfect Gary Stu character. But he wasn’t: he was a corrupt lying jerk, clearly a worse person than in the regular DC universe, and unpleasantly awkward. He was still able to kill all the Rogues single-handedly, but also got kicked around and wasn’t the wish-fulfillment fanfic I cynically expected, and that’s great. It was one of the aspects which totally won me over in the first issue.

If there’s one question left unanswered, it’s why many of Central City’s inhabitants are so similar to their mainstream DC counterparts. Did Professor Zoom leave them mostly untouched for a reason, and if so, why? One might think they’d be fairly different without the Flash/Barry to influence them. I hope this is touched on in Flashpoint #5, although there are already a hell of a lot of things to be wrapped up in just that one issue.

Overall I enjoyed Citizen Cold. It had its flaws, and the second two issues weren’t as good as the first. However the series was solid as a whole, particularly if you’re a fan of the characters. In general I’m fairly lukewarm about Flashpoint, but Citizen Cold is among the better tie-ins that I’ve read, and hopefully other people have enjoyed it too.

Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #3
Story by Scott Kolins
Art by Scott Kolins

Review: Citizen Cold #3 is a post from Speed Force.

Writing the Flash

Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato talked at Sunday’s New 52 panel. Newsarama reports:

Brian “When Francis approached me and asked if I wanted to cowrite Flash with him I said hell yeah! But I was also nervous, because we’re both unknown quantities as writers”

Francis: “You should be scared that we’re writing this thing, but fear translates into excitement. We’re gonna take him into new directions and portray speed in new ways you haven’t seen before. We’re gonna be showing you what it’s like to be the Flash. If I could, I’d get you all yellow boots and put you in them, but this is the closest to that we can do. You’ll see what he can do physically and what he can do mentally”

Brian: “We have a really strong metaphor for the way Barry Allen thinks,” and how his mind moves just as fast as his physical body.

“I do want to say we have written things before. There is a history of writing, but not in the forefront. You’re not taking a ride with a bunch of guys who just said “hey we’re gonna write and see what happens” Brian assured the crowd.

CBR adds:

“It’s a very personal story,” said Manapul, adding that the tone they set is exactly how they felt when first starting out on the book: excited and fresh.

“We are putting ourselves in Barry Allen, we are not trying to reinvent him,” said Buccellato.

Newsarama again, Francis: “Our first arc, a lot of the stories are going to be a little bit longer, so we can establish what the new world order is. After the first arcs there will be more one and done stories, I’ve read them from some of the other writers”

Art Style

DC discussed Flash at their Friday Justice League Panel. According to CBR:

After Johns admitted that giving up “Flash” was difficult, Manapul said that he’s looking forward to write the character he’s enjoyed drawing. Buccellato, co-writing with Manapul, admitted taking over from Johns was intimidating.

Johns described Manapul’s art as “JH Williams meets Francis Manapul,” and said there would be inset or call-out panels on many pages illustrating how fast the Flash thinks. “Every panel can be something he’s looking at or thinking about, they’re all options,” Johns said. Buccellato added that “there are downsides to thinking so fast, too.”

Newsarama clarifies Geoff Johns’ remarks: “Flash thinks so fast, so in the middle of the page you’ll see all these insert panels of his options and then the next page will be what he really does.”

Manapul said that the Flash will now put on his suit by having his ring shoot out pieces of the costume, which he runs toward and which bind to each other in the heat. Manapul said.

Newsarama’s report (reformatted):

On the new costume ring, Manapul: “When I got the designs from Jim, I’m just trying to work off what he had done. There were these end seams on it and I wanted to have the costume appear in a different way. The ring will shoot out and he will run towards it and pieces of the costume will form together and pieces of the suit will be fused by the speed and electricity. And that’s why, when he’s running, the seams seem to light up.”

CBR adds: “It was a new DC, so I wasn’t sure if I could do this. So I just did it anyway,”

DC also released a gallery of concept art.

The Rogues

On Saturday, TheFlashReborn met Francis Manapul and Dan Didio and got to ask questions about the future of the Rogues. Again, reformatted for clarity:

Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato are wanting to concentrate on new villains & new characters at first (duh). They’re gonna introduce the Rogues one at a time bc they’ve gotten so used to acting as a group that they’ve lost their individual flavor. Also they (Dan) wanna get rid of the technical aspect & make their powers natural.

Rogues

Newsarama at Sunday’s New 52:

Barry/Flash will be facing “In the first arc a brand new villain group,” [Mob Rule].

“We will be introducing the rogues slowly, we want to focus on what makes each one of them dangerous to Barry Allen. The Rogues have broken up, you won’t know why. Captain Cold is the only one trying to get them back together. He’ll be coming back and forcing them to work together”

Supporting Cast & Returning Characters

On Sunday, a fan asked if Iris was dead. According to CBR

“Iris is alive,” confirmed Manapul, saying that in the comic Barry Allen and Iris went out in the past but it never progressed and he is currently single. Director Sing, Captain Fry, and Forrest will be involved in the comic added Manapul, as well as Gorilla Grodd and there are plans to bring back the Pied Piper.

Wally West

It turns out that the fans asking about Wally West at Thursday’s DC: The New 52 panel were none other than @SpeedsterSite and @BitterWallyWest.

Incoming co-writer Brian Buccellato responded to disappointed fans of Wally West on Twitter, encouraging them to give the new series a try anyway.

I think the key response is this one.

@TheFlashReborn @speedforceorg At the end of the day, I respect both sides. And our only focus is on making Barry cool as EFF.

July 21, 2011 8:19 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@BrianBooch

Brian Buccellato

@SpeedsterSite talked extensively with Dan Didio on Friday, and reported on his conversation via Twitter. I’m stringing them together as a paragraph to make it easier to read.

You will not be seeing Wally for the foreseeable future. Dan stated that the Perez era TT were very difficult to deal with because of their age. Dan specifically stated that Wally’s kids were a big reason why he’s off the board. When asked why Iris and Jai were aged up in the first place, Dan admitted poor planning.

Dan told me that with Black Lightning having two teenage kids made the decision to choose Static easier. With those two characters being so similar they felt Static provided more potential.

Dan mentioned that Donna Troy is off the board as well, especially because her similarities to Diana are too great. He said its hard and very difficult to accept but eventually the Perez era will be gone.

When Kyle Rayner’s new book was brought up, Dan said it’s much easier to branch out with Green Lantern than most titles. Dan also said that they realize they are pushing the limits of the Bat books and that they may be “dwindled.”

We were able to record some of our conversation so hopefully the audio isn’t horrible. Also, he gave me two poker chips.

Flash news from Comic-Con is a post from Speed Force.

The tension is ratcheted up considerably in this issue, arguably making it more exciting. But this same tension has a downside, resulting in several deaths, some possible deaths, and varied serious injuries. Wally West is confirmed dead, Lisa Snart killed, Citizen Cold severely wounded, and the rest of the Rogues may be dead or injured. It’s a grim tally, and having many deaths is something I was hoping would be avoided in this series, as alternate universes are notorious for employing high body counts. We know these deaths won’t stick, as at least some of the dead Flashpoint characters are alive in the September relaunch, but does anyone enjoy reading about mass deaths? This is of course not unique to the Citizen Cold series, as it’s in all the Flashpoint titles I’ve read, but the first issue was so enjoyable that I was hoping we wouldn’t get a lot of it here.

However, my biggest disappointment with the issue is the portrayal of Lisa Snart. In the past I’ve grumbled about the way Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins depicted her in regular DC universe flashbacks — generally more of a victim than the capable supervillain she always was. And it’s true that here in the Flashpoint world she’s a different person and never took up a costumed identity. Regardless, I’m still dismayed to see Kolins portray her as purely a victim in Flashpoint — she puts up with years of abuse, cries and pleads a lot, gets kidnapped by bad guys, and ultimately murdered. The only agency she shows in the entire Citizen Cold series is shooting her abusive father, which is pretty much overshadowed by all the tears and terrible things happening to her. Even if she had to die for the sake of the story, I would have liked to first see her stand up for herself against the Rogues.

That said, I did enjoy the issue. Trixter’s over-the-top yapping was fun again, and Cold flirting openly and awkwardly with Iris is both amusing and cringe-inducing in a good way. He’s always been creepy about pursuing women since the Silver Age, and though we don’t see it in modern comics, it’s a reminder of why he sticks with prostitutes in the regular DC universe. At the same time, there’s the interesting contrast between regular and Flashpoint Cold; one is an unabashed criminal with a set of morals, and the other pretends to be a hero but behaves worse than his villainous counterpart. Apparently the absence of the Flash not only left a vacuum in Central City for Cold to become its ‘hero’, but also meant there was no positive influence to make him a better person.

The artwork situation is very similar to the last issue; it’s Kolins’ familiar style and done well, although again the colouring is murky and dark. This dark colouring makes the action somewhat difficult to follow in places, notably the scene in which Piper encounters the ice-duplicate bomb. And again there’s some of that strange underlining of words in the lettering, which I find slightly distracting.

I look forward to issue #3, but hope it won’t involve many deaths. However, I suspect there will be a final showdown between Cold and Piper (who probably survived the cliffhanger bombing) and possibly another character or two believed dead, and it will likely be bloody. Iris probably won’t fare well either. As with any alternate universe, we could easily start a betting pool on who will live and who will die, a sign that comics in general should probably end this cliché lest the industry implode any further. Why not surprise us and give a (relatively) happy ending for at least some of the characters?

Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #2
Story by Scott Kolins
Art by Scott Kolins

Review — Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #2 is a post from Speed Force.

The cover for DC Retroactive: The Flash – The ’70s is by Benito Gallego, Sal Buscema, and Carrie Strachan. The book is being written by Cary Bates, who talked about it a bit in an interview with Speed Force last month.

It’s titled “Son of Grodd” and it explores the concept of fatherhood on two parallel tracks, one dealing with Grodd and the other with Barry….With this story, heretofore unspoken aspects of the Allen marriage will finally be explored in depth. At the same time, you’ll be seeing a new side of Grodd as we find out what kind of father he might have made back in the ’70’s.

There’s more in there, of course, so be sure to read the whole interview if you missed it the first time around.

UPDATE! Artist Benito Gallego dropped by to point out his original pencils for the cover!

Cover for DC Retroactive: The Flash ’70s is a post from Speed Force.

 Citizen Cold #1

Spoilers behind the cut…

Citizen Cold is what passes for a hero in Central City, although given the dark hints we’ve seen in other parts of the Flashpoint world, his harsh methods don’t seem particularly unusual. He also drinks and womanizes too much, which is perfectly in line with his regular-universe behaviour. In fact, his behaviour is fairly similar between the two universes, suggesting that whatever Professor Zoom did to the timeline, it didn’t affect Cold too much. Since he still has the abusive father here, it strongly suggests that his terrible upbringing affected him a lot more in both universes than the presence of the Flash or other Rogues.

Things played out similarly for Cold in the Flashpoint universe as in the regular one, only here we get a more explicit reminder of one of the crueler things he’s done: leaving his sister Lisa at home with their abusive father. This was brought up during Geoff Johns’ run on The Flash, although in this reality Lisa never escaped by becoming a professional skater or villain, and eventually kills her father out of desperation. It seems especially callous on Cold’s part because here he’s rich and famous and could have easily rescued her, and really emphasizes what a selfish jerk he is. I’d like to hear his rationalization (if any) for it in a future issue.

While we don’t see much of the other Rogues, they’re a lot of fun. Axel is hilariously obnoxious and irritates everyone around him, and I’ll never be able to stop chuckling at Weather Wizard’s goatee. But I hope we find out hints of the life choices which led to them becoming who they are; for instance, since Weather Wizard never killed his brother, why did he still become the Weather Wizard? Was James Jesse around and Axel then took the mantle from him, or did Axel become the Trickster (ahem, ‘Trixter’) all on his own? The same question applies to Evan McCulloch and his predecessor. It does seem a bit too coincidental that many of the current regular-universe Rogues are also around and working together in the Flashpoint world, which is arguably a plot flaw but perhaps future issues will tell. At least including non-Rogues like Fallout helps keep the lineups from being too similar.

One point of interest is that we learn the name of Cold’s father for the first time: Lawrence (I’ll assume it’s the same between the Flashpoint and regular universe). This is helpful, because for lack of anything else I’ve been calling him ‘Daddy Snart’ or ‘Old Man Snart’ for years!

The art is what we usually expect from Kolins; slightly cartoony but very detailed and distinct. He draws the Rogues so often that they look very familiar to Flash fans, and I like that. The colours are slightly dark and muddy to my eye, however, and could really stand to be lightened. In some panels it’s difficult to figure out what’s going on. And as an aside, there’s a lettering oddity in the first few pages of the book: emphasized words are underlined rather than bolded, and I don’t think I’ve seen that anywhere else. It’s jarring because it’s unusual, but fortunately only a few pages are like that.

The issue is definitely worth picking up, and one of the more enjoyable Flashverse stories in quite a while (it’s a bit of a shame we had to go into an alternate universe to get it). Hopefully the next two issues will be as good as this one.

Citizen Cold #1 Review is a post from Speed Force.

DC has started announcing the full writer/artist teams for the Retro-Active event announced at WonderCon. First up for The Flash: The 1970s.

DC RETROACTIVE: THE FLASH – THE ’70s

Artist Benito Gallego teams up with writer Cary Bates to tell the tale of an evil attack from one of The Flash’s greatest nemeses, Gorilla Grodd. With a plan so twisted and evil launched against him, Barry must not only work to preserve his legacy, but his relationship with his wife, Iris.

ONE-SHOT • On sale JULY 20 • 56 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T

As explained in the Superman announcement, each book will feature a 20-page new story and a 26-page classic story by the same writer.

Update: I just noticed that this is scheduled for the same week as the Showcase Presents collection of Cary Bates’ bronze-age Flash epic, The Trial of the Flash. Now there’s timing!

Update 2: The wording of DC’s solicitation text is slightly different:

In a new tale from classic 1970s writer Cary Bates, Gorilla Grodd unleashes his most ruthless attack yet against his nemesis, The Flash – a plan for revenge so warped and diabolical, it dooms The Scarlet
Speedster to a slow and agonizing fate that will end his heroic career and cause an unspeakable rift between Barry and his wife, Iris!

Plus: Following the 26-page lead story is a classic tale originally published in the ’70s, also written by Cary Bates!

Retro-Active: The Flash 1970s – Creative Team & Release Date is a post from Speed Force.

DC has started posting covers for July’s Flashpoint comics at The Source, each one with a “Flash Question” (as opposed to a Flash Fact.)

FLASH QUESTION: Will Central City’s greatest hero be able to stand against the Rogues?

FLASHPOINT: CITIZEN COLD #2
Written by SCOTT KOLINS
Art and cover by SCOTT KOLINS
On sale JULY 13 • 2 of 3, 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

I guess this cover answers one question from the teaser for issue #1. Iris doesn’t exactly look too thrilled, does she?

Nice to see Piper back.

The closer we get to Flashpoint, the more overwhelming it gets trying to cover it. You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been sticking with the directly Flash-related and Rogues-related announcements lately. Partly it’s keeping the site focused, but a lot of it is just time.

Flashpoint: Can Citizen Cold stand against the Rogues? (Cover) is a post from Speed Force.

I’m going to make a confession and I realize it sounds irrational, but I don’t like Joan Garrick. I know that sounds bad. You hear something like that and think, “How can you hate that nice grandmotherly lady?” Before we even get into the whys I want to clarify, I dislike her, I don’t hate her. I wasn’t cheering when she came down with fake-cancer. Besides the fact that cancer isn’t really cheer worthy, I didn’t want to see her die.

So what started all this craziness? Her first appearance. I’m not even talking about her issue as a whole; I’m talking about the first page of Flash Comics #1. Our hero, young scientist in training Jay Garrick meets Joan at school and asks her out to the Victory dance. Her response is, “I…I don’t thinks so, Jay…You’re…a scrub on the football team…and captain Bull Tryon’s already asked me!!”

Wow. How nasty is that? She could have easily said, “Sorry, but someone already asked me,” or anything like that. Instead she decides to bust on his football skills. And bless his heart; Jay somehow still wants to impress her. He gains super speed and immediately uses it for football. Maybe it’s because I’m not a football fan? I’ve also though of Joan as cold hearted after that.

I realize Iris didn’t come off any better. In her first panel she’s chastising Barry for being late. I’ve read a number of other people’s complaints about how nasty Iris was during all those early adventures, but for some reason I never disliked her. Maybe it is because I’ve been stood up before and I know what a soul crushing blow to the ego that can be.

How did the other women in the Flashes’ lives fare with their first appearances?

Compared to Iris and Joan, Linda’s first panels with Wally are so boring that my scanner didn’t even see fit to digitize all of the dialogue. It was just a television interview without a hint of attraction or flirtation. Not that you can blame Wally, Linda isn’t exactly looking her best here.

I was torn with Angela. Do I include the panel of Wally snatching her into his arms because he thinks she is some on looker swiping police evidence or since she falls for Walter do I just include the mildly creepy enjoying CPR panels? I went with the mildly creepy.

Then there is Bart and Valerie in the old classic; welcome to my bedroom, who are you again?

Now you know the reasons for my madness. I wonder if Jay ever brings old Bull Tryon up. Hey Joan, know who couldn’t stop that bullet from hitting you in the head? I bet Bull Tryon never stopped the Ultra Humanite…

Flash First Impressions: Why I don’t like Joan Garrick is a post from Speed Force.

Flash

• Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep talks about how he’d write The Flash. Three words: Barry and Iris. (via Michael Kaiser)
• Quick Time contemplates the Boomerangs: What went wrong with Captain Boomerang, Jr.? And just what is White Lantern Captain Boomerang’s mission?
• That F’ing Monkey explains: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Flash.
• Firestorm Fan digs out an old Super-Powers adventure: Darkseid… of the Moon

Other speedsters

• Impulse Flashback: Bart Allen’s first day of school at Comics Should Be Good’s Year of Cool Comics
• First Comics News’ Sonic The Hedgehog Month is almost over
• Top Cow will be selling the SDCC and Supercon Velocity #1 variants through retail in November

Other comics

• Young Justice cartoon: Comic Book Movie interviews producers Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti.
• Comics Alliance analyzes the Brightest Day/White Lantern Teaser. Also worth a look: The most divisive character types in comics.
• Grumpy Old Fan looks at the real history of the DC Universe: its characters.
• Girls Gone Geek (G3) considers DC’s Legacy of Legacies (via @FlashJohnson)
• A Dispensible List of Comic Book Lists presents the stories behind the discoveries of 11 incredible comic collections. #
• Girls Read Comics Too tackles the question of DC vs. Marvel, asking: Why is it even a debate?(via @SpeedsterSite)
• Chewie and Han T-shirt (in the style of Calvin and Hobbes)
• Geekscape asks: have we had our fill of super-heroes?

Speed Reading: Boomerang, Barry & Iris, Bart, Sonic & More is a post from Speed Force.