Speed Force

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.

More Flash news from The Source: a new video preview of “Absolute Justice”, the Geoff Johns–penned Smallville episode airing February 5.

Comic Book Resources has taken some screencaps of the trailer, including two which show off the Justice Society’s resident Flash, Jay Garrick. He doesn’t appear in the episode himself, but we get several close-up views of that painting of the Justice Society spotted last month…plus there’s Clark looking at Jay’s helmet in a display case. It really is a clear view of the wing design.

It looks like we’ll get another glimpse of the Golden-Age Flash on Smallville. Jay Garrick himself isn’t appearing in Absolute Justice, but we have seen a painting of the entire Justice Society, and now KryptonSite has spotted Jay Garrick’s helmet in the previews:

Since it’s black and white, I assume it’s a flashback sequence. Probably to the disbanding of the Justice Society, with the Flash having left his helmet behind to send the message that they’re retiring.

Something I find interesting is that the stylized feathers on the wings appear to be separate pieces with gaps in between them, rather than being sculpted into a solid wing. I’ve seen variations ranging from realistic wings to parallel ribbons like this, but I think this is the first one I’ve seen with clear gaps.

Visit KryptonSite for more preview images of the Justice Society’s appearance. The 2-hour episode airs February 5, 2010.

Thanks to Dave of JSA Round Table for the tip!

Comics Alliance has a couple of Flashy items: First, a page from the Shortpacked! coloring book: Batman Can Breathe In Space, But Not The Flash.

Second: they look back at a pair of Baby Ruth commercials from the 1990s, featuring Hawkman and an obvious Flash stand-in called the Blur. They have a video clip of the Blur commercial. Fun fact: The Blur was played by Tim Thomerson, who played Barry Allen’s brother Jay in the pilot episode of the 1990 Flash TV show.

Speaking of the Flash TV series, it makes Comic Book Movie’s list of Top Ten Most Accurate Live Action Superhero Costumes

The Secret of Wednesday’s Haul contrasts Ethan Van Sciver and Carmine Infantino in their approaches to conveying speed.

noscans_daily has a Flash Appreciation Post focusing on the character from the animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited TV series.

A Trout in the Milk reviews Wednesday Comics and asks the question: “What have we learned?”

InTylerWeTrust82 casts Superman and the Flash, with some interesting choices for the heroes, their supporting casts, and selected villains.

What Were They Thinking? has an example of Golden Age Flashdickery. Jay Garrick was a bit of a prankster in those days…

The CW’s latest promo for Smallville includes clips from February’s two-hour Justice Society episode, “Absolute Justice” (originally two separate episodes, “Society” and “Legends”). In addition to glimpses of Dr. Fate and Sandman, there’s the Justice Society conference table, Alan Scott’s Green Lantern ring, and a view of a painting (by Rodolfo Migliari) showing a dozen past Justice Society members:

It’s hard to tell exactly who’s in it, especially in the back, but the Flash’s red shirt stands out clearly. Toyriffic has more screen caps and a list of the characters pictured.

Smallville has generally done its own thing as far as continuity is concerned, which makes it interesting that they appear to be working an entire previous generation of heroes into the mythology.

(Thanks to @BubbaShelby for bringing it to my attention, and for allowing me to use the screencap!)

It’s been a busy week, and while I’ve got a couple of posts I’m working on, nothing’s quite close to ready. So what to do? Of course! Some mid-week linkblogging!

Interviews

Here are a couple of interviews with upcoming Flash artist Francis Manapul: one at Multiversity Comics, and one at Comic Book Resources. He talks about trying different ways to portray the hero’s speed, and adds:

…for me, the trickiest part is making sure my Barry Allen looks different from my Wally West. Having grown up with Wally, my natural portrayal of The Flash tends to look like him. As I get more familiar with Barry, I know I’ll get my footing and get it right.

Update: CBR has followed up by interviewing Scott Kolins, artist on Blackest Night: The Flash (starting in December) and the Wally West “second feature” stories in the upcoming monthly book.

Robot6 interviews Todd Dezago, former Impulse writer, on Perhapanauts and its recent Halloween Spooktacular. At the end he reveals what’s next for the series: another special in Spring, followed a few months later by the next major story: “Fourshadowing.” (After “First Blood,” “Second Chances,” and “Triangle.”)

Reviews

Weekly Crisis reviews a bunch of collections including Flash: Ignition.

Several sites have reviews last week’s Brave and the Bold starring Flash (Barry Allen) and the Blackhawks. The Savage Critics didn’t like it. 4thLetter really didn’t like it.

DoubleDCoverage reviews last week’s books including the DC Universe Halloween Special, which featured a Kid Flash story and a Flash vs. Superman race.

Commentary

Daily Scans finds it odd that, early in his career, Jay Garrick didn’t hide his identity very well.

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.

Note: The discussion is from 2007, and while the Silver Age material has gotten a fifth archive volume, three Showcase books and the start of a Chronicles line, the situation for the Golden Age Flash books has not changed.

Newsarama reports that during the Q&A part of the DC Nation panel at this weekend’s Baltimore Comic-Con, a fan asked:

Are there more Legion, Flash or Justice League Archives coming? [VP of Sales Bob] Wayne said that when you get up to the issues that can be affordably bought by collectors the demand for the Archive Editions goes down.

Okay, this might apply to the Silver-Age material. The four Flash Archives books so far are up to Flash #132 (1962). When I was tracking down back-issues in the #133–140 range (the contents of a hypothetical book 5) around 2000 or so, I seem to remember finding reasonably good copies in the $5-15 range. (Better copies, of course, run into triple digits.) Note: Since this was originaly posted, volume 5 has been released.

But there’s still 8 years of Golden-Age material to cover, from 1942–1949: more than 75% of Jay Garrick’s solo run. And those books are much harder to find, with battered readers’ copies often selling for $40–150.

Moreover, those 8 years include the first appearances of every major Golden-Age Flash villain. Read the rest of this entry »

Comic Coverage posted a humorous look at the role smoking had in the Golden-Age Flash’s origin. Jay Garrick was working late, took a cigarette break, and knocked over a beaker of “hard water.” Interestingly, later retellings of his origin downplayed and finally deleted the cigarette.

First, here are the original 1940 panels from Flash Comics #1 (copied from Comic Coverage), showing grad student Jay Garrick taking time out for a smoke:

Four decades later, in 1986, Secret Origins #9 would retell his origin. Mindful of the details, but also concerned about modern sensibilities about health, writer Roy Thomas kept the cigarette break, but added Jay thinking, “I know I should give up these things…”

A decade later, the cigarette had disappeared completely. Flash Secret Files #1 (1997) featured a condensed retelling of all three (at the time) Flashes’ origins, and this time, Jay simply succumbed to the hour and nodded off, dropping the beaker.

(Via Crimson Lightning)

Originally posted at K-Squared Ramblings.

After almost 1½ years, my Golden-Age back-issue hunt finally netted a relatively cheap copy of All-Flash #12, the first appearance of the Flash villain, the Thinker. It’s an odd read, because the origin of the Thinker (a mob boss who plans his heists very meticulously) is interwoven with a slapstick story of the Three Dimwits.

The Thinker story is played more or less as a straight super-hero vs. organized crime story. I’d summarize it, but the Comics Archive has already written it up in their article on the Thinker. Now, imagine the first five paragraphs over there interwoven with a Three Stooges film and you’ll get the idea. The Dimwits end up buying a restaurant heavily in debt to the mob, and accidentally make salads out of an alien plant that make people turn invisible.

It’s incredibly silly, but it ties into the other half of the story: The original mob boss’ henchmen are caught robbing the Dimwits’ restaurant, so he calls in the Thinker to solve his problem before they can rat on him. And of course, once the Thinker takes over, he’s mighty interested in these salads that turn people invisible.

And yet, the feel is so completely different that it seems like two different stories.

An unexpected discovery was a reference to the planet Karma, where the alien plant comes from. I’d seen two other references in other Golden-Age Flash stories, so it’s clearly part of the background mythos. This is one reason I’ve been looking for the source material. It’s relatively easy to find info on the leads, or the major villains, but the minor supporting characters who appear in three or four issues—Deuces Wilde, Evart Keenan, Dr. Flura, Ebenezer Jones—are mostly forgotten.

On a related note, while looking up the Thinker’s other appearances, I discovered that one of the non-Flash titles I’d been looking for, All-Star Comics #37, was reprinted in The Greatest Golden-Age Stories Ever Told—a book I already had. I felt bad that I hadn’t actually read the entire book, but that meant I could cross off two items from my wantlist instead of just one.

Originally posted at K-Squared Ramblings