Hey Speed Readers,

I’d been away from the net for a few days so I hadn’t heard that the first picture of The Flash in Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes had been released by Game Informer Magazine. This is the first visual confirmation of the Scarlet Speedster we’ve had since USA Today revealed his presence in the game a couple of months ago. The only picture so far is in the magazine that I don’t own but luckily the internet is full of all kinds of cool cats posting scans and vids:

Picture courtesy of Youtube user, SuperheroesLego

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome! I just replayed Justice League Heroes earlier this week and man, have I been hankering for some fresh super speed action.  We can only speculate about what alternate costumes they have in mind for our flashy friend but if there are indeed alternative attires I’m hoping for something interesting. Remember Dark Flash and Jay Garrick from Justice League Heroes? We definitely need something akin to those skins.

Jay Garrick from Justice League Heroes

Dark Flash (Walter West) from Justice League Heroes

But that isn’t all; while scouring the net for info on The Flash appearance in Lego Batman 2 I found an ad from EB Games Australia:

So apparently as a preorder incentive, Australian EB Games (or Gamestop to us) customers will be receiving 5 bonus villains which will include two Flash villains: Captain Cold and Gorilla Grodd! YES, YES, YES! I’m counting on US customers also receiving these characters in one form or another. We do know for a fact that it won’t be via preorder as the only bonuses I’ve been able to track down for preordering are a limited edition Lego Lex Luthor from Gamestop and a bonus hero pack featuring Nightwing, Shazam (Captain Marvel), Katana, Damian Wayne (the latest Robin), and Zatanna from Amazon. If anyone has any additional information about the villain pack please let us know.

With the ability to play as over 50 DC Comics characters in a open world environment, customizable characters for creating unique variations and characters that may not have been included, as well as two player offline and online co-op play I have a feeling this just may be the ultimate DC Comics video game.

Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes will be in stores June 19th for all current generation consoles and handhelds: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, 3DS, PS Vita and PCs.

Anyone plan on preordering this game? Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

-Devin ‘Flash’ Johnson

The Flash in Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes (Plus Two Flash villains) is a post from Speed Force.

Hey Speed Readers,

Just a friendly reminder for those anxiously awaiting the release of Mattel’s DC Signature Collection Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, the figure goes on sale on Mattycollector.com this Tuesday, May 15, 2012.  Of course those that signed up for the subscription (not I) will be getting theirs shipped out automatically. Although earlier this month Mattel posted on Matty’s news page that due to “logistics issues” the shipments of the figure won’t be arriving at the docks until pretty much the day of the sale. Due to that they’ve told customers to allow 5 to 7 additional days for orders containing the figure to arrive. Naturally the customers who subscribed to Club Infinite Earths 2012 will receive their orders first. The figure will set the rest of us back $18.99 usd plus shipping.

Now for those of you who want to make an intelligent, informed decision about whether you will be purchasing Mattel’s version of Jason Peter Garrick this Tuesday you are in luck:

Action Figure Insider has long been a source that I use to keep track of various toy collectible news. One of their founders and main contributors, Daniel “JuliusMarx” Pickett, has through sheer force of awesome worked out a deal where he receives sample figures from Mattel on the regular and before most people ever get a chance to lay their mitts on them. He snaps some great pictures of them, tells you a few details about them and gives us an overall impression of the figures. You can see AFI’s First Look HERE.

Another toy blogger, Dan “Pixel Dan” Eardley also receives samples from Mattel but likes to give us his impressions in video form. His website, Pixel-Dan.com, is immensely popular and his Youtube channel has over 11,000 subscribers with over 8 million views. Now I personally prefer to read reviews and check out pictures but Dan has some extremely professional looking work. He also works the crap out of the samples, testing out joints, and twisting limbs back and forth so we don’t have to. You can check out Dan’s extremely detailed and informative review of Jay Garrick HERE.

Remember DC Signature Collection Jay Garrick will be available this Tuesday. May 15, 2012. You can find the product page HERE.

So who plans on picking up Jay Garrick this Tuesday? For that matter who already has the figure pre-purchased through the Club Infinite Earths Subscription? Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Devin “Flash” Johnson

Reminder: DC Signature Collection Golden Age Flash on Sale 5/15/12 is a post from Speed Force.

There’s been a lot of speculation among Young Justice fans about the fact that Kid Flash/Wally West has been missing from the five-years-later second season, and that the Flash has barely appeared (and hasn’t spoken). Did Wally West die during the gap? Did Barry Allen die, with Wally West stepping up to become the new Flash like he did in the comics?

One thing is known: An upcoming episode by Peter David will feature three Flashes: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West. Geoff Pierson will provide the voice of Jay Garrick.

I haven’t found a definitive source for the airdate, but it appears to be the June 2 episode, “Bloodlines.”

Update: I meant to add this, but it seems to have gotten lost in editing. What we don’t know: When the episode takes place, or whether Jay, Barry and Wally all appear together or separately (or even in different time periods).

Set your DVRs, folks. This is going to be bigger than Wally’s spotlight in “Coldhearted.”

Image: Character design by Jerome K. Moore.

Thanks to @CraigRMacDonald for the reminder and the link to Charles Skaggs’ post which directed me to Peter David’s post, and to Kyer for remarking on the “Bloodlines” title.

Young Justice: Three Generations of Flashes is a post from Speed Force.

One of my big worries about the book had been that DC Comics’ Trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman would overshadow the more exclusively-Justice Society characters like Jay Garrick and Alan Scott. They’ve solved this problem neatly, and in the process given the book a bit more of a hook than it would have had otherwise.

I’ve seen the issue described as a prologue, and it is, in that most of the issue takes place five years before the main series picks up. But it’s also a finale: The first 20 pages or so are really the concluding chapter in an apocalyptic war that changed the face of the world. In fact, if Earth 2 does well enough, I can see DC telling the story as a 6-issue miniseries, though the final issue really ought to be a reprint of this story plus an epilogue.

I like what I’ve seen of Alan Scott so far. I haven’t seen enough of Al Pratt to decide. Jay Garrick…well…I’m not terribly thrilled at what’s become of him, but let’s see what we get in issue #2.

On to the spoilers!

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To me, a big part of the appeal of the Justice Society is that they’re substantially different from the Justice League. Jay Garrick is not Barry Allen, Alan Scott is not Hal Jordan, and so on. But outside of short-term replacement stories, Superman is always Kal-El, Wonder Woman is always Diana, and Batman is always Bruce Wayne.

So in my opinion, DC needs to take one of two approaches to the trinity in a Justice Society book:

• Focus on the actual original Justice Society, not a revamp.
• Get the trinity out of the way so the other characters can shine.

There are several ways DC could have pushed Bruce, Clark and Diana to the side, but they chose to have the three heroes sacrifice their lives to save the world. That sets them up as inspiration (and preserves a little of the generational aspect of the team), but allows Jay, Alan and company to step up and become the world’s new premiere heroes. It also gives the book more of a reason to exist. Rather than simply, “Oh, it’s another reality” — okay, why focus on it? — we have a reality that specifically lost the Big Three.

In this context I also don’t mind that DC killed off the Amazons and Lois Lane yet again, because they’re killing off the entire mythologies for these characters. The last members of the Superman and Batman families are stranded on another world as Power Girl and the Huntress, and the last of the Greek/Roman gods is about to pass his legacy on to the Flash.

The war pages are by turns epic, gruesome and — in the case of the final conversation between Batman and Robin — touching. While neither Superman nor Wonder Woman left much of an impression on me, I find that I’d actually like to read more about this father/daughter dynamic duo. More problematic: why is it that only Wonder Woman’s death is shown in graphic detail, while Superman and Batman are just caught in explosions?

The present-day pages introduce us to the new Alan Scott and Jay Garrick. I like this Alan Scott: he’s the kind of businessman who’s really good at what he does, but doesn’t sacrifice principles or a conscience.

Jay Garrick, however, is a self-proclaimed “screw-up” (in the movie Hal Jordan mold, anyway, where we’re told that he’s a screw-up) who seems to have no ambition, no prospects, and no direction. If we take Joan Williams’ break-up rant at face value, he’s gone beyond the “everyman” that James Robinson described into total slacker territory. And if we take it as exaggerated, it doesn’t exactly paint Joan in the best light. (Not that she made a great first impression in 1940 either, but she quickly grew into the role of confidante.)

I’m going to be watching issue #2 to see how Jay gets fleshed out, but based on the first impression, I kind of want to cast Seth Rogen…who doesn’t really fit my idea of the Flash.

Earth 2 #1
Written by James Robinson
Art by Nicola Scott and Trevor Scott
Cover by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado

Review: Earth 2 #1 is a post from Speed Force.

Spoilers for Earth 2 #1!

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In Earth 2, Jay Garrick gets his powers from the Roman god Mercury.

One of the things that you are going to see about Earth 2 is that it’s not a magical place or a sorcerers’ world, but it does have a slightly metaphysical feel to it. Science doesn’t work exactly the same as it does on Earth Prime. With that in mind, I wanted his origin to have a slightly metaphysical element to it. And also, the only flaw with Jay Garrick in his entire career is that his origin of inhaling hard water is so vague and ill-defined, it must have been made up on the spot by the writer. This is the one thing that I’m changing; he actually gets a mantle passed to him by a dying god.

In a way, I like the fact that it almost mirrors, as a mythical version, the science fiction origin of how Hal Jordan got his powers from a dying Green Lantern. It’s sort of the same thing, but obviously with Jay Garrick, what makes him special is that he isn’t a cool test pilot that is born without fear like Hal Jordan — he’s a unsure 21-year old college graduate that is thrust into this amazing and fantastic world and has learn how to be a superhero over the first arc of our series.

It’s an interesting choice. It’s true that Jay Garrick’s origin is rather weak (though better than the Golden Age Whizzer getting his powers through a transfusion of mongoose blood), and I do like the explicit link to the classical speedster who inspired the original Flash’s look…but I’m not so sure about what appears to be a random selection. Did Mercury choose Jay Garrick as his successor? Or was he simply nearby?

We’ll find out in Earth 2 #2, on sale next month.

James Robinson Talks Jay Garrick’s Earth 2 Origin is a post from Speed Force.

I know it’s been a while since we’ve updated you on all the Flash Collectible News swirling about and there has been quite a bit these past few weeks. We will begin with Mattel:

For those of you who missed it Mattel quietly announced the cancellation of their Young Justice 4 inch and 6 inch action figures at retail citing poor retailer support. They later went on to make an official announcement that the figures that are further along in tooling may receive releases on Mattycollector.com in the near future but they can’t be 100% about it.

I can’t say that I’m too surprised with this announcement given the scarcity of certain releases and the sheer volume of repaints released in this line; I had four repaints of Kid Flash in my possession before they released the main team. Not that I’m complaining about more Flash-related figures but there is something seriously wrong with that if you ask me. Yes 3/4 of the uniforms have made in-continuity appearances on the show but still. The first mistake they made in my opinion was in the overall design of the figures. You shouldn’t be trying to appeal to a dying group of Justice League Unlimited collectors when designing a new toy line, you should be trying to compete with the other action figures out there that aren’t articulated like statues. Don’t get me wrong, I became a JLU convert later on because of all of the awesome Flash-related releases they ended up releasing, but in no universe should a child have to play with a Flash action figure that can’t be posed to run properly. It is just wrong!

I’m still waiting in anticipation for the 6 inch Kid Flash, with all of the accessories shown hopefully in tow. I personally was blown away by all the cool stuff they packed into the set and it is the first figure that I’ve really looked forward to in a while. I guess part of that is the fact that it is Wally and I’ve sorely missed picking up Wally West merchandise. Unfortunately with Young Justice cancelled the well of Wally West merchandise looks to have finally run dry. Hopefully since we’ve already seen a couple of previews and reviews courtesy of Julius Marx of AFI and “Pixel Dan” Eardley  we have a good chance of seeing it if not at retail then on Mattycollector.com in some capacity.

Now this comes on the heels of the cancellation of DC Universe Classics at retail after 20 waves of some arguably great releases (although I wish we had a bunch more Flash-related releases than we did, but I can’t be selfish). I could have done without White Lantern Flash but I kind of dug Blue Lantern Flash. Captain Boomerang and Captain Cold were practically perfect except for the height problems on Cold and the flimsy Boomerang that came with Digger (well that and the fact that he was done in his modern duds which some collectors had a problem with). Kid Flash (Wally West) looked like a weird man-child, but was an overall respectable release that fits in pretty nicely with the Flash (Barry Allen) release we saw in the same wave. Classic Flash enemy, Gorilla Grodd was also one of the line’s first “Collect and Connect” releases. Add in the Crime Syndicate of America’s box set Johnny Quick and the upcoming DC Universe Classics Signature Subscription figures, Jay Garrick (pushed back a month to May) and Mirror Master (scheduled for release in August), the line has had quite the Flash presence over the years.

DC Universe Classics was scheduled to be replaced at retail with a re-branding of the line called DC Universe All-Stars. The line was going to feature mainly variants of Batman and Superman or characters related to them with a few A-listers sprinkled in. I think the idea was to entice retailers into once again taking a chance on the DC properties with the only characters that have really reliably sold well. Of course Batman and Superman are the only real characters that any company that has handled the license have given a real chance besides the recently released Green Lantern Classics that were released to coincide with the movie. It doesn’t appear to have worked however because a couple weeks ago the previously announced DC Universe All-Stars Waves 1-3 were all cancelled (including the one with the New 52 Flash, which after the retouches they made to it for Toy Fair 2012, good riddance) and then they re-solicited the first wave with an announcement that the subsequent waves were being reworked.  Wave 1 was initially supposed to be Batman Beyond (a re-release), Larfleeze, Flashpoint Plastic Man (Really?) and Superboy Prime. The reworked Wave 1 is going to be New 52 Superman, New 52 Batman, Superboy Prime, and Red Robin (pre-New 52). I can definitely see this wave working better at retail than the previous releases.

Mattel has held the master toy license for the DC Universe characters since 2007 but have been involved with DC superheroes in one way or another since 2003 when they were granted the Superman, Batman and Justice League (which would later evolve into Justice League Unlimited) toy licenses to coincide with the hit Justice League animated series being aired on Cartoon Network at the time.

Reaction to Mattel’s handling of the license have been mixed among critics and fans alike. For example fans praised the wide variety and selection of characters in the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited toy lines but distribution problems have been rampant since the very beginning of the line and some characters remain extremely rare as a result, with very few collectors getting their hands on them. In fact throughout many of the Mattel-run toy lines distribution has been a huge issue along with scalpers buying up toys and putting them up on eBay for ridiculous amounts. I know personally that with no comic shops around for miles and not wanting to travel hundreds of miles to get my stuff I’ve relied on online shopping/trading for collecting almost exclusively for years now. It put me off even more to the idea of hunting at stores anymore when I realized that the stuff just wasn’t hitting with any sort of regularity. Why waste gas and my time (as well as others) hunting at places where I wasn’t sure I would find anything? So yeah I’ve spent a bit more to get stuff online and yeah in a way I guess I am contributing to the problem but that would all be a moot point if Mattel actually got the product out there and made it available.

Not only has Mattel been criticized for their distribution problems they also have had issues with pricing quite a bit in the past. For many, $9.99 for a single 4 inch action figure with a stand and $19.99 or more for a single 6 inch action figure with a few accessories is beyond ridiculous. I cherry pick for Flash characters so I don’t mind having to pay that once in a while but I would be up in arms if I were dropping that amount of money on waves that often included more than 6 characters at a time and rarely offered anything more than the actual figures as accessories.

For these reasons as well as the many reports of quality control problems I guess it isn’t too hard to see why Mattel is losing a foothold in the retail market when it comes to what should be a surefire seller. You can’t be trying to compete with things like 60 dollar video games and not playing up the value of the action figure. Sure, in my family we had just about every game system growing up (my mom as a single mother somehow scraped up enough money for stuff like that around Christmas time) but more often than not my younger brother and I would settle for an action figure or comics. Action figures at the time were about 5 bucks and comics were a quarter a piece at the used book store.  I think that people are getting away from the fact that these things were meant to be fairly cheap forms of entertainment.  If I were an average kid and I saw an action figure that cost a 1/3 of the price of a video game I would definitely go for the video game.

As far as the DC license goes for the rest of Mattel’s toy brands, Hot Wheels just released a boss set of DC Universe concept cars including a Flash-themed Hot Wheel that looks a million times cooler than all the Nascar and randomly designed Hot Wheels currently out there:

A special thank you to both Jeff Bohn and Michael Welch for tipping us off to the Flash Hot Wheels Car.

If there is anything we missed please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below. We would also love to hear your thoughts on the recent Mattel announcements.

Thank you for reading,

-Devin “Flash” Johnson

Flash Collectible News Round-Up: Mattel is a post from Speed Force.

THE FLASH #11
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:25 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale JULY 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

• The New 52 debut of HEAT WAVE!

• THE FLASH is on a crash course with THE ROGUES!

The image above is new and is included in the cover gallery for the solicits, but a caption does state it is not the final cover.

DC’s July Justice League solicitations are up at The Source.  Flash fans looking for more Jay Garrick should check out the solicit for EARTH TWO #3 after the jump…

EARTH 2 #3
Written by JAMES ROBINSON
Art by NICOLA SCOTT and TREVOR SCOTT
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
1:25 B&W Variant cover by IVAN REIS
On sale JULY 4 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

• The all-new origin of ALAN SCOTT GREEN LANTERN – unlike any GL origin that’s come before!

• The debut of the all-new HAWKGIRL!

• And Jay Garrick, THE FLASH, meets his first Super Hero!

Jay is not included on the cover.

Flash #11 Solicitation & Cover is a post from Speed Force.

DC’s Justice League Group solicitations for June are up. You can find a larger cover at Newsarama.

THE FLASH #10
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:25 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale JUNE 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

• THE FLASH vs. THE WEATHER WIZARD!
• The Flash may survive…but will BARRY ALLEN?

Good to see that the Weather Wizard still uses a wand (though it’s ironic that he’s one of the few Rogues whose power actually was internalized in the previous DCU). Not sure about the raincoat, though.

Also, the Earth Two issue featuring Jay Garrick on the cover will also reveal his new origin.

EARTH TWO #2
Written by JAMES ROBINSON
Art by NICOLA SCOTT and TREVOR SCOTT
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
1:25 B&W Variant cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
On sale JUNE 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

• MR. TERRIFIC – Michael Holt – lands on EARTH TWO!
• Don’t miss the origin of the Earth Two FLASH – and the first time he uses his powers!
• What could be a bigger threat to Earth Two than APOKOLIPS? Jay Garrick is about to find out!

I’ll admit that “hard water fumes” doesn’t hold up that well as a way to gain super-powers (though you can sort of excuse it if you assume they meant “heavy water fumes”), but is anyone else nervous about this?

Flash #10 Solicitation & Cover: Weather Wizard is a post from Speed Force.

Bleeding Cool posts a page of original art from The Shade #4 found on Albert Moy. The page didn’t appear in the book, though, because it featured the Golden Age Flash and Starman.

As I understand it, James Robinson and the various artists have been working on this series since before the relaunch, and have had to make a few changes along the way in order to fit into the New 52.

Jay Garrick Cameo Pulled from The Shade is a post from Speed Force.

Newsarama has revealed the new Jay Garrick design with the Earth 2 #2 cover in this interview with James Robinson.

As the book unfolds, Jay Garrick is very much our point of entry to the world. He’s the “everyman” character that we all like, that we all want to be, want to hang out with. That’s kind of the role he was in the original Earth-2, and I think it suits him well. He’s the likable guy, the one you care about.

The description of Jay himself sounds okay, but I think the costume is a horrible move. Over on Twitter, Greg paraphrased Barry Allen in The Dark Knight Strikes Again: “folks don’t know the difference between ‘old’ and ‘classic’.” The rest of the interview doesn’t do anything to help the concerns I raised yesterday about this this book and alternate reality being his only home in the New 52.

So what do you think? Is this a great redesign? A terrible one? Good for some Flash, but bad for Jay Garrick?

News Flash! Jay Garrick’s Earth-2 Redesign Revealed! is a post from Speed Force.