The feature will reunite Justice League/Justice League Unlimited cast members Kevin Conroy as Batman, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Carl Lumbly as the Martian Manhunter…and Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash. Joining them will be Nathan Fillion, reprising his role as Green Lantern Hal Jordan from Emerald Knights, Tim Daly, voice of Superman from the 1990s animated series and the more recent Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and Apocalypse features, and Bumper Robinson as Cyborg.

The Green Lantern Corps forum has more information including a list of villains (via TRKA): The Royal Flush Gang, Vandal Savage, Cheetah, Bane, Metallo, Star Sapphire, and Mirror Master (Alexis Denisof).

Michael Rosenbaum Returns as the Flash in Justice League: Doom is a post from Speed Force.

Halfway through DC’s New 52 debut month, here’s what I think of the comics I’ve tried so far.

Justice League #1

Looked at on its own, this wasn’t a Justice League story so much as it was a Batman/Green Lantern team-up. That’s OK for a team-up book, or the first chapter of a graphic novel, but not exactly ideal for a high-profile launch that’s billed as an introduction to the League (not to mention an introduction to the new setting for the DCU).

I’m going to call it now: just like Final Crisis, this first Justice League arc should have been presented from the beginning as a graphic novel, not as a serialized story. You only get one chance to make a first impression.

All that said, it really didn’t grab me at all, and I’m perfectly happy to step off the treadmill of the mainstream part of the DCU.

Stormwatch #1

In some ways this went to the opposite extreme of Justice League (or as opposite as it can be without telling a done-in-one story — which is still possible to do in modern comics). While it also presented the first chapter of a longer story, it made a point of introducing as much of the team as possible. On the downside, while Justice League at least spent a lot of time characterizing Batman and Green Lantern, Stormwatch touched only shallowly on everyone in the team (and no one’s really appealing yet). On the plus side, it clearly presented the story’s threat from the beginning, and it’s hard not to like the craziness of the moon turning evil.

I might give #2 a shot, but I haven’t decided for certain.

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1

My favorite of the bunch so far, this had the best balance of introducing the characters, concept, tone, and threat, all while telling the story. The Monster (who has taken his mad scientist creator’s name) gets the most attention here, as a sort of world-weary veteran who has seen two centuries’ worth of humanity’s mistakes and still wants to protect us in spite of ourselves. But we get to see glimmers of the Creature Commandos’ personalities as they go on their first mission together (and they’re not quite the same as their Flashpoint counterparts).

There are wild and crazy ideas aplenty in the setup, from Father Time regenerating (Doctor-Who-style) as a masked Japanese schoolgirl to the secret headquarters being miniaturized using Ray Palmer’s technology to the whole place being run by automatons that, their creator assures Frankenstein, can’t possibly rebel.

The issue also got me thinking about genre, and the difference between a horror story and a monster story. Cliff Chiang described Wonder Woman as a horror book because she’s fighting mythological monsters. Jeff Lemire described Frankenstein as a sci-fi action adventure book. What’s different, I think, is that the mad scientist angle looks like it’s going to be a major factor in this, in which case that may end up being what makes the book stand apart from Hellboy and B.P.R.D. (That, and the fact that the agents are inspired by classic movie monsters.)

Demon Knights #1

I liked this one, but I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I think in part it’s that I was fighting too many preconceptions, particularly regarding Madame Xanadu. As a fan of her Vertigo series, the characterization seemed a bit off, and when I think about it, that’s true of Etrigan, Vandal Savage, and Shining Knight as well…but it is a new continuity, and there are whole centuries of their lives that haven’t been covered.

Also, there’s a scene early on that introduces the Questing Queen and Mordru that is just plain creepy in a way that may have put me off of the rest of the book.

Basic setup: It’s the dark ages, a few hundred years after the fall of Camelot, and a conquering army attacks the town where the main characters have all stopped to have a quiet drink in the tavern. Of the leads, Etrigan and Madame Xanadu get the most attention, with sparse, mostly one-note introductions for Vandal Savage, Shining Knight, and new(?) characters Al Jabr and Exoristos. It was still better balanced than Stormwatch (also by Cornell).

A couple of things that stand out: I like the idea that DC’s various immortal characters would get to know each other over the years, and that when they meet, they reminisce about old times. The banter was good. And the queen’s “dragons” are sort of the prehistoric equivalent of sharks with fricking lasers.

Coming Up

I haven’t had a chance to read Resurrection Man yet, since the shop didn’t get enough copies to cover pre-orders. (I’m on the special order list already, so I’m waiting for that instead of buying it digitally). After that, it’s Justice League Dark and (big surprise, I know) The Flash.

Quick Hits on the New 52: Demon Knights, Stormwatch, Justice League and Frankenstein is a post from Speed Force.

United Underworld’s incredible gender-swapped Justice League, featuring Psykitten Pow’s Flash. Photo by John Austin.

It turns out that the Flash was the inspiration for the group theme:

“A couple of us like to do female versions of preexisting male characters. One of our friends, Psykitten Pow, she had a female Flash,” says Tallest Silver, who organized the group and who dresses as Batma’am. “One night, we were all hanging out and I said how funny it would be if we had a whole Justice League with swapped sexes.”

Photograph by Chuck Cook Photography.

The group previously appeared at WonderCon, and Psykitten appeared as the Flash last year.

Flash on a Segway. Again, Chuck Cook Photography. People were posting about this guy all over Twitter on Thursday and Saturday, and when a couple of influential people posted about him, they were retweeted so much I had to change my search terms to find anything else about the Flash at SDCC!

Jay Garrick. Photo by David Ngo.

Steampunk Flash, designed and built by Dustin Fletcher of Penny Dreadful and God Save The Queen Fashions. Photo by Jim3535. Keep an eye out — I’ve got a follow-up post planned for this one!

Captain Cold and the Flash (photo by me). These were the only two people who showed up to the planned Flash costume gathering and photoshoot.

DC group including the Golden Age Flash and the Golden Age Reverse Flash. And She-Ra. Photo by lady_wolf_star.

Flash and Power Girl by lady_wolf_star.

Crime Syndicate Jesse Quick and Power Ring, photo by Roddenberry.

I’m going to call this Green Lantern/Captain America/Flash trio the Las Vegas Showgirl superhero team (sequins and skin). Not enough feathers, though. Photograph by Jason Ozaeta.

There were at least two Cheetaras present.

Cheetara, photograph by uncle_shoggoth.

Cheetara, photograph by Nathan Rupert.

Flash Costumes at Comic-Con (2011) is a post from Speed Force.

Justice League Dark · Demon Knights · Swamp Thing · Animal Man by Jeff Lemire · Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE · Voodoo · I, Vampire · Resurrection Man

Kelson: This is the section that appeals to me the most. It’s clearly DC’s attempt to re-integrate the characters who had previously crossed over to Vertigo, and it’s also the first section where they’ve taken big risks.

Greg: The fact that these books are being trotted out with the new DC is a great sign that the rich stable of characters and talent are being utilized in this new push.

Devin: This is a corner of the DC Universe that I’ve never much cared for, no matter how many times I’ve tried to give it a chance. Magic, horror and supernatural stuff as a whole just doesn’t appeal to me as much as traditional super heroics.

Justice League Dark

Kelson: The idea of a team including John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, and Shade the Changing Man (and apparently Zatanna) sounds like a lot of fun, and I have confidence in Peter Milligan…though I hope “Justice League Dark” is a working title. I know they want to go with the name recognition, but it just sounds awful.

Greg: Milligan is quite good and this sounds like an interesting title. I think spreading the “Justice League” brand around is a good idea, and a way to catch that envisioned new audience browsing.

Lia: I don’t know about this one. The lineup is cool, but how is this going to be any different from, say, the Shadowpact series? The title makes it seem somewhat superhero-y so I’m not sure it’s a good fit, and I personally have mixed feelings on Peter Milligan’s work.

Swamp Thing

Lia: Is he going to go around killing people like in Brightest Day, or is he going to be more like the classic Alan Moore Swamp Thing? I prefer trippy and funky over murderous.

Animal Man

Lia: I don’t really have a lot to say about this one, except that I preferred Grant Morrison’s less-adult series over the Vertigo series, and would be more likely to read this one if there’s a minimum of horror in it. I’m a total wuss when it comes to horror, and scary stuff or abuse involving animals makes me even more uncomfortable.

Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE

Kelson: This version of Frankenstein was one of the more interesting characters to come out of Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers (though I think the updated Klarion was the most interesting), and I enjoyed the first issue of the Flashpoint tie-in by the same writer as the new book.

Lia: No interest, sorry. I’m puzzled by the very existence of Frankenstein in the DCU.

Demon Knights

Lia: The medieval aspect of this book is unique and could be a lot of fun, but I’d want to know more about the general concept before forming an opinion.

Kelson: I want to want to check this one out (if that makes sense), but I don’t think I know enough yet to figure out whether it appeals to me.

I, Vampire

Lia: I liked him in the Doctor 13 series, but vampires in general are not my thing.

Kelson: No particular interest I, Vampire, but it’ll be amusing to see it on the shelf next to iZombie.

Voodoo

Kelson: I thought Voodoo was a new character until someone pointed out she comes from WildCATS. Which is interesting, as this was our first confirmation that DC has finally started folding the WildStorm Universe super-heroes into the DC Universe the way they did the Quality, Fawcett and Charlton characters in the 1980s…and more recently the Red Circle and Milestone characters.

With Voodoo, Stormwatch and Grifter launching, I have to wonder which other WildStorm characters will return, and how well they’ll fit.

Lia: Oh dear, the Wildstorm universe joining the DCU. Perhaps it’s unfair on my part, but I’m opposed to this because I liked very little of Wildstorm and don’t think its series are a good fit in the DCU. And please don’t make Voodoo a stripper again; no disrespect intended towards sex workers, but I’m tired of seeing female characters in the same stereotypical professions.

Resurrection Man

Kelson: Resurrection Man is one of those series where I always meant to track down the back issues. Now’s my chance to start fresh.

Lia: The concept is interesting to me, but I’ve never read anything with this character.

Part 1: Justice League
Part 2: Green Lanterns
Part 3: Batman
Next up: The Next Generation of Justice

Thoughts on the New DCU – Part 4: The Dark Side is a post from Speed Force.

Justice League · Wonder Woman · The Flash · Green Arrow · The Fury of Firestorm · Aquaman · Justice League International · Mister Terrific · The Savage Hawkman · Captain Atom · DC Universe Presents

Justice League by Geoff Johns & Jim Lee

Devin: All right, ANOTHER Justice League relaunch. Like many of the titles announced in this company line reboot, I just cannot muster much enthusiasm for this. It IS nice to see Cyborg getting some more attention these days. Although I find his role as “Superman” in the Flashpoint verse to be a little farfetched (more to do with his power set than him being Vic Stone) I figured he was due for a “push” either way.

Unfortunately I’m now almost completely indifferent towards the character of Barry Allen. And really that is what is going to be influencing my picking this up. It used to be that as long as there was a “Flash” or “speedster” on the JLA I would check it out. But after last time when they didn’t launch the book right away with a speedster and then Wally only had sporadic appearances here and there I stopped caring. I loved Dwayne McDuffie’s Wally and Wonder Woman story and picked it up after the fact but that was about all I really liked. I dropped it after Wally left the team and have not looked back since.

If this revamped version of Barry that Geoff is presenting to me is more interesting than he was in The Flash book I will keep it past the first issue. But with a rumored 7 more members being added to the roster I doubt I will get to see as much speedster action as I would like (of course that is what the main Flash title is for). Also Jim Lee’s art is not really a selling point for me, at least not after seeing this cover. Don’t get me wrong; I loved his work back in the day on X-Men, unfortunately it just doesn’t translate well to DC’s stable of characters.

To present and future Flash artists: The Flash is a runner, hence he should have a slim, runner-like build. He doesn’t have to be scrawny but he sure as hell isn’t He-Man. There is a happy medium. Thank you.

Nonetheless I am as optimistic as I can be about this. I really want this to be the move that puts DC on top again so I’m going to give it a couple of issues to get my attention.

Greg: The main Justice League team seems to indicate the book should serve as a DC weathervane, with ideas that could make quick jumps into other media.

Kelson: Justice League looks like they’re going back to the big-guns, which fits the back-to-basics approach…but I find the League more interesting with a slightly larger team to balance out the SUPER-humans with the super-HUMANS. Reportedly they’ll have 14 members total, which sounds about right (my favorite League was the middle of Grant Morrison’s run, around the time of Rock of Ages), but I’ve kind of gotten soured on Geoff Johns’ writing since…well, since Infinite Crisis, now that I think about it.

Lia: Since there’s supposedly going to be 14 members on the team, why have we only seen half of them? What’s up with the costume revamps and de-aging? (yes, this is more of a general-DC thing than specific to the title, but it’s most obvious here) We need to hear more about this series to properly judge, but I’m fairly cool toward it so far. Then again, hero team books have never been my thing.

Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang

Lia: She’s one of those characters that I really want to like, but haven’t had much interest in apart from during Greg Rucka’s run. Still, Brian Azzarello is a skilled writer and Cliff Chiang’s art is amazing, so that’s very promising. I wish she wasn’t always being retconned and revamped all the time, though — it’s very discouraging for anyone thinking about getting into her series/history. Obviously that can be fixed with this relaunch, but how long will it stick before another retcon?

Devin: Sorry to say it but I really do not care much about Wonder Woman. She is one of those iconic original seven Justice League Members so she has my respect as a character and I always like having her around but I just don’t care to read about her and only her on a regular basis.

The Flash by Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato

Greg: Count me among the fans of the creative team for Flash. Manapul and Buccellato have already brought new ideas to super speed as portrayed in Flash, and their recent comments seem to indicate they will continue to take on new challenges.

Lia: I’m somewhat leery of having two writers on board who don’t have a lot of writing experience, but delighted to have Francis Manapul back on the art. In general I’m really looking forward to this, so long as there aren’t many retcons and resets to the Flashverse. I hope the Rogues will be handled well and get plenty of love — and if there must be resets, please bring back the dead Rogues too.

Kelson: I’ve been drifting away from the core of the DCU for a while (the weird characters on the outskirts seem to appeal to me more these days), and I don’t see much here to change that.

Flash is the notable exception: Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato on art were my favorite part of the post-Rebirth Flash series, so having them back on the book is really encouraging. I’m still a bit apprehensive about the direction, but now that I think about it, I’m more interested than I would have been if Geoff Johns were still on the book.

Devin: Seriously the only title I really care about here. Unfortunately it is only to see if Wally is anywhere and if Barry is still a piece of wet cardboard. Francis did impress me a whole bunch with his art in the last series (really the best part about it) so he has me with that but can he tell a story? And can he make me care about Barry Allen where only Mark Waid (who is nowhere to be found) has been able to in the past? I’m giving him an honest chance; at least an arc before I drop it. I figure The Flash’s new direction deserves a look before I‘m done with the title.

I wouldn’t be so disgruntled and fed up if DC had been straight with us about Wally from the first place and not try to undermine his accomplishments and push him to the background to push Barry ahead. It is only exacerbated by the fact that Johns has shown us no reason why this change had to happen. Why we had to move backwards other than him wanting Barry back. He wanted to undo the only interesting thing that Barry has done to me besides train Wally and be an inspiration to him. Barry is a great role model and that is about it. Now I probably wouldn’t have noticed the lack of Barry’s personality if the stories were good enough but nope, both arcs that came of the last Flash series were pretty pointless and showed me nothing that couldn’t have been just as easily told with Wally as the star. I guess I’m just a bit jaded. I want to be optimistic and hopeful but damn it I really miss Wally. I feel like one of my best friends up and left town without saying a thing and that I occasionally get a post card from him every few months and never with a return address.

The Fury of Firestorm by Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver & Yildiray Cinar

Devin: When I first saw this cover my thoughts immediately went to the horribly miscolored Firestorm Happy Meal Toy from McDonald’s released last month.

After that I thought about how the concept of Firestorm has never really appealed to me. When my brother and I were younger, my mom would take us to McKay’s Used Bookstore. They sold comics at 25 cents a pop with double sized issues and annuals going for 50 cents. My brother and I would each get a dozen or so and they were our primary forms of entertainment besides action figures and of course after we were finished reading our own we would swap them. This gave us a chance to experience something a little different. Amongst the various titles my bro would pick up was Fury of Firestorm. Because he started to collect them I had the chance to read them when I was done with me and man did I not give a damn about Firestorm. The costume was ok, but I didn’t get the logic of the flaming hair or what point it had. The puffy sleeves were kind of the last straw when it came to the costume. As for the characters I really didn’t care for Ronnie Raymond or Martin Stein. Ronnie seemed like a doofy jock and a screw up and Martin Stein was a stuffy professor. These two would join to make Firestorm? Meh.

I gave the character another chance years later with Jason Rusch in the matrix and I found him to be a lot more interesting than Ronnie. I liked that he was intelligent, thoughtful and not so much of a meathead and I also liked that he was a young, bright, black guy like me. I rarely find characters that I can identify with on that level. The costume was also updated fairly nicely and the stories were pretty good. Unfortunately I stopped reading around One Year Later.

This new book looks to be incorporating both of our main Firestorm hosts into the matrix with the appearance changing depending on who is wielding the matrix. Personally I don’t see why they couldn’t just have one costume for both of them and simply change the color of the skin and the features depending on who is in control but whatever. I just think it kind of makes Jason look like Kid Flash to Ronnie’s Flash. That may just be me projecting though.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be picking up the first issue. I like Gail and Ethan a lot but I don’t really have a lot of interest for yet another iteration of Firestorm. Jason was interesting, but he will only be half the story. Not enough for me to break out the bucks for it. Sorry.

Lia: Good lord, that quickly-pulled concept art — hopefully it’s already been significantly changed and streamlined, because otherwise the new design for Firestorm is awful. Still, I enjoyed the interplay between Ronnie and Jason during Brightest Day, so this could be good.

Kelson: It’s good that they’ve managed to include both Ronnie and Jason in the new Firestorm series, which makes me wonder what DC will do (if anything) to try to heal the fractured Flash fan base.

Aquaman by Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis

Lia: I’m kind of annoyed that Geoff Johns left the Flash to go to this book, so maybe there’s a slight grudge here. But Aquaman himself has never really interested me, just Black Manta. And Mera somewhat, as of recently. So I’ll pass unless the series is full of Black Manta being a horrible dick, which I kind of find funny.

Devin: No interest whatsoever. I love Ivan Reis’ work. The art on Blackest Night was great and I loved his Flash. Geoff however no longer impresses me. I thought if anyone could make the Flash awesome, he could. Unfortunately he mucked it up just as much as anyone else has. Bringing back Barry and flinging Wally into off-panel oblivion was just the icing on the cake. You get a few of my dollars on Justice League, Geoff and that is about it.

Justice League International by Dan Jurgens & Aaron Lopresti

Lia: Justice League: Generation Lost was pretty terrible, but hopefully this series will take the better aspects of it (the new Rocket Red, for instance) and leave behind the worst ones (the complete revamping of Ice). The lineup is groovy but perhaps a bit too big, and Batman should not be in yet another book. He’s as bad as Wolverine now.

Greg: I’m a fan of Dan Jurgens, and it’s good to see his name here twice, but I would have like to see him write and draw Justice League International.

Devin: My first exposure to the Justice League in comic book form was the old Justice League International and Justice League Europe series. I remember being utterly confused when I opened them up at first because I only had an idea of who the main characters were and none of them were acting the way that I had seen them act before. Eventually I learned more about the DC universe and I came to appreciate it for what it was but at the same time I’m not clamoring for a revival of those days. And no one in this roster is enough to make me care. If they add Wally at some point and time maybe. Until then, no speedsters, no sale.

Mr. Terrific by Eric Wallace & Roger Robinson

Devin: I really loved Roger’s work on Starman. It is still one of my favorite runs of all time, and I will occasionally go back and read it. Unfortunately in recent years with things like Cry for Justice, Robinson has fallen out of favor with me. Mr. Terrific isn’t a character I’m terribly familiar with (despite having an action figure of him) and I don’t really see his abilities as anything really interesting. His costume redesign is also pretty terrible. I thought his old costume was one of the few costumes in the DC Universe to really have that contemporary vibe. And what is what the ink? I know it is the craze these days but sheesh. Pass.

Kelson: This is the first big surprise in terms of titles announced, since he’s never had a solo series before.

Lia: What is with that cover? I miss his jacket, and the colouring of the T around his mouth makes him look like an offensive stereotype. Seriously unfortunate.

The Savage Hawkman by Tony Daniel & Philip Tan

Devin: Sorry Carter, never cared about you and I never will.

Lia: A confession: I really hate Hawkman and his entire mythos. You’d have to pay me to read it.

Captain Atom by JT Krul & Freddie Williams II

Devin: I think a Dr. Manhattan version of Captain Atom is probably more interesting than any other version that I’ve seen but not enough for me to care. I actually hated his character back in the old JLI series and while I don’t hate him now I don’t particularly like him either.

Lia: Never had much interest in the character. The cover is lovely, but I’ve never really liked Freddie Willliams’ art and have heard bad things about JT Krul’s work.

Green Arrow by JT Krul & Dan Jurgens

Devin: I’ve never cared for Oliver Queen. I dug Connor Hawke but I don’t even want to know where he has ended up in the NEW DCU, if anywhere. The costume reminds me a bit of Smallville, but in this instance it is not a terrible thing. It still isn’t enough to me read it.

Lia: Another JT Krul book (to be fair, I don’t think I’ve actually read anything by him and am just going by what I’ve heard) and another character I don’t much care for. But hopefully Ollie fans will enjoy it.

DC Universe Presents by Paul Jenkins & Bernard Chang

Greg: DC’s roster is easily rich enough to support an anthology book, so it is nice to see a title like DC Universe Presents listed here. Books like these work best when they rotate creative teams, so here’s hoping DC makes some bold choices.

Lia: I love anthology series which focus on lesser-known characters…provided the stories are good. Often they aren’t, in my experience, but hopefully that won’t be the case here. Keeping an established writer like Paul Jenkins on the title — as opposed to using it as a try-out book for up and coming writers — may help.

Kelson: I’ve never been one to read an anthology regularly, but I like being able to pick up stories about characters who wouldn’t otherwise get a spotlight. I’ll probably pick up individual issues based on the featured characters and creative team.

Devin: Deadman: Another character I care nothing about. Pass for now. I wonder if we will see a Wally story down the line (assuming he isn’t showing up anywhere)?

Next up: Green Lanterns.

Thoughts on the New DCU – Part 1: Justice League Titles is a post from Speed Force.

So, here’s a round-up of the Flash-related costume/cosplay photos I’ve found on Flickr from WonderCon and C2E2.

Flash & GL

Psykitten Pow as the Flash and Mia Ballistic as Green Lantern at WonderCon (previously seen in this costume at San Diego 2010), photo by LynxPics. They were part of a much bigger group, which is up next after the cut.

Gender-swapped Justice League

The full, incredible group, as presented by United Underworld. Again, photo by LynxPics. Amber’s Fashion Tips for Super-Heroes has a write-up and list of the participants.

The Flash

Photo by uncle_shoggoth.

White Lanterns

There were quite a few White Lanterns at Wondercon, including…

White Lantern Flash

Photo by Sargonas

White Lantern Captain Boomerang

Photos by Earthdog.

Green Arrow, Hawkgirl and Kid Flash

Photo by uncle_shoggoth.

Off the Shelf

C2E2 mainly picked up people wearing off-the-shelf costumes.

Flash and Supergirl

Photo by Mikey Brick.

Lady Flash

Photo by Anime Nut.

Oh, and One More Thing…

And finally, back to Wondercon for Psykitten as the Flash…and a fan. I had to include this one, just for fun! Photo by Roxana Meta.

Flash Costume Photos From Wondercon, C2E2 (2011) is a post from Speed Force.

I assume it’s either a wraparound or a pair of 50/50 variant covers.

The Donna Troy vs. Superwoman and Supergirl vs. Ultra-Man battles dominate the image, but there’s also Power Ring vs. Jade, Batman vs. Owlman, and (way in the background) Jesse Quick vs. Johnny Quick.

Ever since James Robinson mentioned that the JLA would be going up against the Crime Syndicate, I’d wondered which version of the villainous team they’d be facing. The original version? The Crime Society on Earth-3? Between this and Syndicate Rules in the previous series, it looks like the Morrison/Quitely version from JLA: Earth-2 has been established as the primary version of the team, though they have gone back to the Kyle Rayner analog for Power Ring.

Update: Here’s a close-up (loosely speaking) of part of the Jesse Quick/Johnny Quick battle.

EVS Draws JLA #50: JLA vs. the Crime Syndicate is a post from Speed Force.

At DC Universe Event Horizon, James Robinson stated that the Justice League would be battling the Crime Syndicate at some point, with Jesse Quick battling Johnny Quick , Batman vs. Owlman, Supergirl vs. Ultraman etc.

At DC Focus: Teams, incoming Teen Titans writer J.T. Krul said that Bart Allen “is past the Impulse stage but he still has that innocent, light-heartedness about him.” (Quote from Newsarama, may be paraphrasing him.)

At the Superman panel they announced that Superboy #3 will feature the first-ever Superboy/Kid Flash race.

» Full index of Comic-Con coverage

SDCC Catch-Up is a post from Speed Force.

» Full index of Comic-Con coverage
» More Comic-Con photos

Justice League is a post from Speed Force.

We already knew that the hardcover edition of The Flash: The Dastardly Deaths of the Rogues was coming out next February, but there’s been a slight change. Earlier reports showed it featuring The Flash #1-7 and The Flash Secret Files 2010, but now DC is saying that it collects The Flash #1-6 and The Flash Secret Files 2010. This makes more sense, because it lines up exactly with the first story arc instead of extending one issue beyond it. On the other hand…

The Flash: Rebirth paperback is scheduled for April, and someone forgot that the miniseries was six issues long and not five! I guess we shouldn’t rely too much on the numbers here.

Other books

Additionally, the Justice League International trade paperbacks start collecting Justice League Europe with volume 5. Flash Wally West was a founding member of that branch of the League, based at first in Paris and later in London. This volume features two JLI annuals and the first six issues of JLE. The next two issues are actually part of a JLA/JLE crossover, “The Teasdale Imperative,” which picks up where the previous volume left off collecting Justice League America. I’d guess that volume 6 will feature that crossover and some mix of the two series.

Justice League of America: The Rise and Fall collects the “Fall of Green Arrow” and “Rise of Arsenal” storylines spinning out of JLA: Cry for Justice. Barry Allen appears in the Green Arrow story.

There’s a new Showcase volume of Justice League of America.

I think Kid Flash Bart Allen is in Teen Titans: The Hunt for Raven.

Flash Barry Allen appears in at least the opening chapters of Brightest Day Vol.1.

Justice League of America: Dark Things covers the JLA/JSA crossover that just started, featuring Flash Jay Garrick and Jesse Quick.

Flash Collections for Spring 2011: Rogues HC & Rebirth TPB is a post from Speed Force.