December 31, 2010
2010 was a big year for the Flash. After five years of meandering (since DC decided to cancel Wally West’s series during Infinite Crisis because, hey, you can’t have a Crisis without a dead Flash, but couldn’t figure out what to do with the relaunch), it’s beginning to look like DC has finally gotten the character back on track.
The year opened with the wrap-ups of the Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night: The Flash miniseries, then ran headlong into the Flash vol.3 relaunch in April by Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul. The new series starring Barry Allen has completed its first story arc, introduced new characters in the form of reverse-Rogues, and presented two Rogue Profile spotlight issues. On the downside, the series has been plagued by delays since summer, and those two Rogue spotlights were added to help get the book back on schedule.
Speedsters Really Get Around
Barry Allen has been all over the place: The Flash, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, Green Lantern… A number of Barry Allen/Flash action figures have also been released or announced this year.
Bart Allen, as Kid Flash, has rejoined the Teen Titans.
Jay Garrick continues to be a mainstay of the Justice Society of America.
On TV, Batman: The Brave and the Bold featured a Flash-focused episode starring Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West (as Kid Flash)…with John Wesley Shipp voicing Professor Zoom. Cartoon Network’s Young Justice launched with Kid Flash as a main character. And of course there’s the continuing presence of Flash fandom on The Big Bang Theory.
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January 8, 2010
The Flash picked up several mentions in Newsarama’s 10 for 2010 series including the character in 10 Characters to Watch, the series in 10 Comics to Watch, and artist Francis Manapul in 10 Creators to Watch.
The Flash Family also makes Grumpy Old Fan’s list of Ten from the old, ten for the new.
The standard cover of Flash: Rebirth #1 and the Flash-themed cover for DC: The New Frontier #2 are among IO9′s 100 Amazing Comic Covers from the last ten years.
The Perhapablog posts a Craig Rousseau sketch of Impulse reacting to cancellation, along with the Thing drawn by Mike Wieringo.
Remember that Breakfast Club/Teen Titans mashup last summer? Artist Cliff Chiang has recreated more 80s album covers with characters such as Batgirl, Elektra and Vampirella.
Crimson Lightning brings us a “Hi and Lois” strip portraying the Greek gods as super-heroes.
The Rogues’ tailor, Paul Gambi, is named after Paul Gambaccini, a UK-based DJ and long-time comic fan. Bleeding Cool spotted him on a celebrity game show demonstrating his impressive knowledge of DC Comics trivia.
Update: One more item – the New York Times has named Geoff Johns in their “Nifty Fifty” list of up-and-coming talent. (via The Source)
January 5, 2010
In trying to put together my list of comics-related New Year’s resolutions, just about everything seems to stem from two main principles:
- Hobbies should be fun!
- Don’t procrastinate!
Sometimes they can be at odds, and when they are, I’m going to try to come down on the side of fun.
So, for 2010 I resolve to…
- Read more books that I like.
- Clear out the ones I don’t.
- Not stress out over fandom.
- Post when I have the time and inclination.
- Not worry about not posting when I don’t.
Yes, that last item does mean that I’ll probably be posting here a little less often, but rest assured: Speed Force is staying around!
I’ll post more details soon, but it’s midnight and I really need to sleep. (It’ll help me with that not-stressing-out item!)
January 1, 2010
Happy New Year, everyone!
A year ago, I posted a list of comic book resolutions. Let’s see how I did in 2009:
1. Only follow books that I like, and skip the ones that are just “important.”
Success! The only book that I picked up solely for “importance” was Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, which was a holdover from the previous year.
2. Read through my backlog of unread comics and graphic novels.
Not so great. I caught up on a few, but I’ve been getting behind even on new comics. At least it’s helped me figure out which books I really want to read.
3. Keep up with properly boxing new comics, instead of letting them pile up for months.
Success (mostly). Once I admitted to myself that yes, I needed another long box, I got things under control. I do have a small pile sitting on top of the boxes, but those are new comics from the last month that I still need to read.
4. Go through my collection looking for stuff I don’t want anymore and actually get rid of it.
Failed. I was convinced that if I got on this, I wouldn’t need the new long box, but I never quite got around to it.
5. Not let myself get caught up too much in flamewars.
Success for 51 weeks…and then there was last week. Oops.
6. Update Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning more often.
Failed. I’ve kept up with time-critical updates, like upcoming comics and variant covers, but haven’t had the time to really go in and give it the overhaul it needs. Mostly because I’ve been spending it on the blog instead.
Stay tuned for this year’s resolutions!
January 3, 2009
Lots of year-in-review and coming-next-year posts this week.
Flash: Rebirth makes Newarama’s 9 Comics to Watch in 2009 list, along with two other Geoff Johns projects — Superman: Secret Origin and Green Lantern: Blackest Night. The speedster himself his a runner-up to the 9 Characters to Watch in 2009.
Comic Coverage’s 2008: The Good & The Bad counts Geoff Johns, writer of Flash: Rebirth and Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, among the Good, and both Grant Morrison and Final Crisis among the Bad.
Comics Should Be Good jeers the final issue of The Flash as “out with a whimper.”
Jon’s Random Acts of Geekery is running a “By the Tens” series on covers from The Flash, starting with 10 covers from Flash Comics and continuing with 10 covers from The Flash vol.1.
Blog@Newsarama’s Corey Henson lists 5 Things I Don’t Want To See in 2009, including Barry Allen replacing Wally West as the primary Flash.
Comic Book Resources’ Top 100 Comics of 2008 features Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge at #39.
CBR News looks at new comics for 2009 and discusses, among other books, Flash: Rebirth.
January 1, 2009
In the year 2009 I resolve to…
- Only follow books that I like, and skip the ones that are just “important.”
- Read through my backlog of unread comics and graphic novels.
- Keep up with properly boxing new comics, instead of letting them pile up for months.
- Go through my collection looking for stuff I don’t want anymore and actually get rid of it.
- Not let myself get caught up too much in flamewars.
- Update Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning more often.
(Apologies to Comic Book Revolution for the title.)
December 31, 2008
Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for the cover.
