July 20, 2010
This week sees the long-awaited release of the trade paperback of Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge. (The hardcover came out almost exactly a year ago.)
Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge TPB
Written by GEOFF JOHNS • Art and cover by SCOTT KOLINS
The Flash Rogues Gallery has had enough. The team of villains is ready to remind the world why they’re not to be messed with in this title collecting their return in FINAL CRISIS: ROGUES’ REVENGE #1-3 as well as stories from THE FLASH #182 and #197.
Notes: I like to think of this book as “Rogues: Rebirth.” The main reason it exists is so that Geoff Johns can correct the way the Rogues were portrayed during Countdown and say, “No, this is how the Rogues work!” The additional stories are spotlights on Captain Cold and Zoom.
I had just started writing reviews when the original miniseries came out. You can read them here:
Buy it at your local comic shop this week, at Comic-Con over the weekend, or order it from Amazon for next week.
Other Likely Flash Appearances
- DC Universe: Legacies #3 catches up to the original Justice League era
- Justice Society of America #41
- Tiny Titans #30
February 21, 2010
It’s always interesting to see what searches bring people to the site. Every once in a while I look through for questions, or implied questions, that aren’t already answered here.
Current Events
Why did Reverse Flash have a Brightest Day symbol?
We don’t know for sure yet, but the implication is that Brightest Day is related to characters who come back from the dead after or at the end of Blackest Night.
Is Jesse Quick back?
Well, she seems to be…but then she’s still appearing as Liberty Belle in Justice Society of America and the second features in JSA All-Stars, so it’s hard to tell. Maybe those take place earlier, maybe she goes back to the other costume, or maybe she’s just going to switch costumes depending on who she’s teaming up with that day.
Did Jay Garrick die in Smallville?
He only appeared in flashback, when Checkmate was rounding up the Justice Society and arresting its members on false charges. He was mentioned by other characters as if he was still alive. (Spoilers for Absolute Justice.)
Is DC working on an animated Flash movie?
If they are, they haven’t said anything about it. A Newsarama article more than a year ago included the Flash in a list of upcoming projects, but there’s been no mention of it since then.
Looking Back
What comes before Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge?
Rogues’ Revenge concludes a sort of trilogy, which you can follow in these collections:
- Flash: The Fastest Man Alive – Full Throttle
- JLA: Salvation Run
- Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge
It also takes place after the end of Flash vol.2 and during the first three issues of Final Crisis.
What year did the Flash superhero gain lightning?
That depends on what the lightning in question is:
- The symbol dates back to Jay Garrick’s first appearance in 1940.
- Lightning in the Flash’s origin goes back to Barry Allen’s first appearance in 1956.
- Lightning effects used to convey speed were used occasionally in the early 1990s, became more prominent when Mike Wieringo worked on the book (1993-1994), and really became established during Terminal Velocity (1995).
Slightly Off-Topic
What is Dan Didio’s twitter name?
As far as I’m aware, Dan Didio isn’t on Twitter.
Who was the female speedster in Heroes?
The character’s name was Daphne Millbrook, and she was played by actress Brea Grant.
Flashforward novel how did it know the pope’s name?
It’s off-topic, but I get a lot of these since I posted a review of the novel.
Author Robert J. Sawyer explains in this video interview that he looked at the list of past popes’ names for those that had good reputations and might be “ready for a comeback.”
September 4, 2009
Some more linkblogging (almost done, honest!)
Collected Editions reviews Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge.
Speedster Site wants to know: What artist do you want for Flash? Also: an EVS Barry Allen sketch from Fan Expo.
The Cool Kidz Table lists his five favorite Flash artists.
iFanboy wonders if heroes can just stay dead.
At MTV Splash Page, Adam Brody Remembers His Flash Suit from the Justice League movie that never happened.
January 10, 2009
And the year-end round-ups keep coming!
At Comic Fodder, Tpull’s Top Ten Mini-Series of 2008 counts Rogues Revenge at #4.
CBR’s When Worlds Collide lists Geoff Johns among its 15 Creators to Watch in 2009.
Geoff Johns makes iFanboy’s list of The Top 5 Best Things About Comic Books in 2008.
Also:
Bags and Boards looks at Flash v.1 #309 (May 1982), pitting the Flash against a man from the future who would, by the end of the issue, become the first future Flash
According to David S. Goyer, all DC movies at Warner Bros. are on hold while they figure out how to get them right. (via The Beat)
The Montreal Mirror profiles artist Karl Kerschl, who penciled Teen Titans Year One and one issue of Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. The article focuses on his work with the band Ragni and his webcomic, The Abominable Charles Christopher.
Major Spoilers has some preview pages from the upcoming The Incredibles comic written by Mark Waid.
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.
December 30, 2008
2008 was a busy, if tumultuous year for the Flash.
The Main Series
As 2008 opened, the Flash was just wrapping up the six-part story “The Wild Wests,” the relaunch featuring Wally West as head of the Flash family and introducing his super-powered twins, Iris and Jai. To put it mildly, it was not received well by fans, and former fan favorite writer Mark Waid quickly left the book.
After a one-shot by Keith Champagne, Tom Peyer picked up the regular writing chores and Freddie Williams II stayed on for the 6-part “Fast Money,” which resolved the twins’ super-speed aging problem and gave us a glimpse of an adult Iris West II.
The series wrapped up with the year, as Alan Burnett, Paco Diaz, and Carlo Barberi brought us “This Was Your Life, Wally West.” The four-part story arc looked back at Wally West’s career as Kid Flash, then the Flash, and his relationship with his wife Linda and their children.
Rogues’ Revenge
The Rogues’ Gallery were off-limits to start with, as they were off-planet for Salvation Run. Early in the year, DC released the news of Flash: Rogues’ Revenge, a miniseries that would spotlight them after they returned to Earth, going after Inertia for tricking them into killing the Flash. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins would return to the speedster mythos for six issues.
By the time the series was launched, it had become Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, and instead of six regular-sized issues it was three oversized issues.
Read the rest of this entry »
December 28, 2008
Collected Editions has spotted more DC collections for 2009, including two Flash hardcovers.
Writers: Gardner Fox and John Broome Artists: Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella and Sid Greene
Collects: The Flash v.1 #123, 129, 137, 151 and #173 $39.99 US, 144 pages
Flash #123 is, of course, the classic “Flash of Two Worlds.” The other issues feature further cross-dimensional team-ups between Barry Allen and Jay Garrick from the 1960s, as they go up against Golden-Age classics like Vandal Savage and the Shade, and Silver-Age villains like Captain Cold and the Trickster. Wally West co-stars as Kid Flash in the last story in this collection.
Writer: Geoff Johns Artist: Scott Kolins, Doug Hazelwood and Dan Panosian Collects: Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #1-3 and The Flash v.2 #182 and #197 $19.99 US, 144 pages
DC has decided to round out the Rogues’ Revenge miniseries itself with two of the Johns/Kolins Rogue Profiles, featuring the origins of Captain Cold and Zoom.
According to Amazon, both are scheduled for July 7, 2009.
November 19, 2008
Comics sales continued to drop in October, and The Flash was no exception.
02/2008: Flash #237 — 37,719 (- 9.0%)
03/2008: Flash #238 — 35,606 (- 5.6%)
04/2008: Flash #239 — 33,741 (- 5.2%)
05/2008: Flash #240 — 31,944 (- 5.3%)
06/2008: Flash #241 — 30,810 (- 3.6%)
07/2008: Flash #242 — 30,325 (- 1.5%)
08/2008: Flash #243 — 29,647 (- 2.2%)
09/2008: Flash #244 — 29,180 (- 1.6%)
10/2008: Flash #245 — 28,085 (- 3.8%)
The combined effects of the recession, poor reaction to the current run on the book, and a feeling that everything from now until April is just filler* — Flash: Rebirth was announced just days after this issue was solicited in July, so this is likely the first issue for which sales responded to the announcement — have combined to produce the largest drop in several months.
Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, on the other hand, actually saw a slight increase in sales over the previous issue after the standard second-issue drop.
07/2008: Rogues Revenge #1 — 62,482
08/2008: Rogues Revenge #2 — 54,404 (- 12.9%)
10/2008: Rogues Revenge #3 — 55,056 (+ 1.2%)
Given Geoff Johns’ presence on both mini-series, this looks promising for Flash: Rebirth.(link via The Beat)
*You know what else was “just filler” prior to a relaunch? Alan Moore & Curt Swan’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Now considered a classic Superman story. I’m not saying the current storyline compares, I’m just pointing out that “filler” isn’t always mediocre, and the current trend among fans to follow only “important” books can cause us to miss out on good stories.
October 15, 2008
The conclusion of Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins’ villain-centric mini-series was everything it could have been, with all the threads set up over the last two issues coming together in one explosive confrontation. Unlike “Rogue War,” which took a 90-degree turn half-way through and turned into a very different story, this delivers exactly what it promised, following through on elements that seemed to be given little attention during the previous two issues.
After the mess that was Countdown, Johns and Kolins have successfully rehabilitated the Flash’s Rogues as effective villains. They’ve also established the current status of the supporting cast from their run on The Flash and reconciled the characterization of Pied Piper across Flash, “Full Throttle,” and Countdown. (Speaking of Countdown, it’s hard not to read the line, “This is for one &@#^%# year!” as a bit of meta-commentary about that year-long series and the way it mischaracterized the Rogues.) In a sense, you could look at Rogues Revenge as Rogues: Rebirth, and in fact there is a teaser for the upcoming Flash: Rebirth built into this issue.
Clearly, DC — or, specifically, Geoff Johns — has set out on a three-step plan to get the Flash Franchise back on track:
- Reestablish the villains in Rogues’ Revenge.
- Revitalize the Flash mythos in Flash: Rebirth.
- Relaunch the ongoing Flash series.
Step one is complete. Any writer who wishes to use these characters in the next few years would do well to read this story and really understand what makes them tick.
Spoilers after the cut: Read the rest of this entry »
October 14, 2008
Good news for Flash fans in Austin, Texas: Scott Kolins will be signing copies of Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #3 (and anything else fans want to bring) at Austin Comics on Wednesday, October 15, from 4pm to 7pm. More info at Comic Book Conventions.com and at Comic Bloc.
(HC)
