Speed Force

With issue #6 hitting stands today, the Flash creative team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato are featured in two new interviews, one over at Newsarama and the other at PopMatters.

The Newsarama piece discusses the reintroduction of Captain Cold, the new character Turbine, as well as the vision for Speed Force as it appears New 52 version of Flash.  They also discuss the pacing of the title, noting stories will be told in one-to-two issue sets for the next few months.  The article features preview pages from issue #6, out today, as well as the first announcement of a new Flash Annual, due before issue #12 hits stands.

On their upcoming portrayal of the Speed Force:

Manapul: Inside the speed force itself will be quite different. I think before, it’s always been portrayed as just these speed lines and light and stuff like that. We really want to make it a world that’s fully realized, you know? And when the Flash enters this world, we want the readers to be in awe just as much as Barry Allen is.

It’s really going to be quite different visually.

More after the jump, including selections from a new interview with PopMatters.

Read the rest of this entry »

THE FLASH #8
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art by FRANCIS MANAPUL
Variant cover by KENNETH ROCAFORT
1:200 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale APRIL 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

The Flash gets pulled into the Speed Force that gives him his super-speed powers…and he learns he’s not alone in there! Introducing Turbine, a prisoner of the Speed Force who just wants out – even if it means trading places with The Flash!

DC’s April Justice League solicitations are up at The Source. Full solicitations including upcoming collections will be forthcoming.

Steven Ogden asks:

I’m a huge Flash fan. He’s without a doubt my favorite superhero. Unfortunately, there’s only one thing I don’t understand: the Speed Force. I don’t understand how Barry Allen created the Speed Force. Is it some kind of magical force? Hope not, not a big magic fan. If anyone can take the time to help a Flash fan out I’d appreciate it.

Well, Steve, there are a couple of ways to look at the speed force, from simple to complicated. Let’s start with simple.

The name is a little misleading. The speed force is basically a field of energy which exists just outside reality. Speedsters like the Flash can tap into this energy, which makes it possible for them to perform feats of amazing speed. With practice, they can learn to manipulate this energy as well, stealing and lending speed from other objects (or people). It also produces an aura that protects them from friction, so they don’t burn up running through the air at a zillion miles an hour.

If the Flash draws too much energy (basically, by running past the speed of light, the cosmic speed limit), he risks losing himself in the field. In the pre-Flashpoint universe, this has happened to Max Mercury, Johnny Quick, Barry Allen, Wally West and Savitar, among others. Wally was the first to return from this fate, but not the last.

Then things get complicated. Read the rest of this entry »

Considering all of the changes seen in DC’s New 52 Flash title, the reemergence of the character’s roots in cutting-edge science has received nearly as much, if not more, attention than the tweaks to beloved characters and the series’ long-set standards.

The prime example of this has been the introduction of a very real concept know as Augmented Cognition, or AugCog.  In Flash, Barry Allen is advised by new character Dr. Darwin Elias to apply his use of the Speed Force to his brain, allowing him to use his powers to affect perception and the processing of information.  This new power was on display in full force in issue #2, and lead to the chilling cliffhanger ending of issue #3.

We reached out to Dr. Peter A. Hancock, Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor at The University of Central Florida and member of the Augmented Cognition International Society, to get his take on the AugCog concepts as presented in Flash.  His responses provided a detailed look into an exciting area of neuroscience.  Read on, after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

DC keeps reminding us that this week’s The Flash #12 is the final issue of the series. But we all know that the series is coming back, one way or another. The Flash is one of DC’s foundational* series that only ever gets canceled to pave the way for a relaunch.

So we know The Flash will be back in some form after Flashpoint. But how?

Main Series

Most likely it’ll be called The Flash, and as long as Dan Didio and Geoff Johns are in charge it’s a safe bet that it’ll star Barry Allen. The question is, will it be…

• Flash vol.4 #1 (a straight relaunch)
• Flash vol.3 #13 (picking up where they left off)
• Flash with some sort of combined numbering.

For that last option, I added the series up a while back and came up with ways they could launch at #625 or #630. There’s also the Flash #351 approach some people have suggested, which is odd, because it includes both the Golden and Silver Age numbers but skips over the last 25 years of Flash comics.

If Flashpoint is a big turning point for the Flash, they might go for a new title, maybe All-Flash vol.2 #1 (Gotta keep those titles in trademark!)

Who will write it? Geoff Johns could. He’s said he can do 3 monthly books, and with Brightest Day over, he’s committed to Green Lantern and Aquaman. But he’s also busy with his job as Chief Creative Officer. Could it be time for someone else?

How about art? After the way things went with this run, it probably won’t be Francis Manapul on the next ongoing. Scott Kolins seems to found a niche as the go-to-guy for “quick draw” Flash books, so he might return full-time. Or we might see someone entirely new.

When will it start? Most likely it’ll launch right after Flashpoint (or 3 months later to keep spoilers out of solicitations), but DC might run a miniseries first.

Spinoffs

Secret Origin. Geoff Johns has said on several occasions that he wants to do Flash: Secret Origin, and at last year’s Baltimore Comic Con it was suggested that it would follow the second story arc on The Flash. (At the time, my guess was that Secret Origin would run through the main title while Flashpoint ran in its own miniseries, though that obviously isn’t happening.) I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he and Francis Manapul started working on this behind the scenes during Flashpoint, with Flash: Secret Origin launched as a miniseries after Flashpoint concludes. If that happens, I’d guess that DC will wait until Secret Origin is finished before relaunching The Flash again.

Kid Flash. At SDCC 2009, Geoff Johns announced plans for a Kid Flash series by Sterling Gates, launching in 2010 alongside the Flash relaunch. This was eventually scrapped, though Gates is writing the Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost miniseries. If it sells well, I would not at all be surprised to see a Kid Flash ongoing spin out of the event.

Speed Force. At SDCC 2010, Geoff Johns announced plans for a second Flash series, Speed Force, featuring Wally West and Bart Allen, launching in 2011. Most likely this would be a rotating cast like JSA Classified. It’s only occasionally been mentioned since then, and unlike Kid Flash, it doesn’t have as obvious a hook from Flashpoint…that we know of.

Chances are that we’ll see Speed Force or Kid Flash spin out of Flashpoint, but not both.

Flash: Secret Origin sounds like a good bet, though, whether before the new ongoing series launches or side by side with it.

*To use Grumpy Old Fan’s term for those books that are essentially cancellation-proof, since they’ve been in publication almost continuously since 1960 or longer.

Flash: Rebirth featured a number of retcons, some of them explained away by time travel, others explained as new information, and others simply stated with no explanation at all. The most galling one to me was the revelation that the Speed Force is generated by Barry Allen with every step he runs, and that all other speedsters (including those who preceded him like Jay Garrick, Max Mercury, and Johnny Quick) depend on Barry’s existence for their own.

There are two things that bug me about this.

First: it doesn’t make sense. The speed force was introduced to do two things: provide a hand-wave explanation for the impossible physics of super-speed, and tie all speedsters’ origins together. Where do Flashes get their energy? The speed force. Simple, end of story. But now the speed force gets its energy from Barry Allen. So we’re right back where we started: Where does Barry get his energy?

Second: it elevates Barry Allen above all other Flashes permanently.

It wouldn’t be so bad if it were simply a matter of: Barry’s back, and here’s why he’s important now. That would be the same kind of thing Mark Waid did when he had Wally West become the first Flash to mainline the speed force and gain new powers, or that Bilson & DeMeo did when they had Bart Allen absorb the speed force. In those cases, it was still a progression, and you could imagine that whoever came next would follow in their footsteps and become the most important Flash now.

What bothers me is that they didn’t want to take that route. They instead wanted to take the route that Barry Allen was not only the most important Flash now, but that he has always been and always will be the most important Flash ever. It flat out tells us that we’ve been reading about a second-rate Flash for the last 25 years. I know there are people who hold that opinion, but it’s galling for it to be declared canon.

It’s like two kids trying to one-up each other in a bidding war, and one pulls out, “well, I bid infinity!” — and because it’s the author of the series, not to mention the Chief Creative Officer of the company, it sticks instead of getting laughed off.

Adapted from a comment made last year. I was reminded of it by this recent Reddit discussion: What’s your least favorite retcon?

The Professor Zoom spotlight in The Flash #8 (review coming soon) reminded me of something that’s been bugging me about the current version of the character. In Flash: Rebirth, it’s pointed out that while Eobard Thawne can change history to make Barry Allen’s life a living hell, he can’t prevent Barry from becoming the Flash. Without a Flash, there’s no Reverse-Flash, and without the positive speed force that Barry Allen generates, there’s no negative speed force for Thawne.

Somewhere along the line, it turned into the idea (stated in The Flash Secret Files 2010) that Thawne can’t kill Barry Allen because he needs Barry’s speed force to power his own.

Why?

They made a big point that the speed force, once generated, stretches out and touches all times, past and present. That’s why Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick and Max Mercury could have super-speed before Barry was even born. That’s why John Fox and Eobard Thawne could have super-speed centuries after Barry’s death. That’s why Wally West, Bart Allen, Jesse Quick, and the surviving older speedsters could all have super speed while Barry was gone.

Thawne can’t erase Barry Allen from history, but he can still kill Barry anytime he wants…after Barry becomes the Flash!

Some Flash art found this past week…

Zoom Zoom cover design by scottygod and skutterfly. (via GoRogues)

The webcomic Gutters satirizes the comics industry. It recently took on the Speed Force.

Project Rooftop’s invitational features a redesign of The Flash by Joel Carroll. (via Michael Kaiser)

Philip Tan draws Wally West. (via @Speedstersite)

OK, this’ll have to be quick, because I’m between events.

At the DC Nation Special Edition Panel, Geoff Johns revealed some plans:

For all you Wally fans and Bart fans, we’re doing a second Flash book next year called Flash: Speed Force

COOL!

*ahem* Sadly, that’s the most I’m letting myself get excited about it. Plans change, and even when they go through as planned, they don’t always happen when planned. If I were to guess, it probably spins out of or into Flashpoint (probably out of, given the timing), and since he mentioned both Wally and Bart (and talked about Jesse, Jay, John Fox, and even XS when answering other questions), it’s probably a Flash team book or rotating cast — either of which I could get behind.

Anyway, I’ve got to get going. I just figured this should get a little more attention than being buried inside the live blog.

(Thanks to comics.org for the cover of the 1997 Speed Force one-shot. And a shout-out to the High Five Comics crew, whom I finally met in person after the panel!)

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Some more questions and answers pulled from the search statistics:

What happened to Tarpit in Flash: Blackest Night? – Probably nothing, since (as Captain Boomerang Jr. pointed out) his physical body is actually somewhere else. On the other hand, Captain Cold did freeze Iron Heights.

When does the new Flash Forward come out? – New episodes start Thursday, March 18. ABC will also be running a recap of the first half of the season on Tuesday, March 16, after Lost.

What is the song when Flash goes speed force? – I’m not really sure what you mean by this (unless it’s “What music plays during the climax of the Justice League Unlimited episode, “Divided We Fall”), but allow me to recommend the Jim’s Big Ego song, “The Ballad of Barry Allen.” It’s certainly more appropriate than Queen’s Flash Gordon theme.

Is DC: The New Frontier a sequel to The Golden Age? – No, but it’s a similar concept — enough so that when James Robinson was asked whether he might do a sequel, he said that New Frontier basically covered it.

Which Flash controls the speed force? – Depends on what you mean by “control.” Barry Allen generates it by running, all Flashes use it as fuel, and Wally West is able to manipulate it to perform feats like lending or stealing speed.

How can you speed if you are following someone else? – If they’re driving faster than the speed limit, then it’s entirely possible for you to do the same thing.

Why don’t people like Barry Allen? – Because not everyone has the same tastes that you do. Just as some people prefer the serious tone of the 1990s Batman animated series, while others prefer the zany adventure of Batman: the Brave and the Bold, different people like different takes on the Flash.

What will happen to Wally West? – He’ll probably be a recurring guest star in The Flash, and will almost certainly show up in an issue or two of DC Universe: Legacies. DC has scaled back on the big plans they had for the Flash this year, dropping a set of backup stories that would have featured Wally in The Flash and a Kid Flash series that would have featured Bart. Other than that, we probably won’t see much of him until the next big Flash epic, unless James Robinson pulls a surprise and puts him back on Justice League. In which case we can probably expect to see Irey or Jai killed and Wally’s legs amputated. @#*&^! Cry for Justice.

Edit: One More! – Panels at WonderCon 2010 – They haven’t released a programming schedule yet, but last year it was posted about two weeks before the convention. So we should see something online by mid-March. Update: They’ll post the schedule one day at a time, starting on March 10.