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.

Manapul on Grodd, set to appear in issue #9:

They’re definitely going to be a lot more brutal. The thing that we really want to express with Gorilla Grodd is we want a villain that’s scary. We want to really instill a lot of fear in Barry Allen. So far, a lot of the villains have reflected Barry Allen in some way. Mob Rule reflected what it’s like if you run away from your problems. Captain Cold will be a reflection of what you’re willing to do and where you draw the line. I won’t say what the reflection is with Turbine, because you’ll find out. And then with Gorilla Grodd, it’s going to be fear.

There’s a lot more to the piece, make sure to check it out over at Newsarama.

The PopMatters piece is a more in-depth analysis of the duo’s contributions to Flash lore.  Part essay and part interview, it includes a great deal of exposition on Flash history, while covering the current direction and upcoming arcs as well.  An appreciation of Manapul’s experimental artwork is also included, beginning with Manapul’s tenure as artist with former Flash scribe Geoff Johns:

“He’s a fantastic cinematic storyteller”, Francis continues, “and I took a bit of that. But then also, being there from the beginning, I’m able to push and experiment with certain things. Knowing truly what the subtext of the story is, allows me a certain flexibility of pushing my art and pushing the layouts. Going back to the Manuel Lagos scene where we find out how his organs were used for the clones, I was able to create a multi-layer storytelling within a double-pager. In which you can read the story going on within in the panels, but then you can look at the panels themselves, and just the shapes of them also tell another story as well. It enhances the way the story’s being to.

Buccellato on Mob Rule, and the role real science is playing in the title:

“In the case of Mob Rule”, Brian continues, referencing the new series’ first villain, and a unique addition to Flashlore courtesy of Francis and Brian, “he’s exactly the opposite of what Barry Allen wanted to be. Barry wanted to be so fast that he could be more places than one. And the thing is, he’s only one man. And it felt like the physical manifestation of an antagonist that would work perfectly for this situation is a person that can be in multiple places at once. And what made it more difficult is his personal connection to Manuel and Mob Rule. And the science sorta fell into it…”.

Be sure to check out the rest of the article over at PopMatters, and don’t forget that Flash #6 hits stands today!

Media Blitz!: Flash Team Talks Rogues, Annual at Newsarama, PopMatters is a post from Speed Force.

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.

Flash #8 Solicitation and Cover is a post from Speed Force.

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.

The speed force — or speed field, if it makes it easier to visualize — lines the boundaries between universes, and exists throughout time. Think of it as the soap in a foam of soap bubbles, where each bubble is a universe. This gives the Flash the ability to travel between universes, and forward and backward in time.

And then we start getting into the weird stuff.

According to Professor Zoom in Flash: Rebirth, the speed force is time. Manipulation, either deliberate or accidental, sent Bart Allen (in “Reckless Youth” and Flash: The Fastest Man Alive) and Iris & Jai West (in “The Wild Wests” and “Fast Money”) up and down the age scale. Perhaps this cancels out relativistic problems?

Wally West was somehow able to convert speed force energy into a costume. (Assuming the standard e=mc² equation applies, that means he’s using a lot of energy to cover up his street clothes. It’s a wonder he has any left to run.)

And I have to apologize for waiting this long to tell you this, but as for explaining how Barry Allen generates the speed force…? I can’t, because it doesn’t make any sense. Fortunately, judging by the first few issues of the New 52 Flash series, it sounds like he doesn’t in this universe, so neither of us will have to worry about it anymore.

Reader Questions: Explain the Speed Force is a post from Speed Force.

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…

Q:  Flash #2 describes Augmented Cognition as “a neuroscience focused on expanding the limits of human brain cognition.”  A character in the book suggests that Flash can access the source of his super-speed powers, the “Speed Force,” in order to “…eliminate the natural bottlenecking of information that occurs due to the limits of human physiology.”  How accurate do you feel this description is?

DR. P. A. HANCOCK:  This is actually quite a reasonable suggestion.  The question is: why are there bottlenecks in the first place and what evolutionary cause do they serve.  There is some highly intriguing work which passes visual images very quickly (just a few milliseconds) past a human observer and then their brainwave recordings are used to help a computer to sort which images have likely targets.  Thus, the brain here filters at a tremendously high rate (better than many computerized search algorithms), and the output can then be surveyed more slowly as the actual targets are determined consciously on-screen.  How is it the brain is able to work this quickly and yet consciousness struggles to keep up?  I think this is one of the conundra that augmented cognition is looking to investigate and potentially ‘solve.’  Although whether we will like the solution is also the matter of much discussion.

Q:  As a board member on the Augmented Cognition International Society, can you tell us about your role, and some of the implications and possibilities of Augmented Cognition?

PH:  In the past, my main function has been associated with Conferences and serving as a referee on submitted papers, and of course attending a number of these Conferences alongside my students and colleagues.  One of the issues that has always intrigued me is why people are so slow at learning [note: see 'Can Technology Cure Stupidity?'].  It has been suggested that the natural ‘design lifetime’ of a human being is about 23 years of age (about the time we get out of College!).  While I like the idea of lifetime learning, why are the methods we have of information transmission to humans (learning), so slow?  It echoes the element in the ‘Matrix’ where individuals are able to assimilate expert skills in seconds.  Radical changes in our timescale of learning would have profound implications for all of human life – it is one issue AC can address and help with.

Q:  Flash uses his new-found abilities to sort through possible outcomes at super-speed and make split-second decisions with complete certainty.  Some of the areas addressed on the Society’s website include “…limitations in attention, memory, learning, comprehension, visualization abilities, and decision making.”  In your option, how could someone operating at super-speed use access to Augmented Cognition to achieve a nearly “precognitive” state?

PH:  Humans have already evolved to use such abilities.  You don’t need to react at ‘super-speed’ if you can anticipate.  This is, in part, what the prefrontal cortex is for – ‘getting out ahead of time.’ [see ‘Battle for Time in the Brain’].  Most of our memory is now being ported to the external technology (e.g., web sources etc).  Soon, we will have a growth of equivalent ‘apps’ for certain forms of decision-making (they will come in as advisories, e.g., ‘what should I eat and where today?), the big issue will be attention.  We still don’t know enough about attention and the current theories need to be revised.  Part of the answer may be biochemical as much as neurocognitive solutions.  Neuroscience promises much but progress is actually slow because this is a such a difficult problem.  ‘Super-speed’ is also relative.  Once everyone works at that rate it will just be the new ‘normal.’  ‘Pre-cognitive’ will simply mean knowing much more concerning the world about you.  You can argue people show vast individual differences in this form of ‘awareness’ now.

Q:  Does a concept such as “AugCog” redefine  “decision,” and if so, how?

PH:  I don’t know what AC ‘defines’ decisions as but in my mind they are inflexion points in space-time and for humans they are irregularities in their personal (Minkowski) space-time line.  One can define a decision to be at a trivial level (e.g., to breath in is potentially a ‘decision’) but I think AC focuses on the ‘cognitive’ level.  Even here we talk of ‘skills’ ‘rules’ and ‘knowledge’ to parse decision levels.  Also, there are merging ‘camps’ of decision making combining the ‘heuristics and biases’ approaches with the ‘recognition-primed decision making’ (RPD) approaches.  It’s an exciting time in this particular field.

Q:  Are you a fan of comic books, or science fiction?  Augmented Cognition seems right at home in a Flash comic book, but is also grounded in 21st Century reality.  In the 1950s, when this version of the Flash first appeared, much of the science on display was more “psuedo” than science.  How does it feel to be operating on the very edge of current technology and science, and literally keeping pace with science fiction?

PH:  I’m a great fan of Comic Books (I collect early ‘Lois Lane’ and love the old cover art) [see ‘Can you trust your Robot?’].  Science fiction (at least the good stuff) has always been explorations of potential hypotheses (what if scenarios) often projected far out, but always having to link with the present in some way.  Good science fiction also poses moral questions that we can face in ‘fantasy worlds’ knowing that eventually we might have to face their analog in the real world (e.g., can a computer think and what happens when it does?).  Like the frontal cortex of an individual, science fiction may be part of the ‘frontal cortex’ of society (asking an probing about possible futures).  I would like to believe I do interesting things but keeping up with even some parts of certain areas of neuroscience is taxing today.  Hopefully, we can encourage a bunch of youngsters to get interested in such areas by their reading of them in ‘Flash.’

Q:  Now that AugCog will be playing a prominent role, will you be picking up Flash next month?

PH:  If you can find a place in the next story for a short, fat, ugly, ex-English (now American) scientist who can help Flash with some crucial Aug Cog problem – I’m there.

For further reading, check out the below provided by Dr. Hancock:

- Can Technology Cure Stupidity?

- The Battle for Time in the Brain

- Can You Trust Your Robot?

You can also go to Dr. Hancock’s own website for even more.

Keep your eyes peeled for exciting follow-ups to this interview!

Think Fast!: The Reality of Augmented Cognition w/ Dr. Peter A. Hancock is a post from Speed Force.

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.

How Might THE FLASH Relaunch After FLASHPOINT? is a post from Speed Force.

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?

Why I Don’t Like Barry Allen Generating the Speed Force is a post from Speed Force.

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!

Reverse-Flash Immunity is a post from Speed Force.

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)

Speed Reading: Art Round-Up is a post from Speed Force.

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!)

» Full index of Comic-Con coverage

Flash: Speed Force Book Planned is a post from Speed Force.

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.

Search-Term Q&A is a post from Speed Force.