The fastest superhero to ever grace the pages of comics wears one of the most recognizable costumes, but as the role of the Flash has changed hands from Barry Allen to Wally West, the costumes over the years have incorporated some subtle changes. Of course, no one would be talking about DC Comics’ Flash at all without the original inspiration behind the modern day Flash if Golden Age Jay Garrick had not inspired the superhero’s more popular incarnations.
I hope today’s release of Flash vol.2 #2-6 on ComiXology signals the beginning of a complete digital release of the Wally West Flash series. This brings the total to 63 issues scattered around the 249-issue series (including #0 and #1,000,000, both already available), mostly from the Waid and Johns runs, but there are still a lot of gaps…and most of the material is out of print.
The Mike Baron (#1-14) and William Messner-Loebs (#15-61) runs on The Flash have never been reprinted in trade paperback, and only the highlights of the extensive Mark Waid/Brian Augustyn run (#62-162, minus a year off for Morrison/Millar) have been collected. A lot of that is due to the changing market during the 1990s. When Waid started, collected editions were rare. Vertigo was seeing some success, but the idea that people would shell out for a whole series in graphic novel form hadn’t yet sunk in. (These were the days when studios weren’t sure there was a market for complete TV seasons on home video, either.) By the time Geoff Johns took over the title, DC was collecting full runs of a few high-profile series, but not all, or even most of their books.
Now, of course, everyone expects most comic books will be collected, and waiting for the trade is actually a workable strategy. But it’s not often that DC Comics goes back to fill in the gaps in their library — at least, not in print.
Gold and Bronze
With any luck, digital releases will also be the way we’ll finally get the Bronze Age and the Golden Age re-released. I’ve grumbled on a number of occasions that DC seems to keep reprinting the same early years of the Silver Age every time they come up with a new format, and never seem to get past the early/mid-1960s on Barry Allen’s series. (Even the upcoming Flash Archives vol.6 brings that series up to…1964.)
I’d really like to see more Golden Age Flash Archives. DC has only gotten as far as issue #24 out of 104, and the first super-villain (The Shade, as it turns out) doesn’t appear until #33…but these volumes seem to come out so rarely that I expect to die of old age before DC finishes collecting the series. In print, anyway. This is one of the reasons I went forward with my effort to hunt down the original comics, or at least as many of the key issues as I could find in my price range. Read the rest of this entry »
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO; Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL; Variant cover by GARY FRANK; 1:200 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
Central City in chaos! Iris West captive in Iron Heights prison! And as Flash tries to deal with all of it, he must also try to save the life of his old friend Manuel Lago from Mob Rule, DC Comics’ hottest new Super Villain!
DC is beginning to roll out digital copies of the Mike Baron run on Wally West’s Flash series through ComiXology. Issue #1 was released during the Flash 101 sale, and issues #2-6 will be available today. Issues #1-6 feature three stories, each a two parter, with Wally West facing off against Vandal Savage, the Kilg%re, and Speed Demon, and introducing Dr. Tina McGee to the supporting cast.
The New 52 Flash creative duo of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato maintained their recent level of visibility, already talking to both io9 and Comic Impact this week.
Both sites touch on the status of the Rogues Gallery, the much-lauded artwork and both feature a mention of Wally West. The two had this to say, regarding the revamped Rogues, to i09:
Will there be any new Rogues or have any been radically redesigned?
FM: I’m still basing it on past continuity, but we’re evolving them. When you read the first arc, it’s about The Flash trying to evolve. You realize in the second arc, that that’s what the Rogues have been doing this entire time.
BB: Trying to keep up with the Joneses.
FM: But obviously it went wrong and they’re not together. We’re going to see what that’s all about and how they came across the powers that they now have.
While it covers some of the same ground as the Newsarama articles, the CBR interview does delve further into a few items including the art process, something that has gathered a lot of interest amongst fans drawn to Manapul and Buccellato’s unique style. Manapul even mentions the color chart, something he first talked about in our interview with him earlier this year.
The article also includes an exclusive look at a page from Flash #3. Follow the jump for more…
DC’s full January solicitations include the official announcement of The Flash Omnibus by Geoff Johns Vol. 2…and its contents. It clocks in at a massive 648 pages, covering two years’ worth of the Wally West Flash series, including Rogues, Crossfire, Run Riot and Blitz. Volume One was considerably shorter, covering Wonderland and Blood Will Run, including Iron Heights and The Flash Secret Files #3.
I believe this is the first time the DC 1st: Flash/Superman one-shot has been collected.
Personally, I think this is the best of Geoff Johns’ run on the book. Everything built toward first Crossfire and then Blitz as he built up a fantastic supporting cast, revitalized the Rogues, and introduced a bunch of new villains. (IMO it lost direction after Ignition, but sales went up from #200 to 225, so the overall audience seems to have liked the second half of Johns’ run better.)
My guess as to the future of this series: DC will release one more volume from the Wally West series covering #201-225 (Ignition through Rogue War). Then Volume 4 will consist of Johns’ Barry Allen run: Flash: Rebirth, Blackest Night: The Flash, Flash vol.3 and Flashpoint.
THE FLASH BY GEOFF JOHNS OMNIBUS VOL. 2 HC
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by SCOTT KOLINS, DOUG HAZLEWOOD, RICK BURCHETT, PHIL WINSLADE, DAN PANOSIAN and others
Cover by SCOTT KOLINS
On sale MARCH 28 • 648 pg, FC, $75.00 US
It’s the second hardcover volume collecting all the issues of THE FLASH written by comics superstar Geoff Johns! In this massive collection featuring issues #177-200 and DC FIRST: FLASH/SUPERMAN #1, an old friend of Wally West becomes the portal to another universe and Gorilla Grodd goes wild in Keystone City! Plus, don’t miss the Fastest Man Alive’s clashes with members of his infamous rogues gallery, including Captain Cold, The Trickster, the Pied Piper and more!
As an artist working on DC Comics’ New 52, Brett Booth regularly deals with speed in the form of Kid Flash in Teen Titans. Written by Scott Lobdell, Titans features Booth on both covers and interiors. as well as character designs. The veteran artist is next featured in issue #2, due October 26th.
Booth has also received attention recently for his unofficial portrayals of Wally West, the third and now erstwhile Flash, as posted on his blog. Starting with a post on August 24th, Booth has given his fans a couple of different looks at his redesign of West as Flash, including finished versions with colors by Andrew Dalhouse.
We caught up with Booth via email and talked about what makes a Flash costume, his take on Wally West and his favorite Flash stories.
We’ve been following Comics Should Be Good as they count down the results of their Top 50 DC & Marvel Characters survey. Wally West ranks #6 on the DC list. He hasn’t been seen much since DC decided to re-focus The Flash on Barry Allen a few years back, but Wally remains a popular character — more popular among the survey respondents than the current headliner, though as we saw a few days ago, Barry made the top 10 as well.
I hope DC considers this when the time comes around for mid-season replacements or expanding the New 52. If there’s room for 12(?) Bat-books including spots for current and past Robins Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian… If there’s room for four Lantern books including spots for all four human Green Lanterns… If there’s room for four Super-books… Then surely there’s room for a second Flash series featuring Wally West, or at the very least a spot on a team book. Barry’s got the main Flash series, Bart’s in Teen Titans, and presumably Jay will be showing up in the Earth-2-set Justice Society of America series when it launches.
Here are the final rankings of the Flashes for this survey and the previous one in 2007.
About the points: The way voting worked was that you listed your top 10 favorite characters, in order. Your first-place choice got 10 points, your second-place choice got 9 points, etc. According to CSBG, more than 1400 people voted in the survey.
Today’s guest post is by Shaun Rosado of Shauncastic!
A Sound of Thunder
The sound of thunder, a crack of lightning and in a flash everything is different. No, I’m not talking about Flashpoint; DC Comics’ current take on a “Flash-centric” Event. I’m talking about the Flash as a character and the profound difference he’s made in comics. Ever since I was a child, I always felt a deep connection to the Flash. Perhaps it was the sense of the character’s long history, reaching all the way back to World War 2 with Jay Garrick as the original Flash. Perhaps it was the idea that when I was at my most impressionable the Flash TV show had just begun and would capture my imagination. Or perhaps it’s because the Flash is the most important character of the DC Universe.
Yeah. You read that right. I typed it. The Flash is the THE most important character of the DC Universe.
Of course, I don’t expect to get away with saying something like this without a little backup.
So let’s take a moment and just go over the finer points of my argument. When the Flash began way back in the 40s, he was a character that was given his own book nearly as soon as he was established. In January 1940, Flash Comics began as a variety comic that would feature new characters and give them a chance to flourish. Some of the most famous of these characters would be Johnny Thunder, Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Black Canary. This began an eerie precedence of the Flash establishing ideas and characters that would last and break out of his book time and time again. The book ran nearly the entire span of the Golden age, ending just a few months shy of the “official” end date.
But this is not a sprint and the above argument certainly does not win the Flash the title of Greatest Character Ever. This is a marathon…and as we all know, the Flash is the Fastest Man Alive. Read the rest of this entry »
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, the creative team behind DC’s new Flash, talk to Comic Vine about the new series and unveil a page of exclusive artwork from the second issue. The duo answers questions about villains new and old, the challenges in handling both writing and art duties and the application of “super-speed thinking” as seen in the solicitation for issue #2.
CV: Does Barry always think at super-speed or does he have to activate the Speed Force?
FM: This is something we’ll be dealing with in our first arc. We know he physically taps into the Speed Force, but we haven’t quite seen the extent of what he could do if his mind tapped into it as well. This is a pretty major theme we plan to tackle, which has lent it self extremely well to visual experimentation.
Welcome to SpeedForce.org, a blog focusing on DC Comics' super-hero, The Flash. It's a companion site to Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning, a fan reference site for the Fastest Man Alive.
I hope today’s 
With any luck, digital releases will also be the way we’ll finally get the Bronze Age and the Golden Age re-released. I’ve 
DC is beginning to roll out digital copies of the Mike Baron run on Wally West’s Flash series through ComiXology. Issue #1 was released during the Flash 101 sale, and 
We’ve been following Comics Should Be Good as they count down the results of their Top 50 DC & Marvel Characters survey. 
So let’s take a moment and just go over the finer points of my argument. When the Flash began way back in the 40s, he was a character that was given his own book nearly as soon as he was established. In January 1940, Flash Comics began as a variety comic that would feature new characters and give them a chance to flourish. Some of the most famous of these characters would be Johnny Thunder, Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Black Canary. This began an eerie precedence of the Flash establishing ideas and characters that would last and break out of his book time and time again. The book ran nearly the entire span of the Golden age, ending just a few months shy of the “official” end date. 
