For those who missed the preview in DC’s Free Comic Book Day offering this weekend, you can catch several pages of the 8-page preview online at USA Today and at Comics Nexus.
The pages at USA Today answer another question that has had speedster fans confused since Saturday: a possible new speedster in the Flash Family panel. Fans had been debating whether she was a horribly mis-colored XS or a new character. The USA Today pages have been corrected, making it clear that yes, she’s meant to be XS.
Good to know, though I have to wonder how getting a character’s skin, hair and costume all wrong made it as far as the printed copy of a high-profile promotional book. (Though I suspect DC put far more effort into the Green Lantern part of the book, because, let’s be honest: a big summer movie trumps a big summer comic book every time.)
[Update: DC Women Kicking Ass has the panel in question, with the printed FCBD and corrected online versions. (via Bleeding Cool)]
Along with the preview, USA Today interviews Geoff Johns, Andy Kubert and others about the event.
CBR has posted their latest Geoff Johns Prime question and answer column. in it the Flash: Rebirth author talks about Blackest Night, Flash, Superman and a lot more.
Some Flash items that stood out:
Wally’s Costume
Back in June, Ethan Van Sciver said that Wally West’s new costume debuts in Flash: Rebirth #6, but Geoff Johns says here that it appears in #5. If that’s correct and not a typo, then I feel a lot more confident about the schedule for Blackest Night: Flash not being pushed back to avoid spoiling the costume debut.
He goes on:
And it’s very much a Flash costume. It’s tweaked, but it’s certainly not crazy. It’s not blue and white. It’s Flash. We never wanted to completely change it. We just wanted to accentuate what makes Wally’s costume, Wally’s costume. It will feel very familiar.
Hmm, hard to say, but I’m going to guess two things:
- Barry keeps the straight-across belt and Wally keeps the V-shaped belt.
- Wally loses the top of his cowl, making his hair visible.
XS
There are very big plans for XS in the future of the Flash universe. “The Flash” book and the “Kid Flash” book start next year
I think this is great. I haven’t read much of the DnA Legion of Super-Heroes, but I liked her appearances in Impulse during and around “Dead Heat.” Jenni and Bart really connected during that story, and I can see a lot of potential with two teenage speedsters who have spent significant amounts of time in the future. Plus it’s got to be a big change for Bart to go from having one blood relative around (Iris) to three (Iris, Barry and Jenni).
On the other hand, I hope XS will still be tied to the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I hope her Flash appearances are in addition to the “new” female speedster hinted at in San Diego and Long Beach.
Hey, wouldn’t it be weird if she ends up in the Justice League? (Okay, not going to happen, but she would be an “interesting” choice, wouldn’t she?)
The Speed Force
His longest Flash-related answer is to a question about why he changed the nature of the speed force in Flash: Rebirth. It’s several paragraphs long, but the part that stood out for me was this:
And literally if [Barry] builds up enough energy, just like anything else that builds up energy, boom, there’s a discharge somewhere or somewhen. A stray lightning bolt from the Speed Force that…strikes somebody that shares the same sense of justice that Barry Allen has.
This picks up from something suggested during William Messner-Loebs’ run on the book, in which he suggested that Barry Allen might somehow have subconsciously willed the accident that gave him super-speed to repeat itself with Wally. It explains the mysterious behavior of the speed force “noticing” people, though it doesn’t quite explain, for instance, Savitar — who certainly didn’t share Barry Allen’s sense of justice. Maybe he did before he gained his powers. Or maybe he gained them through a discharge from Thawne’s “negative speed force?”
(Personally, I think that these changes overcomplicate a plot device that was designed to simplify speedsters’ origins, but that’s just my opinion.)
Flash Movie
Geoff Johns says that he’s “working on The Flash” and Shazam but can’t say anything more at this time.
Geoff Johns promises that Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4 will be out “soon” (DC’s schedule currently shows May 13), and has posted a few panels of Kid Flash (Bart Allen) and XS (Jenni Ognats).
The original on his site is in TIFF format (and a lot bigger), so it may not show up in your web browser.
This will be less of a full review and more of a first reaction to the issue.
I’m sure some people won’t believe this, but I actually felt more lost reading the first half of this book than I did reading Final Crisis itself. It’s been months since the last issue came out, and I’ve never been very familiar with the three incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The only time I read them on a monthly basis was the “Five Years Later” period that started around 1989 or so — and it’s not represented in this story! I have read the occasional issue of other series, particularly the “Reboot” Legion with its connections to Impulse. After a while I just went with it.
That settled out later in the issue, especially as it began to focus on XS and the various lightning-powered Legionnaires as they learned about the legacy of Barry Allen’s brief sojourn in the 30th Century. Geoff Johns attempted to clear up some of the questions of whether Bart Allen was from an alternate universe, and while I think the answer ended up being more complicated than was necessary (since they had already established that sometimes time travelers will end up in an alternate universe), I suspect it’s in the service of setting up threads that will tie into either Flash: Rebirth or the inevitable Flash ongoing that spins out of it.
And speaking as a Flash fan, the conclusion of this issue was fantastic.
Spoilers after the cut: Read the rest of this entry »
CBR has an interview with Geoff Johns on Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, and hints at certain… flashy elements to the story.
“If people liked Bart Allen, they should probably read the book. XS is in it.”
And while he wouldn’t come right out and say whether or not the five-issue miniseries absolutely, positively marked the return of the speedster formerly known as The Flash, Johns teased, “Obviously, one of the big things in ‘Lightning Saga’ that we still haven’t addressed is the lightning rod and what that’s all about. That will be a central focus of the series.”
An image caption also indicates that XS (Jenni Ognats, Bart’s cousin and Barry’s granddaughter) will appear in Flash: Rebirth. While that’s entirely possible, given the apparent scope of the story — and I think it would be great to have the entire Allen/West clan involved — I have to wonder whether the caption writer was misreading an ambiguous paragraph early in the article, which explained XS’ ties to Barry Allen, then added that “The popular character will be showcased… [in] The Flash: Rebirth.“
