Monthly Archives: June 2008

Flash Pieta Covers

Comics Should Be Good has a feature on the top 10 Pieta covers — covers inspired by Michelangelo’s statue, Pietà, of Mary holding the lifeless body of Jesus. The most famous of these covers is probably George Pérez’ cover for Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, the death of Supergirl.

One Flash cover made the cut: Flash v.1 #305, in which Barry Allen and Jay Garrick each hold their dead wives. (It turned out Joan wasn’t actually dead. And Iris got better…eventually.)

There’s at least one more Flash cover that fits the bill: The full cover for Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13, featuring the Black Flash carrying the lifeless body of Bart Allen.

This was the cover that set me looking for examples of dead Flash covers last year — and it’s amazing how many there are!

This Week (June 25): Final Crisis #2 and More

Final Crisis #2 of 7

Meet Japan’s number one pop culture heroes, the Super Young Team and their languid leader, Most Excellent Superbat! Join legendary wrestler Sonny Sumo and super escape artist Mister Miracle as they team to face the offspring of the Anti-Life Equation! See Earth’s superheroes mourn one of their oldest allies! Witness costumed criminals sinking to new depths of cowardice and depravity as Libra takes things too far! Uncover the doomsday secrets of the poisoned city of Blüdhaven! Learn the shocking identity of the prime suspect in the murder of a god! And read on if you dare as Batman becomes the first of Earth’s champions to face the Fallen of Apokolips. All this and a spectacular return from the dead…

Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones’ multiverse-spanning epic continues with bombshell after bombshell in Final Crisis #2 — “Ticket to Blüdhaven”!

June 25, 2008. Written by Grant Morrison. Art and covers by J.G. Jones

Also Related

Tangent Comics vol. 3

Collecting more of DC’s Tangent titles, including Tangent Comics: Superman, Wonder Woman, Joker’s Wild, JLA, Tales of the Green Lantern, Powergirl, Nightwing: Nightforce and Trials of the Flash.

June 25, 2008. Written by Mark Millar, Peter David, Ron Marz, Dan Jurgens and others; Art by Darryl Banks, J.H. Williams III, Ryan Sook and others; Cover by Jurgens.

What If…This Was The Fantastic Four?: A Tribute to Mike Wieringo

When [former Flash] artist Mike Wieringo passed away, he was in the middle of his latest Marvel Comics book, a What If? story. Mike had completed seven pages of what became a massive 27-page story. With Mike’s passing, Marvel Comics generously provided access to the script and Mike’s art to The Hero Initiative, and Mike’s friends stepped up to finish the story, and pay tribute to Mike. Now, What If…This Was The Fantastic Four?: A Tribute to Mike Wieringo is a massive, 48-page tribute book that contains the full story, and additional written tributes to Mike. Previously covered here.

Contributors include Jeff Parker, Arthur Adams, Paul Renaud, Stuart Immonen, Cully Hamner, Alan Davis, David Williams, Sanford Greene, Humberto Ramos, Skottie Young, Mike Allred, Barry Kitson, and Val Staples. Cover by Mike Wieringo and Paul Mounts.

June 25, 2008.

Flash Hints from HeroesCon

Comic Book Resources and Newsarama have posted their write-ups on today’s DC Nation Panel at HeroesCon.  Newsarama’s coverage includes a breakdown of the question-and-answer session, including some tantalizing hints about the future of the Flash. (The article notes that these are paraphrased.)

Q: What’s coming up in The Flash?

Ethan VanSciver: “No comment” on what’s coming up, but the artist added, “I love the Flash, Absolutely love the Flash.”

Dan Didio – How much?

EVS – Enough to spend some time with the Flash.

Q: Is the Flash that Ethan wants to spend time on Barry?

EVS: Uhhh.

DD: Enough said.

There have been rumors of a Geoff Johns/Ethan van Sciver project for months, and speculation that it might be a Flash series starring Barry Allen.

Johns and van Sciver are, of course, well-known today for their work on Green Lantern, and Green Lantern: Rebirth — the series which brought Hal Jordan back from limbo and reinstated him as DC’s main Green Lantern — seems particularly relevant. They also teamed on the 2001 graphic novel The Flash: Iron Heights, which introduced a half-dozen new villains to the Flash mythos (focusing on Murmur) and established Keystone City’s equivalent to Arkham Asylum. The opening sequence featured a flashback to Barry Allen, police scientist, testifying at Murmur’s trial.

For several years, Iron Heights has been difficult to find, but it’s now been included in the second edition of Flash: Blood Will Run.

Q: Will a Flash die in Final Crisis?

DD: Quite the opposite.

Well, we’ve known since the end of April that Barry Allen was returning from the dead as part of Final Crisis, so this doesn’t give much away. Interestingly, CBR’s write-up has this as “No, quite the opposite.” That single word makes a difference. That phrasing implies that not only does Barry return, but no other Flashes die. That would indicate that Wally, Jay, and yes, even Barry are safe — at least in Final Crisis itself.

Were any readers at that panel? Can you clarify how Didio phrased this?

Update: The Pulse’s coverage doesn’t try to paraphrase the response, but mentions, “one fan joked that it would mean that Wally West would have more kids.”

Catching Up: Impulsive Interview Round-Up

Some recent interviews with former Flash contributors:

Comics Worth Reading interviews Todd Dezago (who wrote Impulse for nearly half of the series’ 90*-issue run) about Perhpahanauts (co-created with art by his Impulse collaborator artist Craig Rousseau**) moving from Dark Horse to Image.

Newsarama interviews Mark Waid (1990-2000) and William Messner-Loebs about the upcoming adapation of The Necronomicon. Messner-Loebs and Waid together account for 12 years of Flash stories from 1988–2000.

Edit: Mark Waid, William Messner-Loebs, and Todd Dezago actually cover the entire run of Impulse, minus a handful of fill-in issues by other writers.

*Yes, 90. The October 1998 issue was numbered #1,000,000 as a DC One Million tie-in.

**Correction: while Dezago and Rousseau both worked on Impulse, it was at different times. Rousseau worked on the book mainly with William Messner-Loebs.

The Black Flash to be Traded

Here’s a quick update on the earlier post about the Morrison/Millar run getting the trade paperback treatment. Collected Editions reports that “The Black Flash” will be included in The Flash: Emergency Stop.

This is a good move, as it’s the story from that period that has added the most to the mythos. The Black Flash, the personification of death for speedsters, has shown up in two pivotal arcs: “Mercury Falling” in Impulse, and “Full Throttle” in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. It was in “Full Throttle” that Inertia and the Rogues killed Bart Allen, just a short time into his career as the fourth Flash. The consequences of that event have spun into Countdown, Salvation Run, the current “Fast Money,” and the upcoming Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge.

Incidentally, several months ago the Black Flash made an appearance in Something Positive as the only Flash villain that Davan MacIntire likes. The presentation almost makes it look kindly as it carries a dying Flash away. (Warning: while that particular strip is “work-safe,” the webcomic and the commentary often feature adult language, situations, and offensive humor.)

Cary Bates Returns to Comics with True Believers

The Pulse reports that former Flash writer Cary Bates has a new book coming at Marvel this summer after a long absence from comics. Here’s how he describes the book, True Believers:

It’s a new take on the group book. Although the True Believers have powers they’re not super-heroes per se, but a group of counter-culture subversives, each with his and her own reasons for lashing out at the disinformation routinely put forth by the establishment. They’re willing to take on any government, organization, group or individual that traffics in secrets or lies, cover-ups or conspiracies.

Cary Bates wrote more than 130 issues of The Flash from 1971 through to the end of the series in 1985 — essentially the entire Bronze Age — and edited it during the final two years. During his 15-year run, he changed the book from primarily stand-alone adventures to more ongoing storylines, including such high-profile stories as the death of the Flash’s wife, Iris Allen, and the multi-year Trial of the Flash.

The interview also discusses how Bates got his start in the industry:

THE PULSE: A lot of our readers might not know that you got your start in comic books by sending in cover ideas to DC Comics when you were 13 and had quite a few of them bought. When you were first sending in ideas, did you ever dream any would be bought or were you just writing to your favorite publisher?

BATES: Actually, when I first started submitting cover ideas I would always draw, ink and color them. My original aspirations were to become a comic book artist. In retrospect, having worked with so many truly talents artists over these years, I’ve come to realize my limitations. Though I’ve always been pretty good when it comes to visualizing things, my actual drawing ability was never anything to write home about.

Full interview: The Pulse: Cary Bates is a True Believer at Marvel

(via fuzzyelf)