Monthly Archives: January 2009

We’re Baaack!

I apologize to those who’ve tried to visit the site this weekend and couldn’t see it. Apparently when I upgraded one of my plugins (WP Super-Cache, which normally improves performance on the site), it tried to enable a feature on the server that it didn’t have permission to turn on. Whenever it tried to load a page from the cache, it would run into the permissions problem and show a “500 Internal Server Error” page.

Of course, since I was always logged in when I looked at the site, it never tried to load the page from the cache, so I never saw the error. I even made a few posts.

Reminder to self: When updating plugins, always test the site both while logged in and while not logged in!

Technical details: The .htaccess file in the wp-content/cache folder didn’t have permission to turn on expiration (the error in Apache’s logs was “ExpiresActive not allowed here”). Solution: add “AllowOverride Indexes” to the folder’s area in the server configuration.

Dan Speaks: The Future of Wally West

From Newsarama’s Dan DiDio: 20 Answers, 1 Question for January 23:

13. One question that keeps coming back with the return of Barry Allen as Flash. What’s the role of Wally West going to be?

DD: That question is great fodder for story, and what will be taking place in Wally’s life. He will be trying to figure out his place in the world in regards to being a hero and a family man, given the turn of events and the return of Barry. The return of Barry basically forces Wally to ask himself why he would want to continue, and should he continue in the role of the Flash? He took the mantle on, and “graduated” from Kid Flash to Flash because Barry died, and now that he’s returned, Wally has to question what he wants to do. He also gets to reexamine his family life, and see where he fits in and what exactly his purpose is. That’s going to be the centerpiece of a lot of stories in Titans and beyond in the coming year. Wally will be featured very prominently in Titans following the conclusion of Flash: Rebirth. We’re going to be addressing all of that – there’s a lot of story left to be told with Wally.

The interview also talks about a possible role for Barry Allen in Blackest Night, which seems to have grown from this year’s big Green Lantern story in the style of Sinestro Corps War to being this year’s big DC Universe Event-With-a-Capital-E.

A question to anyone reading Titans: has it actually gotten good? It took me a long time to break the habit of reading it, and if I’m going to have to fall off the wagon just to be able to read new Wally West stories, it had better be worth it.

Speed Reading: Barry, Daphne, Mopee and Hippies

Progressive Ruin looks into a forgotten Flash supporting cast memberMopee — and a surprise find in the old Flash comics letters column: a letter from a fan named Cary Bates!

4thletter! bemoans the fact that Barry Allen’s return appears to be linked to another speedster’s death.

Comic Coverage looks at an editor’s excuse for a then-shocking swear word appearing on the cover of a 1960s Flash comic.

Death in Comics is clearly on the collective mind of the blogosphere, with (again) 4thLetter weighing in.

And finally, Heroes’ Brea Grant posts this fan picture of Daphne, Flash and Quicksilver by Drawing Power:

Speedsters by Drawing Power: Quicksilver, Daphne, and the Flash

This Week (Jan 21): Emergency Stop, Justice League and Lightning

The new Flash material coming out this week is in Justice League of America and the second-to-last chapter of Tangent: Superman’s Reign, but there are three collections coming out: two softcover, one hardcover.

The Flash: Emergency Stop TP

At last, DC collects the fast-paced 1990s epic by Grant Morrison (Final Crisis) and Mark Millar (Civil War) from The Flash #130-135! Confined to a wheelchair after a run-in with the mystery villain known only as The Suit, how can The Flash protect Keystone City from evil run amok?

144 pg, FC, $12.99 US. Written by Grant Morrison & Mark Millar.
Art by Paul Ryan & John Nyberg. Cover by Steve Lightle. More info on the Morrison/Millar Run, and order from Amazon.

Continue reading

Secret Identities on Trial

This week, The Flash: Emergency Stop hits the shelves. The trade paperback covers half of the year-long Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run from the late 1990s, and, according to solicitations, features the conclusion of “Three of a Kind.” This three-part crossover between Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and The Flash features the second– and third-generation heroes Kyle Rayner, Connor Hawke, and Wally West. Villains Heat Wave, Sonar, and Hatchet attack a cruise liner in which Dr. Polaris is being secretly transported, only to find the three heroes have booked a vacation on the same ship.*

Three of a Kind (Triptych)

The segment in The Flash v.2 #135 focuses on the villains’ trial, with flashbacks to the incident. At the time, Wally West’s identity was public knowledge, though he testified in full costume. This in itself is unusual given standard courtroom dress codes (a skin-tight bright red costume isn’t exactly conservative business attire, and tends to stand out a bit). But then Green Lantern takes the witness stand:

The Defense questions Green Lantern pleading the 12th Amendment to keep his identity secret. The Prosecution argues that the 12th Amendment is standard procedure for super-heroes testifying in court.

The usage is similar to the U.S. Constitution’s 5th Amendment, which states in part that “No person…shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” Two things can be gathered from these panels:

  • The DC Universe had a “Federal Authority of Registered Meta-Humans” years before Marvel’s Civil War (though after the first story with the Mutant Registration Act).
  • The DCU version of the United States Constitution has a Twelfth Amendment which, under some circumstances, allows witnesses to give an alias rather than a real name when testifying in court.

There’s no indication that it’s required to register, or whether it’s simply a good idea if you want legal backing. It’s not even clear whether heroes have to register under their real names. I can’t remember whether any other books made reference to this authority, but suddenly I really want to find and reread my back issues of Chase.

In the real world, the Twelfth Amendment dates back to 1803 (passed 1804) and changes the way the President and Vice-President are elected. Assuming the DCU’s US just has one more Constitutional amendment than we do, their Twelfth would be just about as old, which leads to the question: Why did they need to amend the supreme law of the land to allow masked heroes to testify 130 years before the Golden Age of super-heroes?

Thinking about it, though, DC does have super-heroes whose adventures take place in earlier eras, especially in North America. Not just heroes of the Western genre like Jonah Hex or Bat Lash, but classical super-heroes with masks, costumes and powers. Max Mercury’s origin dates back to the early 1800s, for instance, and Miss Liberty (an ancestor of Jesse Quick/Liberty Belle) fought in the American Revolution.

Might the early United States in the DC Universe have decided it was worth letting some of their more colorful national heroes remain pseudonymous even in legal proceedings? It’s certainly possible.

Whatever the circumstances of its passage, it sheds some light on the otherwise nonsensical fact that Barry Allen kept his mask on and his identity secret from his arrest all the way through his trial for manslaughter in the case of Professor Zoom’s death, dissected in great detail by Bob Ingersoll.

The Flash's Mug Shot (Flash v.1 #326, October 1983)

*It’s a little more complicated than that, of course.