Monthly Archives: March 2009

Van Scivers: Local Hero and Signing

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Two items of note:

First, Sharis Van Sciver, wife of Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver, is in the news today for leading a growling dog away from a group of school children. The dog, which showed signs of abuse and had apparently broken its chain and escaped, bit her hand, but her injuries are minor. (via Blog@Newsarama)

Second, Flash fans in the Orlando, Florida area should take note: Ethan Van Sciver will be doing a free signing for Flash: Rebirth at A Comic Shop in Winter Park, Florida (that’s the actual name of the store) on April 3.

This Week (March 11): Titans & Collections

Titans #11

The Titans #11Written by Judd Winick
Art and cover by Howard Porter

Shaken by the loss of one of their teammates, the Titans attempt to regroup and move on. But they discover that their problems aren’t even close to over as their past comes back to haunt them in this prelude to the major “Deathtrap” crossover with Teen Titans starting next month!

32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Showcase Presents: Justice League of America Vol.4

Written by Gardner Fox and Dennis O’Neil
Art by Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin, Sid Greene,
George Roussos and Joe Giella
Cover by Neal Adams

The JLA continues to fight evil in this new bargain-priced volume collection Justice League of America #61-83. These epic tales feature the JLA debuts of the Red Tornado and Black Canary, plus the annual adventure with the Justice Society of America!

544 pg, B&W, $16.99 US

Justice League International Vol.4 (HC)

Written by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis
Art by Kevin Maguire, Ty Templeton, Mike McKone, Bill Willingham, Joe Rubinstein and Dick Giordano
Cover by Kevin Maguire & Joe Rubinstein

The 1980s adventures of the Justice League continue! This new volume collects Justice League International #23-25 and Justice League America #26-30.

208 pg, FC, $24.99 US

Super Friends: For Justice! (TP)

Written by Sholly Fisch
Art by Dario Brizuela, Joe Staton, Stewart McKay, Horacio Ottolini, Phil Moy and Mike DeCarlo
Cover by J. Bone

Stories from the first seven SUPER FRIENDS issues unite in a new collection of stories inspired by the red-hot line of action figures from Mattel! Filled with exciting, all-ages adventure, this volume features the Justice League facing some of their greatest foes, including Amazo and Gorilla Grodd!

144 pg, FC, $12.99 US

As usual, there’s a good chance of the Flash appearing in Trinity as well.

Speed Reading: Retro Reviews, Doug Hazlewood, TV Shows and More

The Victoria Advocate profiles Doug Hazlewood.

Comics In Crisis presents Flash v.2 #182 (2002), the Captain Cold Rogue Profile story, among the 10 Essential Bronze Age Comic Stories You Should Read. I’d disagree with the Bronze-Age classification (traditionally, the Bronze Age of Comics ran from the 1970s through mid 1980s, with Crisis on Infinite Earths being a good reference point for DC books), but it’s absolutely a must-read.

X-Man reviews Flash vol.2 #1 (1987), noting how different Wally West was at the age of 20 than he is today. That’s actually one of the things Wallys’ long-term fans like most about the character: that we’ve seen him grow and change naturally, rather than simply be given a personality transplant whenever a new writer shows up.

The Quantum Blog talks about TV shows canceled before their time, including the 1990-1991 Flash TV Series. (Hard to believe it’s been almost 20 years. Seriously, Quantum Leap is having a 20th Anniversary convention this month. I feel old…)

The Worlogog celebrates Weird Silver Age Tales of the Flash.

I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but Raging Bullets Podcast #152 features Flash’s Rogues with listener guest Mike Simms.

Heritage Auctions will be selling a CGC 9.6 copy of Showcase #4, the comic that rebooted the Flash as Barry Allen, launching the Silver Age (via It’s all Just Comics)

A Journal of Zarjaz Things looks at Flash: Emergency Stop, griping that Grant Morrison’s 9-issue run is split across two trades with the second “padded” out with a 3-parter by Mark Millar. IMO, though, Morrison didn’t write a 9-issue Morrison run — he co-wrote 9 issues of a 12-issue Morrison/Millar run. It would have been less responsible for DC to print only the Morrison issues and leave out “The Black Flash,” which has arguably had more lasting impact on the Flash mythos than the other stories in these trades, good as they are. (It is silly that they left out the first two parts of “Three of a Kind,” though.)

Flash Flickr Finds: MegaCon

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Sadly, I didn’t spot any Flash costumes at WonderCon last weekend (though you can see my photos of other stuff at the con)… and I didn’t find any online either. I did, however, manage to find some Flashy photos from MegaCon on Flickr.

Photos by samaritanx, rossnordean, and apocalyptic.

I found several pictures of the Flash and Starfire in the second picture, making me wonder whether they knew each other or just happened to cross paths frequently. There’s one photo of them with Dan Didio and George Perez, suggesting they’re the ones who went up onstage at the DC Universe panel.

More Silver-Age Flash Reprints Coming: Chronicles and Rogues

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Flash Chronicles Vol 1Collected Editions has spotted two more Flash books coming this year: Flash Chronicles Vol. 1 and Flash vs. The Rogues, coming in September and November respectively.

The Flash Chronicles looks to be picking up on the format pioneered by the Batman Chronicles and Superman Chronicles: starting from the beginning, reprinting the stories in chronological order in trade paperback form.

Well, mostly: judging by the Carmine Infantino credit, and the fact that the Green Lantern Chronicles are starting with Hal Jordan, they’re probably starting with the Silver Age — 15 years after the Flash first appeared. And re-reprinting the same stories that have already been reprinted in the Flash Archives series and Showcase Presents: The Flash.

Every time DC changes to a new format for their reprints, they start over in the same place. It’s maddening. It’s as if, instead of releasing full seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent series, Paramount had released season one on VHS, then went back and released the same season on DVD, then gone back and released the same season on Blu-Ray, never getting to later seasons of TNG…or to the original series.

How about reprinting some more Golden Age Flash stories, DC? I’ll happily pre-order The Golden Age Flash Archives Volume 3 the moment you solicit it!

As for Flash vs. the Rogues, my best guess as to content would be collecting the stories from Barry’s run in which the Rogues teamed up against their speedy nemesis. Stories like “The Gauntlet of Super-Villains,” “Stupendous Triumph of the Six Super-Villains,” and “If I Can’t Rob Central City, Nobody Can!”

Rumor: Flash Movie Speeding Up?

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Edit: Thinking about it more, Brandan’s probably right. This was too sketchy to really bother posting. Even if it’s true, I probably misremembered the dates anyway. I’d delete the post, but on the internet that would paradoxically give it more attention.

Not much to report anyway: just someone overhearing a conversation which implied that WB marketing expected to start working on stuff related to the perpetually-in-development-hell Flash movie in the next couple of years, rather than just eventually.