There’s an extensive 4-page interview with Geoff Johns up at IGN in which he talks about everything from story structure and theme to specific character motivations.
One segment on the first page really bothered me, though, when he said of the retcon that inserts a serious tragedy into his childhood:
We’ve never really visited Barry Allen’s past before he got hit by the bolt of lightning. And so some of what Rebirth is going to do is delve back into the past and reveal some things about it that previously weren’t there.
Never visited it? Really?
Apparently he’s never read any of the Silver Age or Bronze Age stories that flashed back to Barry’s childhood, or in which he caught up with his childhood sweetheart Daphne Dean, or visited both still very much alive parents…or Mark Waid’s The Life Story of the Flash.
He goes on to explain:
IGN: Why did you think it was important to bring some tragedy into his back-story?
Johns: What we’ll find out is we’ll see what drove him to adopt such a strong sense of justice. I really want to explore what drove Barry Allen to adopt his uncanny sense of wrong and right. You’re not just born with that. Barry Allen strove for that and was somewhat obsessed with it. Also, it’s about why he got into forensics. What led him to that area of work? Why not become a cop or a prosecutor? Why forensics? That’s something I really wanted to explore – what drove Barry Allen to this life that he chose? What made him Barry Allen before he was hit by the bolt of lightning?
Funny… here I thought Hunter Zolomon was supposed to be a villain. Apparently he was actually an author avatar.
bla Barry is a blank slate? This interview seems to confirm a lot of the ideas I think they’re writing in.
It seems a little strange that he should say “if you don’t know who Barry is, then this is the book for you” when the character DID in fact exhibit nuanced sense of justice on many ocassions and has NEVER been motivated by fear, anger, or revenge. Barry was never out to punish the guilty to fill a hole in his soul from some childhood tragedy. I understand that it will probably make for a better two hour movie down the road if he’s running has metaphorical implications – but 20+ years of stories through many different publications show he is neither a blank slate nor a hero driven by anguish. In the end there won’t be any technical retcons – only the 180 of what Barry was. That’s how comic books go I guess!
The story is getting the “mystery” villain characterization pretty much dead on though… good set up making him a perfect foil in such a seemingly short time.
very good interview…
Geoff (thinking about it later) is seriously tapping some Silver/Bronze Age storytelling feel in this book, while, at the same time, modernizing it like crazy!
he’s a freakin genius!
.-= Jason West’s latest blog post: 1 Week!!! =-.
The man never met a retcon he didn’t like. Aargh, I love his writing so much except for his insistence of putting retcons into everything…
Indeed, Zoom is Johns’ pet… and another woman was stuffed into the refigerator. Really, at least couldn’t Johns be more creative when he thought that Barry Allen NEEDEDMORETRAGEDYYY..
When Bruce shows up again, eventually, do you think he’ll hold a grudge against Barry for the mindwipe thing Barry agreed to in Identity Crisis? I could Bruce punching him on sight.
Wait, there were women in this book? (checks back) Hmm. I must have blinked the first time through.
Let’s see: Iris and Joan get one page. Combined. Linda shows up only in voice-over. Liberty Belle doesn’t speak. Barry’s mother appears for the first time in ~25 years only to be retroactively murdered?
We’re talking the most important people in Barry’s, Jay’s and Wally’s lives (okay, Linda shares this with Iris II and Jai, and they did get some attention), plus another speedster who once wore the red and gold lightning and has working relationships with Jay and Wally.
And what’s with Barry avoiding Iris? What happened to the Barry who came back from the dead and made it a point to put things right with Iris before running off to save the world? That’s the Barry I want to see more of.
It was made very clear (at least to me) that Barry had developed a strong sense of right and wrong because as a little kid he read the Flash comics and aspired to be more like his childhood hero; Jay Garrick, The Flash. Moreover, he was also fascinated by science and mathematics. Coming of age, this combination of Morals and Wonder led Barry to explore forensic scinece. He figured he could fight crime AND practice laboratory science, his two passions in life.
There is more than one refference to all this in the 2nd volume of the Flash. It is a simple yet poetic explanation to Barry’s drive as a crimefighter and chosen profession. Why would Johns want to change that? It is one of the few items of interest that sets Barry apart from the other tragic origins stories! If he really loves The Flash mythos as much as he says, this move does not make sense to me yet… maybe later?
What do you guys think?