Monthly Archives: May 2009

Speed Reading — Flash: Rebirth #2 Review Round-Up

A bunch of reviews of Flash: Rebirth #2

Weekly Crisis – “For a book and character that thrives on speed, Rebirth has been a slow and plodding pace that threatens to bore me before Geoff Johns ever really makes me care about Barry Allen’s return or the new grimmer and darker motivation for the Silver Age character.”

Rokk’s Comic Book Revolution – “a good read that still had a few defects that might turn off some readers. I do think that most Flash fans will enjoy The Flash: Rebirth #2. Johns has done his best to try and make Barry accessible to all fans regardless of which Flash you grew up with. ”

Comic Book Resources – “The problem is, right now it feels like nothing is happening. There’s a whole lot of talking and reminiscing, but remarkably little forward movement in a book that is titled The Flash.

IGN – “At its core, the problem with Rebirth is the way it presents the vast tapestry that is the Flash mythology. There are countless speedsters running around these pages, most of whom dash in and out of the book in rapid succession and with little impact.”

Rikdad – “readers who feel like they need to scan dozens of old back issues can sit back and relax. There is a wealth of old material there, but the road ahead is cutting its own path.”

Comic Book Legacy – “the biggest problem I am having with this series, as of this issue, is the lack of an actual physical threat in the story”

Four Color Media Monitor – “this latest forced darkening of another Silver Age hero whose background was better when it was brighter.”

Read/RANT – “This book is entertaining. You probably won’t be bored. But I kind of wonder who it’s aimed at.”

Reilly 2040 – “I’m aware I’m sounding very down on the series here, and I don’t really mean to. While there are aspects that aren’t quite clicking in this issue, I’m still excited for the series as a whole, and events in this issue are key to the rest of the series”

The Homeworld – “Geoff Johns is trying to bring him back to life, but unfortunatly, the Barry Allen we all know seems to be dead.”

Major Spoilers – “I liked this issue a lot more than the first, mostly because of the insight into Barry’s state of mind. ”

Comix 411 – “A good mystery so far and I’m starting to get into the character of Barry Allen. The only Flash I’ve known has been Wally so this is a bit of a virgin experience. Looking forward to more. ”

Nerdage – video

Tpull’s Weekly DC Comics Review – “Get this now, unless you’re of the type that just cannot stand a little mystery.”

Comics And…Other Imaginary Tales – “The art on this book is just outstanding….The story is where I’m having issues with this book.”

Speaking of Comics – “There are some great set pieces in this book….But I couldn’t help feeling the overall effect of what should be a monumental, groundbreaking comic, came up short.”

Newsarama Best Shots – “I was one of the people who found last month’s debut issue to be more funeral than homecoming, so I was pleased that Flash: Rebirth #2 to be a much more uplifting bit of superhero storytelling.”

Shipmates!: “I am filled with shock, confusion, understanding, horror, omfg I dunno if that’s awesome or not sort of things with my jaw hanging open and a few hours afterwards where I was just wandering around in a haze of trying to grasp what is going on with my beloved Flashes.” (She follows up with a flashback on the Black Flash)

Bureau 42 – “This is an original take on a character returning from the dead. I think this is the first time when the returning character struggled but others didn’t.”

Comic Book Bin – “the mystery of Barry’s return– and the surprising twist on the last page– really do grab the reader”

Comic Per Day – “This issue went a long way towards making Barry a character I’m interested in seeing more of. Just make sure Wally stays in the picture.”

Bee Boy’s Killer Sting – “If you are going to change a character so much, especially his personality, then you may have as well created something new.”

That’s a Wrap – “This latest rebirth is coming across as DC’s worst attempt to reintegrate a character in more than a decade.”

Flash-Back Podcast (audio)

Not exactly a review, but Daily Scans weighs in on the bow tie, Barry’s parents, and Wonder Woman.

There’s also my own review of the book.

Finally, there’s Comic Book Critics Round-up, which assigns scores to each review to try to get an overall sense of critic and reader response.

Quick Thoughts: Twitter Through 2009-05-17

Powered by Twitter Tools and tidied up a bit.

Speed Reading: Kadabra, Death, and the Marks

Linkblogging for a Friday afternoon…

The Absorbascon examines Abra Kadabra, go-to-guy for crazy, impossible things.

Now Read This! reviews Flash: Emergency Stop.

Death and Rebirth

The Alliterates ponders why dead men (Barry & Hal) tell more tales.

Dan Didio talks death and resurrection in his latest 20 Questions feature.

Where Are They Now?

Mark Waid talks Cyberforce/Hunter-Killer.

Marc Guggenheim (“Full Throttle”) and Michael Green talk about trying to get serialized fiction onto TV…not to mention dealing with religious themes on TV.

Dear Comics Internet…

Dance: FaceSpace Status UpdatesI’d like to make a suggestion to comics fans everywhere. Or at least on the internet. Actually, probably most fans on the internet (comics or otherwise) could benefit from this suggestion.

But first, some background.

I’ve been trying for a few weeks to register to comment at DC’s official blog, The Source. Or rather, I’ve registered, but the original message never arrived, so I’ve been trying to get it to send me a password. No luck — only about 1 in 4 password resets actually show up in my mailbox, and I have yet to receive an actual password after confirming one.

But clearly someone is able to register, as you can see from the high quality of commentary on this Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance preview. (Be warned: there’s some swearing if that sort of thing bothers you.)

The Commentary

is it just me or is DC beating a dead horse with release after release of Final Crisis Aftermath mini series??? Enough all friggin ready.

For the love god, ANOTHER spin-off from a failed mini-series? DC, when you host your retailer summits, do you even listen to the retailers? Do the retailers stand and say, “Hey, Dan, can you please flood the market with a lot of junk and we’ll ’see-what-sticks’? And while you’re at it, how about dismantling your core characters to the point where they are no longer recognizable using rotating creative teams who constantly mess up continuity?”

I’m done.

There’s actually a point in this one (dismantling core characters), but it’s buried inside the “how dare they publish something I don’t want!”

gay. really gay. fuck final crisis and fuck all 4 of its “after the shitty job we did” mini-series.

Gee, not only swearing, but using “gay” as an insult. Obviously someone with discerning taste here. 🙄

From the DC Comics Corporate Offices:

“Our target demography is picking up Manga over comics, so if we create a team of young Japanese superheroes. It’s really going to change to comic industry!”
“And hey, let’s introduce them in Grant’s FANTASTIC summer event, he’s such a great writer! By the way, has he killed Batman the second time yet?”

FAIL.

Red Kitty Rage Alert!

Dextar

I do agree with mambazo, who says:

The ridiculous fan entitlement in this comment section only serves to show that the average comic fan has the maturity level of about an eight year old.

The Suggestion

So I’d like to make a suggestion to comics readers everywhere:

If you aren’t interested in a comic, and have no stake in the characters, JUST DON’T BUY IT. Don’t waste everyone’s time whining about how DC/Marvel/YoMamaComics is putting out some product that you personally have no interest in.

I can understand if you actually read the book and didn’t like it.

I can understand if you’re a fan of SuperUltraGuy, and you don’t like the latest take on the character. (Trust me, I understand!)

But if a publisher decides to print a comic book that you have no interest in whatsoever? A book that features characters you don’t care about in a story you don’t care about, that doesn’t interfere with books you are reading? Why get angry? Why take it personally?

I don’t read Superman, but I’m not going to get on message boards saying that DC is stupid for publishing it.

DC publishes dozens of comics that I have no interest in. So do Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, etc. So what? I couldn’t afford to buy every comic published. And if I did, I wouldn’t have time to read them all. I don’t have time to read all the comics I am buying — I’m about five months behind on Buffy and two on House of Mystery and Farscape, and I still haven’t read anything from this week or last except for Flash: Rebirth #2.

As long as there are comics I do want to read, why should I care that there are comics that I don’t want? As long as someone wants to read it, and as long as it’s not screwing up (IMO) characters and stories that I do care about, what’s the problem?

Flash: Rebirth Hardcover in January

Flash: RebirthCollected Editions has spotted the Amazon listing for the Flash: Rebirth Hardcover, with a January 12, 2010 date.

Several things stand out about this:

  • Only 2 issues of the miniseries have come out so far.
  • Just yesterday, DC announced that it would extend the mini from 5 issues to 6.
  • It’s a hardcover, so a trade paperback is probably even further off.
  • Flash: Rebirth, assuming it stays on schedule, will run through September.
  • The 3-issue miniseries Blackest Night: Flash runs November–January.

The missing piece is still: when will the Flash ongoing start? On one hand, DC might launch in October, picking up immediately on the heels of Flash: Rebirth and maintaining momentum. On the other hand they might be planning a throughline from Flash: Rebirth through Blackest Night: Flash and into the ongoing, in which case the series would probably launch in late January or in February. And hey, here’s a convenient hardcover collection for anyone who wants to pick up the new series…

Speed Reading: Bow Ties, Variant Covers, and Top Villains

I’m working on a round-up of reviews of Flash: Rebirth #2, but that’s taking a while. For now, here’s some general Flash linkblogging.

Current Events

The webcomic Comic Critics takes on Wardrobe Origins. (If you’ve read Flash: Rebirth #2, you can probably guess where this is going.)

Major Spoilers’ Stephen is impressed to see DC unveil a variant cover he actually wants.

Star Clipper looks at Flash: Rebirth in the context of reviving a failing franchise.

CBR talks to Mark Waid about the “24/7” arc in Spider-Man.

Edit: Just after I posted this, I saw this scan of Tiny TitansBattle for the COW joke.

The Tops

Flash Comics #1The Judge declares Flash Comics #1 to have the Best.Cover.Ever.

POP puts Professor Zoom on its list of 25 coolest comic book villains.

IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time includes Shade at #89, Mirror Master at #79, Zoom at #37, Gorilla Grodd at #35, Professor Zoom at #31 [Update:] Captain Cold at #27. (At this time, the top 30 20 is not up yet.)