Monthly Archives: July 2009

No Flash Comic in October?

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DC’s full solicitations for October are up at Newsarama and elsewhere, and there’s no sign of a Flash book the month after Flash: Rebirth is scheduled to wrap. And the Flash: Blackest Night miniseries won’t start until November, after the first round of tie-in miniseries are finished. Will readers see a month without a Flash book?

I suspect not, and here’s why:

  • With Comic-Con International just two days away, DC may be keeping the news of the Flash relaunch in reserve for a big announcement at the convention.
  • With Flash: Rebirth #4 running 3 weeks behind, and #6 scheduled for the last week of September, it’s likely that issues #5 and #6 will be pushed back, with the miniseries wrapping in October instead.

Brave and the Bold #28Of course, the Flash won’t be completely missing in any case: the Scarlet Speedster is co-starring in Brave and the Bold, and there are the various team books and Blackest Night. I’ll post a full run-down later tonight.

flash-vs-roguesAlso worth checking out: DC has announced the contents of the upcoming November trade paperback collection, The Flash vs. the Rogues: they’re all stories from the early Silver Age, many of them first appearances: Showcase #8, The Flash #105, 106, 110, 113, 117, 122, 140 & 155. Oddly, the cover they’re using with the solicitations is from a 2007 issue of the short-lived Flash: The Fastest Man Alive.

Bigger than Flash: Rebirth

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Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers interviews Ethan Van Sciver about Blackest Night and Flash: Rebirth. I found one segment particularly interesting:

Flash is the same way [as Green Lantern]. Throughout 60-70-some years of DCU history, there have been lots of little pieces and hints and clues about what the speedsters are or where they come from or what they mean. A plucky couple of creators could get together and put those clues together to mean something much bigger. And that’s what we’re attempting to do.

So Flash: Rebirth is what Green Lantern: Rebirth was in the sense that we’re trying to get all of our ducks in a row here and prepare for the much, much bigger story that will come from it. And that’s got to include every single Flash character.

I find this interesting for a couple of reasons.

The first is that linking all the speedsters together and examining what’s behind their existence is exactly what Mark Waid did with the speed force back in Terminal Velocity and Dead Heat. So in a sense, what he’s talking about has already been done.

The second is that there definitely are further implications to the power of speed, particularly when time travel is added to the mix. There’s that “Green Lantern is to Space as the Flash is to Time” analogy that Geoff Johns made a while back. There’s the nature of Zoom’s powers as a shifting timeline that mimics super-speed — a theory which had been tossed around by fans as an explanation for the Flash’s own powers. And then there’s the suggestion in the novel Flash: Stop Motion that super-speed is simply one aspect of a power based on quantum mechanics.

And of course the implication that they have a big story planned for the future that involves the entire Flash family.

Also, regarding the upcoming Flash: Rebirth #4:

Major heroics and fireworks on the part of Jay Garrick and Bart Allen, who have never been made to look this kick-ass before. They’re going to really get their moment to shine in Issue #4. It’s fantastic stuff. It’s a big action issue. It’s good. It’s scary.

Covering San Diego (2009)

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In a few days I’ll be off to Comic-Con International in San Diego. It’ll be my 20th year attending the con. Now I feel old.

Anyway, I’ll be posting about my experiences at the con in several places:

Here’s a list of my past convention reports and photos, including San Diego 2003–2008, Wizard World Los Angeles 2007–2008, and WonderCon 2008–2009. I’m also almost done with the Convention Tips list, which should wrap up Wednesday morning.

Geoff Johns Named Producer on Flash Movie

Flash: RebirthThe Hollywood Reporter has a run-down of upcoming DC movie adaptations.

This past fall, Warners quietly hired three of DC’s biggest writers — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman — to act as consultants and writers for its superhero line of movies. The move involved taking back the reins on projects being handled by such producers as Charles Roven (“The Flash”) and Akiva Goldsman (“Teen Titans”).

Hmm, remember how Grant Morrison couldn’t talk about a Flash movie? It goes on:

The moves have begun to pay off. Johns worked up a new treatment for a “Flash” script, being written by Dan Mazeau; Johns will act in a producer capacity on the project, which has not attached a director.

We’d heard rumors about the Dan Mazeau script before, but nothing official.

But a Geoff Johns story treatment — and producer credit? That should make a lot of Flash fans happy. Not only does Johns have a well-regarded and successful run on The Flash from the first half of this decade, he also has the high-profile Flash: Rebirth.

I wonder if we were all looking in the wrong direction. Maybe this is the Flash news that Geoff Johns was hinting at last week.

I wonder if this counts as a Cue Cullen moment?

(via Newsarama by way of @onceuponageek. More discussion at Major Spoilers, CBR, Slashfilm, Screen Rant, and MTV Splash Page.)

Quick Thoughts: Weekly Twitter for 2009-07-19

  • Crazy: even though I’m disappointed w/ Flash:Rebirth at this point, I’m tempted to preorder the hardcover if $13.59 holds.
  • Last issue of Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds is on Diamond’s schedule for next week.
  • So very true: XKCD: Tab Explosion
  • Geocities users: check out OTW’s Geocities Rescue Project.
  • No escape. Latest alumni newsletter features “A Brief History of the Bowtie”
  • Help John Ostrander keep his eyesight: comix4sight.com
  • RT @karlkerschl: Drawing more gorillas! I will miss all of these gorillas when Wednesday Comics is finished.
  • *sigh* DC has pushed Flash: Rebirth #4 back another week to August 12.
  • Not going to a midnight showing of Harry Potter. Not even opening night. I’ll probably catch it this weekend, though.
  • Believe it or not, Fallen Angel: Reborn is the book I’m most looking forward to getting today.
  • Bought this week: Wednesday Comics, Fallen Angel: Reborn, Farscape: D’argo’s Lament, The Unknown. Sorry, sitting #BlackestNight out for now.
  • Didn’t pick up #BlackestNight #1, but did accept the freebie Black Lantern ring. Figure I’ll come up with something to do with it.
  • Pearls B4 Swine author: digital vs print comics “an artificial distinction.” Only 2 kinds of strips: funny & not-funny.
  • Fantastic photos of lightning striking water (via @BadAstronomer)
  • Saw headline: “They killed Hawkman!” First thought was in Rocket J. Squirrel voice: “Again?”

Comic-Con International Build-Up

Be sure to also check out a month’s worth of Comic-Con Tips, which I’ve been posting daily on Twitter.

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Flash Meets the Blackhawks in Brave & the Bold #28

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Newsarama has a preview of DC’s October solicitations, including Brave and the Bold #28. Justice Society of America, Titans, and the DCU Halloween Special 2009 also appear on the preview.

The Brave and the Bold #28

Brave and the Bold #28Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art and cover by Jesus Saiz

J. Michael Straczynski (Amazing Spider-Man) and Jesus Saiz (OMAC PROJECT) continue their series of unlikely pairings with a match that spans the decades! When an experiment meant to alter the speed of light goes awry, Barry Allen finds himself face-to-face with some surprising allies – World War II’s legendary Blackhawks! But Barry isn’t the Flash they know, and he’s not even the kind of hero they need to help fight history’s most grueling war! What must Barry sacrifice to serve his country – and his world?

On sale October 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Notes: I’m certainly intrigued to see JMS writing the Flash. I actually think he’d be a good fit for the character, either on a second Flash book or to follow Geoff Johns when he eventually leaves the main Flash book.

Also: this guarantees that we’ll have at least one Flash book in October, the month between the end of Flash: Rebirth (unless, as is likely, issues #5 and #6 are delayed in addition to #4) and the beginning of the three-issue Blackest Night: The Flash miniseries in November.

I suspect that the new Flash ongoing won’t launch in October, though even if it does, they will probably hold the solicitation for a few days so that they can announce it at Comic-Con.

Full solicitations go up on Monday at 5 PM Eastern Daylight Time.