Between Ethan Van Sciver’s presence and the fact that Flash: Rebirth #4 had just been released two days earlier, there was a lot of Flash talk at Friday’s DC Nation panel at Fan Expo.
Newsarama’s article has a lot of Flash coverage, including this interesting statement by Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver:
I’m having a great time. It’s the book I pestered [Dan Didio] for over three years. I love Barry Allen. I love the Flash. The Flash is probably my favorite superhero. Barry has been gone 25 years and I though that was a pretty fair homage to pay for Crisis, but it was time to bring him back. When Geoff and I finally convinced Dan to let us do it, we built a huge gigantic story that really needed every single Flash, even some that had been missing, in order for it to work.
Flash Rebirth is Part 1 of that. It’s assembling all the pieces, putting them back together where we needed them to be, and then explain one little segment of what the speed force is. Again, Geoff is only giving you a taste of what it is. It’s so much more broad. Professor Zoom ties into it big time and it’s going to lead to a long, fruitful, and very successful ongoing series after this.
Jesse Quick
He added that Jesse Quick/Liberty Belle “has a great scene” in issue #5, and Dan Didio remarked that DC will be “exploring more about” Liberty Belle and Hourman. “They could be one of the more fun DC couples coming out right now.”
Bart Allen
CBR’s coverage includes some remarks that Ethan Van Sciver made about Kid Flash:
“How great is it to see Bart Allen again? I started on Impulse…I fed my family drawing Bart Allen as a young husband,” Sciver recalled “the look on Bart’s face in issue #4 was the look on my face when I drew it.”
Wally West
Joey Cavalieri Ethan Van Sciver joked that, as far as Wally West’s role in the rest of the series, we should “See Blackest Night.” Nice.
Didio went on to state that, unlike with Green Lantern, “Wally was the perfect replacement. Everybody had moved on so now it’s not a story about somebody who has to fix something broken in his absence, but somebody who is coming back to see if he was relevant still. What I’m talking about actually plays into what the story is about.”
Nasty Trick?
There’s also apparently a “nasty trick” coming up, regarding which EVS said, “Keep reading, it’ll all make sense.” I’m beginning to wonder whether Cavalieri’s joke about Wally may have been hiding the truth in plain sight.
We know Blackest Night: Flash focuses on Barry and Wally and has live Rogues vs. dead Rogues. What if Wally West dies at the end of Flash: Rebirth, and Blackest Night: Flash has live Barry vs. Black Lantern Wally West? There has been speculation that at least some of the Black Lanterns will return to life by the end of Blackest Night, and Wally could be brought back by the end of the event. Kind of like the way Kyle Rayner was temporarily bonded to Parallax during Sinestro Corps War.
Ongoing Series
And now for a scoop by @liabrown1: At the DC Universe panel on Saturday, they announced that the Flash ongoing series will launch in March 2010. This lines up with the 3-issue Blackest Night: Flash miniseries starting in December. With any luck, September may be our last month without a Flash book for a long time!
She adds that DC is “not ready to announce” the artist on the Kid Flash series, which implies that they’ve at least got someone in mind.
Update: CBR’s coverage of the DCU panel is up.
Update 2: Newsarma’s DCU Editorial write-up is up too, and there’s a bit of confusion as to how many Flash books are launching when.
I may be on crack (admittedly it had been a VERY long day by that point), but am pretty sure it was Van Sciver who joked “see Blackest Night” regarding Wally West.
DiDio and co certainly dropped hints today and yesterday that some of the Black Lanterns will be around after the storyline is over. DiDio said that he wouldn’t say if they’d return to life, but the way he repeatedly phrased it sure sounded like some of the BLs will be back.
Hmm, I pulled the name from Newsarama’s post, but yeah, your tweet from the panel says EVS.
They have it as a response to a question Dan Didio asked Joey Cavalieri. Maybe EVS interrupted and the Newsarama reporter was looking at the notebook and didn’t notice the switch?
That could well have been the case. I do recall EVS as offering the comment unsolicited. And, well, he does have a bit of a sharp sense of humour.
*sigh* I really have had the disturbing feeling for a while that Wally gets killed off or depowered, and I’d hate that.
And Black Lantern Wally would be just as unimaginative in my book. :S
Oh man, if Wally dies, even if it is just a temporary Blackest Night thing, I think there may be a riot.
But March for the new Flash series! Can’t wait. I guess that means that Kid Flash will come out in March too, or close to it anyway. I’m so excited!
I think that Blackest Night is an event to bring back all of the dead super-heroes for good (Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated man, JSA dead ones, everyone), at the end of the event at least. So we are all going back to the silver age or like I call it: “The Resurrection Age” (marvel and DC, since 2004, are resurrecting everyone). Hal’s back, Barry’s back (Jason Todd!!!), all will be back, including all the new characters from the last 20-30 years (Bart, Conner, Jean Paul Valley too maybe?, and lots more). The new Super-Populated DC Universe.
Changing subjet, more or less, I like the time paradox that Geoff Johns created in Flash Rebirth (it’s like fu..ing Terminator!!!) Barry becomes the Flash, then he dies to create himself (well, this wasn’t really Johns’ idea, Secret Origins Annual 2, but he made it official in continuity), and he creates every other speedster, he chooses them, but then why he created Savitar? Or was Zoom who did that?
Probably Professor Zoom if it was a decision to make an evil speedster. The Speed Force is still a mystery, like The Emotional Spectrum we don’t know everything.
Man, I just want ALL the speedsters to live. And I want a girl speedster. A Flash style female speedster.
There’s also apparently a “nasty trick” coming up, regarding which EVS said, “Keep reading, it’ll all make sense.” I’m beginning to wonder whether Cavalieri’s joke about Wally may have been hiding the truth in plain sight.
Context: “The Panelists warned that there’s a ‘nasty trick’ coming up for fans of the recently resurrected red hero.”
“Recently resurrected red hero” means Barry, not Wally.
It could mean bart as well. he did just come back.
Assuming, of course, that it’s not burly detective syndrome on the part of the CBR reporter.
While reading this I came up with the idea. If Wally does die during Rebirth (which would break my heart, as I grew up with and love Wally as the Flash), and is revived at the end of Blackest Night, it would make sense.
Maybe if Wally is brought back, that is how Prof. Zoom comes back too? Much like the way Wally came back through Bart’s lightning bolt in Lightning Saga. It makes sense to me, but I hope nothing bad happens to Wally, the man’s almost died like 3 times in his own series before!