Monthly Archives: January 2010

Readers’ Favorite Flash Story of 2009

Earlier this month I posted a poll asking readers to choose their favorite Flash story of 2009. The poll closed today, so here are the results.

Not surprisingly, Flash: Rebirth — the only Flash-titled series we’ve really had during 2009 (not counting one issue of Blackest Night: The Flash in December) won the poll…but it only pulled in 35% of the vote!

Making a strong second-place showing was Blackest Night at 28%. While not primarily a Flash story, the Green Lantern-based universe-wide event has focused heavily on Hal Jordan and Barry Allen.

Third place, with 13%, is the Flash feature in Wednesday Comics. (This one was my favorite.)

Some of the write-ins are rather telling, though. While many readers have liked this year’s Flash stories (or at least some of them), others have been extremely disappointed. I have to admit getting a chuckle out of “It’s like asking which punch in the face was better.”

Update: Sadly, Twtpoll purged the complete results before I thought to copy them over.

Team Turmoil and Dynamo 5

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I was recently looking through old scans and ran into an image of Team Turmoil. Readers from the 1990s will recognize them as a group of generic villains who would show up anytime Mark Waid needed the Flash to have a short battle as part of a larger story about something else.

The funny thing is that their costumes reminded me of another team — a much more developed team with actual characters: Dynamo 5. Continue reading →

Flash Returns to Batman: The Brave & the Bold

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Tonight’s episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, “The Golden Age of Justice,” features more guest stars than usual: not only the return of the Flash, but the entire Justice Society of America!

CBR has preview images from the episode, which airs at 7:30 tonight (which means it probably just finished on the east coast).

Sidekick Corner: Ignition

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So as I am the new kid around here I wanted to name my posts something that can identify them different to our glorious leader and I feel that right now being the new kid on the block sidekick is a good way to identify myself. Kelson is the guy that channels the speed force. I am impulse to his wally at the moment. I might change the name later but for now I think it is a nice way to let you know when I am speaking.

So this is the place that I will be looking at The Flash and his universe at the characters and events that have shaped each person that has worn the lightning.

Ignition: the end of one age, the birth of a new one.

So today I wanted to look at the Ignition storyline that begins with Issue 201 and what the story meant to the character of the Flash and the Flash universe in general.

Ignition is an interesting issue from the perspective of serialised super hero story telling. It is a great example of how you can make large scale changes to the status quo and still maintain the integrity of the character and honour the audiences expectations.

This is the reboot that I feel the people involved with “One More Day,” the Spider-Man story that was intended to create a new paradigm for the character. But where they failed with “One More Day,” Geoff Johns succeeded: execution. Geoff Johns took the subplot that ran through the Flash starting in the last half of Mark Waid’s run (the fear of loss) and used that theme as the reason for the changes made in this story.

Continue reading →

Geoff Johns on the Nature of the Speed Force

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Last Monday, CBR posted a new installment of Geoff Johns Prime, their occasional question-and-answer feature with the writer.

Responding to a question about the new costumes introduced in Flash: Rebirth #5, he talked about the “Emergency Stop” story by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar and how it provided “the first inkling that the Speed Force was more than just gasoline.”

I always thought of the Speed Force as if it were this layer, kind of like the fluid in your joints that allows your bones to move together, and if you think of that as the Speed Force, it’s this fluid between the now and the time stream. It allows the two to co-exist, because the way time exists, it’s not just a line, it’s a sphere. So that fluid coats that sphere and the sphere is the Speed Force. And that sphere touches all reality and it’s full of everything, it’s full of ultimate speed, moving through reality, because time is all relative and it’s full of all scientific knowledge. It’s all knowledge of all eras.

Johns answered several other questions about the Flash, confirming that the Rogues will be heavily involved in the new series (no surprise there) and that their tailor, Paul Gambi, will return.

Another item I found interesting is that the price was a major factor in the decision to scrap the backup stories they had previously announced.

There’s more there about the Flash, plus he answers questions about Blackest Night, Earth One, Smallville and more.

New Contributor

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Greetings

My name is Karl and I will be helping Kelson around here. I have been collecting comics since 1984 and have been a fan of the flash for the last 19 years. I fell in love with the book with issue #72 and have a complete run of the Wally series (one of my most prized collections).

I suppose my passion for the flash comes from my love of the character and the fact that Mark Waid took a group of supporting characters and created a family around Wally and in Wally created a character that matured and became in my opinion one of the greatest super heroes in the last twenty years.

I have been a fan of what Geoff Johns has done with the character and am waiting to see where Barry, Wally and Bart go from here.

I am really quite honoured to be contributing on a site and being part of a community that Kelson has worked hard to create, I will be contributing in various ways and hope to get to know all of you and look forward to being a part of this site.

Karl

PS my favourite flash villain is Dr Alchemy. Give you two guesses why.