Monthly Archives: January 2010

Flash: Rebirth #6 Moved UP to Feb 24

In mid-December, DC rescheduled Flash: Rebirth #6 from January 27 to March 24. Artist Ethan Van Sciver thought this was strange, as he was nearly finished drawing the book. At the end of the month, Diamond listed February 24 on their shipping updates page, but DC left their website at March 24. That left readers with this question:

Which date was correct? DC’s or Diamond’s?

In the past I would have relied confidently on Diamond’s date, since DC’s website was notorious for outdated or otherwise wrong shipping dates, but in the last few years it’s generally been accurate.

Well, today DC updated their website, and their listing for Flash: Rebirth #6 now shows a February 24, 2010 release date!

I believe this is the first time an issue of Flash: Rebirth has been rescheduled for an earlier date!

It’s still after Blackest Night: The Flash wraps, but only by one week, and it should be out a month before Flash: Secret Files.

Flash in the Top 500 & Blackest Night: The Flash Outsells Flash: Rebirth

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Diamond has released its Top 500 comics for 2009, and Flash: Rebirth comes in at #16.

Other issues come in at:

Issue	Rank (Year)
Flash: Rebirth #1	16
Flash: Rebirth #2	55
Flash: Rebirth #3	75
Blackest Night: The Flash #1	102
Flash: Rebirth #4	107
Flash: Rebirth #5	125

Meanwhile, ICv2 has posted sales estimates for December 2009. We already knew Blackest Night: The Flash #1 was ranked #5 for the month, and the actual sales estimate comes in at 80,313 copies sold. For comparison:

Issue	Rank (Month)	Units Sold	Change
Flash: Rebirth #1	2	102,429	+286.6%
Flash: Rebirth #2	4	86,183	-15.9%
Flash: Rebirth #3	10	83,086	-3.6%
Flash: Rebirth #4	14	78,107	-6.0%
Flash: Rebirth #5	9	73,875	-5.4%
Blackest Night: The Flash #1	5	80,313	+8.7%

Yes: that’s right. Blackest Night: The Flash outsold the last two issues of Flash: Rebirth. Most likely one of two things is happening:

The Blackest Night brand is helping sales, bringing in readers who otherwise wouldn’t be reading a Flash solo book.
Flash fans who have gotten tired of waiting for Flash: Rebirth are picking up Blackest Night: Flash.

Probably both, though I wouldn’t try to guess which factor is more significant.

Update: The Beat has posted their analysis of DC’s December sales.

This Week (Jan 13): Titans, Super Friends

Titans #21

Written by J.T. Krul
Art by Angel Unzueta & Wayne Faucher
Cover by Angel Unzueta

In part 1 of the 2-part “Fractured,” with Dick back in Gotham City and Gar and Raven returning to the West Coast, the Titans find themselves in crisis. As the team continues to fall apart, the remaining members struggle to put the pieces back together. But the future of the Titans might be out of their control altogether.

On sale January 13 · 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Note: ~~I’m not sure if Wally West is still on this team.~~ @cm22 pointed out that Wally is in the preview.

Super Friends #23

Written by Sholly Fisch
Art by Stewart McKenny & Dan Davis
Cover by J. Bone

It’s a mystery in space when the Super Friends discover Despero, Mongul and Queen Bee are all after magical artifacts that could doom the whole galaxy!

On sale January 13 · 32 pg, FC, $2.50 US

Secret Six #17

Written by John Ostrander & Gail Simone
Art by J. Calafiore
Cover by Daniel LuVisi

John Ostrander and Gail Simone continue their epic team-up that begins in SUICIDE SQUAD #67! Suicide Squad has taken capture of Deadshot, forcing him to rejoin their ranks. But the Secret Six doesn’t see that happening any time soon!

On sale January 13 – 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Note: Included because of Captain Boomerang’s long-standing association with the Suicide Squad. I have no idea whether he appears in this issue, though.

The Flash vs. Gorilla Grodd Mini Statue

A classic DC Direct statue gets miniaturized!

The dynamic, modern version of The Flash stands victorious over the evil Gorilla Grodd in this 1:2 scale mini statue, which features all the sculptural details and intricate painting fans of DC Direct have come to expect.

This limited-edition, hand-painted, cold-cast porcelain statue measures approximately 6.75” high x 4.375” wide x 7” deep, is packaged in a 4-color box and is manufactured to order.

~~On sale January 13, 2010~~ * Statue * $79.99 US

Update: Diamond’s shipping updates page is back online, and lists this for next week.

Brightest Day: The Flash (and Flash #1 Cover)

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DC has announced over at The Source that DC will be following Blackest Night with Brightest Day, a yearlong, 26-issue biweekly series by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi that’s being described as “DCU: Rebirth.” Like Blackest Night, it will tie into just about everything, with some series (including the two Green Lantern books) getting a “Brightest Day” Banner…including The Flash.

I think it’s safe to say this is the cover for The Flash #1.

Dan Didio explains:

We’ll be launching the new FLASH ongoing series, by Geoff and Francis Manapul in April with a BRIGHTEST DAY banner, and there will be several more titles utilizing it come May and June.

With this book, Geoff and Francis are really bringing Barry Allen back into the spotlight and cementing him as the premiere Flash in the DCU in his own monthly. It’s no secret that I’ve been waiting a long time to see this. I’ve always been a huge Barry fan, and I can say that Geoff and Francis are reinvigorating him as a character in much the same way Geoff did with Hal Jordan. Should be fun.

Well, you can’t say they aren’t giving the new series a major push. (Now I’d really like to see numbers on Blackest Night: The Flash.)

I’d like to believe that Brightest Day represents the long-promised, well, brightening of the DC Universe we were told would happen after Infinite Crisis, but if Flash is a major component, and it’s going to be all about murder mysteries, I’m a little concerned. On the other hand, Pushing Daisies had a new murder mystery each week, and still managed to be a light-hearted comedy, so who knows?

Here’s hoping Brightest Day will live up to its name!

Update: The news on Brightest Day: Titans seems to suggest that Brightest Day will be continuing the grim-n-gritty approach that DC has taken from Identity Crisis onward.

Update 2: IGN interviews Geoff Johns about the project.

State of the Blog 2010

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It’s been about a year since I last posted one of these things. Speed Force has grown a lot in that time. I’ve tried to have something new on a daily basis, and over a year and a half the site has grown to a total of 824 posts. It’s also expanded past the blog itself, with nearly 3,000 tweets on Twitter @SpeedForceOrg and with a fan page on Facebook.

Speed Force’s audience has grown a lot too, with an average of 989 views per day (up from 469 a year earlier), 220 fans on Facebook, over 400 followers on Twitter…and almost 3,000 comments! Thank you, everyone!

On the downside: I’m kind of stressed out. The Flash is still in limbo after all this time, and while we have an unofficial launch date, DC has continued to change their plans for the character. I’ve also been finding DC’s output more frustrating and less interesting over the past few years, and I don’t want this to turn into a 24/7 rant station.

So here’s what I’m doing to avoid burning out. Continue reading →

Speed Reading for 2010

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The Flash picked up several mentions in Newsarama’s 10 for 2010 series including the character in 10 Characters to Watch, the series in 10 Comics to Watch, and artist Francis Manapul in 10 Creators to Watch.

The Flash Family also makes Grumpy Old Fan’s list of Ten from the old, ten for the new.

The standard cover of Flash: Rebirth #1 and the Flash-themed cover for DC: The New Frontier #2 are among IO9’s 100 Amazing Comic Covers from the last ten years.

The Perhapablog posts a Craig Rousseau sketch of Impulse reacting to cancellation, along with the Thing drawn by Mike Wieringo.

Remember that Breakfast Club/Teen Titans mashup last summer? Artist Cliff Chiang has recreated more 80s album covers with characters such as Batgirl, Elektra and Vampirella.

Crimson Lightning brings us a “Hi and Lois” strip portraying the Greek gods as super-heroes.

The Rogues’ tailor, Paul Gambi, is named after Paul Gambaccini, a UK-based DJ and long-time comic fan. Bleeding Cool spotted him on a celebrity game show demonstrating his impressive knowledge of DC Comics trivia.

Update: One more item – the New York Times has named Geoff Johns in their “Nifty Fifty” list of up-and-coming talent. (via The Source)