Ivan Reis Draws a Superman/Flash Race

DC has posted six new variant covers at The Source, including this Ivan Reis cover for Action Comics #892. Part of DC’s 75th Anniversary series, it homages the cover to the very first Superman/Flash race in Superman #199 by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson.

Superman #199 (1967)

As shown here, the cover has been referenced at least once before, for the first race between Superman and Wally West in The Adventures of Superman #463 (1990) by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding.

It’s interesting to look at the three covers together and see just how comic book art styles have changed over the past four decades.

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18 thoughts on “Ivan Reis Draws a Superman/Flash Race

  1. Luke

    I really like this cover if for no other reason than just last week I began reading my copy of Superman vs. The Flash which I picked up a few years back. Can’t beat the classics.

    Reply
  2. Mark Engblom

    Can’t forget the Jose Garcia Lopez/Bob Oksner version of that cover for the treasury-sized Superman vs. The Flash (Limited Collector’s Edition C-48, 1976), my personal favorite of that famous starting line scene.

    Click HERE for a peek!

    Oh, and click HERE for my extended musings on the original Race of the Century.

    Reply
  3. Perplexio

    I thought Barry & Supes already had their race in ReBirth and Barry basically left Clark eating his dust.

    Wouldn’t just about all of the speedsters be faster than Superman?

    Reply
  4. Kelson Post author

    @Mark: Thanks, I always forget about that one.

    @Perplexio: This series of variant covers is just celebrating DC’s 75th anniversary by reinterpreting classic covers. As near as I can tell, they’re not supposed to be story-related.

    Reply
  5. yranigami

    Cool cover! I NEED a poster like that for my Flash collection! Also, I wanna just wanted to let you know I just found out about a Marvel speedster I never knwew about. Her name is Spitfire and her one-shot issue just came out yesterday. She’s a speedster like Quicksilver and Velocity. Maybe you could do a write-up on her? Thanks.

    Reply
    1. I.Strange

      On a related note (but not so much), I recently discovered the Blackadder character, Lord Flashheart.

      “His catchphrase is to shout ‘Woof!’ or ‘Let’s do-oo-ooooo it!’ very loudly, while thrusting his pelvis suggestively.”

      If the title ever needs a new direction…

      Reply
  6. Wayne Lippa

    I would love to have that variant copy. My LCS guy says he’s not getting any in, so I’m going to see if a store 2 hours away in Calgary will hold it for me.

    Speaking of variant covers, has anyone heard anything about what the Darwin Cooke 75th anniversary cover for Flash #7 will be?

    Reply
  7. Kelson Post author

    @yranigami: Thanks – I’d never heard of Spitfire before, but I’ll have to check out the one-shot. (She really looks like Firestar on that cover, though. I’ll have to look up whether the characters are connected in some way.)

    @Wayne: I haven’t heard any details, but for some reason my mind has jumped to the Stop! Don’t pass up this issue! cover. Showcase #4 would be a more obvious choice, but EVS just did that one last year.

    Of course, since it’s going to be on a Captain Boomerang spotlight, something like The Space-Boomerang Trap would be more appropriate…

    Reply
  8. Mark Engblom

    Spitfire originated in Marvel’s 1970’s Invaders series, which was set in World War II. A London aristocrat named Lady Jacqueline Falsworth, she gained her super-speed as a side effect of a blood transfusion from the (android) Human Torch, given after she was attacked by a vampire named Baron Blood.

    What was it with Marvel’s Golden Age speedsters and blood transfusions? The Whizzer gained his speed by getting a blood transfusion from a mongoose! That sure makes Jay Garrick’s somewhat lame “hard water fumes” actually seem like rock-solid science by comparison!

    As for Spitfire, it’s recently been revealed that the WWII vampire attack made her a pseudo-vampire, giving her great longevity (i.e. enduring babe-osity) and fangs that appear only when she’s angry.

    Reply
  9. Superhero Legacy

    Sure the covers are a tad different, but they still are consistent with the important details. I think this is indicative of how little superheroes will continue to change in the future — we all like the originals.

    Reply

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