Sorry this is a bit late, but for those who don’t already know DC Direct showed off pics of a slick White Lantern Barry Allen last week at New York Comic-Con 2010:
Photo courtesy of Toynewsi.com
My first impression of it was “Wally West!” and then I quickly remembered that Wally had nothing to do with Brightest Day and that we haven’t even really seen him (except for the one-off appearances in Magog and Secret Origins) since Flash Rebirth ended. My reaction obviously had to do with the belt and the way it’s been designed.
In the comics ever since The Flash v2 #50, Wally’s costume has pretty much been depicted with the center of his belt coming to a “V” in the middle as opposed to being straight across like Barry’s. Sure the change was inspired by the early 90s Flash TV show which featured a version of Barry Allen, but the actual character was a crazy amalgamation of Barry Allen and Wally West. And while the show only lasted one season, the changes to Wally’s costume in the comic would last throughout most of his career only changing recently. It was a pretty distinctive and definitive part of his suit, which is why I find it kind of odd that they would use the center “V” belt for Barry. Even when they designed Barry’s Blue Lantern Corps outfit they gave him the straight across belt:
I guess there are a few other distinguishing traits that we can identify our Flashes by, like the cowl (or lack thereof), or the winged boots (which they temporarily gave to Wally back in 2006 when he returned) but it was just so much simpler when “straight across” belt meant Barry and “V” belt meant Wally.
Nonetheless I’m excited for anything Flash-related and I can’t wait until this and the Blue Lantern Barry due out next month arrive.
Unfortunately it looks like a June 2011 release date for this guy. But I’m waiting until the solicits come out before taking that as the final date.
What do you guys think of White Lantern Barry? Is the “V” belt strictly a Wally thing or does Barry have a right to look cooler too?
Thanks for reading.
“V” belt is strictly a Wally thing. How was White Lantern Barry drawn in the book? I don’t have it with me. I really want Wally in his issue #50 suit and new Rebirth suit.
How was White Lantern Barry drawn in the book?
Pointed belt, thunderbolt symbol going from top-right to bottom-left (multipronged), cowl leaving eyes uncovered.
PS can we have some White Lantern Bart, DC?
It’s probably Professor Zoom.
If you look at the promo of the combined alternate covers, Professor Zoom has the symmetrical pointed belt.
This cover:
https://speedforce.org/2010/08/glc51-white-lantern-zoom/
Then the lightning bolt should be reversed, no? That’s not Professor Zoom…
Good point.
I was afraid of this.
Johns did say that Barry would not be able to duplicate Wally’s ability to shape the Speed Force…it would remain unique to Wally (although I seem to recall that Bart also had an ability to do this so Wally’s ability is not really unique to him, is it?) Anyway, at some point he may change his mind on that or the next authority change it after Johns is gone and we’ll have a Barry who has every talent Wally has plus more.
What I’m afraid of is that they plan to give Barry some of Wally’s cooler traits like that belt. If you saw the new Young Justice cartoon clips, you may have noticed that ‘Barry’ looked exactly like animated Wally from JLU. He also quipped like Wally. Wally is cool (at least as he was for decades before Rebirth was planned) while Barry is perceived as being dull. So they are grafting some of Wally’s coolness onto Barry?
Yes, I’m still being paranoid. I liked the fact that Wally had a different belt.
Not having seen Blackest Night, I was wondering why I was seeing a plethora of White Heroes. So all the main characters went pale at the end?
Honestly? I don’t like the look of the White Lanterns. White and skin color just looks blase…not enough contrast. Few people really look all that good in white. Have Blue Lantern Barry on order, but am going to skip this latest Flash figure.
Now why haven’t they made a Rebirth (preferably the torn/suit unmasked) Wally and the Black Lantern Bart? Those are the ones I really want.
I’m right with you kyer. I had the exact same thought when I wrote this and when I saw the clips from Young Justice and heard the panel. I mean if Barry and his look and everything are so iconic and he is the quintessential Flash, why are they borrowing so heavily from Wally? Say what you will but Wally West popularized the “V” belt and it deserves to stay with him.
Now the White Lanterns I can say I am digging a bit. Some of the designs leave a bit to be desired but I think the ones for Barry and Professor Zoom look fantastic. I can understand your gripe about the skin tone though. Hey, at least I know I’d look decent in a White Lantern Flash suit. 🙂
As far as an action figure line, I’ve been waiting for a Wally post-rebirth costume ever since I first saw it. It’s really growing on me. Although I still wish they’d have just thrown gold/yellow on the Dark Flash costume in place of the silver and called it a day. That would have been absolutely perfect and it would have made Wally stand out a bit more as his own Flash. I guess the suit just represents a person that Wally never wants to see himself become so he would probably never realistically don it.
I’ve long wanted a version of Wally Unmasked and now on ethe new suit. Still not crazy about the latter, but hoping it grows on me the more I see it.
Highly agree on the awesome Dark Flash suit and why Wally would never wear it. Don’t think Linda would be crazy to see it either.
Eh..maybe if I saw another pic of the White Lantern. A close up? I mean, it is on of the current plethora of Barry Allen figures that I can actually pretend is Wally what with that belt. I hope they make a ‘Barry’ Flash from Young Justice for that very same reason. It seems the only way I’m going to get Wally other than as Kid Flash….whose hair style in the cartoon I despise. And I just figured out why last night. It’s BARRY’S DANGED CREWCUT! I can’t believe they gave Barry Wally’s cool belt while are trying to foist onto Wall that awful hair style!
this is from GREEN LANTERN #62 solicit:
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by DOUG MAHNKE & CHRISTIAN ALAMY
Starting with this issue, 2011 becomes the year of Green Lantern,:
Say what?! I thought 2011 was supposed to be the year of Flashpoint…which will spotlight THE FLASHES. I hope that line from #62 was just sales hyperbole.
With the GL film coming out in 2011 it’s going to be GL’s year. Flashpoint is just trying to build the DCU event-base and relevance necessary to get to where GL is now.
That is to say, Flashpoint will be the biggest Flash / DCU event ever… but not the biggest DCU event by far.
(0.0) Well, all I can say to that is…
Pistachios.
Yet more of my enthusiasm for Flashpoint gets whittled away.
I think it’s still the Reverse Flash as a White Lantern. Barry never became a White Lantern in the comics, and even though the bolt is wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time DC Direct figures have had errors. For example, the Black Lantern Reverse Flash figure was listed as “Black Lantern Black Flash,” which is completely wrong!
https://speedforce.org/2011/03/c2e2-comic-con-exclusives-white-lantern-flash-jlu-heatwave-image-intensive/
What about a John Fox action figure? His original costume was kind of lame but when they brought him in to “sub” for Wally while Wally was “lost in time” I thought that costume was pretty cool. Although, making a pass at Linda was really uncool. But I understand why that was written in. Fox was kind of cool, the writers had to do something with him so the readers would be a little turned off and he wouldn’t surpass Wally in popularity. But his costume ranks as one of my favorite Flash costumes.
The other Flash action figure I’d like to see is the Bart Flash costume from the Titans of Tomorrow story arc.
Seconded on the Bart Flash costume from the Titans of Tomorrow. I still think they should have used that or something different than Wally’s costume for Bart when they began his series. A new costume says a lot of things for people not the least is that this is a new Flash and a new hero. Jump on board. But then DC has been maneuvering their heroes back into their iconic identities for a while now, so it isn’t any surprise that they didn’t really do much to change the character.
The answer is simple. DC Direct LOVES reusing old sculpts to save money. This is an old Wally body modified to become the white lantern Barry Allen.
This particular Wally figure was from the old JLA Line (not the more recent Justice League of America but the 2003 or 2004 JLA line) which had the lightning bolt sculpted on as opposed to painted on.
Historically, DC Direct compromises some design elements because of this cost cutting measure.
It actually ended up being a repainted sculpt of the Blue Lantern Barry.