Monthly Archives: May 2011

Where’s Wally, Week Four

It is convention season, and Flash fans across the country have been asking the same question: “Where is Wally West?”

While we do not know where Wally is now, where he will be, or how long it will be until he is anywhere, we certainly know where he was! With that knowledge, we introduce our new ongoing contest feature, “Where Was Wally West?”

On Wednesdays, we will post a panel or sequence from a classic comic featuring Wally West visiting an alternate reality, the past or a “possible future”. Every fan who can tell us the issue, writer, artist(s) and a reasonable description of the locale/era, by Friday, will be entered into a raffle for a cool Flash prize! Just send your responses to whereswally – at – speedforce.org, and we’ll announce the winner next week!

So check out the image below and ask yourself, WWWW?

This week’s prize is the Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge hardcover by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins. Winners must live in the continental US or Canada.

UPDATE: Because the contest was posted later than usual, we’ve extended the deadline to Saturday!

Signings: Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, John Wesley Shipp, Joyce Hyser

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Flash and Flashpoint writer Geoff Johns will be signing at Earth-2 Comics in Los Angeles this Saturday for Free Comic Book Day. He’ll be at the Sherman Oaks location from noon to 2:00 pm and at the Northridge location from 3:30 to 5:30.

Actors John Wesley Shipp and Joyce Hyser (Barry Allen and Megan Lockhart from the 1990 Flash TV Series) [Update] and classic Flash artist Carmine Infantino will be at Motor City Comic Con (May 13-15) in Novi, Michigan (near Detroit).

Frequent Flash artist Scott Kolins will attend two cons coming up soon: Phoenix Comicon (May 27-29) in Phoenix, Arizona and Heroes Con (June 3-5) in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Mattel SDCC 2011 Speedster News

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Hey Speed Readers,

A few days ago, Actionfigureinsider.com gave us our first look at the Mattel San Diego Comic-Con 2011 exclusives. Not much for the Flash and other speedsters on the DC Universe Classics front but there will be something a little different for speedster fans.

Mattel has a line of dolls called Monster High based on a concept that tries to appeal to the more macabre little tweeny girls out there by melding Hot Topic with horror. The premise behind them being that the characters are the plastic (literally and figuratively) offspring of famous film and literary monsters. The initial characters were based on the classic Universal Monsters but they have since branched out to include all different types.

Now what does this have to do with speedsters? One of the main characters, a zombie named Ghoulia Yelps is being offered at the ‘Con dressed as her favorite comic book character, Dead Fast, the Zombie Speedster:

(Picture obviously courtesy of Actionfigureinsider.com)

The Monster High product that will be sold at Comicon is a special Ghoulia Yelps collector doll dressed as Dead Fast. The doll comes with special collector packaging, is dressed in her costume, and also comes with a Dead Fast figure, comic book, and doll stand. See below for the talking points:

• Ghoulia Yelps is the zombie girl at Monster High and being that she is the smartest ghoul in school naturally she is a comic book fan. She’s on her way to Nekro Con dressed as her favorite zombie super hero, Dead Fast.

• Once he [Dead Fast] was just a face in the shambling crowd until he was pecked by a radioactive hummingbird giving him the power of super speed! Now he’s the zombie super hero Dead Fast!

• You can’t outrun zombie justice!

• She comes with a miniature Dead Fast action figure and a Dead Fast fan fic book that she wrote and illustrated herself.

I don’t know why but this sounds kind of cool. Little annoying that the “smartest ghoul in the school” is “naturally a comic book fan” but it is still a fun concept. I’m absolutely digging the costume and Silver Age-tinged origin (shades of Stan Lee’s re-imagining of The Flash) and I’m actually thinking about keeping an eye out for this in the secondary market.

Here is another picture I found courtesy of Hellyeahmonsterhigh.tumblr.com:

Anyone else plan on taking a detour off the beaten path and picking up Ghoulia Yelps a.k.a. Dead Fast?

–Devin “Flash” Johnson

Artist for DC Retroactive: Flash 90s – Mike Bowden

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DC has announced the creative team and release date for the final DC RetroActive: The Flash special, this one focusing on the 1990s. Each special features an all-new story reuniting one of the decade’s writers with the character, set in then-current continuity, and one reprinted story.

DC RETROACTIVE: THE FLASH – THE ’90s #1

When Wally West became The Flash in the ’90s*, he morphed from a sidekick into a hero in his own right. The creative team of writer Brian Augustyn and artist Mike Bowden set the Fastest Man Alive in another race against evil.

ONE-SHOT • On sale AUGUST 17 • 56 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T

So, now we know the creative teams for all three specials. I’ll admit I’m a bit disappointed that they only managed to reunite both writer and artist on the 1980s special, though in the case of the 1970s special, I think most of the main artists from that run are either retired or passed away.

Does anyone know who Mike Bowden is? I can’t find any credits in a search on Comics.org. For that matter, I only found one credit for Benito Gallego, the artist doing the 1970s book. I wonder if DC is using these specials to try out new talent when they can’t get a period artist.

On another note: I think this is the first time in over a year that the words “Wally West” have appeared in a solicitation for a comic containing new material.

*It was, of course, the ’80s when Wally West became the Flash. Apparently DC is too busy with Flashpoint to get someone to copy-edit their solicitations.

WWWW: Contest Winner, Week Three!

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Thanks to everyone who participated in the third week of our “Where Was Wally West?” contest here at Speed Force!

We posted a panel from a classic Flash comic, featuring Wally West in an alternate reality, the past or a “possible future”. Correct answers were put into a raffle, and a winner was drawn at random. To refresh your memory, here is the latest subject:

Made from pure Speed Force energy and wood, the Box of Speed enlightens all who dare to look within:

…and the winner is…

Congrats to David! This week’s answer was Flash Annual 13, by Chuck Dixon and Enrique Alcatena. Wally teams up with Argentina’s greatest heroes! David wins a JG Jones Final Crisis Flash poster.

Check back here on Wednesday for the next installment in WWWW!

Review: Velocity #4 — “Decoys” Conclusion

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Well, it took a year, but Ron Marz and Kenneth Rocafort’s miniseries about Cyberforce’s speedster is complete. Was the final issue worth the wait?

Yes! The miniseries as a whole is a fun, super-speed adventure that’s surprisingly new-reader-friendly, and the conclusion delivers.

As it starts, this chapter seems to ignore the cliffhanger from the end of the previous issue (though it’s included in the recap), until you get to the second page and Velocity literally turns toward the reader and says, “What? You weren’t expecting me?” The conversational, almost playful tone of the series really takes over in this installment.

Kenneth Rocafort’s art is key to that tone. I’ve mentioned before that I really like the style and creativity, and this issue definitely wouldn’t have worked as well if Top Cow had decided to replace him in order to keep the book on a schedule. He does seem to have toned down the sexiness-for-the-sake-of-sexiness that tended to crop up in the earlier issues, to the point where I don’t think I would have been embarrassed to read this issue in public.

There’s a splash page in the middle that at first glance looks like it’s using one of the standard techniques to show super-speed in action, but in context, it means something else entirely. I won’t actually post it, though, since it’s a bit spoilery.

Rest assured, that seemingly impossible escape is explained (though not precisely in the way I predicted), and as the clock ticks down, Carin Taylor takes the fight back to the villain for a final, over-the-top spectacular confrontation with Dr. Paine. The twist reveal comes in about halfway through the issue, and not only plays fair with the audience (it’s all set up well ahead of time), but sets things up for an element in the final battle that takes “speedster vs. robots” to a new level.

The series ends with a nod to its beginning, and a reminder that while this might be a stand-alone miniseries, the lead character continues on as part of an ongoing universe.

A few thoughts that involve SPOILERS: Continue reading →