Monthly Archives: August 2011

Flash #3 in November, plus Captain Atom & the Life Story…

DC Comics’ November solicitations are up. In addition to The Flash #3 and the usual Justice League spot, the Flash guest-stars in Captain Atom #3, and Mark Waid’s “The Life Story of the Flash” is reprinted.

The Flash #3

Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:25 Variant cover by JIM LEE
1:200 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale NOVEMBER 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

If the Fastest Man Alive is going to capture Mob Rule, he must first tap into his new amped-up super brain to save the citizens of Central City from the EMP that has blacked out the city. Witness a spectacular sequence of out-of-control cars, trains and even airplanes that must be stopped from destroying the city!

Captain Atom #3

Written by J.T. KRUL
Art by FREDDIE WILLIAMS II
Cover by STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU
On sale NOVEMBER 16 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Captain Atom is taking his powers to new heights – saving people all across the world in the blink of an eye. But he’s not the only one who can move at super speed. Enter: The Flash! And when their paths cross, don’t expect them to share the secret hero’s handshake – because Captain Atom may be a bigger threat than any villain.

DC Comics Presents: The Life Story of the Flash #1

Written by MARK WAID and BRIAN AUGUSTYN
Art by GIL KANE, JOE STATON and TOM PALMER
Cover by GLEN ORBIK
On sale NOVEMBER 16 • 96 pg, FC, $7.99 US

This striking tale combines comic-book illustration and prose to follow Barry Allen from his humble childhood to his noble death, detailing his transformation from police scientist to one of the DC Universe’s most dynamic heroes.

Note: It’s worth considering that the structure of this book hinges on the Barry/Iris relationship and marriage. Just a thought.

Speed Reading

Flashy links

Other stuff:

Flash 101 – Get Up to Speed

Along with the Flash 101 sale mentioned yesterday, DC and ComiXology have released a free Flash 101 digital booklet featuring origins, a rough timeline, and a collection of covers.

The timeline’s the most interesting part, to me.

It’s also got the two-page origins of Gorilla Grodd, the Trickster and the Pied Piper from Countdown to Infinite Crisis, and a similarly-styled two-page origin of Barry Allen by Scott Beatty, Howard Porter and Livesay that I think is new. None of the Flashes got profiled in 52, which was where the hero origins appeared, and the second page features the post-Rebirth costumes for Wally West, Iris West and Jesse Quick, as well as the Countdown-era costume for Jai West.

Flash Costumes at Comic-Con (2011)

As fandom moves onto the next big convention of the season, I hope you’ll take a few moments to look back at San Diego and the people who dressed as the Flash (and related speedsters) at Comic-Con International.

San Diego Comic-Con

United Underworld’s incredible gender-swapped Justice League, featuring Psykitten Pow’s Flash. Photo by John Austin.

It turns out that the Flash was the inspiration for the group theme:

“A couple of us like to do female versions of preexisting male characters. One of our friends, Psykitten Pow, she had a female Flash,” says Tallest Silver, who organized the group and who dresses as Batma’am. “One night, we were all hanging out and I said how funny it would be if we had a whole Justice League with swapped sexes.”

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Photograph by Chuck Cook Photography.

The group previously appeared at WonderCon, and Psykitten appeared as the Flash last year. Continue reading

Annotations: Flash #233, “The Deadly Secret of the Flash!”

Welcome back to the Zoom Room, where we break down classic stories featuring Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash!

After last week’s look at Flash #237, we’re jumping back in time to Flash #233 and “The Deadly Secret of the Flash!”, by Cary Bates, Irv Novick and Tex Blaisdell.  This is a crucial Flash tale featuring some of the seeds of the Death of Iris Allen story and a vision of Professor Zoom that is still vital in Flash comics today.  Links to artwork and research are included throughout this post.  For previous annotations, click here!

Continue reading