The Flash #5
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO; Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL; Variant cover by GARY FRANK; 1:200 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
Central City in chaos! Iris West captive in Iron Heights prison! And as Flash tries to deal with all of it, he must also try to save the life of his old friend Manuel Lago from Mob Rule, DC Comics’ hottest new Super Villain!
DC Universe 32pg. Color $2.99 US
DC is beginning to roll out digital copies of the Mike Baron run on Wally West’s Flash series through ComiXology. Issue #1 was released during the Flash 101 sale, and issues #2-6 will be available today. Issues #1-6 feature three stories, each a two parter, with Wally West facing off against Vandal Savage, the Kilg%re, and Speed Demon, and introducing Dr. Tina McGee to the supporting cast.
More thoughts on this in the next post…
Also this week: Teen Titans #5, featuring Kid Flash vs. Superboy on the cover.
Edit: And Justice League #5, with the Flash featured heavily in the preview.
Damn.
You know, they have got to have all or at least nearly all the Wally West stories in digital form by now just from the confiscation of previous fan sites. So why isn’t his entire run up? (I’m not terribly serious about this particular grumble. Just wish they’d put them all up already….and Barry’s too. Comixology was a real let down once I was able to see that they had so very little available for each category.)
I am hoping that this is a sign that eventually (once everyone has bought the single issues) they will make a hardbound archive set because even if I do one day sign on with Comixology…digital won’t do anyone much good if the power grid goes wonky (unless they have several fully-charged batteries on hand.)
I figure the selection at ComiXology will eventually improve. My real problems with it are that the site’s a pain to use. The first time I tried to buy a comic digitally, I had to reset my password, and the sync between the digital store and the main site was broken. Last night, while working on the digital archives article, I discovered that the “save my billing information so I don’t have to enter it again” option doesn’t save the CCV code, so I had to enter a new credit card number because the one I’d used last time was at home. Then after I got home, I couldn’t get it to show the comics on my desktop (probably some weird compatibility thing with the 64-bit Flash plugin), and I tried pulling them up on my phone, but it would only show the comics that I’d bought before I launched the phone app. There was no way for me to force it to re-sync and recognize the comics that I’d bought on the desktop (the store worked fine) afterward. I finally had to switch to another computer just to be able to look at the image quality.
Never mind the number of steps needed to check out each time I decided to buy a new book.
You want to be the iTunes of comics? Cut out as many obstacles as you can. Make it possible to impulse buy. If someone wants to give you money, don’t spend multiple pages giving them reasons not to.
The sad part is that I think the first 6 issues of Wally West’s run is better than any other Flash comics since they cancelled it.
Well…at least Wally’s getting sort of new releases, right?…right?…
(why didn’t they release huge batches of old comics instead of these 3-5 issues is beyond me…)
DC seems to have fully absorbed the Warner Bros. philosophy of dipping a toe into the pool, stepping back, waiting 5 minutes, then dipping the toe again, then stepping back, then trying a whole foot, then waiting there on the stairs until everyone else jumps into the pool, then running around to the diving board, making a big splash, and claiming that this was what they wanted to do all along.
I was hoping to pick up the Gary Frank cover as my local comic shop has had a good amount of the variants for the previous Flash issues (sold with the standard cover and priced the same). Alas, this was the one (first?) time that they didn’t get the variants. Fail. 😆 First-World problems.
Sigh.
Yeah, in no hurry to join the Comixology bandwagon, Kelson. You are not the only one I’ve read complaints from.
GO DC! Please put the full Wally run up digitally. I can officially put my original copies away for good and the interest may drum up more support for a Wally series. WISHFUL THINKING.
I make a point to buy the Wally and Kyle issues they put out to show demand, even tho I have them in print!
Just wanted to comment that I am loving Comixology. Sorry to hear that Kelson had issues with them but since i moved from the big city to a small town I have gone completely digital with my comix via the ipad app. When I had an issue with a broken sync (due to an apple os update) the Comixology tech support had it fixed in a matter of hours with constant email updates to keep me in the loop 🙂 Now all we need is more digital Flash !