Monthly Archives: June 2012

Flash #0 Solicited – The Origin of the Flash

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Flash #0 Promotional Art

DC’s Justice League Group solicitations are out for September and the Zero issues, including…

THE FLASH #0

Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:25 B&W cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale SEPTEMBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Update: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format. (from Newsarama)

  • At last, it’s the origin of The Flash!
  • The loss of his mother put Barry Allen on the road to becoming a hero, but only when he gains his powers will he understand her most important lesson.

As noted last week, this is not the final cover, but a piece of promotional art.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m disappointed that the tragic backstory Geoff Johns grafted onto the character is still in place. I know getting rid of it would mess up the theme of Flashpoint, but if you look at the New 52 as its own entity (which is what they’re doing everywhere else), it would have been the perfect time to clean up the “Can’t be a real hero unless he knows tragedy” cliche.

(I’ve become more and more certain over time that Hunter Zolomon was thematically an author stand-in in the same way that Superboy Prime is a stand-in for fans that Geoff Johns disagrees with.)

Speed Reading: State of the Industry / Before Watchmen

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Speed Reading: Digital Comics

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Speed Reading: Creator Catch-Up

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Speed Reading: Art Round-Up

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Quick Thoughts: DC’s New 52 Wave Three

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So, along with the #0 origin issues in September, DC is also launching four new ongoing series. Here are my first thoughts:

Talon – Spinning out of “Court of Owls.” Sorry, but I tuned out right there. I’ve never been a big fan of the Bat-verse (heresy, I know), so a Batman spin-off doesn’t really do much for me.

Sword of Sorcery – A genre book similar to All-Star Western and G.I. Combat. At least to start with, it’ll be headlined by a revival of Amethyst, with backup stories about a post-apocalyptic Beowulf. This is the one I’m most interested in, not for Amethyst or Beowulf in particular, but to see what DC does with the fantasy genre. Demon Knights has been a fun read, and is currently the DCU book I’m most eager to read when a new issue comes out.

Team Seven – Set shortly after the Justice League’s debut, about a special-ops team put together to counteract superhuman threats. The team features characters from all over DC and Wildstorm, including younger Deathstroke, Grifter, Amanda Waller, and others. This seems like something I would have been fascinated by 10-15 years ago when I was more heavily into the DC Universe itself, rather than seeing the DCU as just the setting for some comics I read.

Phantom Stranger – His origin and connection to Pandora. Um…no. In my opinion, the Phantom Stranger should be left mysterious. He’s the Phantom Stranger, not the Phantom Guy that the Audience Gets to Know Well. The fact that they decided to re-introduce him by giving him a definitive origin suggests they’ll be taking the character in…I don’t want to say the wrong direction, but certainly a direction I’m less interested in reading.

IGN contacted DC and confirmed that they won’t be canceling four books right away, though in a Newsarama interview, Dan Didio reiterates the plan to stick with 52 ongoing series in general, so we’ll probably see a brief bump in September followed by a few books getting canceled in the next couple of months.

I’ve noticed lately that the less connection a book has to the mainstream DC Universe, the more appealing I find it. That’s kind of sad, but I think it’s partly the fact that DC is actively courting an audience I’m not part of, and partly a consequence of my slow drift away from the super-hero genre and toward sci-fi/fantasy.

So how about you? Which of these books do you find most interesting?