During NC Comicon, we had the honor of sitting down with Christos Gage, who is writing an upcoming issue of The Flash and regularly writes Danica Williams’ character as the newest Flash in Justice League Beyond.  This is a shared interview…I also write about Valiant and other comics for another site called TMStash, and the interviews are linked to each other.  The only place you’ll find the Flash-related questions is here, though…including a hint to future stories!  If you want info about Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps (and excellent Valiant book), just follow this link.  There will be a few questions at the end that show on both sites. For now, let’s go the Q&A!

SPEEDFORCE: I understand that you grew up with Barry Allen like I did, so it’s got to be a treat to do even the one issue.

GAGE: Oh yeah.  My schedule is really full, but when I was approached to write an issue of The Flash I couldn’t say no because I was such a big fan of Barry Allen growing up.  For the longest time he was gone, so how am I going to pass up a chance to do it? So, that was a lot of fun, and I tried to take an approach that was very much inspired, hopefully in a contemporary way by the classic Flash stories where they’d have like a cover with an impossible situation and it’s like “How’s he gonna get out of this?” And so my idea was, we’ll put Flash in the sky.  What’s he gonna do, there’s nothing to run on, so that was the premise.  So I hope people enjoy it.

SPEEDFORCE: That’s very cool.  At the same time, you’ve taken on a different Flash, Danica Williams in Justice League Beyond.  And she’s in the one part of DC publishing where Wally West once existed.

GAGE: Yeah, it’s the continuity of the animated books.

SPEEDFORCE: Danica seems a lot more connected to the Speed Force than past Flashes. She’s talking to the prior Flashes since childhood.

GAGE: She communicates with the voices of Jay Garrick, Wally West and Bart Allen, as there was no Barry Allen in the animated universe.  So presumably they are in the Speed Force, but they are retaining their consciousness, and they are talking to and mentoring the current Flash.  That’s really fun because it’s a new Flash, but there’s ties to the past, and I really enjoy it.  The Beyond universe is really a lot about heroic legacies, so I’ve really enjoyed being able to explore that aspect of it.

SPEEDFORCE: In some ways, Danica is the fastest Flash because she can run on air molecules, much as the other Flashes ran on water.

GAGE:  That’s right – that’s true.

SPEEDFORCE: What are the plans for her and the rest of the Justice League moving forward?

GAGE: Well, we’re wrapping up the Phantom Zone arc, and I think its already been revealed that the big bad is Brainiac, who’s returning. He’s returning to an Earth that’s much more covered by and dependent on technology, so that just plays into his hands.

SPEEDFORCE: You’ve noted Barry Allen was a favorite character of yours. Who were the other characters you read growing up?

GAGE: Let’s see…I liked Captain America, I liked the Thing. When I was a kid I lived in an area where there wasn’t much distribution for DC so I did get hold of some Flash comics but other than that I wasn’t into the DC characters so much. I liked, obviously Spider-Man, you know, most of the classic Marvel characters I followed as a kid. I also loved the Godzilla comics in the 70’s, and Shogun Warrior, and Rom: Spaceknight. It was interesting because back before there were comic shops, it was very hit or miss. Sometimes you’d buy an issue of a “to be continued” story and the next issue just never showed up.

SPEEDFORCE: What other projects do you have in line right now?

GAGE: Well, Rebecca Isaacson and I, the team from Angel & Faith are taking over the Buffy book in Season 10, so that’s exciting. I’m excited to be working with Iban Coello on Justice League Beyond. Josh Dysart and I are co-writing Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps, Emanuela Lupacchino is doing our first arc and it’s great. After that Bart Sears is coming on board, which is awesome because I was a fan of the original Valiant and he was part of that. And, my wife Ruth and I are working on an original graphic novel with Jackie Lewis drawing, she’s from the Atlanta area. It’s a historical epic and it’s being put out by Oni Press but that probably won’t be out for a year or so. I’m also co-writing Superior Spider-Man from time to time, and I wrote the Annual and I do some stuff for the Spidey office. I’m also writing the Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game that comes out at around the same time the movie comes out.

SPEEDFORCE: Anything else you’d like to say for our readers?

GAGE: Thanks for checking out the books, I hope you enjoy them!

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