I attended Fan Expo 2016 in Toronto this past weekend, and heard some interesting Flash-related details that people might be interested in. See behind the jump for some Rebirth-era and Flash TV tidbits!
The first panel was about DC Rebirth and had a variety of artists on hand, including Teen Titans artist Jonboy Meyers. (Former Flash writer and artist Francis Manapul arrived slightly late and made a crack about the Speed Force, which was fun.) Meyers discussed the young Wally West a bit, saying he’s the most well-adjusted member of the Teen Titans, and wants to be like his mentor. He then noted that in the latter sense, the new Wally’s a lot like the original. That might be welcome news to fans who were upset that he’d once been an angry teen.
There were no other Flash creators at the panel, so the discussion largely stayed on other characters. But a fan asked a question about the original Wally West, and the subject so interested the panel moderator that he went through every creator to ask them about their feelings on Wally’s return. A few didn’t know him well and didn’t have much to say, but Meyers said that Geoff Johns had willed Wally to come back and probably has more things planned for him. Manapul said that the Flash is the most important character in the DCU because all changes come from or around him/them, and that basically he’s the harbinger of “seismic change”. Marcus To, who’s drawn a few issues of the Flash book and is currently drawing Nightwing, said he’s keen to see Dick and Wally interacting again.
I also attended the Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow on The Flash TV series) panel, and while mindful of spoilers, she did say a few things about the past and future of the show. She said that Season 3 will be much lighter than Season 2 was, and more fun. The villain she’s most looking forward to is Mirror Master, and she says he’ll be awesome; they’ve apparently already filmed his debut episode, and are currently shooting Episode 6. In response to questions, she said she hopes to appear on the Supergirl series, doesn’t know much about the upcoming crossover episodes (either the musical crossover or the big four-way crossover), and doesn’t know if Mark Hamill will be back as the Trickster.
Panabaker also talked a bit about her turn as Killer Frost, saying that it was so much fun to play a villain, and that she watched some of the villainesses in previous DC movies like Catwoman and Poison Ivy for inspiration. But when someone asked if Killer Frost would come back, Panabaker simply replied “she’s dead”, so it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing her anytime soon.
I saw a lot of great cosplayers at the convention, including the largest number of Rogues I’ve ever encountered at any Toronto event! So that was really neat. There were fewer Flash cosplayers this year, but a really great ‘Jay Garrick’/Hunter Zolomon in line to see Katie Cassidy, and so many Flash t-shirts. Plus I cosplayed as the Top again this year, and got some cool Rogues sketches. So all in all, I had a pretty good time.
Hey Lia,
I’m pretty sure I’m the Jay Garrick/Hunter Zolomon cosplayer you spotted waiting for Katie Cassidy’s panel. I was with a friend who was wearing an Emily Bett Rickard’s “Bathroom Therapy” t-shirt.
Thank you for the compliment on my costume. I also received one from Kristen Hughey, one of the professional cosplayers there so that felt pretty awesome.
I don’t suppose you snapped a picture of me? I’ve been trying to find some.
Thank you!
Hi Andrew! You looked amazing, so you deserve it. Sorry if I bugged you in the line, but that was the only time I saw you during the convention and your costume was too cool to miss!
I did get a photo of you (two, actually, though one turned out poorly). I haven’t put up any of my con photos at Flickr yet, though one pic of you is up at Tumblr. I’ll probably upload the pics to Flickr tonight, and would be happy to send the originals of you via email or Mediafire if you’d like.
The one already up at Tumblr is here:
http://eighteenbelow.tumblr.com/post/150055532808/some-random-stuff-from-fan-expo-the-guy-in-the
It was great seeing you at the con!
Awesome, thank you Lia, I appreciate it.
And no bother at all! I made that running pose a lot over the course of the two days I was wearing that costume. Not going to lie, it was sort of fun. I’m likely going to wear it at least one day of TCC next spring. My other costume is Rorschach from Watchmen.
Thank you again and it was great seeing you as well. Thank you again for the pictures. And please, feel free to e-mail them to me or I can just download them from your Flickr album.
Yeah, I cosplayed for the first time a few years ago and it was a lot of fun, so I hear you. Glad you enjoyed yourself, that’s really important! I’m very slowly working on a new Top costume, but who knows when it’ll be done.
The first batch of photos is up at Flickr, though there’s still 285 to go through and there’ll be more later (I think I take too many photos…)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7722788@N06/albums/72157673607235735
And no problem, glad to help! I’ll email you the two originals, and you can fiddle with them if you like; you might be better at processing photos than I am. The low lighting of the area wasn’t kind to my camera, sadly.
Sounds like you had a great time! I’m really impressed at how many Rogues were there, too!
I did, yeah 😀 And that was really exciting,, because I’ve never seen that many Rogues at any convention I’ve ever attended. Perhaps they’re gaining in popularity!
What I’d really like is to do a Rogues photoshoot at a future con. Or at the very least a DC shoot, because that was so much fun in the first year I cosplayed.