With Barry Allen back, sales slipping, and a recent history of backtracks and revamps that makes a drowning victims’s flailing look stately, it was clear months ago that change was coming. Once Flash: Rebirth was announced, the only question was: when would the axe fall?
At the time the current storyline, “This Was Your Life, Wally West,” was announced, the story’s conclusion seemed a likely candidate. But #247 was solicited without any indication that it would be the final issue. Speculation started again, that there might be a single Faces of Evil issue spotlighting a Rogue, or that it might end with a blow-out issue #250, or might stop at #249, with the new, relaunched series combining numbers and relaunching with #600.
Today, DC Message Board member adohall posted that he received a letter from DC as a subscriber that Flash would be ending with #247, and he would need to choose another book to replace it on his subscription. Update: Comic Bloc’s Mark MacMillan confirms that he received the same letter.
It seems that Monday’s solicitations for January will have a distinct lack of Flashiness.
awww…i’ve been a fan of naught but DC for several years and a devoted reader since i was 6. that was 12 years ago. and now, for the SECOND TIME, they cancel the very series that brought me to their readership. grrr…what am i supposed to read in Jan? (other than Final Crisis #7 and Green Lantern #38…) lousy Barry…why couldn’t he have come back when Bart died? it would’ve been much more interesting…
DC just can’t do anything right. They can’t eek out some more issues to hit 250? This is just dumb, there is no reasoning capable of defending this decision. Aaaargh.
Come on, guys. Dry those tears!
The only questions are whether or not the main title will pick up the original series’ numbering or start with #1.
And what other Flash-related books will be launched?
It’s all good!
.-= Rockin’ Rich’s latest blog post: Supergroup: Mary Fleener and Captain Beefheart =-.
It’s not all good. This book did not fail because of fans or because of characters. Flash is a flagship for DC. He is a top five character. The failure is a result of DC. A lack of commitment and a lack of vision to see that you have to draw a line in the sand when it comes to your all timers. They did this in the 80s with Flash, Justice League, and Green Lantern. And now it has happened again. You make good stuff and people will buy.
I am a diehard and I have a hard time buying the crap they have put out in the last year in this title. I look forward to the return of Barry and hope that they keep Wally in the mix. Do something different with the character. Modernize the storylines and make them for mature readers. Make them hardcore and shocking.