- 1940: Flash Comics #1 introduces Jay Garrick. The series runs until 1949.
- 1941: All-Flash #1 launches, a second title featuring the Flash, running until 1948.
- 1956: Showcase #4 introduces Barry Allen, ushering in the Silver Age of comics.
- 1959: The Flash vol.1 #105 launches, featuring Barry, and runs until 1985.
- 1987: Flash vol.2 #1 launches featuring Wally West in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths universe. The series runs until 2006.
- 2006: Flash: The Fastest Man Alive launches featuring Bart Allen. The series runs one year.
- 2007: Flash vol.2 #231 picks up where the previous Wally West series left off, and lasts another year and a half.
- 2009: Flash: Rebirth (miniseries) re-introduces Barry Allen.
- 2010: Flash vol.3 #1 launches, featuring Barry Allen, and lasts one year.
- 2011: Flash vol.4 #1 launches, reintroducing the post-Flashpoint version of Barry Allen.
Three major launches from 1940-2005 (four if you count Showcase #4 and Flash #105 separately, which I suppose I should if I’m counting Flash: Rebirth separately from Flash vol.3), with remarkably consistent creative teams. Five relaunches from 2006-2011.
Things have changed a bit…
They sure have.
Jay lasted..nine years and had a second book.
Barry and Wally lasted a couple of decades with one book.
Since then it’s been about one year between re-launches.
Will 2012 be any different?
Maybe they should dump story arcs and just do done-in-ones. I liked done-in-ones.
Of course the market, audience, and creative style has shifted since then. In Jay’s and much of Barry’s runs, all you needed was a quirky cover and the story could write itself.
By the time Wally was on scene audiences demanded much more fleshed out stories, characters, and multi-issue plots. Writers rose to the challenge not only in the main Flash book, but in writing speedsters for long runs in JLA, Impulse, Young Justice, and JSA (along with specials, annuals, one-shots, Elseworlds, and the like). The market was there to support it all in parallel.
Ever since Wally was deemed expendable, DC hasn’t had the confidence to widely support Flash or the discipline to require timeliness to the books so that any real momentum could be sustained. Relying instead on short term boosts based on stunts which errode fan confidence in the franchise over time. One thing about the long runs… they were great much in part because they were allowed to be great. All of them had bad patches here and there- even Johns’ acclaimed run had rough spots- but by allowing them to run on you get a greater whole.
One wonders what would have happened if DC had just stuck out a bad patch with Wally and continued strong monthly sales rather than resorting to stunt after stunt after stunt….
Heck I even think DC could have ridden out Bart’s shaky start as The Flash. I really liked where Marc Guggenheim was going with the title after he took over for Bilson & DiMeo.
I think DC’s biggest mistake when they made Bart the Flash was that there was no official passing of the torch from Wally to Bart. A cameo by Wally in the first or second issue giving Bart his blessing would have gone a long way towards solidifying Bart as the Flash.
Bart as the Flash was a silly move.
All this grief with relaunch after relaunch stems from Didio/Johns wanting Wally gone in Infinite Crisis to lend a gravitas to the story.
It was then almost a throwaway bit, and left readers with nothing.
Then it was decided to wheel Bart in ……..oops.
It’s been pretty much downhill since then.
If DC has simply found another longterm writer with a passion for the character we’d still be reading Wally West Flash adventures on a monthly basis and his title would be nearing the #350 mark.
Maybe somewhere in the Multiverse this is a reality….
Yeah, clearly this ain’t the old days anymore. Ever since the 80s, monthly comics sales have been low enough that losing just a few thousand readers is enough to upset the applecart. Since the 2000s, publishers have become hyper-reactive; always ready to take a dramatic shift in direction.
And circa Infinite Crisis, Didio said only two ominous words about Barry Allen – “…not yet.” And if you look at the timeline from Infinite Crisis forward in that context, DC has been looking to bring Barry back, but kept delaying it.
Plus, a couple of years later, it was apparently his design to reboot the DCU with Final Crisis. Which explains why Barry returned in that story: Bring back Barry, bookend the post-Crisis DCU, and reboot the whole shebang.
This explains the killing time with the Bart/Wally runs post-Infinite Craisis, and the lack of function of Rebirth; that was likely done in place of a rebooted Flash origin.
In essence, it took 4-5 years for DC to get where it wanted to with Flashpoint. Wow. Now, with all their pieces about to be layed out…here’s hoping the stories become less about moving characters around.