DC has released the covers for DC Retroactive: The 70s, the series of July one-shots featuring the return of classic writers to the interpretations of the characters that they wrote back in the day.
The cover for DC Retroactive: The Flash – The ’70s is by Benito Gallego, Sal Buscema, and Carrie Strachan. The book is being written by Cary Bates, who talked about it a bit in an interview with Speed Force last month.
It’s titled “Son of Grodd” and it explores the concept of fatherhood on two parallel tracks, one dealing with Grodd and the other with Barry….With this story, heretofore unspoken aspects of the Allen marriage will finally be explored in depth. At the same time, you’ll be seeing a new side of Grodd as we find out what kind of father he might have made back in the ’70’s.
There’s more in there, of course, so be sure to read the whole interview if you missed it the first time around.
UPDATE! Artist Benito Gallego dropped by to point out his original pencils for the cover!
Looks like that beltline might be a ‘V.’ I wouldn’t be surprised. Just another step towards making new readers think that it’s Barry they’ve been hearing about for the past 25 years.
i really love the cover. everything so far for the retro issues has been good stuff.
I hate the V belt or Lightning Thong as I call it.
Be that as it may, it WAS a Wally identifier. Then again, the mirror-imaged Reverse Flash logo was an identifier for Zoom, but DC started using that for Professor Zoom a while ago. DC wants everyone to know that the Flash is and has always been one guy, and that guy’s name is Barry Allen.
….or maybe the artist got confused?
This is the internet, no logic allowed.
So I guess most of the artists drawing Barry outside of the Flash main series the last couple of years got confused. Then Jim Lee got confused when he re-designed Barry’s suit tom look exactly like Wally’s. And then Manapul didn’t catch it. You’re right, that’s alot more logical than it being done on purpose by DC.
It took YEARS for artists to get Wally’s eyes and costume right. An entire generation had to learn to stop drawing the straight-across belt and start drawing the V-belt, to stop coloring the Flash’s eyes blue and start coloring them green, etc. It’s only been three years since Barry returned, two since he took over the lead spot, so yeah, it makes perfect sense that the various artists have gotten confused. As near as I can tell, DC hasn’t bothered with style guides for The Flash since the 1980s, or else artists don’t realize they need to consult them. As for Jim Lee, obviously he liked the V-belt better and chose to include it in the new design.
Just don’t be surprised when the first line in Barry’s new series is “My name’s Barry Allen. I’m the Flash. The Fastest Man Alive.”
You may want to take a look at the original pencils here: https://benitogallego.blogspot.com/2011/06/flash-portada.html
Fantastic! Thanks for stopping by!