The New York Comic Con has come to a close, and we’ve got all your Flash-related announcements! Here we go…
This young fan’s favorite Flash? The Flash! Follow the jump for more…
Flash creative team Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato were both guests at the All Access: Justice League panel. They talked a little about the design aspect of the book, including the follow from Newsarama’s coverage:
Manapul said he and Buccellato were trying to create a more dynamic visual presentation of the Flash. “I think one of the reasons our pages have so much energy about them is that there are only two of us working on them, from idea to final product,” Buccellato said. “It’s all part of a single unit that helps bring about the book. Being able to see it through from beginning to end has allowed us to do a lot of innovative things.”
The two also talked more about Mob Rule, the title’s first new villain [edit: spoiler warning; highlight to read]:
Manapul said it will be revealed that the villain, Manuel, is a government agent. Buccellato said that in the images shown, Flash is running around the world looking for answers about the villain, from Afghanistan to China to Somalia.
Flash appears in this exclusive Rolling Stone preview for Justice League #2, and in comments made at the same Justice League panel by that title’s Geoff Johns and Jim Lee:
Johns said Green Lantern is fighting Superman in Justice League #2, and Hal calls Barry Allen to say, “Dude, get me out of this!” The crowd cheered when Jim Lee’s drawing of The Flash was shown.
“I just like the fact that Green Lantern calls The Flash on his cell phone,” Lee said.
Captain Atom scribe J.T. Krul, at the same panel, said he consulted with the Flash creative team when working on his upcoming portrayal of Barry Allen in his title’s issue #3. Buccellato also posted an image on Twitter from a DC party, featuring DC-themed craft beer.
In animation news, we knew Michael Rosenbaum would voice Flash in the upcoming animated feature Justice League: Doom, and recent reports have confirmed that it will be the Barry Allen Flash. According to Bruce Timm, veteran animation legend, Rosenbaum faced some challenges with the change in identity (via CBR):
“The only person who had any trouble at all was Michael,” said Timm, “but only because he was used to playing the Wally West version of the Flash, this is actually the Barry Allen version of the Flash. He would do a line and say, ‘Oh, no, that sounds too much like Wally. I’m going to make him sound more like a grown-up.'”
…and in Wally West news, a question about the missing speedster went unanswered at the Justice League panel, while Teen Titans editor Bobbi Chase responded to a question regarding West with a one-word answer: “Who?”
Update: And don’t miss our Flash action figure report.
I swear they’re simply making it seem like Wally isn’t in the DCnU. Then we’ll suddenly see him in an issue or something. DC’s trolling with us… I hope… >.>
Actually, I do believe they ARE trolling Wally fans. That’s more or less what Dan DiDio told me at Fan Expo.
My guess is that they’re banking on the anticipation and frustration of Wally fans so people will be super-excited for when he does return (and DiDio also told me they had plans for him). Mind you, that doesn’t take into consideration the people who quit reading in disgust in the meantime.
Please add spoiler warnings, at least regarding the Mob Rule reveals.
Sorry about that. I’ve added a spoiler block.
I understand barry is the flash right now but why? Why couldn’t it be wally? just for the movie that’s all i ask. I like barry, don’t get me wrong but wally has been put aside for so long.
I agree! I don’t mind Barry in the books and I wouldn’t have minded (as much) Barry being in Doom *IF* they hadn’t hired Michael to do the voice of Flash. Why didn’t they hire another voice actor for that? They must have known Flash fans would have been expecting it to be Wally both by the base of the story and by the choice of voice actor. It’s just another slap in the face to me…like the silence save for “Who?” and “Next!”
I get the feeling that if we ever do see ‘Wally’ in any DCnU book it will be a joke: a milk carton with the caption Missing with W. West on it. Or “W.West found murdered” on a news backpage. Some sick joke like that. Really incensed about this. Surely not everyone in DC is this naive?
They aren’t. Booch and Manapul have both stated that Wally is their favorite Flash, Brett Booth (as seen on this site as well his awesome blog) is constantly drawing Wally redesigns and appears to be more or less campaigning for Wally to be brought back. Sterling Gates has said on twitter he wants to write a Wally West book.
Hell, at the Toronto con a couple months back, a friend of mine had a conversation with Manapul where Frances actually said “Dude, everyone under 50 prefers Wally.”
The problem isn’t everyone at DC. Just the people in charge.
And, yeah, an animated film (loosely) based on a comic where Wally was the Flash, with the voice actor who played Wally on the Justice League and JLU cast as the Flash… And it’s Barry Allen.
The art work on the Manapul/Booch Flash series has been incredible, but issue one of that did no more to convince me that Barry is a character worth reading about than Johns stuff did. Hell, it even took away one of the things that I love most about the Flash family: Their wives. In order to, what, write the 8 billionth superhero hides his identity from his girlfriend who has a crush on the hero story? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
I want Wally. I want Linda. I want Jai and Irey. And DC isn’t getting my money until I get them.
Definitely a slap in the face. If Barry was gonna be in the film couldn’t they hire another voice actor. Why did they do that? Is it supposed to be funny? I can just hear Johns saying “Yeah we’ll get micheal to be barry, that’ll really tick them” cue evil laugh.
I don’t know. As much as I dislike a lot of what Geoff Johns has done regarding Wally, I have trouble seeing him as being deliberately malicious. Clueless or unconcerned about how Wally’s fans will react to something? Sure. Cruel? I don’t see it.
Dan Didio, on the other hand, I wouldn’t be so certain about.
I’m pretty sure Geoff Johns doesn’t cast the DVD movies. Maybe you could ask him on Twitter, and if it was done to slap you in the face?
I agree with Kelson, although for awhile there I was also angry as heck at Geoff Johns too. The biggest thing I have against him right now is that godawful Intervention Scene that should have been burned before it made print. Never thought anything could be worse than Barry The Human Generator, but that really took the cake. He’d have a hard time explaining Wally’s words and glaring lack of presence during Road to Flashpoint.
Are they trolling us? Possibly. The thing is that while they are having fun trolling in order to make me and those like me angry they are shortening their customer’s life span (anger kills) while said customer is bad mouthing DC to their friends (thus potentially lowering future fans.) Yeah, that on top of current fans throwing in the towel and finding other pursuits, never again to haunt comic forums, news sites, or book stores…so they won’t know if Wally comes back next year or a decade from now. So yeah, I find trolling to create anticipation to be really a stupid move. Right now with no shows (other than Kid Flash of Earth-16) and no toys and no books and no DCAU movies….the only thing keeping me active in comics is looking for old books out of print and conversing with other fans about how DC is more a Dick than a Richard.
Oh, and major kudos to the likes of Sterling and Booth. I don’t know if they are bucking the trend despite Didio or just the lucky few allowed to show their love outside a planned Trolling, but they are the lone bright spot in a darkened Universe.
Oh, and I still have not purchased the two DC dvds that came out this past week. Though that may have been a blessing with Green Lantern from the reviews I’ve read. Haven’t even bothered to research the Batman one.
Having Rosenbaum voice Barry is like having Conroy voice a Dick Grayson Batman. But they’d NEVER do that. :rolleyes:
Rubbish. And I was looking forward to JL: Doom.
Well even if it wasn’t johns, the person/people who made the decision must’ve known some fans weren’t gonna like it. Eh what can you do?
Ignore those few people, I’m guessing?
Every fanbase has a vocal minority who take umbrage at slights both miniscule and fabricated. This is no different.
Timm and co. wanted to reunite and reuse the JLU voice cast – their motivation was pretty clear and simple.