DC has released a 6-page preview of the Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010, including 3 story pages and profiles of Iris Allen, Captain Cold, and Barry Allen. It’s…surprisingly decompressed for a single-issue origin story.
You can read the preview at the Source or at Newsarama.
Interestingly, the preview still lists the book as coming out next week, even though it was missing from Diamond’s “Upcoming Releases” list on Monday, DC changed the date to April 7 on their website yesterday, and Diamond listed the change to April 7 on today’s shipping updates. I’m guessing this is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing…or more precisely, the left hand changing things while the right hand is on vacation and doesn’t have a chance to update.
Update (March 29): The book is on Diamond’s upcoming releases list for April 7.
The profile pages don’t read well. The art is nice, but its like the text was written at the last minute. Very sloppy writing, IMO.
Also, I hate hate hate the “tragic origin” of Barry Allen now. Hope to god that gets retconned soon. Or at least forgotten and never mentioned again. One of the things that made Barry likeable (to me, at least) was that he became a hero BECAUSE IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO
Same here regarding Barry’s “Tragic” Origin.
.-= Ben Hall’s latest blog post: Just plain wrong of me =-.
Definitely. When people used to ask me about why Flash is my favorite I used to say that exact same thing. “He’s a hero just because it’s the right thing to do. No tragedy necessary.” Sad how one mini-series can invalidate something so easily.
.-= Devin “The Flash” Johnson’s latest blog post: Third Post! =-.
Liking the Skott Kolins panels!
But seriously, why did Johns have to make Barry so darn important!? It’s like none of the other speedsters matter anymore! To me he’s not even the most interesting character in the Flash family.
It wouldn’t be so bad if it were simply a matter of: Barry’s back, and here’s why he’s important now. That would be the same kind of thing Mark Waid did when he had Wally become the first Flash to mainline the speed force and gain new powers, or that Bilson & DeMeo did when they had Bart absorb the speed force. In those cases, it was still a progression, and you could imagine that whoever came next would follow in their footsteps and become the most important Flash now.
What bothers me is that they didn’t want to take that route. They instead wanted to take the route that Barry was not only the most important Flash now, but that he has always been and always will be the most important Flash ever. It flat out tells us that we’ve been reading about a second-rate Flash for the last 25 years. I know there are people who hold that opinion, but it’s galling for it to be declared canon.
It’s like two kids trying to one-up each other in a bidding war, and one pulls out, “well, I bid infinity!” — and because it’s the author of the series, not to mention the Chief Creative Officer of the company, it sticks instead of getting laughed off.
That is the best comparison I have ever heard. Seriously. When characters become more important than everyone else, it just makes me dislike the character. I’ve ALWAYS liked Barry Allen, but now he just sort of gets on my nerves. And the fact that we’ll be seeing less of Bart and Wally doesn’t help.
Man, I never get tired of seeing Scot Kollins draw the Rogues.