Category Archives: Creators

After Flash, It’s Vibe: Rebirth

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Ever since Barry Allen’s return from the dead was confirmed nearly a year ago, comics fans have been wondering who would be next to get the Rebirth treatment.

Now, the wait is over. With Flash: Rebirth hitting stores today, DC has announced that December 2009 will see the launch of Vibe: Rebirth, by the now-familiar team of Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver.

Vibe: Surprised

Vibe: What’s the Buzz?

In the early 1980s, the Justice League of America took on several new members as the “big guns” left the team. Paco Ramone, a Detroit gang leader with the ability to generate shock waves, decided to give up his life of crime and join the League as Vibe.

Vibe was a member of the Justice League from 1984 until 1987, when he was killed by one of Professor Ivo’s androids during the Legends crossover. He was the first member of the Justice League of America to die in the line of duty.

More than an Echo

On Tuesday, Ethan Van Sciver posted on his forum at the Comic Bloc:

Based on pre-sales success of Flash: Rebirth, Dan [Didio] has given me and Geoff the go-ahead to move forward with the next chapter in the Rebirth trilogy: Vibe: Rebirth.

Based on pre-release? It’s certainly not unprecedented. Just a few days ago, Paramount hired a writing team to write a sequel to the new Star Trek film, which won’t be out for another month.

When asked whether the artist would be able to hold to a schedule for another monthly project so close on the heels of Flash: Rebirth, he explained, “DC gave us a lot of lead time on Flash, so I should have plenty of time to get started on Vibe.”

“I hope this lays to rest any fears fans have about me being a ‘Silver-Age fanboy,’” Geoff Johns said. (Personally, given the tendency among many fans to think the Silver Age lasted right up to 1985, ignoring the Bronze Age entirely, I wouldn’t count on it.) When asked if he could provide any details of the story, he simply said, “Wait and see.”

Why Vibe? Why Now?

More detail came from Dan Didio, who told Newsarama:

It was really a melding of events. First of all, with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern all leaving the Justice League, Dwayne McDuffie wanted to try and bring back some of the feel of the Detroit-era League. And what character is most associated with that League? Vibe! Plus we had some very positive fan response to his appearances in Trinity. And orders for Flash: Rebirth have been phenomenal. We want to strike while the iron is hot, so I asked Ethan if he’d be interested, and he just jumped at the opportunity. Literally, he jumped. I could hear the thump on the other end of the phone.

There is a downside, though. Just as Ethan Van Sciver had to scale back his involvement with Blackest Night in order to do Flash: Rebirth, Geoff Johns won’t be available immediately for the post-Rebirth relaunch of The Flash. “I’m sure the fans will be happy to know,” Didio said, “that for the first six months of the ongoing, the Flash will be in Judd Winick’s capable hands.”

Winick himself was unavailable for comment.

Once Upon a Geek has more information, including an interview with Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver and background on Vibe and his successor, Reverb.

Update: The blogosphere is starting to hum with commentary: Crimson Lightning is disappointed to hear that Geoff Johns will be leaving the Flash once again. Justice League Detroit is upset, asking “What were they thinking?” Fortress of Baileytude, however, has been won over to enthusiastic support.

Update 2: This is, of course, an April Fool’s joke! Thanks to the Irredeemable Shag of Once Upon a Geek for planning the event — it was a lot of fun coming up with the fake quotes and trying to make things almost fit!

Vibe preliminary sketch

Golden-Age Art Mystery

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Flash stippled portrait (All-Flash #13)Comic Coverage is seeking help in solving an All-Flash Art Mystery — namely, this stippled portrait of the Flash from All-Flash #13 (reprinted in the 1973 Flash 100 Page Spectacular ) in a dramatically different style than regular artist E.E. Hibbard‘s usual (of which the faces in the border are more typical).

(My take: I don’t see any reason to believe it’s not Hibbard’s own work, judging by some of the panels he did for creator cameos and wildlife paintings he did in the years after his comics career. And in The Flash Companion, Tom Brevoort recalls being astonished by this page, and believes it to be Hibbard’s work.)

Speed Reading: Silver-Age Guest Stars, Action Figures, Van Sciver and More

Victoria Wayne comments on Captain Boomerang’s first appearance

Crimson Lightning has finished reviewing the entire 1990-1991 Flash TV series, and now presents a round-up of Live Action: The Worst.

Silver Age Comics looks at Barry Allen’s childhood sweetheart, future actress Daphne Dean, as The Other Woman. (She returned a few times in the Bronze Age, including the 4-part story that introduced the Golden Glider.)

Newsarama has a video interview with Todd Dezago, former Impulse writer, in which he talks about Perhapanauts.

DCU Classics Flash Action FigurePOE Ghostal reviews the new DCU Classics Barry Allen action figure.

Geek Stuff Daily looks at the history of the Flash.

Ethan Van Sciver’s weekly column is up to #11, and at least this week he’s renamed it from “Your Time Is Now Mine” to “Hope, Understanding and Compassion.” He links to a discussion thread his wife Sharis started about her experience with a dog rescue gone wrong earlier this week:

This was the worst day of my life. I don’t blame the dog, and I’m especially grateful for Officer Guardian Angel this morning, and the fact that it was ME that was bitten, not a small child, which is easily could have been. But I dedicate my entire life to rescue, and to see the dog shot, to hear it scream in pain and watch it die…this was entirely too much to cope with today.

Please keep supporting rescue efforts and animal cruelty legislation, folks, not the hysteria that causes people to deem all “vicious” dogs “bad dogs.”

There are no bad dogs, just bad owners.

Sharis also posted a link in the thread to her own blog entry about the incident.

Van Scivers: Local Hero and Signing

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Two items of note:

First, Sharis Van Sciver, wife of Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver, is in the news today for leading a growling dog away from a group of school children. The dog, which showed signs of abuse and had apparently broken its chain and escaped, bit her hand, but her injuries are minor. (via Blog@Newsarama)

Second, Flash fans in the Orlando, Florida area should take note: Ethan Van Sciver will be doing a free signing for Flash: Rebirth at A Comic Shop in Winter Park, Florida (that’s the actual name of the store) on April 3.

Speed Reading: Retro Reviews, Doug Hazlewood, TV Shows and More

The Victoria Advocate profiles Doug Hazlewood.

Comics In Crisis presents Flash v.2 #182 (2002), the Captain Cold Rogue Profile story, among the 10 Essential Bronze Age Comic Stories You Should Read. I’d disagree with the Bronze-Age classification (traditionally, the Bronze Age of Comics ran from the 1970s through mid 1980s, with Crisis on Infinite Earths being a good reference point for DC books), but it’s absolutely a must-read.

X-Man reviews Flash vol.2 #1 (1987), noting how different Wally West was at the age of 20 than he is today. That’s actually one of the things Wallys’ long-term fans like most about the character: that we’ve seen him grow and change naturally, rather than simply be given a personality transplant whenever a new writer shows up.

The Quantum Blog talks about TV shows canceled before their time, including the 1990-1991 Flash TV Series. (Hard to believe it’s been almost 20 years. Seriously, Quantum Leap is having a 20th Anniversary convention this month. I feel old…)

The Worlogog celebrates Weird Silver Age Tales of the Flash.

I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but Raging Bullets Podcast #152 features Flash’s Rogues with listener guest Mike Simms.

Heritage Auctions will be selling a CGC 9.6 copy of Showcase #4, the comic that rebooted the Flash as Barry Allen, launching the Silver Age (via It’s all Just Comics)

A Journal of Zarjaz Things looks at Flash: Emergency Stop, griping that Grant Morrison’s 9-issue run is split across two trades with the second “padded” out with a 3-parter by Mark Millar. IMO, though, Morrison didn’t write a 9-issue Morrison run — he co-wrote 9 issues of a 12-issue Morrison/Millar run. It would have been less responsible for DC to print only the Morrison issues and leave out “The Black Flash,” which has arguably had more lasting impact on the Flash mythos than the other stories in these trades, good as they are. (It is silly that they left out the first two parts of “Three of a Kind,” though.)