Category Archives: Fandom

Wayback Wednesday: How To Make a Golden-Age Flash Costume

With Halloween approaching fast, now* seems like a good time to highlight a pair of old posts on how to make a Jay Garrick costume!

My wife and I (OK, it was mostly her) made this for Comic-Con International 2009, and it worked out really well. Unfortunately the gold paint on the helmet wings has tarnished since then, and the boot covers have detached themselves from the shoes, so it needs some touch-up if I plan to wear it again. Maybe next year.

*Yeah, I know last week or even earlier in October would have been a better time, but I only came up with this “Wayback Wednesday” idea acouple of days ago.

Wally West the #6 DC Character – Flashes in the Top 50, Final Rankings

We’ve been following Comics Should Be Good as they count down the results of their Top 50 DC & Marvel Characters survey. Wally West ranks #6 on the DC list. He hasn’t been seen much since DC decided to re-focus The Flash on Barry Allen a few years back, but Wally remains a popular character — more popular among the survey respondents than the current headliner, though as we saw a few days ago, Barry made the top 10 as well.

I hope DC considers this when the time comes around for mid-season replacements or expanding the New 52. If there’s room for 12(?) Bat-books including spots for current and past Robins Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian… If there’s room for four Lantern books including spots for all four human Green Lanterns… If there’s room for four Super-books… Then surely there’s room for a second Flash series featuring Wally West, or at the very least a spot on a team book. Barry’s got the main Flash series, Bart’s in Teen Titans, and presumably Jay will be showing up in the Earth-2-set Justice Society of America series when it launches.

Here are the final rankings of the Flashes for this survey and the previous one in 2007.

Character 2011 Rank  2007 Rank  Points  1st Place Votes 
Jay Garrick (Flash) #45 #41 374 0
Bart Allen (Impulse/Kid Flash) #36 #42 545 6
Barry Allen (Flash) #9 #29 1604 27
Wally West (Flash/Kid Flash) #6 #3 2471 67

About the points: The way voting worked was that you listed your top 10 favorite characters, in order. Your first-place choice got 10 points, your second-place choice got 9 points, etc. According to CSBG, more than 1400 people voted in the survey.

Keep an eye on Comics Should Be Good as they count down the top five!

News Flash: Barry Allen Ranked #9 DC Character

Comics Should Be Good continues counting down the results of their Top 50 DC Characters survey, and Barry Allen comes in at #9. The reborn Flash received 1604 total points, and 27 voters named him their favorite DC character.

A Top 10 spot is a big climb from the #29 rank he took in 2007. DC Comics has clearly been successful at building up Barry Allen’s popularity in the years since he’s returned.

We’ve seen three of the four main Flashes so far, with Bart Allen and Jay Garrick at #36 and #45. Still no sign of Wally West, but given his popularity among online fans, it’s unlikely that he dropped below Bart and Jay.

With Robin (Tim Drake) ranked #8, there are seven slots left. Sure bets include:

  • Superman
  • Batman (Bruce Wayne)
  • Wonder Woman
  • Batman/Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
  • Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

That leaves two up for grabs. Based on other people’s comments and my own gut feeling, I’d say the remaining two slots are likely to be Flash (Wally West) and the Joker.

The question is: What order?

Keep an eye on Comics Should Be Good as they continue the Top 50 countdown!