Category Archives: Flash History

Heroes’ HRG: Almost the Flash

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One interesting surprise buried in The Flash Companion is the fact that during the development for the 1990 Flash TV Series, CBS wanted to cast Jack Coleman as Barry Allen. Yes, Heroes‘ very own Noah Bennet, the man with the horn-rimmed glasses.

From the interview with Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo:

BILSON: You know what? The network offered the role to Jack Coleman, who used to be on Dynasty, and he wouldn’t do it because he wouldn’t wear the suit. That’s what I remember.

So what might Coleman have been like as Barry?

Here’s Barry Allen from his first appearance in Showcase #4, alongside a picture of Jack Coleman from Dynasty a couple of years before The Flash went on the air, and another picture of him as today’s audience would recognize him.

Well, he certainly would have looked the part!

Also, John Wesley Shipp was Bilson & De Meo’s second choice for the role. Their first was Richard Burgi, who went on to lead the duo’s later show, The Sentinel. CBS went with Shipp because, in the network head’s words (according to De Meo), “I can see that guy on a lunchbox.”

Image sources: Barry Allen scanned from The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told, art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert. Dynasty photo via Heroes The Series. Heroes photo via BuddyTV.

The Fifth Most Expensive Comic

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Friday Night Lists is running a list of the 15 Most Expensive Comic Books, and a copy of Flash Comics #1 — specifically the Mile High pedigree copy rated CGC NM+ 9.6 — ranks at #5, valued at an estimated $274,000.

As recently as 2006, it was estimated at “only” 250,000. That’s still a bit out of my price range, though. I think I’ll stick with my $35 copy of The Golden Age Flash Archives Vol. 1 for now.

The post also says that the “milestone issue is currently ranked as the eighth most valuable comic book of all.” I’m not entirely sure how that fits with the ranking at #5 in the list.

Mackenzie Ryan: The Flash Who Never Was

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In the previous post I made a joke about Mackenzie Ryan being the new Flash. I should probably explain.

During Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC made the decision to kill Barry Allen before they had figured out how to replace him. Many ideas were suggested, and the one that got the farthest was a proposal by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman for a new character with no link to Barry except the name.

A brief note in Amazing Heroes Preview Special #2 (1986) described the proposal:

  • Mackenzie “Mac” Ryan was a lab tech at STAR Labs, linked to established character Jenet Klyburn.
  • He was a single father with a daughter between 8 and 12 years old.
  • Instead of super-speed, he had the ability to manipulate energy fields (light, sound, etc.)

Ultimately, DC decided to promote Wally West instead. Oddly enough, Mackenzie Ryan actually gets a brief mention in canon, during a phone conversation with Klyburn in The New Teen Titans #19 (written by Marv Wolfman), which gave his daughter’s name as Jamie.

Further reading:

The Flash Companion has an article about “The Unused Flash.” Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #126 points out similarities between Mackenzie Ryan’s powers and those of the Tangent Flash. Titans Tower collects interview fragments about trying to set up the new Flash.

70s Flashback: Super-Speed Twinkies

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If you read DC or Marvel comics during the late 1970s or early 1980s, or if you’ve read back issues from that era, chances are that you’ve seen the super-hero ads for Hostess cupcakes, Twinkies, etc. These were done as 1-page stories in which a low-rent villain would appear as a menace. Then a super-hero would arrive, and somehow use snack cakes to defeat the villain.

Yep.

There were at least four ads featuring the Flash:

These are all scanned and hosted by Seanbaby, who has a full set of these Hostess ads. (Watch out for NSFW language in the commentary.)

You know, now that I think about it, the subtext of the Flash helping The Destroyer fight off his depression by eating junk food is disturbingly reminiscent of the Golden Age Flash providing “happiness pills” to the Worry Wart.

Sadly, the Destroyer didn’t share the Flash’s hyper-accelerated metabolism.

(Inspired by a recent post at Mike’s Progressive Ruin.)

Flash Companion Linkage: Waid on Bart as Flash

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This week’s Lying in the Gutters includes an excerpt from The Flash Companion. It’s a later segment from the same Mark Waid interview that I previously posted here (on creating Impulse). In this segment, Waid discusses the editorial directive from above that changed Impulse to Kid Flash, and then Kid Flash to the Flash.

It’s about 2/3 of the way through the column, the section labeled “Flashburning Bridges.”