DC Comics has released one last teaser before Flashpoint #1 hits stores today. Comic Book Resources has the highest-resolution copy of the image that I’ve seen, while Comic Vine uses it to jump off with some commentary about the event.
DC has posted a one-page preview (yes, just one page) of this week’s The Flash #12, the final issue of the current series and of “The Road to Flashpoint.” They also confirm that Scott Kolins is the second artist joining Francis Manapul (not that there was much doubt), and released an entirely new Francis Manapul cover for the book. The variant cover is the Francis Portela cover released two weeks ago.
Barry Allen is having a tough time balancing his life. Not only is he faced with his job as a CSI, his family, and being a super hero, but he’s struggling with a past that still haunts him.
In the conclusion of THE FLASH (on sale tomorrow), written by superstar writer Geoff Johns and drawn by the amazing artists Scott Kolins and Francis Manapul, emotions are running high and Barry needs to make a change…fast.
THE ROAD TO FLASHPOINT storyline ends here and then everything you know will change in a Flash.
For those who missed the preview in DC’s Free Comic Book Day offering this weekend, you can catch several pages of the 8-page preview online at USA Today and at Comics Nexus.
The pages at USA Today answer another question that has had speedster fans confused since Saturday: a possible new speedster in the Flash Family panel. Fans had been debating whether she was a horribly mis-colored XS or a new character. The USA Today pages have been corrected, making it clear that yes, she’s meant to be XS.
Good to know, though I have to wonder how getting a character’s skin, hair and costume all wrong made it as far as the printed copy of a high-profile promotional book. (Though I suspect DC put far more effort into the Green Lantern part of the book, because, let’s be honest: a big summer movie trumps a big summer comic book every time.)
[Update: DC Women Kicking Ass has the panel in question, with the printed FCBD and corrected online versions. (via Bleeding Cool)]
Along with the preview, USA Today interviews Geoff Johns, Andy Kubert and others about the event.
Newsarama interviews Sterling Gates on his Flashpoint tie-in miniseries, Kid Flash Lost. As he describes it:
In Kid Flash Lost, Bart also remembers the regular universe. The only difference is that Barry is in the present day of Flashpoint, while Bart is in the future…. So he wakes up in a very, very different future from the one in which he grew up, the one he knew when he was a very small kid…. Bart realizes he needs to get back in time, or else the timestream will sort of correct itself, meaning he will pull a Marty McFly and fade out.
(Key points clipped together from several different paragraphs.)
We’re going to see a lot of things that aren’t covered in the main Flashpoint book, as Bart explores the future and finds out what happened to the Flash family.
What happened to Jay Garrick? What happened to Wally West? And where’s Max Mercury? Bart’s going to dig in and dig through some historical stuff over the course of the three issues, and we’re going to see where a lot of our speedsters are. It’s a Flash story as well as a Kid Flash story.
There’s a lot more in there about the tone, how Hot Pursuit fits in, and Bart Allen’s idea of “Kid Flash Facts.” Read the whole interview!
The Aquaman Shrine posted this image of the full cover for Flashpoint #1, with full logo and credits.
Flashpoint #1 ships next week, along with Flash #12, the “final” issue of the series. (We’ll just have to see see how DC relaunches it afterward.) A preview will also appear in DC’s Green Lantern special for Free Comic Book Day this Saturday.
In related news, USA Today writes about Flashpoint, “Not the DC heroes you know,” interviewing Dan Didio, editor Eddie Berganza, artist Andy Kubert, and comics retailer Brian Hibbs. Kubert talks about redesigning Wonder Woman and Batman, and Didio talks about the way DC is trying to combat event fatigue.
Well, that answers that question. Since Mark Waid was the Flash writer for most of the 1990s, but isn’t writing the 1990s issue of DC RetroActive: The Flash (Waid’s often-overlooked writing partner on the book, Brian Augustyn, is doing it solo), fans have been wondering: Why is he missing? Did he decline to return to the character? Did DC not want him on the book?
Esteban Pedreros of Comic Verso asked the writer on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/#!/epedreros/status/65946693023186945
https://twitter.com/#!/MarkWaid/status/65996137953361920
So now we know: DC didn’t offer Mark Waid the book, but he would have done it if asked.
Waid has been largely absent from the DC Universe since his run on Brave and the Bold and his brief return to The Flash in 2007-2008. In part, that was around the time he became EIC at BOOM! Studios, and was busy with those duties and writing his creator-owned books. But there was some public dispute with DC over the Flash, Countdown and related books, and it may be that the current regime simply doesn’t want him back.
Curiouser and curiouser…