Category Archives: Flash News

Flashpoint #1 Preview (and XS)

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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.

Sterling Gates talks Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost

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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!

Flashpoint #1 Cover

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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.

Why was Mark Waid missing from DC RetroActive: The Flash 1990s?

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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…

Artist for DC Retroactive: Flash 90s – Mike Bowden

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DC has announced the creative team and release date for the final DC RetroActive: The Flash special, this one focusing on the 1990s. Each special features an all-new story reuniting one of the decade’s writers with the character, set in then-current continuity, and one reprinted story.

DC RETROACTIVE: THE FLASH – THE ’90s #1

When Wally West became The Flash in the ’90s*, he morphed from a sidekick into a hero in his own right. The creative team of writer Brian Augustyn and artist Mike Bowden set the Fastest Man Alive in another race against evil.

ONE-SHOT • On sale AUGUST 17 • 56 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T

So, now we know the creative teams for all three specials. I’ll admit I’m a bit disappointed that they only managed to reunite both writer and artist on the 1980s special, though in the case of the 1970s special, I think most of the main artists from that run are either retired or passed away.

Does anyone know who Mike Bowden is? I can’t find any credits in a search on Comics.org. For that matter, I only found one credit for Benito Gallego, the artist doing the 1970s book. I wonder if DC is using these specials to try out new talent when they can’t get a period artist.

On another note: I think this is the first time in over a year that the words “Wally West” have appeared in a solicitation for a comic containing new material.

*It was, of course, the ’80s when Wally West became the Flash. Apparently DC is too busy with Flashpoint to get someone to copy-edit their solicitations.