Category Archives: Flash News

Flash: Rebirth #6 Solicited!

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Newsarama has a preview of DC’s September solicitations, including the conclusion to The Flash: Rebirth!

The Flash: Rebirth #6

Flash: Rebirth #6Written by Geoff Johns
Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver

In a battle along the outskirts of time, the secrets of the Speed Force have been revealed! The new archnemesis of those who ride the lightning is coming for Iris Allen. And the Barry Allen you knew is gone forever…or is he? What change does Wally West face? What destiny will Kid Flash choose? Prepare to meet a Flash Family that’s both familiar and different…and get to the starting line for the next epic adventures of the Speed Force!

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

On sale September 30 • 6 of 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Wow… my website (Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning) has an arch-nemesis now! 😉

Also: It seems pretty clear who’s going to be wearing the costume at the end of this miniseries. Not that it was ever really in doubt.

I do have to wonder what they mean by the “new” arch-nemesis. The cover for #5 gives me the sense that they’re combining the Black Flash and Professor Zoom (though that may have been misdirection on the pre-release cover to prevent spoilers). Someone on Comic Bloc (I’m too sleepy to look it up now) suggested that we may be seeing Malcolm Thawne take over the role of Professor Zoom.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if they’re combining all the opposite numbers into one? Eobard Thawne, Malcolm Thawne, Hunter Zolomon and the Black Flash, all in one entity?

Update: Geoff Johns confirms on Comic Bloc that this is not the final cover.

EVS on the Future of the Flash

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Speedster Site has a round-up of hints from Ethan Van Sciver about the near future of the Flash franchise. In particular:

  • EVS will not do the art for the Blackest Night: Flash miniseries.
  • The Flash outfit seen on an upcoming cover for The Last Days of Animal Man is not related to EVS’ redesign of Wally’s costume.
  • A Flash monthly announcement is coming soon!

No earth-shattering surprises, but it’s always good to have confirmation. I figured DC wouldn’t have an Animal Man mini upstage the unveiling of Wally’s new Flash costume. He also drops hints about his own plans post-Flash: Rebirth

I’m looking forward to the announcement on the Flash monthly series. It’s a safe bet that Geoff Johns will be writing it, but we still don’t know whether it’s starting immediately after Flash: Rebirth or waiting until after Blackest Night finishes. And we don’t know who’ll take on the art. Though Ethan Van Sciver did mention in his interview with Word Balloon a while back that he was making an effort to learn to be a monthly artist, and one of the key conditions for getting that sixth issue of Flash: Rebirth was that he make his deadlines — which he apparently did — so it’s certainly possible the monthly could launch with the classic Johns/Van Sciver team.

How Long is Flash: Rebirth, Anyway?

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Ever since Flash: Rebirth was announced last summer, there’s been confusion as to how long he miniseries was going to be. Some sources said six issues, others said five. Finally DC solicited the first issue as #1 of 5, and it seemed settled…

…until DC announced it was being extended to six issues.

Ethan Van Sciver explains what happened after a fan asks what changed to make the story longer:

It’s not that simple. DC offered us 5 issues, but we were always planning for 6. Geoff had it mapped out for 6. DC basically told us to knock their socks off and for me to meet my deadlines, and they’d give us the 6th issue. So we did, and they did!

But even if we hadn’t, we’d have picketed for that 6th issue. We needed the space, were expecting it, and it really should be the same length as GL: REBIRTH.

That explains a lot — not only the extension, but the confusion early on as to whether it was going to be 5 or 6 to begin with.

(via SpeedsterSite)

Wally’s New Costume Unveiling Announced

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Yesterday, Ethan Van Sciver answered a question at Comic Bloc about when we’d finally see Wally West’s new costume — the one that should make it easier to tell the difference between Wally West and Barry Allen at a glance. The new costume will debut in Flash: Rebirth #6.

Yeah, in the grand scheme of things it’s a trivial matter, but Wally’s fans do care about the issue. It’ll be nice not to feel like our favorite Flash is getting thrown under the metaphorical bus to make way for the “real” Flash.

Update November 18: Wally’s costume has in fact been revealed in Flash: Rebirth #5. If you want to see it, head over to get spoiled!.

Flash: Rebirth #3 Preview

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Flash: Rebirth #3DC has posted a 5-page preview of Flash: Rebirth #3 over at The Source!

I still think the “Who’s faster, Superman or the Flash?” hook is kind of silly, given that it’s been answered over and over again, but the scope of the story seems to have expanded, with appearances by Liberty Belle, the JSA and the JLA.

Flash: Rebirth #3 arrives in stores next week, on June 10.

Barry Allen: Metatemporal Detective

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Another interview with Geoff Johns, this time at Scripps News.

The stuff I really want to focus on is with Barry Allen as a crime-solver. But his crimes are on the crazy ’60s-physics level. A murder could span across dimensions or ancient cities or crazy places that are real cities. Or he could find a body where the crime is unsolvable through normal means, and kinda taking that “CSI” approach but putting it on a greater scale of wonder and scope and the DC Universe itself….He solves crimes that are unbelievably bizarre and unexplainable. And they take him to different places and strange foes and bizarre criminals.

The interviewer compares it to CSI: 52.

This sounds like the kind of book I’d be interested in even without the Flash. And when Geoff Johns eventually leaves, Grant Morrison would be the perfect choice to follow him — I like the way he wrote Barry in Final Crisis, and he showed in his 9-issue run back in the 1990s (reprinted in The Flash: Emergency Stop and next month’s Flash: The Human Race) that he can write crazy sci-fi adventure starring the Flash.

Read the rest of the interview.

(Title shamelessly taken from Michael Moorcock’s short story collection, The Metatemporal Detective.)