Category Archives: Flash News

DC Universe at Comic-Con: Big Flash News UPDATED

AARGH! Liveblogging failed. Lots on Twitter. BIG news: Geoff Johns on Flash ongoing after Blackest Night: Flash, Sterling Gates on Kid Flash ongoing.

Update: Now that the day’s tweets have been imported, here’s my full running commentary on the panel.

  • Inkpot award to Bob Wayne
  • SDCC is like “longest Thanksgiving dinner ever” – con staffer
  • Flash:Rebirth – bunch of Flashes behind him on final cover
  • GEOFF JOHNS ON FLASH ONGOING!
  • Some costume changes & a new speedster by end of Flash:Rebirth
  • Sounded like Flash ongoing starts after Blackest Night:Flash. They’re all Geoff Johns-written.
  • Troia, Batman, Hal &…Monel w/ S symbol In JLA.
  • Good Dr. Light vs Black Lantern evil Dr. Light
  • Guessing Batgirl’s ID: Stephanie Brown? DD: “No spoilers here.”
  • DCU panel info is coming fast & furious – hard to keep up
  • Titans’ new leader…let’s just say it’s not Wally as rumored on ComicBloc.
  • GS: WW to renounce Amazons & become more of a super-hero than ever
  • Sterling Gates on Kid Flash series!
  • Rainbow Raider will be a Black Lantern. GJ: “I guess he’ll be the Black & White Raider.”
  • C’mon, random fanboy…wait till you see the new writer’s work before begging Geoff to come back to Teen Titans.
  • Question cosplayer at mike: “I have a question…”
  • DD on renumbering books that have been relaunched: content more important than number on cover, low numbers may bring in more new readers.
  • Geoff Johns: artist lined up for Flash ongoing, can’t talk about it yet. [Edit: GJ adds that he can only say the artist is “awesome.”]
  • Fan requests a Snapper Carr & Jimmy Olsen team-up in Brave & the Bold.

See Also: Comic-Con 2009 Complete Index

DC Nation at Comic-Con


3:06:09 PM: Posing for photo w/ Liberty Belle&Stargirl. Dan Didio walks up: “I hate to do this to the Flash, but I need the ladies.” [Edit: here’s a picture with the same people from earlier in line.]

3:10:21 PM: Huge applause for Geoff Johns

3:11:21 PM: Plush Dex-Starr red kitty of rage [Edit: Dex-Starr was brought by The Nerdy Bird]

3:13:05 PM: Full of rage because of crappy con food! [Edit: DD came out wearing about 10 layers of T-shirts, including all the Lantern Corps, and asked the audience to shout out why they should get the red lantern shirt, the orange lantern shirt (“I want that shirt!” was the winner there), etc.]

3:21:03 PM: Fan: like seeing characters reacting to other chars’ deaths.

3:23:53 PM: DD: What did you like abt LO3W5? Fan: it finally came out.

3:26:47 PM: JR: JLA Cry for Justice will have major implications for JLA & America

3:30:51 PM: Black Lantern Billy Mays asks about Damian, West kids, etc. as new gen of heroes. DD says they’re really trying to work in new chars

3:32:17 PM: Fan: Will there be white lanterns who show up and save the day? Other fan: why does it always have to be black vs white?

3:33:27 PM: Let Hourman ask his question, he’s running out of time!

3:38:21 PM: Dancing Sinestro?!?

3:40:24 PM: The bit about new chars earlier includes, ex. the rainbow lantern corps, the New Krypton chars, etc.

3:42:47 PM: Ambush Bug #6 – “We got so awesome that we ran out of things to make fun of” Ian Sattler. DD real answer: too busy, in the works

3:44:46 PM: Geoff Johns: it’s not a trinity, it’s a pentagram (Supes, Bats, WW, GL, Flash)

3:45:57 PM: DD: Kids’ books have to read as kids’ books, not what adults remember from 60s

3:47:26 PM: GJ: will explore time, nature of Speed Force, all speedsters & what’s beyond in Flash:Rebirth

3:48:48 PM: Ravager asks: w/o Trigon, what’s Raven’s role? DD: will be involved in TEEN Titans

3:49:46 PM: GJ: Blackest Night: Flash will explain Captain Boomerang Jr

3:51:02 PM: GJ: entire story of Flash: Rebirth is in the Flash Museum at the beginning

3:53:44 PM: #BlackestNight 3: who do you want to come back? Ted Kord, Pa Kent, Max Lord…Jesus…Michael Jackson…

3:55:03 PM: And that’s it!

Geoff Johns Spotlight at Comic-Con

2:21:11 PM: Geoff Johns & Scott Kolins are doing Blackest Night: Flash!

2:30:02 PM: “Black Lantern Billy Mays here.”

2:31:53 PM: Barry’s back for good. BN: Flash stars Barry, Wally & lots of dead Rogues. BN takes place after Rebirth

2:32:39 PM: Dex-star vs Krypto!

2:34:27 PM: How Geoff would write Batman: “I’d probably just give him a yellow ring”

2:36:21 PM: Geoff “not leaving Green Lantern anytime soon.”

2:38:53 PM: Fan: Kyle as artist good focus for GL power, so why Hal? GJ: Focus is on overcoming fear

2:39:54 PM: Cruddy twitter connection might inspire arrival of a red ring… grrr…

2:42:04 PM: Geoff on Blackest Night: of COURSE it’s violent! The dead are rising from their graves!

2:43:05 PM: Trade-waiter avoiding Blackest Night spoilers. Geoff: “Wrong panel”

2:48:18 PM: Re: movies, Geoff is concentrating on Flash right now

2:49:46 PM: Geoff on internships: most stress was lunch-got chewed out once by exec for not remembering mango salsa.

3:01:11 PM: Great story abt trashing Richard Donner’s car SPECTACULARLY as an intern! Geoff Johns

3:02:40 PM: Fan asked abt Kid Flash or expander Flash ongoings…Geoff almost answered but Eddie Berganza stopped him. “8-ball is in your favor”

3:07:42 PM: Make Flash appealing to wider audience: everyone’s caught up in speed these days. Build on that.

3:10:55 PM: What’s going on w/ Barry will become clear in Flash:Rebirth #4-5

3:20:18 PM: Fan won $40 on a bet b/c Geoff couldn’t answer a spoilery question

3:21:17 PM: Oh, NOW the phone has a good signal, after I walk out of the room

3:22:06 PM: Oh, yeah, origin of Dex-star has been planned.

Flash Comics for October 2009

Well, there’s no Flash book for October (or is there?), but the crimson comet does co-star in this month’s The Brave and the Bold…plus there’s Blackest Night, a Halloween special, and the usual assortment of team books. Here are the Flash’s upcoming appearances according to Newsarama.

The Brave and the Bold #28

Brave and the Bold #28Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art and cover by Jesus Saiz

J. Michael Straczynski (Amazing Spider-Man) and Jesus Saiz (OMAC PROJECT) continue their series of unlikely pairings with a match that spans the decades! When an experiment meant to alter the speed of light goes awry, Barry Allen finds himself face-to-face with some surprising allies – World War II’s legendary Blackhawks! But Barry isn’t the Flash they know, and he’s not even the kind of hero they need to help fight history’s most grueling war! What must Barry sacrifice to serve his country – and his world?

On sale October 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Team books and events after the cut. Continue reading →

No Flash Comic in October?

DC’s full solicitations for October are up at Newsarama and elsewhere, and there’s no sign of a Flash book the month after Flash: Rebirth is scheduled to wrap. And the Flash: Blackest Night miniseries won’t start until November, after the first round of tie-in miniseries are finished. Will readers see a month without a Flash book?

I suspect not, and here’s why:

  • With Comic-Con International just two days away, DC may be keeping the news of the Flash relaunch in reserve for a big announcement at the convention.
  • With Flash: Rebirth #4 running 3 weeks behind, and #6 scheduled for the last week of September, it’s likely that issues #5 and #6 will be pushed back, with the miniseries wrapping in October instead.

Brave and the Bold #28Of course, the Flash won’t be completely missing in any case: the Scarlet Speedster is co-starring in Brave and the Bold, and there are the various team books and Blackest Night. I’ll post a full run-down later tonight.

flash-vs-roguesAlso worth checking out: DC has announced the contents of the upcoming November trade paperback collection, The Flash vs. the Rogues: they’re all stories from the early Silver Age, many of them first appearances: Showcase #8, The Flash #105, 106, 110, 113, 117, 122, 140 & 155. Oddly, the cover they’re using with the solicitations is from a 2007 issue of the short-lived Flash: The Fastest Man Alive.

Bigger than Flash: Rebirth

Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers interviews Ethan Van Sciver about Blackest Night and Flash: Rebirth. I found one segment particularly interesting:

Flash is the same way [as Green Lantern]. Throughout 60-70-some years of DCU history, there have been lots of little pieces and hints and clues about what the speedsters are or where they come from or what they mean. A plucky couple of creators could get together and put those clues together to mean something much bigger. And that’s what we’re attempting to do.

So Flash: Rebirth is what Green Lantern: Rebirth was in the sense that we’re trying to get all of our ducks in a row here and prepare for the much, much bigger story that will come from it. And that’s got to include every single Flash character.

I find this interesting for a couple of reasons.

The first is that linking all the speedsters together and examining what’s behind their existence is exactly what Mark Waid did with the speed force back in Terminal Velocity and Dead Heat. So in a sense, what he’s talking about has already been done.

The second is that there definitely are further implications to the power of speed, particularly when time travel is added to the mix. There’s that “Green Lantern is to Space as the Flash is to Time” analogy that Geoff Johns made a while back. There’s the nature of Zoom’s powers as a shifting timeline that mimics super-speed — a theory which had been tossed around by fans as an explanation for the Flash’s own powers. And then there’s the suggestion in the novel Flash: Stop Motion that super-speed is simply one aspect of a power based on quantum mechanics.

And of course the implication that they have a big story planned for the future that involves the entire Flash family.

Also, regarding the upcoming Flash: Rebirth #4:

Major heroics and fireworks on the part of Jay Garrick and Bart Allen, who have never been made to look this kick-ass before. They’re going to really get their moment to shine in Issue #4. It’s fantastic stuff. It’s a big action issue. It’s good. It’s scary.