Category Archives: Flash News

Flash Comics for April 2009 (Updated)

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The big news, of course, it the start of The Flash: Rebirth…but there’s also a big Titans crossover, “Deathtrap.”

Update: Full solicitations are up at Newsarama and elsewhere, and I’ve updated the post.

The Flash: Rebirth #1

Flash: Rebirth #1 (thumbnail)Written by Geoff Johns
Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver

Through the decades, many heroes have taken the mantle of The Flash, but they all ride the lightning that crackles in the wake of the greatest hero the DC Universe has ever known, the man who sacrificed himself to save the Multiverse: Barry Allen!

Following the events of Final Crisis, Barry has beaten death and returned to a fast-paced world that a man out of time wouldn’t recognize. Or is it a world that is only just now catching up? All the running he’s done before was just a warmup for the high-speed race that he and every other Flash must now run, because even though one speedster might have beaten death, another has just turned up dead! From Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, the visionaries responsible for the blockbuster Green Lantern: Rebirth and The Sinestro Corps War, comes the start of an explosive and jaw-dropping epic that will reintroduce to the modern age the hero who single-handedly birthed the Silver Age of comics! DC history will be made, and the Flash legacy will be redefined!

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 April 1 • 1 of 5 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

Team books, guest spots, and so on after the cut. Continue reading →

Flash: Rebirth Confirmed for April 1

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Flash: RebirthTitans Tower has obtained some of DC’s April 2009 solicitations, including the one for the first issue of Flash: Rebirth!

The Flash: Rebirth #1

Written by Geoff Johns
Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver

Through the decades, many heroes have taken the mantle of The Flash, but they all ride the lightning that crackles in the wake of the greatest hero the DC Universe has ever known, the man who sacrificed himself to save the Multiverse: Barry Allen!

Following the events of Final Crisis, Barry has beaten death and returned to a fast-paced world that a man out of time wouldn’t recognize. Or is it a world that is only just now catching up? All the running he’s done before was just a warmup for the high-speed race that he and every other Flash must now run, because even though one speedster might have beaten death, another has just turned up dead! From Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, the visionaries responsible for the blockbuster Green Lantern: Rebirth and The Sinestro Corps War, comes the start of an explosive and jaw-dropping epic that will reintroduce to the modern age the hero who single-handedly birthed the Silver Age of comics! DC history will be made, and the Flash legacy will be redefined!

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 April 1 • 1 of 5 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

Update: More preview solicitations are up at Newsarama, including the other cover for Flash: Rebirth.

Flash: Rebirth Cover

Upcoming Flash Collections: Rogues’ Revenge & Flash of Two Worlds

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Collected Editions has spotted more DC collections for 2009, including two Flash hardcovers.

DC Comics Classic Library: The Flash of Two Worlds (HC)

Writers: Gardner Fox and John Broome Artists: Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella and Sid Greene
Collects: The Flash v.1 #123, 129, 137, 151 and #173 $39.99 US, 144 pages

Flash #123 is, of course, the classic “Flash of Two Worlds.” The other issues feature further cross-dimensional team-ups between Barry Allen and Jay Garrick from the 1960s, as they go up against Golden-Age classics like Vandal Savage and the Shade, and Silver-Age villains like Captain Cold and the Trickster. Wally West co-stars as Kid Flash in the last story in this collection.

Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge HC

Writer: Geoff Johns Artist: Scott Kolins, Doug Hazelwood and Dan Panosian Collects: Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #1-3 and The Flash v.2 #182 and #197 $19.99 US, 144 pages

DC has decided to round out the Rogues’ Revenge miniseries itself with two of the Johns/Kolins Rogue Profiles, featuring the origins of Captain Cold and Zoom.

According to Amazon, both are scheduled for July 7, 2009.

Flash: Rebirth — What We Know So Far

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Flash: RebirthThe current series of The Flash ends with #247, arriving in stores tomorrow.

Flash: Rebirth will be a 6-issue 5-issue miniseries written by Geoff Johns with art by Ethan Van Sciver, and is scheduled to start in April 2009. Ethan Van Sciver is drawing it, and has released one panel of preview art (see below).

Flash: Rebirth is centered on Barry Allen, but will “touch on all the other Flashes”—presumably meaning at least Jay, Wally and Bart.

Geoff Johns wants to “make [the Flash] mythology even bigger” in Flash: Rebirth, much like Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War expanded the Green Lantern mythology. Johns says it “will be very science based, but will also blend in the quasi-science of the Speed Force”

Wally West will be getting a new costume designed by Ethan Van Sciver, and will still be called the Flash.

Update (Jan 19): The solicitation for the first issue is now available, confirming a release date of April 1 and the format: 5 oversized issues, 40 pages each for $3.99 (like Rogues’ Revenge).

Update (Feb 6): DC has released a 5-page preview through New York Comic-Con and Newsarama.

Update (Mar 27): The covers for issue #1 have been revealed.

Flash Rebirth sneak peekA new Flash series will almost certainly launch after Flash: Rebirth finishes. DC hasn’t officially announced when, who will write it, who will draw it, or even which Flash will be the star. Geoff Johns has been very strongly hinted, and it’s almost guaranteed that Barry will headline the book. It seems unlikely that they’d go to all the effort to bring him back, do a high-profile mini-series, and relaunch the book, just to keep someone else as the focus.

I think that covers the major issues. There is, of course, lots of speculation. Here’s a quick link to all posts here about Flash: Rebirth.

Sales Still Trailing Off Through November

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ICV2’s November sales estimates are out, and The Flash is still dropping. (via The Beat). It’s getting downright depressing to post this slide month after month.

02/2008: Flash #237     —  37,719 (-  9.0%)
03/2008: Flash #238     —  35,606 (-  5.6%)
04/2008: Flash #239     —  33,741 (-  5.2%)
05/2008: Flash #240     —  31,944 (-  5.3%)
06/2008: Flash #241     —  30,810 (-  3.6%)
07/2008: Flash #242     —  30,325 (-  1.5%)
08/2008: Flash #243     —  29,647 (-  2.2%)
09/2008: Flash #244     —  29,180 (-  1.6%)
10/2008: Flash #245     —  28,085 (-  3.8%)
11/2008: Flash #246     —  26,746 (-  4.7%)

This month’s sales figure, on it’s own, would still be respectable, not far off from what the series was doing when Geoff Johns picked up the book in 2000. But factor in the steep drop, the fact that 3 years ago it was selling 50,000/month (Flash #225), and the fact that the last two relaunches spiked sales to 120,000 (Flash: TFMA #1) and 79,000 (All-Flash), and it’s clear that something has gone disastrously wrong. The Flash clearly can support a higher audience, but just hasn’t connected. (Of course, being a lame-duck series can’t help.)

Flash:Rebirth is pretty much guaranteed to produce another sales spike. The real question is: can DC hold onto the new readers this time?