Category Archives: Flash News

Flash: Rebirth Sneak Peek

Flash Rebirth sneak peekFlash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver’s latest Your Time is Now Mine column features, as promised last week, a sneak peek at the miniseries’ artwork.

Hmm, looks like Barry Allen visiting the Flash Museum in his secret identity.

Click through for a larger image and lots of random commentary.

Flash: Rebirth #1 of 6 ships in April 2009.

Speed Reading: Movie, Geoff Johns and DCUO

Geoff Johns talks to MTV about DC Universe Online, saying that the massively-multiplayer game is likely to ship in early 2010 or late 2009. He also says he’d love to tackle a Flash or Superman movie.

And speaking of movies, Variety reports that the film industry is starting to take super-heroes seriously, and looks into which characters are likely candidates for the big screen.

Michael Doran, co-founder and senior editor of the comicbook news site Newsarama, sees the most movie potential for DC Comics’ the Flash.

“Superspeed just is so elemental,” he says. “The character, especially the Wally West version — the fast-talking, quick-witted type — his personality almost matches his superpowers.”

Back to the fan perspective, Comix 411 has a wishlist for the Flash movie, and Siskoid looks at “The Human Race”.

Marching Toward the Kingdom

One of the themes in “Thy Kingdom Come,” the storyline that’s been running through Justice Society of America this year, has been exploring the link between the present-day DC Universe with the future shown in the groundbreaking 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come. This week’s Justice Society of America #21 looks into the mystery of the Kingdom Come version of the Flash. Continue reading →

DiDio: Sidekick Value

In this week’s 20 Questions w/ Dan Didio, DC’s Executive Editor is asked about the status of Bart Allen (Impulse/Kid Flash/Flash) and Conner Kent (Superboy). His answer:

I think there’s always value in a Kid Flash and a Superboy.

A classic sidestep. But then they may both be back very soon.

As far as Conner goes, there’s speculation that he is the Kryptonian Nightwing who just appeared in “New Krypton” (bolstered by DiDio’s remark earlier in the column that he “is a character that we’ve known in the DCU for a little while, but he’s new to the Nightwing costume as well.”)

And Bart? There’s still the question of the Lightning Rod from the Justice League/Justice Society of America crossover, “The Lightning Saga.” It was supposed to resurrect someone, and All-Flash #1 showed that it activated at virtually the exact moment of his death. We’re supposed to find out who was resurrected in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3…two months from now. (It was originally supposed to be out in October, but it’s been pushed back to January 14, 2009. I wouldn’t count on it making that date.)

Flash Down, Rogues Up in October

Comics sales continued to drop in October, and The Flash was no exception.

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%)

The combined effects of the recession, poor reaction to the current run on the book, and a feeling that everything from now until April is just filler* — Flash: Rebirth was announced just days after this issue was solicited in July, so this is likely the first issue for which sales responded to the announcement — have combined to produce the largest drop in several months.

Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, on the other hand, actually saw a slight increase in sales over the previous issue after the standard second-issue drop.

07/2008: Rogues Revenge #1     —  62,482
08/2008: Rogues Revenge #2     —  54,404 (- 12.9%)
10/2008: Rogues Revenge #3     —  55,056 (+  1.2%)

Given Geoff Johns’ presence on both mini-series, this looks promising for Flash: Rebirth.(link via The Beat)

*You know what else was “just filler” prior to a relaunch? Alan Moore & Curt Swan’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Now considered a classic Superman story. I’m not saying the current storyline compares, I’m just pointing out that “filler” isn’t always mediocre, and the current trend among fans to follow only “important” books can cause us to miss out on good stories.