Category Archives: General

Wednesday Comics: The Giant Coffee Table Book

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All right! DC has announced that they’ll be collecting Wednesday Comics as an oversized hardcover book at 11×17″!

It’s not the full size, which would be ideal, but I do think an oversized hardcover is the best way to collect it. Shrinking the art to standard size would diminish the experience of reading it, and trying to do something this size as a paperback is unwieldy at best, judging by Comic Book Tattoo. There’s a reason I bought the hardcover of that book, and it wasn’t so that I could carry extra weight around the convention floor. (It wasn’t to weaponize a comic book, either, but I’m sure I could knock someone out if I hit them over the head with it.)

Amazingly enough, they plan to sell it for $49.99, the same price as the archive books that clock in at the same page count but smaller page size. Back when I tried to figure out how Wednesday Comics could be collected, I figured a coffee table book from DC would end up costing a lot more.

I do have to wonder how they’re going to manage the paperback edition, but with this option available for this price (and you know it’ll be discounted in places like Amazon)…does it really matter?

Note: I managed to delete the original post when I intended to edit it, losing the comments made earlier this evening. Sorry about that!

How Many Speedsters?

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With the promos suggesting that Flash: Rebirth will see speedsters killed at an alarming rate, the question naturally arises: How many speedsters are there to kill?

Assuming we’re looking only at modern-day characters in the mainstream DC Universe, and not bringing in anyone from the future or alternate realities, we have…

Major Players:

  • Flash: Jay Garrick – the original. And the only major Flash who has not already “died” at some point.
  • Flash: Barry Allen – not likely to die, given that DC is building a major relaunch around him.
  • Flash: Wally West – depends on whether you believe DC about how he’ll have a major part in the DC Universe over the next year.
  • Kid Flash: Bart Allen – They just brought him back. It would be silly to kill him off again this soon. Not that I’d put it past DC…
  • Liberty Belle/Jesse Quick (Jesse Chambers) – she’s focusing on the Liberty Belle legacy these days, plus it would be bad form to kill off the only major female speedster. Again, not that I’d put it past DC…
  • Max Mercury – Rival’s spirit has taken possession of his body, so he’s not dead…though his spirit seems to be hanging around the Speed Force last we looked.

Likely Possibilities for Dead Speedsters:

  • The Rival – last seen in possession of Max’s body
  • Savitar – technically already dead, but only in the sense that Barry was.
  • Blue Trinity – Christina is alive as of Salvation Run, and the other two members are unaccounted for.
  • Flash: John Fox – technically a future Flash, he’s visited the present day enough that he would make an impression on long-term readers.
  • Kapitalist Kouriers – Cassiopeia’s death kicked off Dead Heat. Presumably the other two members are still around.
  • Zoom II – just depowered in Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge
  • Mas y Menos – appeared in the DCU during 52 and haven’t been used much
  • Captain Boomerang, Jr. – can manage limited super-speed
  • Baroness Blitzkrieg – villain introduced in the Geoff Johns-penned Justice Society of America

Long Shots:

  • Speed Demon – hasn’t had his powers in years, and likes it that way
  • Professor Zoom – dead, but with Barry returning and Zoom II being de-powered, it wouldn’t surprise me to see another dead character return to life – though killing him again right away seems unlikely.
  • Blitzen (Shadow Cabinet) – with the Milestone characters being incorporated into the DCU, she’s presumably on the table…but it wouldn’t make sense to kill someone off immediately after getting the rights to the character.
  • Blur – genetically engineered Martian/human hybrid, seen briefly in the Son of Vulcan miniseries
  • Jay Garrick clone – created by the Brotherhood of Evil in Outsiders; probably degenerated by now
  • Edit: Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash of the Super Young Team – introduced in Final Crisis, not only is he a new character, but his team will be appearing in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance at the same time as Flash: Rebirth.
  • Anyone from Doralla Kon’s dimension, which runs at a different speed than Earth’s universe.  She hasn’t appeared since 1965, but odd ideas from the Silver Age have been cropping up quite a bit in DC comics lately.

Wow…there are more speedsters in the DCU than I thought.

New Flash Forums and Podcasts Sighted (Updated)

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Two quick items:

A new podcast, Flash-back, plans to review The Flash on a monthly basis. So far they’ve posted an introduction to their podcast and an overview of Flash history. (thanks to Heatwave the Rogue on Comic Bloc)

The forum Speedster Site also launched a few days ago, and is focused exclusively on the Flash (thanks to younglionsimba)

Update: In the Comic Bloc thread on “Flash-back,” Chris Hansbrough pointed to another podcast, Tom vs. the Flash, a series of 5–10-minute reviews of classic Silver Age Flash episodes.

Looking Ahead: The Flash in 2009

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While The Flash is currently on hiatus, it’s clear that DC is making a major push this year to promote the Scarlet Speedster.

Flash: Rebirth

Flash: RebirthThe centerpiece of this push is Flash: Rebirth, a six-issue miniseries by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. In addition to re-integrating Barry Allen into the modern DC Universe, it’s described as an attempt to revitalize the Flash franchise and expand the Flash mythos. More info: what we know so far about Flash: Rebirth.

It’s a given that a new Flash ongoing will launch after Rebirth finishes, almost certainly starring Barry Allen. While Geoff Johns has been strongly hinted as the new writer, there have been no hints as to who might draw it, and DC has not confirmed a creative team or even a start date.

Of course, with Barry Allen taking over the main series, what happens to Wally West? All we know is that he’s getting a new costume.

Collections

2009 is going to be a huge year for collected Flash books.

First up is Emergency Stop in January, collecting the first half of the Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run on the book from the late 1990s. (They filled in for a year while Mark Waid went off to do JLA: Year One.) The second half of their run comes out in June as The Human Race. This includes the introduction of the Black Flash, who figured prominently in the last few issues of Bart Allen’s series.

Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga, the story which brought Wally West and his family back from limbo, also gets a trade paperback this month.

March brings The Flash Archives Volume 5, picking up 1962–1963 (see also: write-up of the contents).

In May, the first Impulse collection in a decade will be released in the form of The Flash Presents: Mercury Falling (more info).

June, concludes the Morrison/Millar run with The Human Race.

July sees the release of two Flash hardcovers: DC Comics Classic Library: The Flash of Two Worlds collects the first few team-ups of Jay Garrick and Barry Allen during the Silver Age. Then Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge collects last year’s miniseries. [Edit: fixed date for Flash of Two Worlds.]

Seven collections — and that’s just half the year!

Around the DC Universe

All indications are that Jay Garrick will continue to appear in Justice Society of America, and that Wally West will stick around in Titans.

Justice League of America is another question. It looks like Wally will be there at least until the series catches up with the events of Final Crisis. What happens afterward, and when Barry Allen becomes DC’s primary Flash, remains to be seen. The two most popular theories:

  • Barry replaces Wally in Justice League of America, bringing us back to the Silver-Age status quo of Barry in the JLA and Wally in the Titans.
  • Barry joins the new team in James Robinson’s soon-to-launch Justice League, alongside Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen, and Ray Palmer — the heroes he knows best — and Wally keeps his spot in JLA, ensuring that each team has a Flash.

The Flash will probably continue to appear in Super Friends, and Kid Flash in Tiny Titans.

No one seems to know what’s in store for Bart Allen. Despite strong hints of his return in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, delays have prevented us from actually seeing it. We know he’s one of very few dead characters who have been ruled out as potential Black Lanterns in 2009’s big event, Green Lantern: Blackest Night.

Other Media

Animation: With Batman: The Brave and the Bold featuring regular team-ups with other DCU heroes, there’s a good chance of seeing the Flash on the small screen again this year. Articles about the soon-to-be-released Wonder Woman animated feature have indicated that an animated Flash movie is in the works. (Though at two a year, we aren’t likely to see one until at least 2010.)

Live Action: The long-planned Flash feature film seems to be stalled at the moment, but if this year’s big Flash push succeeds, its fortunes may turn around again.

Video Games: The Flash appears in Sony’s DC Universe Online MMORPG. A firm date hasn’t been set for release, but the earliest quoted is late 2009.

Looking Back: The Flash in 2008

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2008 was a busy, if tumultuous year for the Flash.

The Main Series

As 2008 opened, the Flash was just wrapping up the six-part story “The Wild Wests,” the relaunch featuring Wally West as head of the Flash family and introducing his super-powered twins, Iris and Jai. To put it mildly, it was not received well by fans, and former fan favorite writer Mark Waid quickly left the book.

Flash #243After a one-shot by Keith Champagne, Tom Peyer picked up the regular writing chores and Freddie Williams II stayed on for the 6-part “Fast Money,” which resolved the twins’ super-speed aging problem and gave us a glimpse of an adult Iris West II.

The series wrapped up with the year, as Alan Burnett, Paco Diaz, and Carlo Barberi brought us “This Was Your Life, Wally West.” The four-part story arc looked back at Wally West’s career as Kid Flash, then the Flash, and his relationship with his wife Linda and their children.

Rogues’ Revenge

Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #1The Rogues’ Gallery were off-limits to start with, as they were off-planet for Salvation Run. Early in the year, DC released the news of Flash: Rogues’ Revenge, a miniseries that would spotlight them after they returned to Earth, going after Inertia for tricking them into killing the Flash. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins would return to the speedster mythos for six issues.

By the time the series was launched, it had become Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, and instead of six regular-sized issues it was three oversized issues.

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