Category Archives: Other Speedsters

THUNDER Agents Strike in November

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Last year at Comic-Con, DC announced that they had acquired the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a covert team of international super-heroes operating under the authority of the United Nations. The characters were originally published in the late 1960s by Tower Comics, and have been revived several times over the last few decades.

Among the classic members of the team is Lightning: former Special Forces agent Guy Gilbert wears a suit that gives him super-speed…but every time he uses that speed, it ages him.

Today at The Source, DC announced that the new series will launch in November, featuring lead stories by writer Nick Spencer and artist CAFU and backup stories by a team still to be announced. The series will focus on a new team of recruits. Editor will Moss describes it this way:

The new series casts the team as a covert special ops force dealing with global threats the rest of the DCU don’t even know exist — all the while struggling with their own choices to become agents and the tortured pasts they’re running from. With character-first storytelling and threats exploding from real-world headlines, this relaunch of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS will offer something new, different, and daring for both today’s broader comics audience and fans of the original team.

San Diego Velocity Variant

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Velocity SDCC Variant CoverTop Cow has released its list of Comic-Con Exclusives, including a variant edition of Velocity #1.

I’m not sure, but I think this might be the first cover for the series that features her new costume (which I have to assume is glued on). The standard covers for #1 and #2 were originally going to be pin-up variants for the series that was scrapped, and had her previous costume. The ChrisCross variant was originally going to be a standard cover for that series, and featured a new costume that ChrisCross designed.

I like the detail of her holding up the Comic-Con badge, but…sometimes I wonder whether there are two Kenneth Rocaforts: the one who draws the incredible interior art, and the one who draws the covers that belong on something like Maxim. Yeah, I know it’s Top Cow, but I always feel like I need to explain that no, really, I read it for the articles.

As for the issue itself, I thought it was quite good.

Review: Velocity #1 – “Decoys”

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The first issue of Ron Marz and Kenneth Rocafort’s Velocity miniseries delivers an effective blend of action and exposition. Appropriately for a book about a speedster, it hits the ground running, and while the main conflict doesn’t really begin until the end of the issue, there’s plenty going on in the opening chapter.

The setup for “Decoys” is simple: A mad scientist infects Velocity and her teammates with a virus that will kill them within an hour, and she’s the only one who might be able to stop it.

Wait, Who?

A bit of background for those not familiar with Top Cow’s resident speedster: Carin Taylor is a member of Cyberforce, a team made up of former (unwilling) test subjects of Cyberdata. Cybernetic implants give her super-speed, and a layer of Kevlar under her skin gives her some degree of invulnerability.

The comic is actually quite new-reader friendly. You get a good sense of Velocity’s personality (snarky, tends to get ahead of herself), powers (runs fast, jumps fast, dismantles killer cyborgs fast…but vibrating through walls and into other dimensions is right out), and the basics of her origin. The villain’s motives are established clearly. There’s even a page in the back with short profiles of Velocity and her teammates.

Continue reading →

Flash #3 and Velocity #1 Ship June 30

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What is it with speedsters and delays?

Top Cow has sent out a press release announcing the June 30 launch of Velocity #1. On a whim, I re-checked DC’s website, and found that Flash #3, previously scheduled for June 23, had been quietly rescheduled for the same day.

The delays on the second half of Flash: Rebirth are the stuff of legend. I know I’m not the only one who hoped that the new series might be able to stay on top of the schedule a bit better, and the first two issues did arrive right on time, but this is the second delay for issue #3. On the plus side, DC hasn’t rescheduled issues #4 and #5…at least not yet.

More on Velocity

Velocity has had a long, slow road to release, so a couple of extra weeks won’t make much difference. The short version: The 2007 Pilot Season issue won the fan vote for which comic should get picked up for an ongoing series, but delays and creative differences eventually scuttled the book.

The book is finally seeing print as a 4-issue miniseries by Ron Marz and Kenneth Rocafort. Carin Taylor, the fastest woman alive in the Top Cow universe, must beat the clock to save her own life and the lives of her Cyberforce teammates from a deadly techno-virus.

Quick News: Velocity, DC History, Green Lantern, World’s Fastest Man

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A few brief news items:

Top Cow’s delayed Velocity #1 is shipping June 16. I’ve been looking forward to this since reading the Pilot Season book, though of course this is an entirely new creative team. On the plus side, it’s a miniseries, so there’s not a huge commitment to picking it up.

Cartoon Network will be producing a Green Lantern animated series. Green Lantern: First Flight was pretty good, but of course there’s no guarantee that any of the same people will be working on this.

DC will be teaming up with TASCHEN Books to produce 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking. Basically it’s a history of DC Comics. How soon can I pre-order this?

Hypergeek notes that the UK graphic novel Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man? has been nominated for the 2009 Eagle Awards. From his review, it looks like it’s not about a speester so much as it’s about a man who can stop time, and reluctantly becomes a hero. I’m going to have to look for this one as well. [Edit: I should note that I stopped reading the review once I decided the book looked interesting, just in case there were spoilers.]

ABC Picks Up No Ordinary Family

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Remember No Ordinary Family, the TV pilot featuring a super-powered family headed by brick Michael Chiklis and speedster Julie Benz? Deadline Hollywood reports that ABC has picked up the Greg Berlanti-produced show. Marc Guggenheim (Flash: The Fastest Man Alive – Full Throttle) executive-produced the pilot and will remain “in consulting capacity.”

So even if Heroes doesn’t come back, there will still be at least one live-action speedster on the air this fall.

Update: The Hollywood Reporter has more, including the official description of the show (via @SpeedsterSite):

The Powells are about to go from ordinary to extraordinary. After 16 years of marriage, Jim and Stephanie’s relationship lacked the spark it once had, and their family life now consists of balancing work and their two children; leaving little time for family bonding. During a family vacation set up by Jim in an attempt to reconnect, their plane crashes into the Amazon River. But this is where the fun starts for the Powells as they soon discover that something’s not quite right. Each of them now possesses unique and distinct super powers. But saving and savoring their family life will be equally important as they try to find purpose for their new power and embark on a journey to find out what defines and unifies them. The Powells are a totally relatable family that happens to be a little bit amazing.