Category Archives: Other Speedsters

James Robinson: Jesse Quick in the JLA

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Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers interviews James Robinson about his Justice League of America run and the upcoming crossover with the Justice Society. He talks about the team dynamic and some of the new characters joining the roster, including the team’s new speedster…Jesse Quick, who will be moving over from the JSA to the JLA by the end of the crossover.

Newsarama: Her encounter with her father during Blackest Night explains why she chose this costume and identity now, but why do you think it works for her to join the Justice League?

Robinson: Well, you’ll have to read the story to see how it happens. But what I like about her joining the Justice League is there’s a natural link between the Justice League and the Justice Society because of her marriage to Hourman, which we can play upon. There’s a natural organic link between the two teams now, which is good.

WonderCon Flash Bits: Jesse Quick, EVS & Carmine Infantino, Movie Non-News

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I’m back from San Francisco, catching up on work, email, and reading. I’ll post my WonderCon write-up when I get a chance (tonight, I hope, but definitely by the end of the week [Update: it’s up now]), but for now, here are a few more Flash items from the convention:

Jesse Quick will be joining the Justice League of America after the upcoming JLA/JSA crossover, as announced at the James Robinson Spotlight.

He included the character because he was always such a fan of the character’s father, Johnny Quick. The writer made sure to mention that he has no plans to upset the marriage between Jessie Quick and Hourman. He promised there would be no cheap plot device to break them up.

Robinson also made some thought-provoking remarks about the Flash in the Super-Hero Origins panel, which I’ll write up when I have more time and can look at my notes. Update: Here they are: JR on super-hero origins.

When asked about plans for DC movies beyond Green Lantern, Geoff Johns said, “We’ll talk in San Diego.” A lot of sites are taking this to mean that DC will announce Flash & other movie plans at Comic-Con International in July.

At the Ethan Van Sciver Spotlight, the artist was asked about Carmine Infantino’s classic art in connection with Flash: Rebirth.

The artist said that he loved Infantino’s work, and that besides Batman, the Flash has one of the best set of villains in the DCU, which Van Sciver credits to Infantino. “His characters were so unique and individual, so wonderfully different from each other,” he said, also mentioning that he would love to go back to “revisit the wonderful, angular, ugly faces of Carmine Infantino’s rogues, and restore them.” Van Sciver even said he would talk with new “Flash” artist Francis Manapul about Infantino’s rogues.

And once again, my photos from the con are up on Flickr.

Outrun: the Guardians’ New Speedster

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Image Comics has been running ads for Guardians of the Globe, a spinoff miniseries from Invincible, spoofing the style of Marvel’s “I am an Avenger” ads. They started last week with joke ads showing team members like Spawn, Harry Potter, and Barack Obama, and are revealing the real members of the team this week. Today’s addition: Outrun, a new speedster with a somewhat morbid tagline that has CBR wondering whether she’ll live through the miniseries.

My speed creeps into every aspect of my life. I only hope I can make a difference before I burn out. — Outrun

Actually, she sounds kind of like Barry Allen in the first issue of Flash: Rebirth: driven to do everything she can for fear that her time will run out soon. (What is it with speedsters and death? Is it the metaphor of burning the candle at both ends? Barry’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths? “Live fast, die young?”)

The six-issue miniseries by Robert Kirkman, Benito Cereno and Ransom Getty starts in August.

(Thanks to Vinny Piccolo for the link.)

UPDATE (March 26): Now that the full roster has been revealed — including an Australian who uses exploding boomerangs as weapons (where have I seen that before?) — Newsarama has an interview with Kirkman about the project.

Julie Benz Speeds Into No Ordinary Family

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ABC has announced casting for the Greg Berlanti television pilot, No Ordinary Family, a drama about a family with super powers. Julie Benz (Dexter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel) and Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic Four) play the lead couple. While the announcements don’t say what powers Chiklis’ police artist character has, Benz will be playing a scientist who develops super-speed.

If the name Greg Berlanti sounds familiar, IESB pegged him last week as the leading contender to direct The Flash.

Update: I missed the article when I posted this at lunch, but Rich Johnston reviewed a draft of the script last month. He described the script as “patchy,” but “a much more interesting exploration of possibilities of superfiction than The Cape. And leagues ahead of…Heroes.”

Velocity Returns in May

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Wally West isn’t the only red-headed speedster out there. Velocity, winner of Top Cow’s first Pilot Season, will finally be getting her own series this May.

Well, sort of.

Velocity has been a member of Cyberforce since it launched in the early 1990s, and has had two solo books: a 1995 miniseries by Kurt Busiek and Anthony Chun, and a one-shot in 2007 by Joe Casey and Kevin Maguire. The one-shot was part of Top Cow’s “Pilot Season” event: they released several “first issues” of potential series and asked fans to vote on which one should be picked up. Velocity won, and Top Cow went on to prepare a series. Joe Casey returned, and ChrisCross took over as artist.

That series never actually launched, though. Casey wrote three issues, ChrisCross drew one full issue and several covers, but the book was delayed several times and finally scrapped due to creative differences. With their newly found free time, Joe Casey and ChrisCross went over to DC and did Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance.

Return

Top Cow has announced a new Velocity miniseries starting in May, written by Ron Marz and drawn by Kenneth Rocafort (who did variant covers for the unlaunched series).

Carin Taylor is the fastest woman in the world. At least, she’d better be if she wants to save her own life and the lives of her Cyberforce teammates. When a former Cyberdata scientist — and test subject — seeks revenge against the members of Cyberforce, only Velocity can save her friends before the clock literally runs out.

Ron Marz remarked to UGO:

I’ve been getting to use the supernatural side of the Top Cow Universe as my playground for a while now, so I jumped at the chance to write one of my favorites from the superhero/tech side.

In some ways it does fulfill the promise of Pilot Season, in terms of the character finally getting a book, but it’s an entirely new creative team. And it’s a four-issue limited series, not an ongoing. I guess after two and a half years Top Cow wanted to test the waters again. Kind of a shame, given how rare it is to find and ongoing speedster comic that’s not The Flash (or Sonic the Hedgehog), but it’s probably sensible not to rely too much on the buzz from 2007.

High-Speed Déjà vu: Race Noble & the Flash

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A repost from 2005.

I’ve never really considered Noble Causes’ Race Noble to be a reference to the Flash beyond sharing the speedster archetype—especially since the Nobles owe a lot to the hero family concept pioneered by the Fantastic Four—but a scene from Noble Causes #6 has me ready to change my mind.

The Nobles are both heroes and celebrities. Race, the middle child, shocked his parents—and the world—by marrying an ordinary bookshop owner instead of another super-hero. At this point, Liz has become completely overwhelmed by the life she has chosen, and needed to take some time off. Continue reading →