Category Archives: Out This Week

This Week: Flash Omnibus vol.3, Digital Flash(back) #50-53 and More

This week sees the release of The Flash Omnibus by Geoff Johns vol.3, wrapping up the initial Geoff Johns run on the Wally West Flash series.

A third massive FLASH HC from superstar writer GEOFF JOHNS! • THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE clashes with his Rogues Gallery, including CAPTAIN COLD, THE PIED PIPER, TRICKSTER and MIRROR MASTER! • Collects THE FLASH #201-225 and WONDER WOMAN #214!

Written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka
Art by Howard Porter, Alberto Dose, Various
Cover by Michael Turner

Order on Amazon (40% discount)

I still think we’ll see a fourth volume featuring Johns’ work on Barry Allen sometime. 6 issues of Flash: Rebirth, 3 of Blackest Night: The Flash, 12 of The Flash vol.3 and 5 of Flashpoint, plus the half-issue story from The Flash Secret Files 2010 add up to around 600 pages, close to the size of this volume.

In digital backissues, we get five issues of Flash and two of Impulse.

Flash v2 #50 featuring Flash's new belt.Flash #50 features the conclusion of the Vandal Savage storyline interrupted a few weeks back by the republishing of “Dead Heat”…and the debut of Wally West’s redesigned costume. Flash #51-53 are a series of done-in-one stories. The Flash battles a former Soviet hero cut adrift by the collapse of the USSR, then works off his debts to the IRS as a tax collector, sent after a man who summoned a team of demons to cheat at his taxes. (Hey, the Joker once sold his soul for a box of cigars.) Flash #53 is notable less for the Superman team-up than for Pied Piper coming out of the closet.

Jumping ahead to Flash #80 fills in the missing chapter of “Back on Track,” the remaining parts of which went online during the Nightwing 101 sale last month. Magenta threatens Keystone City, and only Wally West can stop her — but not as the Flash.

Impulse #13: What Price Fame?Impulse #13 tells the story of one of Bart Allen’s friends who becomes a daredevil in order to be popular. Impulse save him time and again, but that only feeds the cycle. Impulse #14 is the first part of a two-parter starring the Trickster and White Lightning, both of whom are trying to steal the same precious artifact, with Bart’s best friend Carol gets caught in the middle.

Flash (1987-2009) on ComiXology
Impulse on ComiXology

This Week: Flash Annual #1 and Digital Dead Heat

Flash Annual #1 Cover

  • The Rogues – victorious? If THE FLASH had trouble with them individually, together they’ll kill him!
  • Something worse than The Rogues is just waiting for the right moment to attack….

Written by Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Art by Francis Manapul & Marcus To

DC has a spotlight article and a preview of the issue.

Flash #111As far as back issues go, ComiXology is releasing Flash #110-111 and Impulse #12. This concludes the “Dead Heat” crossover started last week. The Flash and his allies have tracked Savitar to his lair, but can one Flash and a team of powerless speedsters stand against an army of super-speed ninjas? And how can Wally West defeat someone who has dedicated his life to studying the speed force?

In the aftermath, time-lost Legionnaire Jenni Ognats (XS) joins her cousin Bart Allen trying to fit in as a 20th-century teenager.

Flash (1987-2009) on ComiXology
Impulse on ComiXology

This Week: Flash #12, Digital Dead Heat

This week it’s The Flash #12. The regular art team returns as all the individual stories of the Rogues come together, leading into next week’s Flash Annual #1.

  • Setting up The Rogues as a team as the next major storyline for the series begins!
  • Glider takes center stage!

Written by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato
Art by Francis Manapul

In the digital realm, ComiXology is releasing four issues of “Dead Heat”, the Flash/Impulse crossover from 1995. Flash #108-109 (Mark Waid and Oscar Jimenez) and Impulse #10-11 (Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos) cover chapters 1-3 and 5 of the 6-part story, and I’m sure we’ll see chapters 4 and 6 next week. With any luck, they’ll jump back and release Flash #50 soon as well, since they left of with one heck of a cliffhanger in Flash #49 last week.

Savitar, an old enemy of Max Mercury’s, has returned. Obsessed with speed, he has found a way to divert all of the Speed Force’s energy to himself and his followers. But there’s one speedster still in the running, someone who recently connected himself more closely to the speed force than even Savitar: Wally West. Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick, Jesse Quick, Max Mercury, Impulse and XS team up to stop Savitar, but more than one speedster won’t make it out alive!

Flash (1987-2009) on ComiXology
Impulse on ComiXology

Nightwing 101 Sale Includes Digitial Flash Back-Issues

The Flash Plus Nightwing

ComiXology is holding a Nightwing 101 sale this weekend, with 101 comics featuring Nightwing for 99¢ each. In addition to issues of Nightwing, Robin Year One, and Robin’s first appearance in Detective Comics #38, there’s also a “Friends and Allies” section with team-ups and a significant New Teen Titans arc. There’s some solid Flash content from the Wally West series in here:

  • Flash #81-83: “Back on Track” guest-starring Nightwing, Starfire and Magenta. (More accurately it’s parts 2-4 of the story, I guess because IIRC Nightwing and Starfire only show up on the last page of part 1.)
  • Flash #210-211 guest-starring Nightwing
  • The Flash Plus Nightwing – Wally and Dick go on a road trip vacation and end up mixed up in an extradimensional invasion.
  • The New Teen Titans #39 – in which Dick Grayson and Wally West retire as Robin and Kid Flash.

This Week: DC Universe Presents Kid Flash (with Preview), Plus Digital Flash & Impulse Back-issues

The New 52’s Kid Flash gets the spotlight in this week’s DC Universe Presents #12. CBR has a preview of the issue

KID FLASH stars in his first solo adventure, racing against time as he deals with the prehistoric trouble the TEEN TITANS brought back from MYSTERY ISLAND!

Written by Fabian Nicieza
Art by Jorge Jimenez
Cover by Ryan Sook

Meanwhile, ComiXology’s digital back-issue releases continue with Flash #49 (1990) and Impulse #9.

Flash #49: RIPFlash #49 is the second part of a three-parter leading up to the big Flash #50. Vandal Savage is dying, and he’s going to take the worldwide drug trade with him…no matter the collateral damage. But before he goes, he issues a very special challenge to the Flash: Wally West vs. a bullet…without his speed.

Needless to say, this cover made my gallery of Dead Flash Covers.

» Flash vol.3 on ComiXology

Impulse #9: XS guest stars when Speed Runs in the Family!Impulse #9 is a prelude to the Dead Heat crossover with The Flash. Bart Allen gets a surprise visit from a strange girl who turns out to be his cousin Jenni Ognats (A.K.A. XS) from the future. She’s been stranded in the past on a mission for the Legion of Super-Heroes. Can Bart help her get home? Can she blend in at a 20th-century middle school? And can either of them find the missing Max Mercury?

XS’ trip to our era takes her into “Dead Heat,” then one more issue each of Impulse and Flash, then Legionnaires Annual #3, in which she briefly meets her grandfather Barry Allen while jumping through time trying to make her way home.

» Impulse on ComiXology

I’m beginning to wonder about the Flash/Impulse schedule at ComiXology. After months of three Flash issues a week, they’ve slowed to one and added Impulse. Going sequentially, the next Flash will be an anniversary issue, and the next Impulse is part of a crossover with The Flash. Meanwhile, we’ve got the current Flash #12 coming out next week and The Flash Annual #1 the week after. Meanwhile on the print side, August sees three Flash reprint volumes: Flash Archives vol.6, Flash Chronicles vol.3, and Flash Omnibus by Geoff Johns vol.3. Could ComiXolgy be gearing up for a “Flash 201” sale sometime in the next few weeks?

Flashback covers via comics.org.