Category Archives: Out This Week

This Week: Digital Flash Back Issues – Wally West #7-12 & Adventure Comics #461-466

DC and ComiXology have added six more issues of the 1987 Flash vol.2 starring Wally West, all at the 99-cent price point.

These issues introduce Red Trinity and Blue Trinity, two teams of ex-Soviet speedsters, as well as Chunk, who would go on to become a regular supporting cast member. Issue #12 begins the Vandal Savage/Velocity 9 story that straddles the transition from Mike Baron to William Messner-Loebs.

70 issues out of 249 (including #0 and #1,000,000) are now available digitally, including the complete first year. Mike Baron’s run is almost complete, with just two more issues to go. It’s not clear whether DC has a regular schedule for these digital back-issues, but the last time they added to this series was January’s addition of #1-6. This suggests that they’ll be adding six issues every few months, starting at the beginning and working forward, filling in around the issues released as part of the Flash 101 promotion last year.

» The Flash (1987-2009) on ComiXology

They’ve also added six issues of Adventure Comics from its 1970s run as an anthology book. Issues #459-466 featured eight Flash solo stories starring Barry Allen. During the heavily serialized Bronze Age, these were throwbacks to the more goofy done-in-one Silver Age stories. I didn’t even know about them until I read one of Mark Waid’s interviews in The Flash Companion, then I started tracking them down on eBay. I’ve read the lot of them, and wrote about the stories here a couple of years back. ComiXology has Adventure Comics #461-466 online at $1.99 each.

Only a handful of the Silver/Bronze Age Flash series are available, most posted during the Flash 101 sale mentioned above.

» The Flash (1959-1985) on ComiXology
» Adventure Comics on ComiXology

This Week: Earth 2

Earth 2 #1
STORY BY James Robinson
ART BY Nicola Scott, Trevor Scott
COVER BY Ivan Reis, Joe Prado
COVER PRICE: $3.99

First issue of an ongoing series from writer JAMES ROBINSON and artist NICOLA SCOTT!

  • Who are the heroes of EARTH 2 – and what befell them?
  • Starring ALAN SCOTT, JAY GARRICK and many others!
  • You may think you know Earth 2…but this is DC Comics – The New 52, where anything can happen!
  • Don’t miss the extra-sized debut issue!

Article and preview at USA Today.

Also out this week: the hardcover collection of the new Justice League: Origin.

Who’s planning on checking this out? Who’s planning to skip it?

This Week: Flash #8 (With Preview)

Comic Book Resources has a preview of Flash #8 by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, due in stores this week.

The Flash gets pulled into the Speed Force that gives him his super-speed powers…and he learns he’s not alone in there! Introducing Turbine, a prisoner of the Speed Force who just wants out – even if it means trading places with The Flash!

Lia points out on Twitter, “So Turbine spins and his name is Roscoe? Uh huh.” Indeed, that sounds strangely familiar

This Week: Flash by Geoff Johns Omnibus 2

THE FLASH BY GEOFF JOHNS OMNIBUS VOL. 2 HC
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by SCOTT KOLINS, DOUG HAZLEWOOD, RICK BURCHETT, PHIL WINSLADE, DAN PANOSIAN and others
Cover by SCOTT KOLINS
648 pg, FC, $75.00 US (Or $46 on Amazon)

It’s the second hardcover volume collecting all the issues of THE FLASH written by comics superstar Geoff Johns! In this massive collection featuring issues #177-200 and DC FIRST: FLASH/SUPERMAN #1, an old friend of Wally West becomes the portal to another universe and Gorilla Grodd goes wild in Keystone City! Plus, don’t miss the Fastest Man Alive’s clashes with members of his infamous rogues gallery, including Captain Cold, The Trickster, the Pied Piper and more!

Notes: I’ve said before that these are my favorite stories from Geoff Johns’ run. He’d hit his stride by this point, bringing everything together first for Crossfire, then for Blitz, with some great done-in-one stories in the middle and a real effort to balance characterization, world building, and both the classic Rogues and new villains.

This Week: The Flash #7 (Preview)

Captain Cold is back – and he’s more dangerous than ever! Seeking revenge on The Flash, he must convince the rest of the Rogues to reunite one last time. But what tore them apart before? And what did The Flash do to earn their deadly scorn? Find out here!

$2.99. Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato.

DC has released a preview of the issue through BuzzFeed. The article title and URL sound like they could use a spoiler warning, which is why I suspect they’re figurative.

Edit: I forgot to link to it yesterday, but here’s the variant cover by Dale Keown.

This Week: World of Flashpoint Featuring the Flash TPB

Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring the Flash

Written by SEAN RYAN, STERLING GATES, ADAM GLASS and SCOTT KOLINS
Art by IG GUARA, OLIVER NOME, RODNEY BUCHEMI, JOEL GOMEZ, SCOTT KOLINS and JOSE MARZAN JR.
Cover by ARDIAN SYAF and VICENTE CIFUENTES
On sale MARCH 21 • 256 pg, FC, $17.99 US
Don’t miss this Flash volume collecting GRODD OF WAR #1, KID FLASH LOST #1-3, LEGION OF DOOM #1-3, REVERSE FLASH #1 and CITIZEN COLD #1-3.

I’ll say one thing for DC’s Flashpoint collection strategy: they actually managed to put all the Flash-related tie-ins in one book, without adding too much unrelated material (like tossing Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown in with the Flashpoint/Green Lantern collection).

Grodd of War obviously focuses on Gorilla Grodd, who in the Flashpoint universe has taken over Gorilla City and subsequently conquered the entire continent of Africa.

Kid Flash Lost follows the main DC Universe’s Bart Allen, trying to fix the changes to history before they catch up to his home era and make him disappear as well.

Legion of Doom is a brutal prison break story focusing on Heat Wave, who has gone beyond pyromania to full-on psychosis psychopathy.

Reverse Flash stars Professor Zoom, though it’s only tangentially related to Flashpoint in that it looks at the main DCU’s Zoom trying to change history.

Citizen Cold features a Captain Cold who uses the mask of Central City’s resident hero to hide his criminal past, and the parallel efforts of reporter Iris West and the city’s resident super-criminals to take him down.

Order it from Amazon for next week or buy it at your local comic shop tomorrow!