Poll Results: Your Favorite Flash Stories of 2015

2015 has seen a full year of Flash comics, two Convergence tie-in miniseries, a Darkseid War one-shot, the second half of season one and the first half of season two of the Flash TV show.

What have your favorites been? We ran a poll asking that question, and here are the results from 70 responses:

1. What was your favorite Flash comic book story this year?

Convergence: Speed Force (Pre-Flashpoint Wally West) 22 34%
Flash vs. Professor Zoom (Flash #41-47) 18 28%
Convergence: The Flash (Pre-Crisis Barry Allen) 9 14%
Darkseid War: The Flash 8 13%
Savage Speed Force (Flash #36-40) 5 8%
Creation Myths (Flash Annual #4, Prof. Zoom recruits his team) 2 3%

Judging by comments, I was expecting readers to really shy away from the current storyline. But as it turns out, the Convergence miniseries starring pre-Flashpoint Wally West and the just-wrapped Professor Zoom story in the DCYou were tied for most of the week, with Convergence pulling ahead only in the last day.

2. What was your favorite episode from the second half of Flash Season One?

1.23 Fast Enough 20 30%
1.15 Out of Time 15 23%
1.17 Tricksters 11 17%
1.19 Who Is Harrison Wells? 4 6%
1.13 The Nuclear Man 4 6%
1.22 Rogue Air 3 5%
1.16 Rogue Time 3 5%
1.21 Grodd Lives 2 3%
1.10 Revenge of the Rogues 2 3%
1.20 The Trap 1 2%
1.18 All Star Team Up 1 2%
1.11 The Sound and the Fury 0 0%
1.12 Crazy for You 0 0%
1.14 Fallout 0 0%

Clear winners here were the time-travel episodes — including the season finale, which wrapped up a whole year of ongoing story arcs — and the nostalgia-fueled return of the Trickster.

3. What was your favorite episode from the first half of Flash Season Two?

2.6 Enter Zoom 21 31%
2.2 Flash of Two Worlds 14 21%
2.8 Legends of Today / Arrow 4.8 Legends of Yesterday 10 15%
2.3 Family of Rogues 7 10%
2.7 Gorilla Warfare 6 9%
2.9 Running to Stand Still 6 9%
2.5 The Darkness and the Light 3 4%
2.4 The Fury of Firestorm 0 0%
2.1 The Man Who Saved Central City 0 0%

Viewers were clearly impressed by the first direct encounter between Zoom and Barry Allen.

4. Who is your favorite new character in Flash Season Two so far?

This was a free-form question rather than multiple choice, so I’ll summarize the top responses:

Harry / Earth-2 Harrison Wells 15
Jay Garrick 12
Patty Spivot 12
Zoom 10
Wally West 5

“Harry” Wells is the clear front-runner here. I was surprised to see Jay Garrick and Patty Spivot tied, which shows how well Patty works with this cast. Some of the other write-ins included Hawkgirl (2), Vandal Savage…and strangely, Barry Allen and “Flash.” Yeah, I’m a little confused about those last two.

5. Who are you most looking forward to seeing in the second half of Flash Season Two?

Again, this was a free-answer question, so I’ll summarize the top responses.

Wally West 17
Zoom 10
Mirror Master 8
Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash 7

Lots of anticipation for Wally West (no surprise there!) as well as finding out more about Zoom. Mirror Master’s also way up there, as the last high-profile Rogue yet to be seen. (The Top was part of the core group in the Silver Age, but has only appeared sporadically since then, and while Dr. Alchemy and Abra Kadabra are major Flash villains, they’ve never been part of the Rogues proper.)

Other responses included Jesse Quick (2), Killer Frost (2), Alan Scott, Tar Pit, Jay Garrick back in action as the Flash, Max Mercury, Barry breaking the time barrier by himself, and new Rogues.

So how about you? If you missed the poll, sound off here! If you answered, go into more detail. What do you think about your fellow fans’ choices?

The Past/Future of Prof. Zoom in the Flash #47 Preview

Flash 47 FinalNewsarama has a preview of Flash #47, out in stores this week. Newsarama indicates there’s a “shocking change to the Flash’s origin” in the preview, but I didn’t notice anything major that hasn’t been around since Flash: Rebirth back in 2009. It does look like we’ll finally see what’s going on with this version of Professor Zoom, though, which is good, because this concludes the current storyline.

THE FLASH #47
Written by ROBERT VENDITTI and VAN JENSEN
Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
Variant covers by TERRY DODSON
On sale DECEMBER 30 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

Professor Zoom’s endgame goes into effect as we learn the dark truth behind Nora Allen’s murder!

Flash TV Tidbits

The Flash mid-season hiatus won’t be done until January 19th, but here are a few casting tidbits to tide you over for now.

Comicbook.com announced that JSA villain Geomancer will be appearing on the show in 2016. He’ll be played by Adam Stafford, and will appear in the 13th and 14th episodes.

And TVLine reports the casting of another new speedster:

I can report that for Episode 16, the CW hit is guest-casting the DC Comics character of Eliza Harmon, whose TV incarnation is described as an “exceptionally bright scientist” with a “split personality a la Jekyll and Hyde.” In DC lore, Eliza was a Lex Luthor-created speedster, hmm….

At the time we spoke to EP Greg Berlanti, he wouldn’t/couldn’t shed much light on the aforementioned Episodes 13/14 — “We haven’t made them yet” — but it sounds as if the cast will have their hands full bringing to life a far-out premise! “I don’t know if they’ll work,” Berlanti admitted. “When we do wacky stuff on that show, I never know if we’ll be able to pull it off. Usually, the actors are the ones who sell it.”

Another interesting bit of casting that was recently announced is comedian Tone Bell as Iris’ new boss Scott Evans.

One wonders if Eliza Harmon will be hero or villain, although the description of “Jekyll and Hyde” suggests she might be a bit of both. There’s no reported casting for her yet.

Looking forward to these new characters? What characters would you like to see in the second half of the season? Feel free to share them in the comments!

Morrison/Millar Flash Complete, but not Hardcover

There’s been some concern as to whether the upcoming collection features the entire Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run including “The Black Flash,” which only credits Mark Millar as writer, or only those issues that were co-written by both. DC’s March 2016 solicitations at Newsarama clear it up:

THE FLASH BY GRANT MORRISON AND MARK MILLAR TP
Written by GRANT MORRISON and MARK MILLAR
Art by PAUL RYAN, JOHN NYBERG and RON WAGNER
Cover by STEVE LIGHTLE
On sale APRIL 13 • 336 pg, FC, $19.99 US

Writers Grant Morrison and Mark Millar put their distinctive mark on the Scarlet Speedster in this run on THE FLASH from issues #130-141, plus the crossover issues GREEN ARROW #130 and GREEN LANTERN #96! Confined to a wheelchair after a run-in with the mystery villain known only as The Suit, how can The Flash protect Keystone City from evil run amok? Plus, The Flash is forced to represent Earth in an cosmos-spanning race against an alien being called Krakkl!

On the plus side: It’s not only the full run, but also the two crossover issues of “Three of a Kind,” which were left out of the previous collection a few years back. Nice!

Then again, it’s being released as a paperback now, rather than a hardcover as originally announced.

Contents of the collection: Continue reading