Long Weekend at Worldcon in Chicago

Chicon 7I’d really hoped to have this written sooner, since the convention was over Labor Day Weekend. But, better late than never,* right?

At the end of August, I took my family to Chicago for a very different convention experience. Worldcon is a more literary and, in some ways, academic con than the glitzier media cons like Comic-Con International, or the celebrity-oriented cons like Wizard World. The guest list is more focused on writers than on actors or media personalities, and panels tend toward discussions rather than announcements.

Worldcon itself travels around from year to year, essentially a convention franchise where members of one year’s convention vote on who gets to put on the con two years from now. Last year it was in Reno. Next year it’ll be in San Antonio, Texas, and in 2014 it’ll be in London. Certain elements remain constant — there’s always a masquerade, an art show, a Regency Dance, and of course the Hugo Awards — but the tenor of the con can change wildly from one year to the next.

This year’s con was the seventh Worldcon in Chicago, and it was a lot of fun.

Read my full writeup at K-Squared Ramblings.

*Even on the Internet!
Globe of Krypton

Media Blitz!: Manapul and Buccellato on Gorilla Warfare, the New Wests (via Newsarama)

A new interview appeared over at Newsarama yesterday, featuring the Flash creative time of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato.  The duo discuss last month’s issue #0, their plans for the upcoming Gorilla Warfare story and the introduction of a new member of the West clan.

Media Blitz! features highlights from recent Flash news items.  Follow the jump for more on the Speed Mind, the structure of the #0 issue and the advent of Daniel West.

Continue reading

This Week: Completing the Messner-Loebs Run on Flash (digital back-issues)

Flash #60. Beware the Last Resort! Flash #61: Get me to the church on time

This week’s digital back issues at ComiXology include Flash #60-61 and Impulse #21-22. This means we’ve reached a milestone: for the first time in nearly two decades, the entire William Messner-Loebs/Greg LaRocque run on the Wally West series (Flash #15-61) is available to read without digging through the back-issue bins. Mark Waid gets a lot of credit for Wally West’s character arc, but all the groundwork is laid here, as Messner-Loebs shows Wally growing from the selfish jerk he is in the early issues to a someone more mature (if not entirely grown up).

Flash #60 follows up on the Icicle storyline as the Flash and his allies go up against a mercenary known as the Last Resort…who just happens to be Wally’s roommate Mason Trollbridge’s estranged son. Flash #61, Messner-Loebs’ farewell issue, features a surprise wedding as Wally West’s mother gets remarried. Naturally, her late husband shows up, with a date. And the minister gets delayed by a supervillain. You know, the usual.

In Impulse #21, the time-lost Legion of Super-Heroes visits the time-displaced Bart Allen, hoping he and the cosmic treadmill can send them home. In Impulse #22, Bart talks Jesse Quick into helping him find a missing Max Mercury.

» Flash v.2 on ComiXology
» Impulse on ComiXology

Impulse #21: A Legion of Impulses Impulse #22 guest starring Jesse Quick

In related news, ComiXology has upgraded the digital versions of Flashpoint and all its tie-in issues to CMX-HD, enabling sharper images on the new iPad and other high-definition devices.

Young Justice Returns Tomorrow 9/29 Plus Young Justice Video Game News and Screens

Hey Speed Readers,

Just a quick reminder (that I wanted to get up a lot earlier) Young Justice, featuring Kid Flash (Wally West) and Impulse (Bart Allen) as cast members will be returning from it’s mid-season hiatus tomorrow morning. The show has been on hiatus since June so many fans (like the team here at Speed Force) have been anxiously awaiting it’s return. Especially since this seems to be the only place that Wally West (and the Flash family) is getting any kind of love these days.

Continue reading

Media Blitz: West(s) of Central City

Daniel West is resisting arrest.

His role isn’t big in Flash #0, but this random suspect being arrested had a name that no doubt caught the eye of many a reader: Daniel West.

DC Comics confirms that he is Iris West’s brother, and describes him as “a classic case of juvenile delinquency.”

Flash co-writer Francis Manapul continues:

Unfortunately for him, his first major crime is foiled by Flash’s first ever outing as a superhero. In the present, after having served his debt to society, Daniel just wants his old life back. All he wants is to go back home. But what he finds is a city over run by apes, and a sister that’s nowhere to be found. Welcome home indeed. He’ll be setting forth to find his lost sister amidst the disastrous events of ‘Gorilla Warfare!’

In the pre-Flashpoint continuity, Iris had one brother, Rudolph West, one sister, Charlotte West. I’m not sure we ever saw Charlotte, but Rudolph “Rudy” West made many appearances as Wally West’s father. (I think it’s safe to assume given Daniel’s age that he doesn’t have a son named Wally.)

It looks like we’ll finally return to Iris and the other speed force castaways soon. That’s one missing West down…