Geoff Johns Relaunches Vibe. No, Really!

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DC has announced the next wave of the New 52, to launch with the new Justice League of America series. Also launching are Katana, spinning out of Birds of Prey, and Justice League of America’s Vibe.

And with a premiere issue being co-plotted by Geoff Johns, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA’S VIBE will come to you from the creative team of writer Andrew Kreisberg (ARROW) and artist Pete Woods (LEGION LOST).

I have two words: Called it.

Vibe: Surprised

Update: MTV Geek has a statement by regular writer Andrew Kreisberg…who turns out to be the writer of the Justice League Unlimited episode, “The Greatest Story Never Told.”

All I can say to that is, “Thank you, Green Lantern!”

High Speed Hauntings: 4 Ghost Stories Featuring the Flash

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Flash Annual #11: Ghosts - Cover

Ghost stories seem a natural fit with some superheroes. Not so with the Flash. An origin based in science, scientifically trained alter-egos, villains who use technology. Even the “magician” villain, Abra Kadabra, is more of a techno-mage, using highly advanced future technology to carry out transformations that seem like magic to our experience. The closest the Flash mythos gets to the supernatural is the metaphysical nature of the speed force, and even that is described in terms of energy and the nature of space-time.

So it makes sense that for 1998’s “Ghosts” annuals, the Flash story would feature not a traditional ghost, but one tied to the speed force: Johnny Quick, who had vanished into the speed force two years earlier during Dead Heat.

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This Week’s Digital Flash(backs): more Gorilla Warfare

This week’s digital back issues at ComiXology include Flash v.2 #68-69 and Impulse #29-30.

Flash #68 concludes the two-parter re-introducing Abra Kadabra, and presents a new vision of the 64th century: a highly regulated world where everyone’s lives are planned down to the second, controlled by a massive computer called the Chronarch. (Mark Waid, Greg LaRocque)

Flash #69 & Green Lantern #30-31 feature the first three chapters of “Gorilla Warfare” — not the current storyline of course, but a crossover between Flash and Green Lantern in which Hector Hammond teams up with Grodd. (Mark Waid, Gerard Jones, Greg LaRocque, M.D. Bright, Romeo Tanghal)

Impulse #29 marks William Messner-Loebs’ debut on the series, as Bart and his friends stumble on a group of criminals dumping toxic waste near their town.

Impulse #30 is a tie-in to the Genesis crossover in which all the super-powers…and all the hope as well…are drained from the world…and an old enemy of Max Mercury’s takes the opportunity to settle the score. (William Messner-Loebs, Craig Rousseau)

Today’s half-remembered quote that I’ll fix when I have time to look it up:

“What kind of super-villain puts the location of his evil lair on his web page?”

Kia and DC Comics Unveil Flash-themed Car at SEMA Trade Show

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Today at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Kia Motors and DC Entertainment finally revealed their long-awaited Jim Lee designed Justice League-themed cars and for the most part they look pretty excellent. The project was created to support the “We Can Be Heroes” campaign to feed the starving in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia).

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Annotations: The Trial of the Flash, #334 – “Flash Freak-Out!”

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Welcome to the latest installment in our annotations of the collected edition of The Trial of the Flash!  We analyzed related stories leading up to the release of Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash.  In addition, we interviewed author Cary Bates about the buildup and the Trial itself, plus showed you what wasn’t included in the collection.

IN THIS ISSUE: What are the secret properties of the mysterious “Vitamin F”?  Then, meet the cat who found out Flash’s secret identity!

Links to artwork, scans and research are included throughout this post.  I scoured the web but could not find any scans of original artwork for this issue.  For definitive legal analysis of the story by Bob Ingersoll, go here.  Tom vs. Flash took on this issue here.  See you after the jump!

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Flash vs. the Rogues on sale at ComiXology

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ComiXology is holding a DC Super-Villains sale with a whole bunch of digital back-issues discounted to 99 cents. This includes 8 issues of the early Silver Age Flash starring Barry Allen, and six of the early 2000s Flash starring Wally West.

The Silver Age choices are Flash #106, 106, 110, 113, 117, 125, 140, and 155, and include the first appearances of Mirror Master, Pied Piper, Trickster, Weather Wizard, Captain Boomerang and Heat Wave, as well as the first full-on Rogues team-up.

The choices for Wally West’s series are a bit odd: rather than highlighting Geoff Johns’ Rogue Profiles (five in that series, two in the Barry Allen relaunch), they simply discounted Flash #177-182. These issues feature characters ranging from well-known (Captain Cold & Gorilla Grodd) to obscure (Chunk, Fallout, Peekaboo) to not-even-a-Flash-villain (Deadline).

The choices make a bit more sense when you consider that they just happen to be the contents of two trade paperbacks: “Flash vs. the Rogues” and “Flash: Rogues.”

Also on sale: Salvation Run, which while not primarily a Rogues series does feature them prominently in several issues.

Incidentally, I recently discovered that Salvation Run was inspired loosely by an unproduced Elseworlds story co-written by George R.R. Martin — yes, that GRRM — and John Miller, in which the super-villains were exiled to another world and stayed there. The story would have taken place over decades, as the villains learned to live on the new world, fought wars, and eventually built the beginnings of a society. It sounds like it would have been awesome.

Thanks to @RedWolfArtist for alerting me to the sale.

Salvation Run #1