We’ve known since Comic-Con that the New 52 reboot would retroactively break up Barry and Iris Allen (and I had some fun with the phrasing the other day). Today, as discussed at Robot 6, DC formally announced the breakup at The Source, and revealed who Barry will be dating in at the beginning of the new series. Continue reading
Welcome to the latest installment in our annotations of the collected edition of The Trial of the Flash! We’ve been breaking down related stories leading up to last month’s release of Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash. In addition, we’ve interviewed author Cary Bates about the buildup and the Trial itself, plus shown you what won’t be included in the collection. For last week, and previous issues, click here.
Links to artwork and research are included throughout this post. This time around, since the reprint is widely available, the format will be a little different than the notes for “The Death of Iris Allen”. For legal analysis of the story, something I will not attempt, go here.
I learned from The Beat that, due to remodeling at Moscone Center, WonderCon, the smaller sibling of Comic-Con International, will be moving from San Francisco to Anaheim for March 16-18, 2012. I’m of mixed feelings about this.
I’ve gone to WonderCon for three of the last four years and really enjoyed it. The Comic-Con International people may still be trying to figure out how to handle huge crowds, but they really know how to plan a convention. So the key thing is, I’m glad that it’s happening next year.
The location is going to really change the experience, though.
I live in the Los Angeles area, so the move to Anaheim is going to make it an in-town convention that I can easily drive to each morning. But I liked the fact that San Francisco was just far enough to go out of town for a weekend without flying, and a good excuse to visit places along the way like San Luis Obispo and Hearst Castle, Monterey and Carmel, or nearby areas like San Jose and Napa Valley. We’ve also got family and friends in the Bay Area, so heading up a few days early makes it into a good combined visit & convention trip.
The character of the city is vastly different, though.
Moscone Center is in the heart of downtown San Francisco. The Anaheim Convention Center is across the street from Disneyland. There’s a lot of stuff to do near Moscone, plus great public transportation. In Anaheim, as I verified last year you’re surrounded by hotels, motels, and restaurants. Not a problem if all you want to do is get out for a bite to eat, but if you want to go farther out, you’re probably going to have to drive. (On the plus side, the roads are flat and wide, and the parking’s a lot cheaper.)
And then there’s the Hollywood factor. San Francisco is a short commuter flight away. Anaheim is an hour’s drive. WonderCon, at least in the years I’ve gone, has had a strong Hollywood presence, but it hasn’t overshadowed the actual comics the way it has in San Diego. Being so much closer could change the balance (but it doesn’t have to).
Speaking of San Diego, there’s another thing to consider: With demand sky-high for Comic-Con International tickets, Anaheim smack in the middle of Southern California, and WonderCon run by the same people, a lot of con attendees are going to aim for WonderCon as an alternative. Depending on how much of the usual Bay Area crowd decides to take to the road, this could be a more crowded event than usual.
All in all, I’m going to like having WonderCon close by next March, but I hope they’re able to move back to San Francisco for 2013.
One more interesting thing: CCI, Reed Exhibitions, and Wizard actually coordinated this move. Reed moved C2E2 from March to April so it wouldn’t conflict with WonderCon’s new dates, and Wizard “postponed” the April 2012 Anaheim Comic Con. Which is kind of an odd thing to say, since just a few weeks ago, Anaheim dropped off the schedule completely while Wizard’s Los Angeles Comic Con (scheduled for late this month) was “postponed.” Now Anaheim’s back on the website (at least in the “Upcoming cons” list) with the April 2012 dates that the press release says are being changed, and Los Angeles is gone, both from that list and from the drop-down menu.
I’m not sure what Wizard’s trying to do in the LA/OC area, but hey, we’ve got Long Beach Comic Con next month and Comikaze Expo in November, and now WonderCon in March, at least for a year. I think we’ll be fine.
Read more at my other blog:
Flashpont #5 is out, and we now know how history was changed to create the Flashpoint universe, and how it was changed again to create the new DC Universe.
Well, sort of.
Obviously, spoilers for Flashpoint #5, so stop reading if you don’t want to know yet. Continue reading
One of many pieces of Flash news from Comic-Con that just didn’t sit right with me was the news that Barry Allen and Iris West were being retroactively split up for the New 52, and that Barry would be “playing the field.”
Really? This is the guy who, after Iris’ untimely death, when he finally forced himself to move out of the house where he lived with his late wife and try to get on with his life, promptly fell for the new girl next door. The idea of him dating someone else isn’t preposterous, but a player? That seems a little far-fe—
Oh, wait. Never mind.
(Seriously, though, this is one of the things that bugs me, because in my opinion, the Barry/Iris relationship should be central to the character(s). It might bother me less if DC wasn’t undoing the Lois/Clark marriage at the same time. I still haven’t decided whether to actually put together a post listing all the announced elements I do and don’t like and why.)
So, the DC reboot* is upon us, and it’s time to make some decisions:
I’ll tackle the second question later. For now, here are the books I was looking at when the New 52 was first announced, and what I’m looking at now.
As with Action, it was the creative team that got me excited about the fifth relaunch in as many years. (Seriously, DC, pick a direction and stick with it.) And as with Action, every interview, every announcement since then has chipped away a little more at my interest. But then Francis Manpul posts a new piece of artwork, and I feel like can’t possibly pass it up. TENTATIVE YES.
And yes, that’s a sad verdict for someone who’s spent the last 15 years running a Flash fan site, but it is what it is.
Love the concept, hate the title. I had high hopes for this when it was announced, but the execution of Flashpoint: Secret Seven, by the same writer and featuring many of the same characters, has me worried. TENTATIVE YES.
The complete opposite of Action Comics. When I first read about it, I thought, “Hmm, that sounds sort of interesting, but I just don’t know.” But everything I’ve heard about it makes me more interested. DEFINITE YES.
Regarding Demon Knights and Justice League Dark, it seems that the Matt Wagner/Amy Reeder Vertigo series has made me a fan of Madame Xanadu. Who would have expected that?
I really liked the Seven Soldiers version of the Frankenstein monster, and the idea of him as a sci-fi secret agent sounds like a lot of fun. Plus the Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown miniseries was enjoyable (despite a dip in the middle issue), so I’m on board for this one. DEFINITE YES.
I keep meaning to read the articles about this, but somehow keep forgetting to come back to them when I have time. So I still don’t know a whole lot about it, but the concept is interesting enough to make it a TENTATIVE YES.
Announced as part of the second wave of new titles, the 12-issue miniseries launches in October. I like the character, especially the modern interpretation, and I really enjoyed the 4-issue miniseries James Robinson did back in the 1990s, so I’m on board for this one as well. DEFINITE YES.
Grant Morrison brings Superman back to his roots. Sounded great at the time, but the more I’ve heard about the actual direction, the less interested I’ve gotten. PASS.
I’ve been burned too many times, and I think what I really liked about the series was the Wolfman/Perez dynamic, which I’ve come to realize is never going to exist again. I actually think it’s a good thing that they’re taking the book in a new direction, even though it’s clearly not for me. PASS.
As fond as my memories are of the series 20 years ago…I just can’t. PASS.
I liked his solo series back in the day, but between my changing taste and the emphasis on ultra-violence, I don’t have any interest in the new version. PASS.
(OK, except for the issue where he destroys the 405 freeway. I live in LA and commute on that damn thing. It’s a revenge fantasy.)
So that’s my DC Comics pull list for September. 5 comics out of 52 (plus The Shade) may not sound like much, but considering I was only reading one DC proper title before Flashpoint, it’s actually a pretty big increase.
Edited to add: For context, this brings the DC Universe back up to 50% of my active pull list. The rest is 1 Vertigo (The Unwritten), 3 BOOM! (Elric, Farscape & Darkwing Duck, at least until Farscape & Darkwing Duck end in a couple of months), 1 Dynamite (Wheel of Time) and 1 Aspen (Lady Mechanika). Mostly sci-fi/fantasy, with the closest to a traditional superhero being Darkwing Duck.
How about you? What are you planning to pick up?
*Of course it’s a reboot. They’re resetting the system, with some things altered and others preserved. They installed a service pack, and now they’re rebooting. People use the term reboot to mean starting over completely from the beginning, but if we’re going to use the computer metaphor properly, that would be a wipe-and-reinstall.