DC’s New 52: Flash is About the Uniqueness of Barry Allen. So Long, Wally West.

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DC has four sessions on The New 52 at Comic-Con, and it sounds like they’re presenting on a different chunk of their line each day. The Flash wasn’t in today’s presentation, but people asked about it during the Q&A session. More specifically, people asked about the fate of Wally West, and for once, Dan Didio actually gave a straight answer.

From CBR’s coverage:

Asked about Wally West and his family, DiDio said “there are no plans for Wally West in the ‘Flash,'” because that series is about the “uniqueness of who [Barry Allen] is and how he moves through the world.”

Newsarama has a little more detail:

A fan who liked the multiple generations of speedsters asked about Wally West and his family in the DCnU

DiDio: “Right now there are no plans for Wally West in the new Flash series”

The series focuses on the uniqueness of how someone who moves and thinks near the speed of light lives.

Q: “I’m here to still talk about Wally West…”

DiDio: “okay…”

Fan: “Last year you said you took Wally off the table so Barry could be the sole focus, and now you’re still saying that again.”

DiDio: “We did say that last year cause we did want to build Barry Allen up as much as possible, and this year with the relaunch even more so”

Fan: “How does that work when you have four Robins running around?”

DiDio: “I think we could do that with all the characters” He ended the conversation by saying “I think we’ll be sticking with Barry for awhile.”

As you might imagine, I have some thoughts on this. I’m going to save them for later so that I can collect them properly.

Photo: Flash on a Segway – Only at Comic-Con

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This morning, my Flash/SDCC Twitter search erupted in comments about the Flash speeding around San Diego on a Segway. It wasn’t long before someone posted a photo. Photographer @NandoVel writes:

Flash on a Segway. I don’t know if that means he’s Flash-ier or just lazy.

The goofy moments like this are always the ones that stand out most for me. I’m really looking forward to actually being on-site tomorrow.

Update: Here’s another shot, this one from @mattkindt.

In other SDCC news, Flash artist/writer Francis Manapul has posted his signing schedule for the con.

DCUC Crime Syndicate Johnny Quick First Look

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The Fwoosh has the first look at Johnny Quick, The Crime Syndicate of Amerika’s own evil speedster who exists as a alternate Earth counterpart to our own Barry Allen, The Flash. There was also a version of Johnny that was an alternate and twisted version of Wally West but this design is clearly based on the Silver Age version of the sinister speedster. The figure will be released in a Walmart Exclusive Five pack that also includes the other four members of the CSA from various time periods; Johnny and Power Ring are from the Silver Age, Ultraman and Owlman are based on more modern renditions of the characters and Super Woman has a nice mix of everything. While I initially thought the different styles and looks wouldn’t mesh as well together I was mistaken:

Continue reading →

This Week: DC Retroactive: The Flash – The ’70s (Preview)

DC has released a preview for this week’s flashback comic starring the Scarlet Speedster of the Seventies.

DC Retroactive: The Flash (1970s)

The Flash may be able to save cities from tsunamis and stop criminals in their tracks at the blink of an eye, but he’s just found out that his super-powers come at an incredible cost. And when arch nemesis Gorilla Grodd strikes at the heart of Barry Allen, he’ll use every weapon he can think of against him…including Barry’s wife.

RETROACTIVE: THE FLASH – THE ’70s features a classic tale from the 1970s as well as a new one written as an homage to the decade. From the cumulative creative teams of Cary Bates, Benito Gallego, Sal Buscema, Martin Pasko, J.L. Garcia Lopez and Dan Adkins, don’t miss this one-shot when it hits stores tomorrow.

The DC Timeline, the Reboot, Zero Hour and Superman

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One of the things that frustrated me about DC Comics’ post-Zero Hour “soft” reboot was the 10-year sliding timeline. Not that it existed, but that it crammed everything from DC’s Silver Age (1956) onward into a timeline tied to the first appearance of Superman, 10 years ago.

It always seemed to me that it would free things up if they’d just allow the characters to be different ages. Let (for instance) Barry Allen and Oliver Queen be a decade older than Superman, and let their super-hero careers have started earlier. They can still have worked together in the Justice League. Superman launched the age of super-heroes in the real world, but he doesn’t have to have done so in the fictional world. Especially when you have a whole Golden Age worth of characters who started their careers decades earlier.

Of course, the Golden Agers introduce another problem: If DC keeps them tied to World War II, but keeps the rest of the timeline sliding at 10 years ago or even 20 years ago, the gap keeps widening. It makes it increasingly hard to explain…

Why is the original Justice Society still alive and (relatively) fit? (Magic and the speed force have both been cited.)
Why are their children in their 20s and 30s? Did they all wait until they were over 60 to have kids?
Why weren’t there any major super-heroes between 1950 and 10 years ago? And more importantly, why weren’t there any major super-villains or cosmic threats during that time?

You can mitigate this a bit by rearranging some of the Silver Age characters to be older than Superman, as I suggested — or by letting Superman himself be older — but eventually DC would have to bite the (speeding) bullet and disconnect the JSA from one end of the timeline or the other.

So.

Now that details of the Superman relaunch are out, DC has clarified a bit of their latest timeline juggling. Continue reading →

Flash Costume Photo Shoot on Friday at Comic-Con

Speed Force

Tracking the Flash – the Fastest Man Alive