Flash #7 Profiles Captain Boomerang (Cover and Solicitation)

Full solicitations are coming soon, but DC’s Brightest Day comics for October are already up…and the Rogue Profiles are back!

The Flash #7

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by SCOTT KOLINS
Cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:10 “DC 75th Anniversary” Variant cover by DARWYN COOKE

The Rogue Profile issues return as BRIGHTEST DAY zips on with a spotlight turned toward the resurrected Captain Boomerang! He knows why he’s back and what he needs to do. But does he still have what it takes to be a Rogue?

On sale OCTOBER 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Notes: I’d been speculating that we might see a done-in-one story after “The Dastardly Death of the Rogues” finished, though it didn’t occur to me that it might be a Rogue Profile.

For those who weren’t reading The Flash during Geoff Johns’ first run on the title, in between major storylines he would take a break and focus on one of the villains for an issue, often with a guest artist. He started with Captain Cold, then Pied Piper, Zoom, Mirror Master and finally Heat Wave. These off-format issues were a highlight of Johns’ previous run, and I’m glad to see him returning to the concept.

Scott Kolins is really carving out a niche as the artist for the Rogues. His initial run on The Flash, Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, Blackest Night: The Flash, and now this Captain Boomerang Spotlight.

Update: Not that this should come as a surprise, but Francis Manapul confirmed on Twitter that he’s still on the book and will return for the second story arc.

THUNDER Agents Strike in November

Last year at Comic-Con, DC announced that they had acquired the rights to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a covert team of international super-heroes operating under the authority of the United Nations. The characters were originally published in the late 1960s by Tower Comics, and have been revived several times over the last few decades.

Among the classic members of the team is Lightning: former Special Forces agent Guy Gilbert wears a suit that gives him super-speed…but every time he uses that speed, it ages him.

Today at The Source, DC announced that the new series will launch in November, featuring lead stories by writer Nick Spencer and artist CAFU and backup stories by a team still to be announced. The series will focus on a new team of recruits. Editor will Moss describes it this way:

The new series casts the team as a covert special ops force dealing with global threats the rest of the DCU don’t even know exist — all the while struggling with their own choices to become agents and the tortured pasts they’re running from. With character-first storytelling and threats exploding from real-world headlines, this relaunch of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS will offer something new, different, and daring for both today’s broader comics audience and fans of the original team.

The Fwoosh has First Look at SDCC Exclusive Starro the Conqueror

The Fwoosh has the first look at the San Diego Comic Con 2010 Exclusive Starro the Conqueror set featuring the original Justice League of America. This of course includes Barry Allen, the second Flash:

Big surprise from what I was expecting. Compared to past Infinite Heroes offerings this one takes the cake, especially in terms of articulation. The Fwoosh has more photos of the complete set at their site. You can get to the main article HERE.

Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Speed Reading: Sackboy & Zombie Flash, Brea Grant, Young Justice and SDCC

Some weekend linkblogging…

That F’ing Monkey continues its Friday Flash focus with a Flash Sackboy and a piece of original art from Flash: TFMA, the series following Bart Allen’s brief career as the Flash. Let’s just say it’s from the storyline that had Marc Guggenheim as writer and Ethan Van Sciver on covers.

Robot 6’s regular feature on collections spotlights Hugues Charron, headlining the profile with a Todd Lauzon painting of a Zombie Flash.

Heroes’ speedster Brea Grant is this past week’s Geek a Week. (via Bad Astronomy)

DC is finally reprinting Young Justice!…sort of. They’re releasing a set of eight DC Comics Presents one-shots reprinting various hard-to-find stories, including JLA: World Without Grown-Ups as DC Presents: Young Justice.

Collected Editions reviews Justice League: Cry for Justice, concluding it’s both better and worse than advertised. Of course, when the introduction to the book is essentially an apology by the writer, you have to wonder…

Comic-Con

Warner Bros. promotes this year’s giant bags for Comic-Con…and their wardrobe possibilities.

Dark Horse sponsors events at more than 50 comic stores for fans who are #NotAtComicCon.

Ethan Van Sciver has posted promotional art for Montreal Comic-Con featuring a Superman/Flash race and Green Lantern with the starting pistol.

Update: Here’s one more. Kerry Callen (of the excellent Halo and Sprocket) redraws Flash v.1 #133 for Covered. That’s the classic Abra Kadabra story in which the Flash thinks to himself, “I’ve got the strangest feeling I’m being turned into a puppet.”

Flash #3 Ranks 11 for June

I usually wait for ICv2 to post their sales figures so that I can be sure the month-to-month numbers are comparable, but I don’t see them yet, and I believe these CBR estimates for June are based on the same numbers.

So: The Flash #3 climbed from #12 to #11 in sales rank, while the number of comics sold dropped 10.1% to 68,799 copies.

Let’s compare that to the other recent Flash relaunches again:

Issue Rank Month Units Sold % Change
Flash:TFMA #1 7 June 2006 120,404
Flash:TFMA #2 25 July 2006 77,487 (-35.6%)
Flash:TFMA #3 30 August 2006 70,633 (- 8.9%)
All-Flash #1 22 July 2007 78,955
Flash v.2 #231 26 August 2007 72,898
Flash v.2 #232 32 Sep 2007 56,969 (-21.9%)
Flash v.2 #233 41 Oct 2007 51,152 (- 10.2%)
Flash: Rebirth #1 2 April 2009 102,429
Flash: Rebirth #2 4 May 2009 86,183 (-15.9%)
Flash: Rebirth #3 10 June 2009 83,086 (-3.6%)
Flash v.3 #1 2 April 2010 100,903
Flash v.3 #2 12 May 2010 76,560 (-24.1%)
Flash v.3 #3 11 June 2010 68,799 (-10.1%)

It’s still selling less than Flash: The Fastest Man Alive and dropping as quickly as “The Wild Wests.” That’s kind of disappointing. Though the real test is still going to be looking at orders for #4, because that’s where retailers will have had a chance to react to the way #1 actually sold, and how their customers actually liked it.

On the plus side, it did a lot better than Velocity, which clocked in at 8,171 copies sold. But then, Velocity was Top Cow’s #2 title, just behind The Magdalena at 8,326.

The size difference between the Marvel/DC superhero audience and the indie superhero audience is just astonishing. Numbers that would signal immediate cancellation (like, say, cutting off Magog in the middle of a storyline before part 1 goes on sale) from DC can be respectable successes for smaller publishers. If you want an eye opener, check out The Beat’s indie sales analysis series sometime.