Flash #3 Preview

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DC has posted a 5-page preview of next week’s The Flash #3.

It may be BRIGHTEST DAY, but when a mysterious group of so-called heroes turns up, another Rogue ends up dead. Plus, the mystery deepens as The Flash witnesses another murder — his own!

The preview picks up the Brightest Day angle and focuses on Captain Boomerang. “Digger” Harkness discovers that he’s a bit…different now that he’s back from the dead. It’s an interesting development, but if what’s seen here can be taken at face value, I’m not sure it’s necessary. It seems like a second attempt (after Owen’s super-speed) to give a villain who throws weaponized boomerangs an extra edge. It’s an odd choice for Geoff Johns, who managed to revitalize the rest of the Rogues simply by taking them seriously.

The Flash #3 arrives in stores next week, on June 30.

Update: I’ve added this issue to my gallery of Dead Flash Covers!

Flash Sales for May 2010

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ICv2’s top 300 comics for May are up, and The Flash #2 is ranked #12 with an estimated 76,560 copies sold.

Here’s the round-up of how Flash vol.3 compares to other recent Flash relaunches.

Issue Rank Month Units Sold 2nd-Issue Drop
Flash:TFMA #1 7 June 2006 120,404
Flash: FMA #2 25 July 2006 77,487 (-35.6%)
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: Rebirth #1 2 April 2009 102,429
Flash: Rebirth #2 4 May 86,183 (-15.9%)
Flash v.3 #1 2 April 2010 100,903
Flash v.3 #2 12 May 2010 76,560 (-24.1%)

That’s…steeper than I expected. Not as bad as the plunge from Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1 to #2, but it’s bigger than the drop on between the first two issues of “The Wild Wests.” And it’s a lot steeper than the second-issue drop on Rebirth.

These are, of course, based on retailers’ orders, so it’s not a reflection of actual readers’ purchases, but how retailers anticipated those purchases. After the last several relaunches failed to catch on, perhaps we can forgive them for being skeptical.

The real test, as always, will be to see how orders for issue #4 and on hold up. With three months’ lead time, that’s the first issue on which stores will have placed orders after seeing how well the actual book sold.

Update: The Beat has posted a detailed analysis of DC’s May sales and seems to think these numbers are average.

Flash Week at Collected Editions

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The Collected Editions blog has just started Flash Week, a whole week of reviews of Flash trade paperbacks and hardcovers, leading up to a review of Flash: Rebirth. First up: a review of The Return of Barry Allen.

Along the way, I’ll be contributing a couple of guest reviews covering the Grant Morrison/Mark Millar collections, Emergency Stop and The Human Race.

Collected Editions is a great site for news about upcoming DC Comics (and sometimes other) collections as well as reviews. The site also maintains the DC Trade Paperback Timeline. Last year they put together a Top Flash Trade Paperbacks list.

Time Masters: Vanishing Point to Flashpoint

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Comics Nexus picked up on an interesting comment from Dan Jurgens about his miniseries, Time Masters: Vanishing Point. In addition to telling a Rip Hunter Story and acting as the flip side to Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, his third goal is “to put a few pieces in place for Flashpoint, for which Geoff Johns is sculpting some incredibly fun stuff down the road!”

CBR has more on the miniseries, though considerably less about the Flashpoint connection.

(Hat tip to Live Pa for the link!)

Speed Reading: Spotlight, Uni-Formz, Gratuitous Storytelling and More

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More weekend linkblogging!

Crimson Lightning has finished the month-long Rogue Spotlight on Abra Kadabra.

That F—ing Monkey reviews the Flash Uni-Formz action figures in great detail.

At Newsarama, Jill Pantozzi considers possible super-hero dads. Her favorite pick? A certain redheaded speedster who might be familiar to readers of this blog.

Other Comics

Collected Editions looks into the question: will the Young Justice cartoon series bring us any new YJ collections? They’ve also updated the DC Trade Paperback Timeline.

Multiversity Comics discusses gratuitous storytelling in recent comics, particularly DC and Marvel. *cough*Rise of Arsenal*cough*

Comics Should Be Good compares various artists’ approach to super-heroic posture.

Comics Nexus notes a trend in current DC Comics and concludes that Geoff Johns must be stopped. Is the tendency to tie everything together good for comics…or is it hurting them in favor of media adaptations? There’s a follow-up post, too, which amounts to, we really don’t think he’s the problem, honest!

Speaking of Geoff Johns, IGN interviews DC’s Chief Creative Officer about Brightest Day and the Rebirth of the DC Universe.

Speed Reading: Cupcakes & Death, Futurama X-Men and Robots from Space

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Some funny links from the last week or so two…

Geoff Johns and Matt Fraction joke about a Green Lantern/Iron Man crossover.

Ah, super-heroes and dead parents! The cliche is so established that it’s been spoofed, as Comics Should Be Good spotlights Kill All Parents in their Year of Cool Comics.

Comics Oughta Be Fun mashes up those Hostess cupcake ads with Gwen Stacy death to reveal…what really happened the night of June 16, 1973.

gottabecarl draws the Futurama cast as the X-Men via IO9 and Ryan the Iowan.

The National Park Service really is having problems with a movie about “Robots from Space” — Transformers 3.

And totally off-topic, but I thought it was funny: a local city is really concerned that you understand that the dead grass is intentional and not a sign of *gasp!* poor maintenance.