DC Direct Flash-Related Solicitations for November

DC Direct‘s solicitations for November give us some definite dates on two great Flash collectibles. Blue Lantern Flash as part of the sixth series of Blackest Night figures and a DC Chronicles Flash statue.

BLACKEST NIGHT: SERIES 6: BLUE LANTERN FLASH Action Figure

The hugely successful BLACKEST NIGHT action figure line continues with four awesome new characters!

Included in this sixth installment of the series are Hal Jordan, the personification of the Green Lantern Corps; Wonder Woman, who finds the power of love and joins the ranks of the Star Sapphires; Hawkgirl, who was one of the first heroes to lose her life to the dark power of the Black Lanterns; and The Flash, who couples the power of the blue ring with his trademark speed to carry the message of hope to all.

All four figures feature multiple points of articulation and include a display base. Character-appropriate accessories are also included.

4-color clamshell blister card packaging.

On Sale November 3, 2010

And

DC CHRONICLES: THE FLASH Statue

SCULPTED BY TIM BRUCKNER

The Fastest Man Alive kicks up a dust cloud as he slides into the DC Chronicles statue series!

This statue features The Flash of the Silver Age, Barry Allen, in his classic costume.

The DC Chronicles statue line has a consistent base, and the retro-style logo on the base further gives the piece a sense of the period from which it originated.

This limited-edition, hand-painted, cold-cast porcelain statue measures approximately 6.75″ high x 5″ wide x 3.5″ deep and is packaged in a 4-color box with a 4-color Certificate
of Authenticity.

Manufactured to order.

$ 99.99 US | On Sale November 24, 2010

I’m really looking forward to Blue Lantern Flash as it will look great poking out of the field of red and yellow in my display. I’m also loving the sculpt. Reminds me of Wally West from the first series of JLA action figures they released a few years ago. Perfect build, great sculpt and a slick paint job.

I’m not really a statue guy. I do own a few but rarely if ever will you find me anticipating the release of one. This one is no exception unfortunately. I’m not really in the market for Barry Allen statues these days anyway. And I would need a Wally in new costume as an action figure first. Hint hint.

Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Watch Episodes of The Flash TV Series on WB.com For FREE!

UPDATE: The show is no longer available at wb.com, but is now on CW Seed.

WB.com has episodes of the 1990-91 Flash TV series on it’s website to watch for free!

The Flash TV series is a favorite of mine from back when I was just a little guy. My dad was a huge fan of sci-fi tv series, and we used to flip back and forth from The Flash to the Simpsons way back in the day. A few years later my sister would let me rent out the old Flash series from Erol’s, as they carried two VHS of the series, The Flash and The Flash II: Revenge of The Trickster. I found both to be highly entertaining and watched them numerous times with captive eyes. I believe a third one was released later on but I never got a chance to watch it.

At this point in my collection I had only one Flash action figure with which I could act out his adventures with. It was made by Toy Biz and had an action feature that made his arms move when you wound the mechanism on it’s back. I believe these were the immediate successors of the Super Powers Collection Action figures and even had a knock-off quality when compared to them. I had a slew of X-Men action figures so they pulled double-duty as villains. Fun times.

When they finally released the The Flash on DVD back in January of 2006, I was there at Best Buy first thing in the morning to pick it up. I was not disappointed. Well except for the mixed up episodes and the reports of some discs not working correctly. But the show had high production values, a cool suit, a solid cast, and cameos from some future Hollywood mainstays (Angela Bassett and Richard Belzer). Like many first seasons of series it had it’s ups and downs. Many of which are showcased at Crimsonlightning.com, which ran a regular feature reviewing each episode of the show. Although I have to disagree with their review of Sins of The Father, personally that’s one of my favorites. I love the dice scene and the quick change costume scene towards the end. Pure Awesome.

Despite it’s low points the show was the first time that we really had a serious portrayal of a mainstream comics character in live action on TV and it was decently faithful.

I would love to see a live action Flash series (or better yet movie) in this day and age, but we will have to settle for this show in the meantime. We Flash fans have been doing a lot of settling though lately. I can only hope that with DC putting the spotlight back on The Flash in the DC Universe, we will see The Flash take the spotlight in other media as well.

If you missed it up top you can watch free episodes of The Flash here. Feel free to come back and leave some thoughts for us on the series and any memories you may have of it.

Credit: Dustin Fletcher for the link.

Also Speedforce.org and Arrobasilver.com’s Design and Win Your Own Flash Ring Contest is in full swing! So feel free to check out the page and send your entry in today! There is little over a month remaining in the contest and we have some great entries so far. Keep ’em coming!

Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Flash Secret Files Preview

DC has released a 6-page preview of the Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010, including 3 story pages and profiles of Iris Allen, Captain Cold, and Barry Allen. It’s…surprisingly decompressed for a single-issue origin story.

You can read the preview at the Source or at Newsarama.

Interestingly, the preview still lists the book as coming out next week, even though it was missing from Diamond’s “Upcoming Releases” list on Monday, DC changed the date to April 7 on their website yesterday, and Diamond listed the change to April 7 on today’s shipping updates. I’m guessing this is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing…or more precisely, the left hand changing things while the right hand is on vacation and doesn’t have a chance to update.

Update (March 29): The book is on Diamond’s upcoming releases list for April 7.

Outrun: the Guardians’ New Speedster

Image Comics has been running ads for Guardians of the Globe, a spinoff miniseries from Invincible, spoofing the style of Marvel’s “I am an Avenger” ads. They started last week with joke ads showing team members like Spawn, Harry Potter, and Barack Obama, and are revealing the real members of the team this week. Today’s addition: Outrun, a new speedster with a somewhat morbid tagline that has CBR wondering whether she’ll live through the miniseries.

My speed creeps into every aspect of my life. I only hope I can make a difference before I burn out. — Outrun

Actually, she sounds kind of like Barry Allen in the first issue of Flash: Rebirth: driven to do everything she can for fear that her time will run out soon. (What is it with speedsters and death? Is it the metaphor of burning the candle at both ends? Barry’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths? “Live fast, die young?”)

The six-issue miniseries by Robert Kirkman, Benito Cereno and Ransom Getty starts in August.

(Thanks to Vinny Piccolo for the link.)

UPDATE (March 26): Now that the full roster has been revealed — including an Australian who uses exploding boomerangs as weapons (where have I seen that before?) — Newsarama has an interview with Kirkman about the project.