Flash Secret Origin Planned

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The new issue of Comic-Con Magazine (originally the newsletter for Comic-Con International) is up, with a focus on comic book writers and an extensive interview with Geoff Johns. At one point, the interviewer asks about a Flash: Secret Origin story.

I will be doing the Flash Secret Origin. He’s never had a secret origin book….with Green Lantern Secret Origin, it’s a book now and that book actually outsells the other GL trades because you look at it if you’re in a bookstore or whatever and that’s the first one you’ll pick up because it looks like that’s the first volume….the Flash Secret Origin will be one of those books that you can hand to anybody.

Johns has previously said that he’d like to do a Secret Origin of the Flash, but it sounds a lot more definite now. Though of course, we’ve seen DC’s plans for the Flash change many times over the last few years.

He doesn’t say when the story will be told, or whether it will be in the main book like Green Lantern: Secret Origin or in a separate miniseries like Superman: Secret Origin.

I wouldn’t agree that the Flash has never had a secret origin book, though. Certainly Mark Waid & Brian Augustyn’s The Life Story of the Flash would fit the bill. Yes, it’s 13 years old now, and Geoff Johns has wiped out the entire first third of the book with Eobard Thawne’s time travel shenanigans in Flash: Rebirth, but it does exist. Unless Superboy-Prime somehow punched it out of existence. I should go check my longboxes and make sure it’s still there… 😀

Tip of the hat to @SpeedsterSite for catching this!

Talking Flash with Geoff Johns

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Just a quick note since I’m kind of swamped today. DC has posted the first half of a two-part interview with Geoff Johns where he talks about his history with the Flash back to watching Challenge of the Super Friends and what he likes about the character. On the new series, he says:

All you need to know when you read the Flash #1 is how to read. Flash 101, and a few twists and turns, are within the pages. Francis did a stunning job, raising his art even from the amazing Adventure Comics.

On a key characteristic of Barry Allen:

Barry Allen is someone who has made a decision to help others during his own life and he made that decision even before he became the Flash.

The Rogues of course will be a big part of the new series, but they won’t be the only villains:

Barry will be meeting some new villains, one in particular that is going to be the strangest killer he’s ever faced. And I think with 64th Century magicians and talking gorillas that’s saying a lot.

Head over to The Source to read the whole interview. Or the whole first half, anyway. Part two goes up tomorrow.

Golden Age: Completing the Set & Tracing the Origins of the Shade

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It’s going to be a long time (if ever) before I track down the entire Golden Age run of the Flash, but I’ve finally tracked down the last item on a list I’ve been trying to complete for four years.

Getting Started

For the longest time I just assumed Golden Age comics would cost too much to collect. Then in late 2005 I picked a maximum, bid on several auctions on eBay (not expecting to win), and actually won two of them. They weren’t in good condition, but one of them was complete, and all I wanted to do was be able to read the stories.

So I took the appearance lists for those Golden Age villains who had survived into the Silver Age and beyond — villains who had returned like the Fiddler and the Thinker, or who had been re-imagined like Star Sapphire, the Turtle or the Thorn — removed anything that I had as a reprint, and made a list of books to track down.

Discovery

The first year I had pretty good success, and bought a bunch of other Golden Age books. I read them, indexed character appearances, and discovered forgotten recurring characters like the Worry Wart, Deuces Wilde, the Eel and the Keystone City Liars Club. After a while, though, the supply of (relatively) cheap, reader’s-grade copies on eBay dried up. Cons didn’t help because, as near as I can tell, most Golden Age collectors do it for the history. They’re looking for the books that are in the best condition possible, so that’s what dealers bring with them.

Pursuing the Shade

The one book I most wanted from the beginning proved to be the hardest to find: Flash Comics #33, the first appearance of the Shade. After four years, I finally found it. Last month a falling-apart copy showed up on eBay starting at $50, in a lot with two other books in much better condition. I figured it would quickly move beyond my price range, and didn’t even bother bidding — but I did put a watch on it. The day it closed, eBay sent me a reminder. Amazingly, it was only up to $55, so I put in a bid. Even more amazingly, it only went up to $56. To my astonishment, when I checked my email the next morning, there hadn’t been any more bids. I’d won!

It’s a strange feeling — a mix of astonishment and exhilaration — to finally track down something I’d sought for so long. I wrote up most of this post that day, but held off publishing it, just in case something went wrong.

It took a while, but the book arrived today. Continue reading →

Julie Benz Speeds Into No Ordinary Family

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ABC has announced casting for the Greg Berlanti television pilot, No Ordinary Family, a drama about a family with super powers. Julie Benz (Dexter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel) and Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic Four) play the lead couple. While the announcements don’t say what powers Chiklis’ police artist character has, Benz will be playing a scientist who develops super-speed.

If the name Greg Berlanti sounds familiar, IESB pegged him last week as the leading contender to direct The Flash.

Update: I missed the article when I posted this at lunch, but Rich Johnston reviewed a draft of the script last month. He described the script as “patchy,” but “a much more interesting exploration of possibilities of superfiction than The Cape. And leagues ahead of…Heroes.”

DC Trivia Contest: Win a Signed Flash #1 through Twitter

“Hot” Iris

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With the release of the Flash #1 preview, there’s been renewed talk about Iris Allen’s youth. After all, she lived long enough in the future to have children, watch them grow up, and have grandchildren, and when she came back with Bart, she looked visibly older: graying hair, crow’s feet, etc.

The question came up a lot when Flash: Rebirth launched last year, and I recall Ethan Van Sciver mentioning in one of his podcast interviews that he tried to draw her somewhat older, but that she and Barry didn’t look right together, so he and Geoff Johns decided to make her look closer to his age.

Now, there are a lot of reasons one can give for her looking 30 instead of 50 or 60: better medical care in the 31st century, the fact that she’s been transplanted into a new body at least once (don’t ask!), and the suggestion made in Flash: Rebirth #5 that exposure to the speed force keeps people young. This had actually been established before with Jay and to a lesser extent Joan Garrick.

Of course, it doesn’t explain why Iris would appear older in Flash vol.2 and Impulse, then younger in Flash: Rebirth and Flash vol.3, but since then, DC has established Superboy Punches, the “New Earth” rearrangement of history in Infinite Crisis, and Flash: Rebirth‘s alterations of Barry Allen’s past — including how and when he and Iris met.

But let’s not forget: When she returned after an extended absence during Geoff Johns’ run on Wally West’s series, Iris made her entrance looking like this: Continue reading →

Speed Force

Tracking the Flash – the Fastest Man Alive