And the relaunch of the Flash franchise continues! With Flash: Rebirth in progress, Blackest Night: The Flash launching in December, and new Flash and Kid Flash ongoing series launching next spring, it seems that DC has one more element on its way. This morning, artist Tony Harris (Ex Machina) posted the following on Twitter:
@TONYFINGHARRIS: Gonna start a Flash Secret Files cover today. Excited. Never Drawn Flash before except my version in JSA: The Liberty Files.
The last time the Flash had a Secret Files and Origins issue was 2001, shortly after Geoff Johns became the regular writer on Wally West’s series. Since the Flashes’ origins had been covered only a couple of years earlier (1997), Johns used the issue to establish characters and story elements that fed into the next two years of stories, particularly “Crossfire” and “Blitz.”
Now seems like a good time, with three heroes and a villain returning from limbo, a refactoring of the cast and of the nature of the Flash’s powers, and two new series launching, spotlighting at least three characters (Barry Allen in the lead stories in The Flash, Wally West in the backup stories, and presumably Bart Allen in Kid Flash).
[Edited to add:] It would be an ideal way to help potential new readers get in on the ground floor, especially if it arrives the same month as, or right before the new series launches. Considering that DC’s been saying “March or April” for the launch, and Blackest Night: Flash should finish in February, it might even make sense to release this in March and The Flash #1 in April. That would a good way to give the creative team on the series a little extra lead time while still maintaining the momentum of a monthly schedule, kind of like the way All-Flash #1 bridged the month between Flash: The Fastest Man Alive and the relaunch of Wally West’s series.
I’d almost rather DC had just launched the ongoing books last April along with a Secret Files, but I guess they wanted the publicity of a second Geoff Johns/Ethan Van Sciver “Rebirth” book, and I’m sure Geoff Johns wanted more pages to lay a foundation before getting started.
Update: Harris has posted a small section of his art featuring the Flash.
(via MTV Splash Page)
Superman, Batman, and Max Mercury have all been cited as giving comic-book speedster Bart Allen the name Impulse. Batman most famously in Impulse #50, and Superman in the previews for All-Flash #1. (The final lettering simply said “He was code-named Impulse,” sidestepping the issue). But who named him originally?
The name first appears on the cover of Flash #93 (August 1994), with an out-of-control Bart Allen fighting the Flash. The cover is captioned, “Brash Impulse!” Over the next few issues, Wally West’s inner monologue refers to Bart as being impulsive, or (at one point) as “Mr. Impulse.”
