Flash: Rebirth #5 Now Due November 11

Flash: Rebirth #5 Wow…this would be hilarious if it weren’t…actually, scratch that. It is hilarious.

DC’s website now shows Flash: Rebirth #5 as shipping on November 11, 2009. A week ago it was scheduled for November 4. A week before that it was October 28. Two weeks before that, it was October 14. And it was originally supposed to be out on August 26!

No change yet on the schedule for Flash: Rebirth #6 or Blackest Night: Flash #1. DC’s January solicitations should be up next Monday, though. There may be some leeway since January is a “skip month” for Blackest Night, though it’s not clear whether it’s only the primary miniseries or the side series like Blackest Night: Flash, Blackest Night: Wonder Woman and Blackest Night: JSA that are skipping. If we see BN: WW #2 and BN: JSA #2 on the schedule, but not BN: Flash #2, we’ll know something’s up.

I’m beginning to feel like I should start a betting pool for when Flash: Rebirth will actually wrap.

Update: Now it’s November 18.

This Week (Oct 14): JSA, Titans, Super Friends

JSA vs. Kobra #5

Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Don Kramer & Michael Babinski
Cover by Gene Ha

The Justice Society finally tracks Kobra to his main base and launches an all-out assault on him and his forces. It seems impossible that Jason Burr can escape their wrath now, but the wily serpent has one last surprising trick up his sleeve!

5 of 6 · 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Titans #18

Written by Bryan Q. Miller
Art by Angel Unzueta and Wayne Faucher
Cover by Angel Unzueta

With the Titans team slowly dissolving as members drift their own way, only the empath Raven recognizes the mounting disconnection. With her only friends drifting apart, Raven makes a surprising life choice that will affect the course of her strained relationship with Beast Boy.

32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Johnny DC

Super Friends #20

Written by Sholly Fisch
Art by Dario Brizuela
Cover by J. Bone

It’s Halloween time again! The Super Friends are having fun at the Halloween parade, only to have it interrupted by the fearsome Shaggy Man! Oh, no, that’s no treat!

32 pg, FC, $2.50 US

Justice League of America: When Worlds Collide HC

Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Art by Ed Benes, Shane Davis, Sandra Hope, Jose Luis, JP Mayer, Rob Hunter, Norm Rapmund and Drew Geraci
Cover by Ed Benes
The heroes of Milestone Comics return to battle the Justice League in this title collecting Justice League of America #27, 28 and 30-34.
The hero called Doctor Light is missing, and her former Justice League teammates intend to find the man responsible and make him pay. But before they do that, they’ll have to get past his Shadow Cabinet of powerful superbeings who have sworn to save humanity from itself. Milestone Comics characters Icon and Hardware make their first modern DC Universe appearances here — and it’s not clear whose side they’re on!
176 pg, FC, $24.99 US

Wednesday Comics: The Giant Coffee Table Book

1 Reply

All right! DC has announced that they’ll be collecting Wednesday Comics as an oversized hardcover book at 11×17″!

It’s not the full size, which would be ideal, but I do think an oversized hardcover is the best way to collect it. Shrinking the art to standard size would diminish the experience of reading it, and trying to do something this size as a paperback is unwieldy at best, judging by Comic Book Tattoo. There’s a reason I bought the hardcover of that book, and it wasn’t so that I could carry extra weight around the convention floor. (It wasn’t to weaponize a comic book, either, but I’m sure I could knock someone out if I hit them over the head with it.)

Amazingly enough, they plan to sell it for $49.99, the same price as the archive books that clock in at the same page count but smaller page size. Back when I tried to figure out how Wednesday Comics could be collected, I figured a coffee table book from DC would end up costing a lot more.

I do have to wonder how they’re going to manage the paperback edition, but with this option available for this price (and you know it’ll be discounted in places like Amazon)…does it really matter?

Note: I managed to delete the original post when I intended to edit it, losing the comments made earlier this evening. Sorry about that!

On the Comics Code

3 Replies

The Comics Code Authority is little more than a rubber stamp these days, but in the 1950s, it was a last-ditch attempt to save the industry from a popular backlash against perceived immorality, primarily (but not exclusively) in crime and romance comics. (Though some people thought super-heroes were even worse.) Its restrictions, eventually relaxed during the 1970s, are no doubt responsible for many of the silly story elements of the Silver Age.

Check out the Illustrated Comics Code, which uses Golden Age comics panels to demonstrate just what the original version of the code prohibited. (Be warned: the first image on there is kind of gruesome. And misspells Wertham.)

On a related note, I recently finished reading David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. It’s a fascinating look at the early years of the comic book industry, the cultural landscape around it, and how a moral panic (not unlike current controversy over video games — actually, more or less exactly like current controversy over video games) nearly destroyed the industry.

Quick Thoughts: Weekly Twitter for 2009-10-11

Co-Feature

Sad to see such negativity on the Flash co-feature. What, it’s not enough for Barry’s fans to win, Wally’s fans have to lose too?
The negativity seems to be from Barry fans who don’t want Wally to have backup stories in Barry’s book.
Thank you, @RokkKrinn! I just read Comic Bloc this morning and all 4 major Barry boosters there weighed in against it or w/reservations. in reply to RokkKrinn
Re-reading the comments on an old post from March: Co-Features, or How To Make All Flash Fans Happy.
To go w/Barry fans who don’t want Wally polluting their book, I’ve found Wally fans who find a backup insulting. Some ppl r never satisfied

Planetary and Delays

I have held Planetary #27 in my hands. Only question now: Do I read it tonight, or reread the whole series first?
Thanks for the Planetary suggestions. Think I’ll take the life’s uncertain: eat dessert first approach, read it tonight, THEN reread the series
After waiting years for Planetary to wrap, a couple months for Flash: Rebirth seems trivial. Annoying&frustrating, but hardly infuriating.
Funny: just realized when the previous issue of Planetary came out, BART was the Flash.

Other

Created a Flickr pool for Long Beach Comic Con b/c I couldn’t find one. Turns out one existed, but spelled it “Comicon.” That’s not its name
Some cons are “Comic Con” or “Comic-Con,” others are “Comicon.” It’s like calling the pool “Long Bach Comic Con.” Who’s going to find that?
Comic bloggers worth reading: @JohannaDC @HighFiveComics @RokkKrinn @TheNerdyBird @OnceUponAGeek @WeeklyCrisis #FollowFriday
Realized why the Japanese name for Optimus Prime bugs me: “Convoy” implies more than one vehicle. Maybe it’s a translation issue?
Does no one on Smallville connect Clark, the guy who wears red & blue and is always around weird stuff, with the “Red-Blue Blur?”
Site update: Bart Allen on Smallville.

Speed Reading: “Science,” Homages, and an Atomic Banana Peel

1 Reply

CBR Live found themselves “Flashed” by Warner Bros. — or rather, by an advertisement for The Big Bang Theory at their studios in Burbank, California.

What Were They Thinking? uncovers the amazing science behind Jay Garrick’s origin and more Golden Age “science.”

High Five! Comics notes a pair of Flash cover homages: the latest Irredeemable’s homage to “Flash of Two Worlds” and a tale of two Flash #105s.

Mark Waid has found the Flash’s ultimate adversary: the atomic banana peel. No, I am not making this up. And neither is he.

Breaking off-topic a bit, here’s the *ahem* cerealized Blackest Night that’s been making the rounds the last few days.

Blackest Night Breakfast Cereal

Speed Force

Tracking the Flash – the Fastest Man Alive