This Week (May 28): JSA, JLA, Trinity?

Remember: due to the holiday, comics are shipping on Thursday this week (at least in the US).

Justice League of America #33

Justice League of America #33Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Art by Rags Morales
Cover by Ed Benes
It’s Dharma vs. Starbreaker for control of the greatest source of power in the DC Universe. No matter the victor, the Justice League loses!

32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Note: I’m not actually sure that any Flashes will appear in this one, since Wally quit the team a few issues ago.

Justice Society of America #27

Justice Society of America #27Written by Jerry Ordway
Art by Jerry Ordway & Bob Wiacek
Cover by Jerry Ordway

The younger JSA team members find their headquarters in total lockdown — with The Flash, Green Lantern and Wildcat trapped inside! Can the junior JSA-ers break into their own home base? And what secret from the Atomic Age seeks retribution from the three founding members?

32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Also a good bet: the final issue of Trinity, which is likely to guest-star just about everyone in the DCU.

Happy (belated) Birthday, Carmine Infantino!

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Barry Allen ClassicLA Times’ Hero Complex has a tribute to Carmine Infantino, co-creator of the Silver Age Flash, who celebrated his 84th birthday yesterday.

I got to see the legendary artist at the 2006 Comic-Con International, where he appeared on at least two panels: a Carmine Infantino spotlight (where he mostly reminisced about his time in the comics industry) and the 50 Years of the Flash (not counting Jay Garrick) panel featuring at least half a dozen writers and artists who had worked on The Flash.

One of the stories he told at both panels was about the “war” between him and Julius Schwartz: he’d try to draw ever-more-nasty cliffhangers on his covers, and every time, Julie would come up with a story to go with it. So finally he drew one with the Flash and the Golden Age Flash both racing to save some guy, and said, “There! Top that!” The rest, of course, is history

The HeroComplex post incudes a gallery of classic Infantino covers.

Comment Issues

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Comment threading is enabled now, so you can now reply to a specific comment on a post and have it appear below it and indented — just like on LiveJournal or WordPress.com. See the comments on this post for an example.

The downside is that it required some changes to the theme, some of which I missed initially. If you’ve visited the site in the last few days, you may have seen some comments showing up in unreadable light yellow-on-white. That should be taken care of now, but if you still see it, just hit reload and it should be fine.

Technical note: It was a caching issue. New visitors, or anyone who hit reload, would get the updated stylesheet, but anyone who had visited the site recently would see it displayed with their local copy of the old version. After I realized this, I renamed the stylesheet to make sure that all visitors would get a fresh copy.

Speed Reading: Mirrors and Rainbows Addicted to Crime

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Some links of note before this holiday weekend:

Flashy Links

Comics Should Be Good’s Year of Comic Book Moments features Flash v.2 #73, Wally and Linda’s first Christmas together and a surprise visit from the man in red.

Somehow I missed this when it was posted, but Mightygodking has an off-kilter profile of the Rainbow Raider.

Comic Coverage looks at the time Mirror Master managed to transform the Flash into a mirror.

Silver Age Comics looks at the way crime was treated as an addiction in many comics of the era, particularly The Flash — again focusing on the Mirror Master.

Update: Karl Kerschl has posted a progress shot of the Flash being inked for Wednesday Comics.

Whirlwind Tour

The Source previews what’s in store for Justice Society of America as Bill Willingham, Matt Sturges and Jesus Merino take over the book.

Darcey McLaughlin of the Miramichi Leader notes that death has lost all meaning in comic books.

Scott’s Classic Comics Corner (Comics Should Be Good) has an interesting post on measuring scarcity in comics collecting.

Karl Kerschl’s (Flash in Wednesday Comics) webcomic, The Abominable Charles Christopher, has reached its 100th episode.

Finally, if you’ll excuse the plug, please take a look at my eBay auctions if you haven’t recently. I’ve got several DVDs and CDs up right now, as well as a promotional Star Trek T-shirt from San Diego 2007.

DCU Online Flash — Concept Art and Screenshots Reveal Wally West

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Sony has just released character designs and a bio of the Flash in DC Universe Online, and Newsarama has the scoop. The Flash has previously appeared in demos and screenshots of the upcoming MMORPG, but I don’t recall seeing the design artwork before…or the character biography.

Flash design for DC Universe Online

The surprise here is that Jim Lee’s design is still recognizably Wally West’s costume with the V-shaped belt, rather than Barry Allen’s. Considering that DC has been re-focusing the Flash franchise around Barry Allen, I would have expected them to use him for their next flagship game. And besides, Geoff Johns is writing both Flash: Rebirth and the storylines for DCUO. On the other hand Mortal Kombat vs. DCU used a costume that was closer to Wally’s than Barry’s, and called him Barry Allen. The biography is quite specific, though:

The Fastest Man Alive, Wally West easily runs at light speed, vibrates through objects, create explosions through friction – and, when at agonizing top capacity, can manipulate time and bridge dimensions.

The Flash is a time-honored member of the Justice League. The latest in a long line of Flashes, each with their own unique way of tapping into the primal “Speed Force,” Wally is determined to live up to the noble legacies of speedsters such as Barry Allen, Max Mercury, and Jay Garrick.

It’s hard to get more specific than that!

(Speaking of Jay Garrick, the design for his appearance in the game was released last summer.)

Newsarama has more images and details.

Update: jcbagee points to a gallery of more images at Kotaku. In addition to some slightly larger versions of the same images, there are a bunch of screenshots from the game itself, including this one with some (presumably) player-character speedsters:

Flash Group

Oddly enough, the Flash’s eyes seem blue in the renderings…

Update 2: CBR has the same set of images as Kotaku, and the bio.

Geoff Johns on Word Balloon

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The Word Balloon podcast interviews Geoff Johns, and the writer talks about Flash: Rebirth, Blackest Night, and Legion of Three Worlds. Newsarama has a few excerpts, including this bit about reader reaction to Barry Allen’s characterization:

I love the discussion and debates, because I know where this story is going …I remember when we did The Sinestro Corps Wars, and Kyle at the end of the first issue was possessed by Parallax. People went crazy! They couldn’t believe how we could do this (laughs) …and Ethan was saying ‘We should tell them that he’s not going to be Parallax,’ and I said ‘No! Let them get riled up, because they should, but we know where this story ends.’ … In Flash: Rebirth, Barry is searching for the same answers…this story is trying to solve a crime, but Barry is moving much too fast to do that. [Emphasis added.]

The whole interview is about an hour long. I know what I’m going to be listening to at lunch!

Update: I forgot my headphones, so I had to wait until I got home to listen. 🙁

Things that stood out, Flash-wise:

  • Trying to go against expectations
  • Twist coming for Wally
  • Flash is back, but Barry isn’t yet (figuratively speaking)
  • Bart’s attitude toward the Rogues is sort of “Nyah, nyah, missed me!”
  • Bart and Barry are in sync in terms of sensing that something’s wrong.
  • Expanding the Flash mythos so that there could be more than one Flash book post-Rebirth