Speed Reading: Retro Reviews, Doug Hazlewood, TV Shows and More

The Victoria Advocate profiles Doug Hazlewood.

Comics In Crisis presents Flash v.2 #182 (2002), the Captain Cold Rogue Profile story, among the 10 Essential Bronze Age Comic Stories You Should Read. I’d disagree with the Bronze-Age classification (traditionally, the Bronze Age of Comics ran from the 1970s through mid 1980s, with Crisis on Infinite Earths being a good reference point for DC books), but it’s absolutely a must-read.

X-Man reviews Flash vol.2 #1 (1987), noting how different Wally West was at the age of 20 than he is today. That’s actually one of the things Wallys’ long-term fans like most about the character: that we’ve seen him grow and change naturally, rather than simply be given a personality transplant whenever a new writer shows up.

The Quantum Blog talks about TV shows canceled before their time, including the 1990-1991 Flash TV Series. (Hard to believe it’s been almost 20 years. Seriously, Quantum Leap is having a 20th Anniversary convention this month. I feel old…)

The Worlogog celebrates Weird Silver Age Tales of the Flash.

I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but Raging Bullets Podcast #152 features Flash’s Rogues with listener guest Mike Simms.

Heritage Auctions will be selling a CGC 9.6 copy of Showcase #4, the comic that rebooted the Flash as Barry Allen, launching the Silver Age (via It’s all Just Comics)

A Journal of Zarjaz Things looks at Flash: Emergency Stop, griping that Grant Morrison’s 9-issue run is split across two trades with the second “padded” out with a 3-parter by Mark Millar. IMO, though, Morrison didn’t write a 9-issue Morrison run — he co-wrote 9 issues of a 12-issue Morrison/Millar run. It would have been less responsible for DC to print only the Morrison issues and leave out “The Black Flash,” which has arguably had more lasting impact on the Flash mythos than the other stories in these trades, good as they are. (It is silly that they left out the first two parts of “Three of a Kind,” though.)

Flash Flickr Finds: MegaCon

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Sadly, I didn’t spot any Flash costumes at WonderCon last weekend (though you can see my photos of other stuff at the con)… and I didn’t find any online either. I did, however, manage to find some Flashy photos from MegaCon on Flickr.

Photos by samaritanx, rossnordean, and apocalyptic.

I found several pictures of the Flash and Starfire in the second picture, making me wonder whether they knew each other or just happened to cross paths frequently. There’s one photo of them with Dan Didio and George Perez, suggesting they’re the ones who went up onstage at the DC Universe panel.

More Silver-Age Flash Reprints Coming: Chronicles and Rogues

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Flash Chronicles Vol 1Collected Editions has spotted two more Flash books coming this year: Flash Chronicles Vol. 1 and Flash vs. The Rogues, coming in September and November respectively.

The Flash Chronicles looks to be picking up on the format pioneered by the Batman Chronicles and Superman Chronicles: starting from the beginning, reprinting the stories in chronological order in trade paperback form.

Well, mostly: judging by the Carmine Infantino credit, and the fact that the Green Lantern Chronicles are starting with Hal Jordan, they’re probably starting with the Silver Age — 15 years after the Flash first appeared. And re-reprinting the same stories that have already been reprinted in the Flash Archives series and Showcase Presents: The Flash.

Every time DC changes to a new format for their reprints, they start over in the same place. It’s maddening. It’s as if, instead of releasing full seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent series, Paramount had released season one on VHS, then went back and released the same season on DVD, then gone back and released the same season on Blu-Ray, never getting to later seasons of TNG…or to the original series.

How about reprinting some more Golden Age Flash stories, DC? I’ll happily pre-order The Golden Age Flash Archives Volume 3 the moment you solicit it!

As for Flash vs. the Rogues, my best guess as to content would be collecting the stories from Barry’s run in which the Rogues teamed up against their speedy nemesis. Stories like “The Gauntlet of Super-Villains,” “Stupendous Triumph of the Six Super-Villains,” and “If I Can’t Rob Central City, Nobody Can!”

Rumor: Flash Movie Speeding Up?

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Edit: Thinking about it more, Brandan’s probably right. This was too sketchy to really bother posting. Even if it’s true, I probably misremembered the dates anyway. I’d delete the post, but on the internet that would paradoxically give it more attention.

Not much to report anyway: just someone overhearing a conversation which implied that WB marketing expected to start working on stuff related to the perpetually-in-development-hell Flash movie in the next couple of years, rather than just eventually.

Velocity and Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash

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Joe Casey talks to CBR about Dance, the Final Crisis aftermath book featuring Japan’s Super Young Team. Two speedster connections: first, the Super Young Team has their very own speedster, Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash. Second: Casey and Dance artist ChrisCross were going to be the team on Top Cow’s Velocity series, and Casey talks a little about what happened to that.

Y’know, we were primed to do a “Velocity” series for Top Cow and although I wrote and got paid for three issues and Cross penciled a first issue that was so visually stunning and the best-looking thing Top Cow would’ve published this year, somewhere along the line that famous Top Cow brand of common sense disappeared into an unexpectedly bizarre rift in time and space, they started firing staff left and right – including our beloved editor – and our book was suddenly no more, resulting in an obviously broken promise to four million Pilot Season voters. Ouch.

But, hey, their loss is DC’s gain, right? Before you could say, ‘Diamond minimums,’ Cross and I landed on this series, which, let’s face it, is a lot cooler and will probably sell a few more copies.

Speed Reading: Old Favorites and the Unknown

Catching up on some linkblogging from the past two weeks.

Crimson Lightning posts the results of the leading lady poll, and starts the next one: what’s your favorite arc from Wally West’s run as the Flash?

At Fraggmented, John Seavey describes a personal favorite: Flash vol.2 #50, the conclusion of William Messner-Loebs’ arc with Vandal Savage.

Comic Coverage looks into the Flash’s worst retcon, the Silver Age “real origin of the Flash” that introduced the much-reviled Mopee — including contemporary fan response from the letters column! For a character whom readers and writers alike wanted to forget, he’s certainly getting a lot of attention lately.

The latest Random Dive into the Deep End of the Long Box features Flash vol.2 #220, the opening chapter of “Rogue War.”

Robot 6’s Grumpy Old Fan ponders the emphasis on “important” events instead of just telling stories.

More Flash in last week’s 20 Questions with Dan Didio. Nothing really new, though, just the same old statements.

Newsarama interviews Mark Waid on his upcoming miniseries, The Unknown.

Jesse Blaze Snider (Dead Romeo) tells Fangoria that he’d love to write the Flash (among other super-heroes).