This Week (Oct 1): JLA & Collections

This week, the Flash appears in Justice League of America #25 and collected editions of Justice and Countdown to Final Crisis. He may also appear in DCU: Decisions #2 and Trinity #18.

Justice League of America #25

Written by Dwayne McDuffie ; Art by Ed Benes; Cover by Ed Benes

Vixen and Animal Man journey into the sacred Tantu Totem to solve the mystery of their altered powers. But Anansi, the African spider god responsible for these changes, has only begun reshaping the powers and histories of the Justice League, as eight-year-old Bruce Wayne shoots the burglar who killed his parents, Wonder Woman retires from the JLA after the tragic death of her husband, Superman, and The Green Lantern Corps quarantines Earth after one of their number destroys an American city. With the team’s history changing before Vixen’s eyes, is the JLA we now know gone forever?

Notes: Totally off-topic, I know, but speaking of Anansi, I’d like to recommend Neil Gaiman’s novel, Anansi Boys. It’s set in the same world as American Gods (in which Shadow does encounter a version of Anansi), but neither book requires the other.

Continue reading →

What I Read: The Breakdown

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The Beat is running a poll called You are what you read, asking about people’s comic reading habits from a company perspective. I used to read mainly DC, but in the last 10 years or so I’ve branched out a lot, to the point where actual DC-labeled books are less than half of my current reading list (though if you factor in other DC-owned labels like Vertigo, it climbs to just over half).

Last month I went into why I read what I read, but I didn’t run any numbers on the list. Before filling out the Beat’s poll, I figured I’d break them down by label and see how they turned out:

7 DC: Flash, Secret Six, Tangent: Superman’s Reign, Final Crisis, Rogues’ Revenge, Legion of Three Worlds, and All-Star Superman.
3 Vertigo: Fables, House of Mystery, Madame Xanadu.
3 Image: Noble Causes, Gemini, Dynamo 5. (Yes, they’re all written by Jay Faerber)
2 Marvel: The Twelve, True Believers.
1 WildStorm: Astro City.
1 Dark Horse: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
1 IDW: Fallen Angel.

So that works out at 7/18=39% for DC proper, or 11/18=61% for all DC-owned books.

Of course, a lot of those are miniseries, and All-Star Superman just ended. Looking only at ongoing books: Continue reading →

Baltimore Flash Hints

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Coverage of Baltimore Comic-Con‘s DC Nation panel is up at Newsarama and at CBR, and they’re dropping more hints about the future of the Flash franchise.

Q: How will Barry Allen react to the modern heroes when he returns?

A: Johns: “Part of the fun of exploring Barry Allen is seeing Barry get along with all of the other DC heroes – in a modern setting, he did get along with Bruce Wayne, and Hal, and didn’t with Green Arrow.” Johns said that both Rebirth and Flash will be very science based, but will also blend in the quasi-science of the Speed Force; and will allow readers to learn a lot about Barry Allen before the lightning hit – what did he do, and why did he wear a bow tie?”

Comic Bloc poster BESTBUY points out that the phrasing was “both Rebirth and Flash” — another hint that perhaps, Geoff Johns may be continuing on the series that launches after Flash: Rebirth concludes.

According to Johns, we’ll find out who’s in the Lightning Rod in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3. (Since that’s the only reason I’m reading the series, my main interest in the Legion of Super-Heroes being in the one version of the Legion that isn’t represented in the series — the Five-Year-Gap Legion — maybe I can skip issue #2.)

Also, while it seems that every other dead character asked about is fair game to be reanimated as a Black Lantern, Bart Allen will be spared that fate.

Intriguingly, “events playing out of Geoff Johns’ recent Legion stories in Superman and Justice Society of America will have repercussions in the contemporary DCU, especially for The Flash.”

The Fifth Most Expensive Comic

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Friday Night Lists is running a list of the 15 Most Expensive Comic Books, and a copy of Flash Comics #1 — specifically the Mile High pedigree copy rated CGC NM+ 9.6 — ranks at #5, valued at an estimated $274,000.

As recently as 2006, it was estimated at “only” 250,000. That’s still a bit out of my price range, though. I think I’ll stick with my $35 copy of The Golden Age Flash Archives Vol. 1 for now.

The post also says that the “milestone issue is currently ranked as the eighth most valuable comic book of all.” I’m not entirely sure how that fits with the ranking at #5 in the list.

Running Through Time

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Looking at this weeks new releases, I noticed the CMX manga title, The Girl Who Runs Through Time by Gaku Tsugano. From the description, it sounds like the character’s origin may have been inspired by the Flash:

Kazuko is a high school senior who has no idea what she wants to do in the future. Alone one day after school, she discovers a broken beaker in the science lab. She smells something sweet in the air, passes out, and finds herself transported back to her own past! Will Kazuko use her ability to travel through time wisely or selfishly?

Fumes from a broken beaker in a school science lab? Sounds like Jay Garrick’s origin to me! Time travel by running? Positively Flashy! (Though it looks like the “running” is actually metaphorical.)

The manga appears to be based on a 1976 1965 Japanese novel, The Girl Who Could Run Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui. According to Wikipedia, it’s been adapted to many media including at least two live-action films, an anime, and two TV series. To make matters more confusing, there’s a manga adaptation of the anime (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) in addition to this manga adaptation of the book.

The Girl Who Runs Through Time is a 2-parter, with Volume 1 out this week and Volume 2 coming in November.

Maybe they should call it “Finally! Crisis!”

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The latest DC Direct Channel newsletter has more shipping changes for Final Crisis.

Final Crisis #4 has been pushed back again to October 22, and the next few issues have been rescheduled accordingly. That puts Final Crisis #5 on November 26, and Final Crisis #6 on December 31. (FC6 isn’t on the list, but the new date is on DC’s website.)

So it looks like December will have an issue of Final Crisis, after all.