Tag Archives: 1990s

Artist for DC Retroactive: Flash 90s – Mike Bowden

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DC has announced the creative team and release date for the final DC RetroActive: The Flash special, this one focusing on the 1990s. Each special features an all-new story reuniting one of the decade’s writers with the character, set in then-current continuity, and one reprinted story.

DC RETROACTIVE: THE FLASH – THE ’90s #1

When Wally West became The Flash in the ’90s*, he morphed from a sidekick into a hero in his own right. The creative team of writer Brian Augustyn and artist Mike Bowden set the Fastest Man Alive in another race against evil.

ONE-SHOT • On sale AUGUST 17 • 56 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T

So, now we know the creative teams for all three specials. I’ll admit I’m a bit disappointed that they only managed to reunite both writer and artist on the 1980s special, though in the case of the 1970s special, I think most of the main artists from that run are either retired or passed away.

Does anyone know who Mike Bowden is? I can’t find any credits in a search on Comics.org. For that matter, I only found one credit for Benito Gallego, the artist doing the 1970s book. I wonder if DC is using these specials to try out new talent when they can’t get a period artist.

On another note: I think this is the first time in over a year that the words “Wally West” have appeared in a solicitation for a comic containing new material.

*It was, of course, the ’80s when Wally West became the Flash. Apparently DC is too busy with Flashpoint to get someone to copy-edit their solicitations.

A “Retro-Active” Flash-Back

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At the WonderCon DC Nation panel, DC announced a series of one-shots coming this summer called “Retro-Active.” Each set features three one-shots set in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s continuity re-uniting the characters with the creators most associated with of classic runs from that era.

The Flash issues will be written by:

  • Cary Bates for the 1970s
  • William Messner-Loebs for the 1980s
  • Brian Augustyn for the 1990s.

Each issue will feature 26 pages of new story and 20 pages of reprinted material and will run $4.99. No word yet on artists or release dates. Other characters announced include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Justice League of America.

It’s odd that they’ve broken up the Waid/Augustyn team. Given that Waid has expressed willingness to work for DC again, I figure this means one of two things:

  • DC doesn’t want to hire Mark Waid for now.
  • Mark Waid doesn’t want to return to The Flash after the disaster of “The Wild Wests.”

Source: CBR coverage and Newsarama coverage.

Update (Monday): DC has released the logos and writers for the event.

Surprising Flash Fact: Wally West has More Experience than Barry Allen

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I had an odd thought while reading The Flash #2* last week. Francis Manapul draws Barry and Iris in a way that makes them look fairly young, and I remembered someone’s remark that the cowl on Wally West’s new costume makes him look older than Barry, even though Wally used to be Barry’s younger sidekick.

Then it hit me: No, Wally isn’t older than Barry Allen (even with time travel) but when you factor in his earlier Kid Flash career, he actually has more experience than Barry at this point!

No, Really!

Wally West became Kid Flash very early in Barry Allen’s Flash career — only six issues into his solo series! Flash vol.1 started with #105, picking up from where the Golden Age Flash Comics left off, and Wally was struck by lightning in Flash #110, back in 1959. He didn’t retire as Kid Flash until very late in Barry’s career, in New Teen Titans #39 — just one year before Barry vanished in 1985.**

So Wally West has been running around for most of Barry’s career plus his own!

Team Player

During his JLA run, Grant Morrison is one of the few writers I can remember really building on the fact that the original Titans grew up as super-heroes. I don’t recall it being a plot point, but Morrison mentioned it in an interview, or possibly one of the Secret Files books, and it clearly factored into his characterization of Wally West. He might not have been as old as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but he’d been working with a team longer than they had, and he was a consummate professional.

Wally wasn’t the rookie on the team by any stretch. That honor went to Green Lantern Kyle Rayner.

Of course, neither Wally nor Barry can hold a candle to Jay Garrick, who has been speeding since 1940!

*Yes, I do still plan on reviewing it. It was just a busy week, and for some reason, it’s been hard to sit down and write it.

**These are of course the real-world publishing dates. The fictional DC Universe would use a vague “X years ago” timeline that always seems to change, but usually compresses everything from the dawn of the Silver Age onward into a 10-15–year period.

Speed Reading: Flash in the 1990s

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Strangely enough, a lot of the sites I’ve linked to on Twitter or Facebook over the last few weeks were looking back at the 1990s and Mark Waid’s run on The Flash

Max Mercury.High Five! Comics profiles Max Mercury: The Speedster Time Forgot (for a while). Of course, Max goes back farther than — he started as Quality Comics’ Golden Age hero, Quicksilver — but the version of the character known today was established in “The Return of Barry Allen,” “Terminal Velocity,” “Dead Heat” and Impulse.

Terminal VelocityFor Valentine’s Day, Comics Should be Good’s Year of Cool Comics spotlights Flash: Terminal Velocity and a key event in the relationship between Wally West and Linda Park.

Westfield Comics’ Josh Crawley looks back at Mark Waid’s first run on The Flash, picking up with Flash #0 and running through “Terminal Velocity,” “Dead Heat” and “Race Against Time.”

Mania spotlights the 1990s Flash TV series in 15 more shows that were canceled before their time over the last 25 years. It’s an interesting mix of shows I remember fondly (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), shows I remember hearing about but never watched (Murder One), and shows I’ve completely forgotten (Street Hawk?). It also reminds me that I never got around to watching the last few episodes of Journeyman.

Speed Reading: DC 2000, Lo3W, Strips and Zoom

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Some weekend linkblogging…

Comics and…Other Imaginary Tales looks back at DC Two Thousand, a two-part story from the turn of the millennium in which the modern Justice League of America goes back in time to 1941 and meets the Justice Society. The Golden Age heroes aren’t entirely sure the JLA’s future is worth saving, though.

Collected Editions reviews Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

Comic Book Movie fan-casts Flash: Rebirth.

Chris Samnee sketches Kid Flash.

What Were They Thinking? has another example of why they called the Golden-Age Flash a comic “strip.”

Over at Comic Bloc there’s a comedic discussion of What else Zoom did to Barry (spoilers for Flash: Rebirth #5).

Super-Hero Weddings

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Originally posted way back in 2003, long before the infamous Green Arrow/Black Canary wedding!

Cover: Flash #165Over the past few weeks I’ve been going through the Silver Age Flash series, cataloging character appearances. I’m almost done – only 25 issues left – but it reminded me of something:

Why is it that super-hero weddings are almost always interrupted by super-villains – even when the hero’s identity is secret?

Is it just that readers expect a story with some sort of fight in it, and if it’s just a wedding they’ll be disappointed?

Consider these examples:

  • Flash II (Barry Allen) and Iris West: the wedding is interrupted when Professor Zoom disguises himself as the groom, and the Flash has to get rid of him and then make it to the wedding himself.
  • Flash II (Barry Allen) and Fiona Webb (after Iris’ death): Zoom returns, Flash spends the whole day chasing him around the globe, and eventually Fiona gives up and runs out of the chapel, just in time for Zoom to try to kill her. (Flash stops him with a last-second choke-hold which breaks his neck, leading to a manslaughter trial, the disappearance of Barry Allen, and finally the cancellation of the series.)
  • Flash III (Wally West) and Linda Park: at the moment the rings are exchanged, Abra Kadabra kidnaps Linda, sends everyone home, and casts a massive forget spell, erasing all memory and records of her back to the point she met Wally. Eventually she escapes, Kadabra is tricked into reversing the spell, and they hold a new wedding – 18 issues later.

And it’s not just the main characters who get this treatment: Continue reading →