Tag Archives: Barry Allen

Requiem For a Scarlet Speedster Airs Tonight

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Flash vs. Zoom in Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster

After a long wait, Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster, the Flash-focused episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, airs tonight on Cartoon Network at 7:00pm. (Or, depending on your time zone, already aired.)

It’s been online through sketchy channels ever since it played in Australia in May, and legitimately on Amazon Video on Demand since early August. (It was also available on iTunes briefly, but was pulled, possibly to hold it until the US broadcast.)

So, what’s in it? Three Flashes vs. Professor Zoom. Super-speed hijinks. Time travel. References to everything from Crisis on Infinite Earths to the “Dark Tomorrow” arc in Impulse. Cameos by the Rogues. A race around the world. A story about teamwork and no-ally-left-behind….

And great voice casting!

Thanks to Darren for the screenshot, and JC Norris for letting me know that the episode is being shown tonight.

Flash #9 Solicitation & Cover

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DC’s Brightest Day solicitations for December are up!

The Flash #9

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:10 Variant cover by SCOTT KOLINS

BRIGHTEST DAY rushes forward! Now, make way for Hot Pursuit – the latest speedster to come out of the Speed Force! He’s here to make sure no one breaks the speed limit – hero or villain! And just wait until you see whose face is under Hot Pursuit’s helmet…

On sale DECEMBER 29 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Notes — Three Flashes: Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen as Kid Flash. (This also marks both Wally’s and Bart’s first cover appearances — and probably first appearances, unless one of them shows up in flashbacks during the upcoming Rogue Profile issues — in Volume 3. It looks like we won’t have to wait until 2011 to see Wally West in the main Flash book…unless it slips a week.)

I’m not sure what a speedster needs with a motorcycle, but I’ve got to admit that it looks cool. (Hmm, suddenly I’m reminded of the “You can fly! Why do you need a plane!” “You drive a car, don’t you?” exchange at the end of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.)

Dragon*Con Flash-Back

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The Irredeemable Shag of Once Upon a Geek has been posting photos from past Dragon*Cons in advance of year’s convention. Among them: This 2007 photo of a fan dressed as the future Barry Allen from Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

Dark Knight Flash_74

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone in this costume before.

Speed Reading: Boomerang, Barry & Iris, Bart, Sonic & More

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Some linkblogging for the weekend.

Flash

Other speedsters

  • Impulse Flashback: Bart Allen’s first day of school at Comics Should Be Good’s Year of Cool Comics
  • First Comics News’ Sonic The Hedgehog Month is almost over
  • Top Cow will be selling the SDCC and Supercon Velocity variants through retail in November

Other comics

Speed Reading: Flash History – Blitz, Showcase, Hell to Pay and JLApe

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Some recent sightings of Flash history around the web.

4thletter!’s 4×4 Elements series looks at what made “Blitz” work.

Two more Flash moments appear in Comics Should Be Good’s list of 75 Memorable Moments in DC History: Barry Allen’s sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths and the first Superman/Flash race.

Bleeding Cool noticed a similarity between the universe-changing conclusion of Spider-Man’s “One More Day” and a story point in Flash’s “Hell to Pay,” and asked, “Where was the outrage when Wally West did the same thing?” Hmm, on one hand you have someone who makes a deal with the devil to retcon away 15 20 years of stories and create a new status quo that has lasted three years so far. On the other hand, you have someone who makes a deal with the devil for the sake of a story, and he finds a way to beat the Devil at his own game the next issue. Yeah, they’re totally the same.

Random Happenstance’s series on 1999’s JLApe event continues with a summary of the Flash installment, featuring Max Monkey and Chimpulse.

The Hooded Utilitarian, after reading Flash: Rebirth, decides to go back and read some Silver-Age Flash starting with Showcase .

Review: The Flash #4

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I’ve been really enjoying the ongoing Flash series despite the frustration and disappointment of Flash: Rebirth. It’s as if “The Dastardly Death of the Rogues” is being written by Geoff Johns, and Flash: Rebirth was written by the mirror Geoff. Or in a multiverse context, the Geoff Johns of Earth-3.

Also surprising: Johns seems to have remembered an old saying about writing comic books: Every issue is somebody’s first. A few deftly placed lines of dialogue spell out the key details of the story so far: Boomerang’s status and new abilities, who the Renegades are, what file is missing and why, etc. Considering this is part 4 of a 6-part story, I suspect most writers today wouldn’t have bothered.

Francis Manapul’s artwork continues to be the highlight of this book. The Flash stands or falls (runs or stumbles?) on pacing and the reader’s perception of speed, and Manapul delivers. This time around, the stand-out panels are splash pages in an effort to rescue pilots from a damaged helicopter. (One nice easter egg: in the background of that double-page spread, we see the bridge that Wally West rebuilt back in “Crossfire.”)

I’m neutral on the “Flash Facts” pages, though if they’re going to keep using them to spotlight the villains, I like the way they link the real tech with the comic-book tech. Last month it was “How Boomerangs Work” and “How Captain Boomerang’s Boomerangs Work.” This month it’s mirrors and Mirror Master’s mirrors.

Some of the luster is beginning to fade, though. The structure is starting to feel formulaic: Barry Allen keeps fighting the Renegades, and every battle gets cut short one way or another. Every issue has a major super-speed feat, which individually manages to be extremely cool, but gets repetitive four issues on.

I think the main thing that disappointed me about this issue was the revelation behind the murder mystery. Sure, it’s one of the few explanations that fits Barry Allen’s character, but it also violates the expectations set up in the first half of the story. To say any more, I’ll have to break into….

SPOILERS!

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