Tag Archives: Barry Allen

Speed Reading: Archenemies, SBP, CFJ, Smallville, Art, and More

Some weekend linkblogging.

Commentary

The Speedster Site Forum wants to know: Who do you consider the Flash’s archenemy?

The Weekly Crisis posts thoughts on comics for November. Regarding Superboy Prime’s upcoming appearance in Adventure Comics #4 (a Blackest Night tie-in), Ryan says, “The only way this won’t make me even more annoyed with the end of Legion of Three Worlds is if the Superboy Prime scenes are actually just him ranting on message boards.”

ICv2’s Confessions of a Comic-Book Guy discusses two events in Justice League: Cry For Justice #2: one now infamous among comics discussion circles, the other the less-commented-on off-panel killing of Jay Garrick’s three dimwitted sidekicks.

Update: IO9 talks to Mark Waid about The Unknown, science, and death, and has the first issue online for free. The Unknown has been an excellent miniseries, and I’m really looking forward to the conclusion on Wednesday.

Art

Photon Torpedoes looks at the use of ghost images to show the Flash’s speed in Blackest Night.

Adventure Comics artist Francis Manapul has posted photos of several convention sketches he’s done this year, including the Flash and Kid Flash! Elfgrove posts a scan of another Francics Manapul Kid Flash. Update: Manapul has posted a follow-up with more sketches after asking fans to send in their scans.

Update: Former Impulse artist Craig Rousseau shares a sketch of Bart Allen.

Television

Geoff Johns drops a hint about his upcoming Smallville episode, “Society:”

The Justice Society will be heroes that come out of ‘retirement’ to see how the current generation operates. Can’t say much more than that right now. Sorry! 🙂

Superhero Shows spotlights the Flash’s TV appearances in cartoons and live-action, from the early Filmation cartoons of the 1960s through to recent appearances on Smallville and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Conventions

Long Beach Comic-Con (October 2-4) is running a “Why Long Beach?” series on life outside the convention. So far they’ve posted nearby attractions and a restaurant guide.

Please help identify these Unknown Cosplay Characters from various conventions! I’ve got a few of my own photos in there of people who had interesting costumes, but I still have no idea who they were dressed as!

Can the Flash Survive Another 6-Part Epic Relaunch?

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The writers and artists have changed. The face under the Flash’s mask has changed. But there’s one thing that the three Flash relaunches we’ve seen since Infinite Crisis all share: pacing.

For some reason, every time DC has relaunched the Flash lately, they’ve done it with a slow burn.

Rising Action: Speedsters Slowing Down

Now, I have no problem with slow burns in general. I really did like most of Final Crisis, for instance (and that was almost all slow burn), and as frustrating as Flash: Ignition was at the time, I really like the story in retrospect — but as a break from the crazy pace of Run Riot and Blitz. Just about everything I’ve read or watched by JMS has used a slow build-up to something huge, from Babylon 5 to Squadron Supreme (some to better effect than others).

But I don’t think it’s the best structure to launch a character whose main claim to fame is speed…especially when it’s serialized.

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Speed Reading

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A whole bunch of linkblogging for the week!

Reviews and Commentary

The Comic Treadmill is doing summer reruns with a look back at Flash v.2 #206-219 from 2005.

Blog@Newsarama looks at a panel from Blackest Night #1 and concludes that Barry died sometime between 1991 and 1996 if “the internet” is new to him today…and then there’s his using the term “geek” to refer to himself and Clark Kent, and Grant Morrison’s comment that “When geeks get power, you get Hitler.” Um…yeah.

Comix 411 reviews Green Lantern #44, guest starring the Flash.

Video Store Blues shows a couple of pages from the 2000 Superman and Bugs Bunny miniseries, featuring the Flash vs. the Road Runner.

The Weekly Crisis wishes DC and Marvel would engage in more world-building dealing with the impact of superheroes on Earth, like the Flash Museum and Superhero Memorial Day.

News and Interviews

CBR interviews Karl Kerschl and editor Marc Chiarello on Wednesday Comics

CBR has their own write-up of the DC Universe panel.

The Source has pictures from Geoff Johns and Dan Didio on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

The Source announces JSA All-Stars, a spinoff of Justice Society of America, and Newsarama interviews Matt Sturges.

Art

Comics Should Be Good has a John Byrne commission showing Doctor Doom defeating various DC heroes including Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash.

CBR has The Nerdy Bird’s Flight to San Diego, including pictures of her as a Red Lantern with her custom-made plush Dex-Starr, Red Lantern Kitty of Rage!

The webcomic Kidd and Geezer presents Kiddo Cosplays at SDCC [link gone] with a trio of super-heroes who all have something in common…

Hal & Barry as Butch & Sundance

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Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers has an interview with Geoff Johns on…Everything related to Blackest Night. At one point he talks about writing Barry Allen and Hal Jordan.

The biggest surprise is how easy it is to write when Hal and Barry are together. These two know each other so well, and there’s such a strong tie to them…it’s like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And something happens to Hal when he’s with Barry. It happens to me when I hang out with my friend, Matt. He’s so organized and punctual that a little part of my brain shuts off. I don’t need to worry about the time or where we’re going. I feel like that happens to Hal when he’s around Barry. Hal goes with the flow a little more, while Barry’s taking up the slack of figuring out where to go. I have more Barry and Hal scenes written down because they just keep writing themselves. Introvert and extrovert. Saint and sinner. Time and space.

The “saint and sinner” characterization has actually been brought out in the text of Flash: Rebirth, and he’s talked before about the Flashes being connected to time in the way Green Lanterns are connected to space.

As I recall, though, Butch and Sundance’s partnership didn’t end very well…

Another bit I found interesting was where Johns talks about background characters.

There are Black Lanterns in the background, and if you know who they are, that’s fun, but it’s not always important to this story. It’s like, who is Dengar in Empire Strikes Back? He’s a bounty hunter in the background, and you don’t go, “You know what? I can’t figure this movie out because I don’t know who that guy is! I’m outta here!”

I think that’s a good comparison, because some comics fans actually do that! Maybe it’s just being detail-oriented. Or maybe it’s a consequence of the way that reading comics, for many fans, is not a matter of just following individual stories, but following a universe. Continuity over everything. So fans expect to recognize everyone, and find it confusing when they don’t.

Any other thoughts as to why that might be?

Catching Lightning in a Bottle…Again

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Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1 In recent weeks I’ve come to realize that I’m voicing some of the same complaints about Flash: Rebirth that I saw other people voice about Lightning in a Bottle, the story arc which attempted to launch Bart Allen as the Flash after Infinite Crisis.

No, seriously. Here are some of the things I’ve found myself saying (paraphrased a bit):

I don’t recognize Barry Allen in this book. He’s so mopey. Where’s the Barry I remember?
Why do all these flashbacks contradict past stories? Didn’t the writer actually read any issues of Flash with Barry in them?
After reading a fraction of it, I’m not enjoying the new direction.

These are some of the problems I’ve had with this book, and yet it drove me insane to see people make the exact same complaints about Bart’s book just a few years ago. Not that I loved Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, I had some serious problems with it…but I was willing to give it a chance to settle in and see what it turned into after the origin story was finished.

So I’m trying to figure out: why does it bother me now when it didn’t bother me then? Why, 3 years ago, was I willing to wait 6 issues for Bart to lighten up when the writers said he would do so by the end of the story? Why, today, am I not willing to wait 6 issues for Barry to lighten up when the writer has said that Flash: Rebirth is about the rebirth of Barry’s humanity? Why, in 2006, did I compare a 6-part comic book structure with a standard 1-hour TV show structure, say that the first issue was basically the teaser…and point out that we hadn’t actually seen the new direction, and wouldn’t until the end of the 6-part story…when today I’m losing interest at the 3-issue mark?

I’m really not sure.

Maybe I cut Bart’s series some slack because I was expecting things to change since he was new to the role, whereas this time around, it’s all about putting Barry back in the spotlight, so I’m expecting things to be more familiar.

Maybe I was willing to forgive Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo more because I knew they were new to writing comics, and could see that they were learning as they went.

Maybe it’s because I’d rather see Bart replace Wally than Barry replace Wally. As annoyed as I was that they chose to relaunch the book with Bart, at least they were moving the legacy forward. If you look at the Flash as a legacy, they’ve taken one step forward and two steps back in the last three years.

Maybe it’s just that after three years of watching DC mismanage my favorite character, I’m too bitter to cut the latest relaunch any slack.

Speed Reading: Panels, Moments and Flash Facts

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Some Monday morning linkblogging…

Images

Mark Waid reminds us all that Barry Allen discovered Earth-2 on June 14, 1961.

Groovy Superhero has a scan from Futurama Comics #34, in which Fry gets a job at Speed Force Burgers. It’s very fast food, and the employees’ outfits may look a bit familiar to this blog’s audience…

Friday’s Full Frontal Nerdity comic strip features a reference to Barry Allen’s return from the dead.

Weekly Crisis has a couple of moments of the week from Flash: Rebirth #3.

Comic Book Resources’ CBR Live has a bunch of photos from Saturday’s grand opening of Earth-2 Comics in Northridge, featuring co-owner Geoff Johns and a bunch of other Los Angeles-area comics personalities.

UPDATE: CBR has posted a photo parade from the Earth-2 grand opening which looks like a different set of pictures than the CBR Live stream.

UPDATE: What Were They Thinking?! is back online after almost a month!

Commentary

4thletter! is tired of re-runs in his comics.

UPDATE: The Annotated Flash: Rebirth has posted notes on Flash: Rebirth #3.

Flash Fact?

Researches now think that ADHD is linked to faulty perception of time: as far as hyperactive kids are concerned, time really does move too slowly. Comics Alliance likens this to being the Flash. Though maybe Impulse is a better comparison…