Tag Archives: Barry Allen

How John Byrne Would Have Brought Back Barry Allen

Wonder Woman v.2 #109Last week, comic book writer and artist John Byrne posted about how he would have brought Barry Allen back if he’d had the opportunity during the 1990s, as he hinted when responding to speculation about the cover for Wonder Woman v.2 #109. (IIRC, the Flash in the issue was either a clone or a robot. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it.)

Simple, really. It’s very, very, very hard to “kill” a character who can travel in Time. How old was Barry when he “died” in CRISIS? For all we know, he could have been 106.

My idea was to simply have Barry pop into existence in the “current” DCU, returning from one of his trips thru time to find he’d “missed his target” because of disruptions caused by CRISIS. He would then live out whatever life (nature and duration) the Powers that Be would allow.

This is similar to the way Mark Waid did bring Professor Zoom “back” for “The Return of Barry Allen” and the way a young time-traveling Hal Jordan spent some time in the then-present DCU for “Emerald Knights.” It’s also not far from the loophole Marv Wolfman placed in the character’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The main difference is that in Wolfman’s plan, it would be Barry Allen during his final run, rather than a Barry from earlier in his career.

Byrne goes on to add:

(I also had an idea that, since Wally was being The Flash, Barry would take on another identity for a while, knowing that sooner or later he had to go die in CRISIS. But when the moment came, Wally would bushwhack him, take his place, and that would actually have been Wally we saw die.)

Interestingly, Peter David did essentially the same thing in his final Supergirl arc, “Many Happy Returns,” in which the Earth-1 Supergirl’s rocket gets diverted and lands on Post-Crisis Earth. After a few adventures, the Post-Crisis Supergirl gets in the rocket and takes her place, leading to a story of a 1990s heroine in a Silver-Age world. It doesn’t end well, for either of them.

Flash: Terminal VelocityFound in this week’s Lying in the Gutters, which also features another Flash-related story, short enough I might as well just quote the whole thing:

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket, Rhode Island is having an online auction to raise funds for its non profit theatre. One of the items is a “Flash: Rebirth” #1 coupled with a TPB of “Flash: Terminal Velocity,” signed by the late great Mike Wieringo.


Speed Reading: Then and Now

A few recent posts and articles looking at the history of the Flash in the context of Barry Allen’s return and Flash: Rebirth.

Mike Sterling’s Progressive Ruin contemplates the state of the Flash and the role of Rebirth.

Flash v.1 #223

The Absorbascon flashes back to the Silver Age and shows us some samples of Barry Allen’s characterization.

Robot 6’s Grumpy Old Fan contrasts Flash: Rebirth #1 with “Make Way for the Speed Demons,” a 1970s story from Flash v.1 #223, finding the new release too caught up in the little details to just tell a good story.

The Hurting is not impressed by the Flash at all.

Captain Comics looks at Barry Allen’s Silver-Age origins.

Crimson Lightning shares the results of the favorite Flash storyline quiz. Next up in the sidebar: How do you feel about Flash: Rebirth?

Speaking of polls, Mo pointed me to comic shop A Timeless Journey, currently running a Who’s Your Favorite Flash? poll on their site.

Finally, Collected Editions has a list of Top Flash Trade Paperbacks.

Speed Reading – Flash: Rebirth #1 Review Round-Up

Flash: Rebirth #1There’s no question that Flash: Rebirth #1 was one of this week’s hottest comics, as you can see by the huge number of reviews of the book.

The Absorbascon – “the most important superhero comic book in the last 20 years.”

The Weekly Crisis – “A solid, if slow opening issue that failed, by a large margin, to reach the expectations set for it.”

Not exactly a review, but 4thLetter! has some questions for continuity geeks about the book.

Major Spoilers is underwhelmed, but “If we can ease back on the hero worship and get inside that crewcut next time, I still might be swayed into the realm of the believers…”

IGN has two reviews, one by a Flash fan (7/10 stars) and one by a new reader (9/10). “it has been a while since I’ve read a comic which drew me into the characters and presented the DCU as a living, breathing entity as well as Rebirth #1”

Comic Book Resources – “it has definitely set up a more interesting character dynamic than Green Lantern ever did. Each Flash is directly vested in the others’ lives, so jealousy and admiration aren’t just convenient personality traits, they’re clearly paving the way for some intense stuff down the road.”

Comics411 – “Geoff Johns paints an almost dark Batman type of Barry Allen.”

Newsarama’s Best Shots Extra – “this is a series that I think is just coming out of first gear, and is going to be revving its way through the next few issues.”

iFanboy Pick of the Week – “The opening pages read like a checklist, addressing everything that needed to be addressed with an efficiency and skill so sleek that I was honestly a little awestruck.”

iFanboy’s kwisdumb – while I might not agree with the return of characters like these, it’s obvious to me that a masterful story is being told here”

iFanboy’s TheNextChampion – “The beginning of this story was great….But the whole ‘Oh I shouldnt be alive’ moping around got old really quick. I mean Barry just felt like a stick in the mud.”

And a bunch more iFanboy user reviews.

Comicvine: The Flash Rebirth #1…Reviewed In A Flash! (video — in a a Flash player, no less)

Nobody’s Non-Video Review of The Flash: Rebirth #1 – 3.5 stars for potential: “not the best title I have ever read but it looks like it will lead into a good series.”

Giant Size Man-Thing: New Comics – “This issue did what it needed to do, which was to help me finally remember which one is Barry and which one is Wally”

Weekly Comic Book Review – “Geoff Johns creates a strong, compelling narrative of life, post-Crisis for Barry Allen.”

Comic Pants – “This isn’t quite what I was expecting. Nor is it what I was hoping for…Flash should be an adrenaline laced adventure book, not mopey book that has some guy running really fast.”

Title Undetermined – “I feel like I’m that guy who was brought along to a wedding or birthday party for someone he doesn’t know.”

Comics and…other Imaginary Tales – “At the end of this issue I still do not have an answer to that question, but the foundation has been laid.”

Reilly2040 – “Geoff’s set up some interesting mysteries with this first issue, and I like that idea for a Barry Allen book. To focus on his detective traits. If we just wanted a book about a guy who runs really fast, then they could’ve just kept Wally as the title character.”

32 Pages found the issue “quite pedestrian” and needs more to convince him to come back.

Crave Online: “I can only hope that what I read falls in the realm of first issue blues.”

SKELETONSS – “while I can’t get into the guy in the suit, I love the words being spoken.”

The Fandom Zone – “I can’t complain too much. I’m just glad Barry’s back.”

Comic Book Thoughts: 5 Things I Didn’t Expect To See In Flash: Rebirth #1.

And of course there’s my review here at Speed Force.

I’m sure there are more. I’ve collected these from sites I follow directly, from Comic Blog Elite, and from search alerts on Google and Twitter.

Update (Friday, April 3)

Here’s a few more that have popped up on the radar today:

Rokk’s Comic Book Revolution – “Johns pulls off plenty of nice character work. It is obvious that Johns loves and understands the various members of the Flash family.”

dillonmania (a.k.a. Lia) – “a fairly good issue, and a nice start, but was quite dismayed by the apparent retcon to Barry’s history”

Pendragon’s Post – “For all the new readers who want to get into The Flash series, and those who love a good detective story, this book is for you.”

Clever Name “Does it measure up to Johns and VanSciver’s previous Rebirth of Green Lantern? Sort of…but it’s more like asking if Goodfellas compares to Godfather.”

Update 2 (Saturday, April 4)

Here’s a few more, some of which I found from a shorter round-up at Robot 6.

Comics Daily – “It’s entirely, thoroughly and inextricably rooted in “DCness”, and hugely reliant on prior knowledge of the identities of just about everyone that shows up.”

Comic Book Legacy – “the biggest problem I had with this issue is the sudden dark turn of Barry’s origin. The Flash family has always had one the more positive origins in comics.”

Pop Syndicate – “While Johns may have an interesting take on Barry Allen after all this time, he spends way to much time telling us about Barry Allen rather than showing us Barry Allen.” and “Now that he’s back, Johns immediately throws all of the modern baggage a hero supposedly needs on Barry, making him as dark and troubled as any character. Is this really how we wanted to see Barry Allen brought back?”

I think I’ll keep adding to this list through the end of the weekend, then call it done.

Update #3 (Sunday, April 5)

iFanboy’s Pick of the Week Podcast #178 starts with almost 10 minutes about Flash: Rebirth #1.

My Life as a Country Song – “In the 20 years Allen was absent from comics, the argument for keeping him that way is that Barry Allen has always been more interesting as an unseen mentor and motivation for Wally West to be a better hero. Lightning Strikes Twice seems to prove the point.”

Extra Sequential – “The ads for this series have claimed that Barry is back and it’s the worst thing that could’ve happened to him. How that plays out will be mildly intriguing, but I guess after the spoils of GL: Rebirth, I was expecting more.”

Digital College – “Johns is the perfect person to write this book ( and just about every other DC book for the most part). He introduces readers who might be foreign to Barry Allen and gives a brief update on his origin.”

The Source Wall – “My favorite moments come when Barry and Hal meet at the Flash Museum.”

Tpull’s Weekly DC Comics Review – “I could go on, but I won’t. I’ll just say the obvious: best read of the week.”

Bureau 42 – “High Point… ‘The world’s finally catching up.'”

Nerdage Comics Vodcast – “As a first issue, is it super-satisfyng? It’s very very good, but it’s just setting up a lot of things that hopefully will pay off a little more in the rest of the series.” (video clip)

Weekly Crisis also has its own round-up, Flash Fact – Johns Loves Barry; Reviewers Not So Much

Update #4 (Monday, April 6)

Robot Panic – “I still recommend this book, but if you aren’t a Flash fan, I would have to direct you to the nearest comic shop and tell you to pick up some Barry Allen trades before picking up Flash: Rebirth.”

Destroy the Cyb – “I’m intrigued enough to keep reading, and I’m willing to bet that Johns and Van Sciver can tie it all up nicely by the end of the miniseries, but I would honestly recommend waiting for the collected edition for this one”

Alternate Reality – “Van Sciver’s art is terrific, and Johns is a master story teller. I think Johns could make the three little pigs into a top ten comic; the guy’s just good at his craft.”

And I think I’ll wrap it up here. That’s a lot of reviews!

Update #5 (Tuesday, April 7)

Okay, one more update.

Robot 6’s Grumpy Old Fan – “despite all the festivities, I didn’t find much fun in F:R #1. There is the glimmer of an intriguing story, since it looks like Barry has succeeded the Black Flash as a speedster’s personal angel of death, but good grief there’s a lot of –let’s say “flair” instead — obscuring that story.”

Comic News Insider Episode 191 (audio) features a review of Flash: Rebirth (starts around 9:45).

The Outhousers – “Flash weeks always end in tears for the Review Group, but this is Johns and Van Sciver so an epic win was inevitable, right? Err, maybe not…”

Gamer’s Circle – “Some fans, like Bart, are upset about Barry’s return. If Barry has to come back – and it was inevitable in my mind – there is really no better person to do it than Johns. This needs to be on your pull list.”

Update #6 (Thursday April 9)

I know I said I wasn’t going to keep updating this, but The Source linked to a pair of high-profile reviews that I hadn’t seen.

Ain’t It Cool News – “It’s often said that the devil is in the details, but Johns and Van Sciver have proven yet again sometimes the details are the most delectable part of the story.”

IGN Comics SMASH! Podcast (audio, haven’t listened to it.)

Geoff Johns Talks Flash: Rebirth at IGN

There’s an extensive 4-page interview with Geoff Johns up at IGN in which he talks about everything from story structure and theme to specific character motivations.

One segment on the first page really bothered me, though, when he said of the retcon that inserts a serious tragedy into his childhood:

We’ve never really visited Barry Allen’s past before he got hit by the bolt of lightning. And so some of what Rebirth is going to do is delve back into the past and reveal some things about it that previously weren’t there.

Never visited it? Really?

Apparently he’s never read any of the Silver Age or Bronze Age stories that flashed back to Barry’s childhood, or in which he caught up with his childhood sweetheart Daphne Dean, or visited both still very much alive parents…or Mark Waid’s The Life Story of the Flash.

He goes on to explain:

IGN: Why did you think it was important to bring some tragedy into his back-story?

Johns: What we’ll find out is we’ll see what drove him to adopt such a strong sense of justice. I really want to explore what drove Barry Allen to adopt his uncanny sense of wrong and right. You’re not just born with that. Barry Allen strove for that and was somewhat obsessed with it. Also, it’s about why he got into forensics. What led him to that area of work? Why not become a cop or a prosecutor? Why forensics? That’s something I really wanted to explore – what drove Barry Allen to this life that he chose? What made him Barry Allen before he was hit by the bolt of lightning?

Funny… here I thought Hunter Zolomon was supposed to be a villain. Apparently he was actually an author avatar.

Review: Flash: Rebirth #1 — “Lightning Strikes Twice”

Flash: Rebirth #1

Now that I’ve had time to read it through a second time, Geoff Johns & Ethan Van Sciver’s Flash: Rebirth #1 didn’t bowl me over quite as much as it did on the first read-through, but it still won this Wally fan over at least for the duration of the miniseries. Some things bothered me more this time through, and ironically enough, it’s actually pretty slow for a book about speed.

On the other hand, it’s much faster-paced than Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1 or Flash vol.2 #231, the first issues of the 2006 relaunch with Bart Allen and the 2007 relaunch with Wally West.

The book opens with a scene that starts out looking like a retelling of Barry Allen’s origin, but quickly becomes apparent that it’s taking place in the present day with someone trying to recreate the circumstances of the lightning strike that turned a police scientist into the Flash. After that foreboding opening, it moves onto the main segment of the book: introducing all the characters and the key concept of the speed force.

Oddly enough, everyone is introduced separately: Barry, Wally, Bart, Jay Garrick, and Barry’s wife Iris are all in different places. Jay is preparing for a welcome-back party with the Justice Society, Wally with the Titans, Bart with the Teen Titans, and Iris is setting up for a family dinner, while Barry visits the Flash Museum (a mainstay of the series since the Silver Age) to catch up and runs into Hal Jordan. So they all talk about Barry, and how they relate to him and each other, but you don’t actually see them interacting.

Within this framework, Johns and Van Sciver touch on the nature of Central City and Keystone City, the way they appreciate their native super-heroes, a number of the villains who populate the Twin Cities, and even address the Wally/Barry/Bart debates (Jay is so often left out) that thrive on the internet.

Near the end, Barry suits up, flashes back to a traumatic childhood memory, and the real threat makes its appearance.

Things I Liked

Flash: Rebirth #1 followed the golden rule for a chapter that’s mostly setup: Open with an exciting hook, and finish with an exciting cliffhanger. (Come to think of it, Flash:TFMA #1 and Flash v.2 #231 tried to follow this structure, but didn’t work as well.) By the end of the issue, you know key elements of Barry Allen’s personality, what his powers are, see him in action, and have a sense of the threat he’ll be facing, even if that threat’s identity and nature are still mysterious.

Referencing Barry’s lab accident right at the beginning is a good way to start things off, and the villain introduced is suitably creepy.

Continue reading

Flash: Rebirth #1 – First Impressions

Comic stack topped with Flash: Rebirth #1

I’ll have to wait until I get home to write up a full review [Edit: it’s up now], but for now let me say this: Geoff Johns & Ethan Van Sciver’s Flash: Rebirth #1 has almost won me over, at least for the duration of this story. It was very well-written and drawn, introduced all four major Flashes and the concept of the Speed Force, and set up a threat right at the beginning.

Some parts seemed a bit too familiar — the opening reminded me a bit too much of “Blood Will Run,” for instance, and a flashback reminded me a bit too much of Zoom’s backstory. And it was kind of strange watching internet arguments played out on the page with Barry, Bart and Hal taking up different viewpoints.

There were some nice easter eggs for long-term readers — iconic images from throughout Wally’s career, references to Barry’s hometown of Fallville and Wally’s hometown of Blue Valley, a mention of Barry’s old boss, Captain Frye.

The one thing that really bothered me was a major retcon to Barry’s history that completely changes the character of his family life — similar to retcons made to Wally West’s family after Crisis on Infinite Earths. I’m sure Geoff Johns has somewhere he’s going with it, but it seems unnecessary to give Barry Allen a dark tormented past, particularly one that contradicts dozens of Silver-Age and Bronze-Age stories, including one that he used himself in “The Secret of Barry Allen.”

Update: I’ve posted my full review.