Tag Archives: Bart Allen

Kid Flash & Max Mercury

4 Replies

Dan Didio let slip some more information about the upcoming Kid Flash series in his latest 10 Answers column at Newsarama. First he reminded readers that Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates will be working closely together to keep the Flash and Kid Flash books linked, similar to the way Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps have been linked. Then he added something that fans of the Impulse series may find appealing:

You’ll still see the dynamic between Kid Flash and Max Mercury, if I’m not mistaken. And I think that’s new information, so you did get something out of me. But Max will be featured in this series as well. So if somebody’s a fan of Impulse, they’ll get that relationship back in the Kid Flash series. Because of the Max/Bart relationship, I think they’ll be very pleasantly surprised about what the plans are for the book.

This book is sounding better and better! Only two one more question:

  1. Who will do the art?
  2. When will it launch?

I suspect the artist hasn’t been finalized yet, though they could be waiting until they get closer to a firm launch date. And on that score, “About a month after Flash” is certainly more specific than certain other series (*cough* Zatanna *cough*) have gotten, but it’ll be nice when DC can give us a firm “April 2010” or “May 2010.” Edit: As Andrew points out, Dan Didio does indicate that the book will be launching in May 2010.

Who Named Impulse?

Leave a reply

ImpulseSuperman, Batman, and Max Mercury have all been cited as giving comic-book speedster Bart Allen the name Impulse. Batman most famously in Impulse #50, and Superman in the previews for All-Flash #1. (The final lettering simply said “He was code-named Impulse,” sidestepping the issue). But who named him originally?

Cover: Flash #93
Cover: Zero Hour #3The name first appears on the cover of Flash #93 (August 1994), with an out-of-control Bart Allen fighting the Flash. The cover is captioned, “Brash Impulse!” Over the next few issues, Wally West’s inner monologue refers to Bart as being impulsive, or (at one point) as “Mr. Impulse.”

It first appears on-panel as a name in Zero Hour #3 (September 1994), when Bart meets Superman for the first time, but Bart introduces himself as Impulse. Dan Jurgens writes.
Continue reading →

Flash Foreshadowing

11 Replies

To this day it’s not really clear how far ahead the 2007 death of Bart Allen and return of Wally West (not to mention the subsequent return of Barry Allen in 2008) were planned.

Interviews with Mark Waid and Marc Guggenheim at the time made it clear that it was in the works “nearly a year ago,” and definitely before Guggenheim took over as writer. Dan Didio has suggested it was their plan all along, though many fans find this idea suspect, and find it more likely that it was put in place after the first few issues of Flash: The Fastest Man Alive failed to catch on with readers.

While looking for something in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1, I noticed something interesting in the Barry Allen dream/origin sequence:

Will you ever outrun the shadow, Bart?

It shows Barry’s death, along with the Black Flash, who figured prominently in the last few issues. And that last remark: “Will you ever outrun the shadow, Bart?”

It could simply be setting the dark mood that pervaded the beginning of Bart’s run. On the other hand, maybe they did have this planned all along.

Originally posted at K-Squared Ramblings.

Dead Flash Covers

13 Replies

Looking back at the cover for Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13, it wasn’t promising for Bart Allen, especially with the Flashes’ history of death. We know now that it ended badly for him (though he got better).

Crisis on Infinite Earths #8Countdown: Flash: The Fastest Man...Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13

Of course, there’s also a history of Flashes (and supporting cast) appearing dead on the cover, but still making it through. More than 25 examples of dead Flash covers appear below. Continue reading →

Cosplay Photos: Flashes & Rogues at Dragon*Con

4 Replies

Just from what I’ve seen on Flickr, there were a ton of Flash-related costumes at Dragon*Con this year.

Golden Age Flash Flash by leefly Zoom The Flash - Dragoncon 2009 Dragon Con 2009 Dragon Con 2009 The Flash & Heat Wave - Dragon*Con 2009 Flash Rogues Flash Rogues - Death of Bart Allen Flash Rogues - Impulse's Revenge Smallville Impulse Smallville Justice Flash and Black Canary Justice League P9060011 Grail Knight and Flash

Looking through these photos, be sure to notice:

  • The Flash’s secret revealed: Red Bull!
  • The Grail Knight (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) asks the Flash to choose wisely.
  • Smallville-style Impulse
  • The entire frakking Rogues’ Gallery!

The Rogues’ Gallery group not only did an incredible job on their costumes, but got together for an extended photo shoot…and hung out at a bar afterward, in full costume. You can read all about it, with dozens of photos, in xanykaos’ (Trickster II) post on flash_rogues, A Meeting of Rogues. (Thanks to Lia for the link!)

Flash News from Fan Expo: Rebirth, Series Launch & More

12 Replies

Between Ethan Van Sciver’s presence and the fact that Flash: Rebirth #4 had just been released two days earlier, there was a lot of Flash talk at Friday’s DC Nation panel at Fan Expo.

Newsarama’s article has a lot of Flash coverage, including this interesting statement by Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver:

I’m having a great time. It’s the book I pestered [Dan Didio] for over three years. I love Barry Allen. I love the Flash. The Flash is probably my favorite superhero. Barry has been gone 25 years and I though that was a pretty fair homage to pay for Crisis, but it was time to bring him back. When Geoff and I finally convinced Dan to let us do it, we built a huge gigantic story that really needed every single Flash, even some that had been missing, in order for it to work.

Flash Rebirth is Part 1 of that. It’s assembling all the pieces, putting them back together where we needed them to be, and then explain one little segment of what the speed force is. Again, Geoff is only giving you a taste of what it is. It’s so much more broad. Professor Zoom ties into it big time and it’s going to lead to a long, fruitful, and very successful ongoing series after this.

Jesse Quick

He added that Jesse Quick/Liberty Belle “has a great scene” in issue #5, and Dan Didio remarked that DC will be “exploring more about” Liberty Belle and Hourman. “They could be one of the more fun DC couples coming out right now.”

Bart Allen

CBR’s coverage includes some remarks that Ethan Van Sciver made about Kid Flash:

“How great is it to see Bart Allen again? I started on Impulse…I fed my family drawing Bart Allen as a young husband,” Sciver recalled “the look on Bart’s face in issue #4 was the look on my face when I drew it.”

Wally West

Joey Cavalieri Ethan Van Sciver joked that, as far as Wally West’s role in the rest of the series, we should “See Blackest Night.” Nice.

Didio went on to state that, unlike with Green Lantern, “Wally was the perfect replacement. Everybody had moved on so now it’s not a story about somebody who has to fix something broken in his absence, but somebody who is coming back to see if he was relevant still. What I’m talking about actually plays into what the story is about.”

Nasty Trick?

There’s also apparently a “nasty trick” coming up, regarding which EVS said, “Keep reading, it’ll all make sense.” I’m beginning to wonder whether Cavalieri’s joke about Wally may have been hiding the truth in plain sight.

We know Blackest Night: Flash focuses on Barry and Wally and has live Rogues vs. dead Rogues. What if Wally West dies at the end of Flash: Rebirth, and Blackest Night: Flash has live Barry vs. Black Lantern Wally West? There has been speculation that at least some of the Black Lanterns will return to life by the end of Blackest Night, and Wally could be brought back by the end of the event. Kind of like the way Kyle Rayner was temporarily bonded to Parallax during Sinestro Corps War.

Ongoing Series

And now for a scoop by @liabrown1: At the DC Universe panel on Saturday, they announced that the Flash ongoing series will launch in March 2010. This lines up with the 3-issue Blackest Night: Flash miniseries starting in December. With any luck, September may be our last month without a Flash book for a long time!

She adds that DC is “not ready to announce” the artist on the Kid Flash series, which implies that they’ve at least got someone in mind.

Update: CBR’s coverage of the DCU panel is up.

Update 2: Newsarma’s DCU Editorial write-up is up too, and there’s a bit of confusion as to how many Flash books are launching when.