Tag Archives: Brightest Day

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

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 #1 variants through retail in November

Other comics

White Lantern Captain Boomerang and Brightest Day Variant Covers

DC has posted Ryan Sook [edit], Fernando Pasarin and Joel Gomez’ full Brightest Day image, featuring the twelve resurrected characters as White Lanterns. It’s made up of variant covers appearing on the Brightest Day-related comics this month and next, all aligned to create one complete picture.

There are two Flash-related characters in this set. Professor Zoom appears on the alternate cover for Green Lantern Corps #51 (posted here last night). Chances are that this Captain Boomerang will be the varaint cover for The Flash #5, currently due September 15.

Click through either image for the Source article, which includes a much larger version of the combined image. You really do have to see this thing full-sized.

Update: The Beat points out that the piece is inspired by Michelangelo’s famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Also, I forgot to include Fernando Pasarin, Joel Gomez, and Jim Lee in the credits. If I’m reading the Source post correctly, Lee did the overall design, Sook did the figures, and Pasarin and Gomez did the cosmic scene in the center (and possibly the thrones).

Update 2: Comics Alliance has an analysis of the image.

GLC #51 Variant: White Lantern Zoom

I guess they must have been out of this when I hit the comic store last week, because I have been keeping an eye out for the White Lantern variant covers featuring the Brightest Day resurrections. Giant Size Geek spotlights the Green Lantern Corps #51 cover, which features a White Lantern Professor Zoom:

Click through to the original post for a larger view of this impressive Ryan Sook [edit: and Fernando Pasarin and Joel Gomez] piece.

With two Flash-related characters resurrected at the end of Blackest Night, I’ve been wondering which would appear on the next Flash variant cover…and where the other would appear. Presumably, this means a White Lantern version of Captain Boomerang will appear on the alternate cover for Flash #5 next month. It’s an appropriate choice, considering that Boomerang is involved in the current storyline in The Flash, but the Reverse-Flash is not.

Flash Ranked #15 for July 2010

ICv2’s July sales estimates are up. The Flash #4 takes the #15 spot by units sold, with an estimated 64,832 copies sold to retailers.

OK, back to the charts for the last few relaunches. Let’s see how volume three is doing. (In case you’re wondering, I only plan on doing the detailed relaunch-by-relaunch-by-relaunch comparisons through the end of the first story arc.)

Issue Rank Month Units Sold % Change
Flash:TFMA #1 7 June 2006 120,404
Flash:TFMA #2 25 July 2006 77,487 (-35.6%)
Flash:TFMA #3 30 August 2006 70,633 (- 8.9%)
Flash:TFMA #4 25 Sep 2006 66,663 (- 5.6%)
All-Flash #1 22 July 2007 78,955
Flash v.2 #231 26 August 2007 72,898
Flash v.2 #232 32 Sep 2007 56,969 (-21.9%)
Flash v.2 #233 41 Oct 2007 51,152 (- 10.2%)
Flash v.2 #234 44 Nov 2007 46,435 (- 9.2%)
Flash: Rebirth #1 2 April 2009 102,429
Flash: Rebirth #2 4 May 2009 86,183 (-15.9%)
Flash: Rebirth #3 10 June 2009 83,086 (-3.6%)
Flash: Rebirth #4 14 Aug 2009 78,107 (-6.0%)
Flash v.3 #1 2 April 2010 100,903
Flash v.3 #2 12 May 2010 76,560 (-24.1%)
Flash v.3 #3 11 June 2010 68,799 (-10.1%)
Flash v.3 #4 15 July 2010 64,832 (-5.8%)

So: still dropping (as most series do), but it seems to be leveling off. I’m not sure how this compares to standard attrition for a new series at DC or Marvel. The drop-off rate seems about the same as Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, though perhaps it will level off at a higher point.

That said, the numbers are still solid (if still below F:TFMA), and the rankings are very good.

Flash #8 Solicited: Reverse-Flash Rebirth

DC has posted its Brightest Day solicitations for November, including…

The Flash #8

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by SCOTT KOLINS
1:10 Variant cover by STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU

“Reverse Flash Rebirth!” In this FLASHPOINT prelude, don’t miss the epic telling of the origin of Barry Allen’s greatest foe, Professor Zoom! Eobard Thawne’s story is just beginning — and he intends to finish it with The Flash!

On sale NOVEMBER 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Thoughts

So, one more stand-alone issue before Francis Manapul returns for the second story arc. It’s hard to complain when the fill-in artist on The Flash is Scott Kolins, though.

That said…I’m kind of disappointed that we’ll only have one Flash story before jumping into Flashpoint. It’s odd that on one hand, DC is absolutely determined to establish Barry Allen as THE Flash before widening the scope to other speedsters, but at the same time they’re jumping straight into this big event.

That and I think I just don’t really like Eobard Thawne that much. He’s too much of a mustache-twirling caricature villain. Hunter Zolomon was far more interesting a character…though IMO neither should appear too often, or else they risk losing their impact. (That pretty much happened with Zolomon during the Villains United/Infinite Crisis period.)

So, who wants to take bets on just how much of Mark Waid’s classic “The Return of Barry Allen” gets trampled by this new origin?

Update: Full solicitations are up. Here are some more Flash appearances in November.

Captain Boomerang’s Legal Status

Captain Boomerang is sort of in a legal limbo right now: is he still culpable for crimes he committed before he died?

In one sense he’s like Ygor in Son of Frankenstein: Ygor was hanged for grave robbing and pronounced dead — but the coroner made a mistake. He was still alive, but legally speaking, no one could touch him. Not only had the sentence for his original crime been carried out, but they couldn’t arrest a “dead” man for new crimes.

In The Flash #3, the guards at Iron Heights prison talked about getting Boomerang’s murder convictions reinstated…but something’s missing: Until that happens, what is he being held for? What has he been charged with? (Admittedly, the prison is still run by Warden Wolfe, who has never been particularly concerned with following the law where criminals are concerned.)

Of course, now that he’s shattered a frozen guard (probably killing him), seriously injured several others, broken out of prison, and left a swath of destruction on his way to confront the Flash, it’s a moot point. There are plenty of new crimes to charge him with the next time he ends up in police custody.

But technically, what was he doing there to begin with?

The legal system in the DCU must have procedures, or at least precedent, for dealing with heroes and villains coming back from the dead. No one seems concerned about the Flash’s legal status, and Barry Allen’s official records say he was simply in Witness Protection, not dead, but it’s got to have come up in other cases.