Tag Archives: Captain Boomerang

Flash #3 Preview

DC has posted a 5-page preview of next week’s The Flash #3.

It may be BRIGHTEST DAY, but when a mysterious group of so-called heroes turns up, another Rogue ends up dead. Plus, the mystery deepens as The Flash witnesses another murder — his own!

The preview picks up the Brightest Day angle and focuses on Captain Boomerang. “Digger” Harkness discovers that he’s a bit…different now that he’s back from the dead. It’s an interesting development, but if what’s seen here can be taken at face value, I’m not sure it’s necessary. It seems like a second attempt (after Owen’s super-speed) to give a villain who throws weaponized boomerangs an extra edge. It’s an odd choice for Geoff Johns, who managed to revitalize the rest of the Rogues simply by taking them seriously.

The Flash arrives in stores next week, on June 30.

Update: I’ve added this issue to my gallery of Dead Flash Covers!

Brightest Day Captain Boomerang HeroClix Announced

Digger Harkness will be getting his second HeroClix in October when they release The Brightest Day Action Pack. Boomerang will be released alongside several other key characters from DC Comic’s white hot bi-weekly series Brightest Day, including: Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond), Aquaman, Osiris, Martian Manhunter (half martian, half Black Lantern), Hawkgirl, and Deadman. I really only collect Flash-related items so I will definitely be picking up Captain Boomerang, but the rest of the characters look pretty good too. You can check out Brightest Day Captain Boomerang below:

I mentioned that this is Digger’s second HeroClix. The first being released a few years back as part of the 2007 Justice League Set. This was the washed up version of Digger from his later years (primarily Identity Crisis):

I don’t like to compare ‘Clix usually, unless I have them in hand, but the second Boomer looks a lot better than the first. Of course the older one is supposed to be the washed up version and this newer one was released 3 years later and is supposed to be Digger rejuvenated, so I guess it makes sense that it looks a lot cleaner. I am really liking the new Boomer character design too. Although I’m not usually a fan of designs with trench coats, I can make an exception with characters like Digger that carry a large amount of weapons on their person (in this case lethal boomerangs). It makes perfect sense for storage purposes. I will of course reserve final judgement until it arrives, but I like what I’m seeing so far. Which reminds me: I’ve gotten eight new Flash-related ‘Clix over the last few months and I still have yet to do a write up on them. I was waiting for Blue Lantern Barry Allen to arrive and it finally got here a couple days ago. I will definitely have to make an effort to do this asap.

A little bit of Flash HeroClix trivia before we go:

In addition to Digger Harkness, only one other Flash villain has had two different HeroClix releases in two different sets; Who is it?

Devin “The Flash” Johnson

eBay prices on JLU Rogues 3 Pack leveling off

For those still interested in picking up the JLU 3-Pack featuring Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang (as well as yet another Flash) the prices of the set on the secondary market are leveling off nicely. The lowest starting bid is 15.99, which isn’t rock bottom or anything, but a far cry from the 60 and 70 dollars the set was going for only a few weeks ago. Not to mention that Target raised the prices of JLU 3-Packs in September of last year to $15.99, so it’s the same price as purchasing it in the store. Of course the difference rests on the final bidding price and shipping and handling versus gas.

JLU 3 Pack feat. Cold and Boomerang

Also of equal importance to note there appears to be a lot more of these 3 packs available, which is undoubtedly contributing to the lowered prices. Punching in “captain cold boomerang” in the eBay search engine under “Action Figures” logged me 13 results. Not bad compared to the whopping “1” I got late last month putting in the same search terms. As mentioned previously the lowest price was $15.99, which is practically the same when compared to Target prices, but there are still a couple sets going for scalper prices as high as 50 and 60 dollars. Hopefully they sit on eBay for a long time.

JLU Weather Wizard

Btw good news for those still on the look out for Weather Wizard. The Livewire, Weather Wizard, and Superman 3 packs have been very plentiful on eBay lately. Unfortunately the prices are still ridiculously high, with most of the “Buy It Now” prices of the 15 results ranging between 30 and 50 dollars.

This is a good lesson in waiting. I’m just too impatient when it comes to picking these up. At the same time though with Mattel’s poor distribution it’s sad that I automatically just resort to eBay and getting it asap because I don’t know when or if it will hit this area.

In any case good luck to those still hunting.

Keep it Flashy,

Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Flash Hints from C2E2

DC has been really cagey with Flash news lately, since the new direction is just getting started, but they’ve let a few hints slip at C2E2. Here’s a round-up from Newsarama and CBR’s coverage of the event.

DC Nation was light on Flash information…though Dan Didio joked that “as far as dead meaning dead in the DCU, once we get to Nightwing and Wally West, yes.”

At the Brightest Day panel on Saturday, Geoff Johns answered a fan who was upset that Flash had a “Brightest Day” banner, but didn’t tie into the book:

Johns said, “It was a good issue, wasn’t is?” before explaining that the book would tie in to what happens in “Brightest Day” in some small ways, though “I didn’t want to start Flash with a white power battery. I wanted him to fight the Trickster.” Sattler added “The bannering on the books is about a theme in the DCU…the stories are important to Brightest Day’s central story.”

He told another fan, who was confused about the number of Zooms running around, “If you look at Reverse Flash, I try to do everything in reverse…”

At the DC Universe panel, Ian Sattler answered a question about a Flash Secret Origin story by saying, “Sooner than you think.” Wally West will make an appearance in Justice League.

Robinson also said that he’s “very excited about bringing Jesse Quick to the team.”

Finally, at Sunday’s Flash/Green Lantern panel, Geoff Johns declined to answer questions about the current arc or about Flashpoint. He has plans for Wally West and the West Twins. We will “eventually” see the Tornado Twins and John Fox, but there are no plans for Inertia (he’s “really dead”) or Walter West (“but never say never”).

Someone else asked why the resurrected Captain Boomerang is already in jail, “Or is this based on his previous crimes?” Johns said yes. “Is there a legal precedent in the DCU for culpability for crimes you’ve committed before you’re resurrected?” “I’ll have Boomerang complain to the guards.”

The most interesting remark I found in the write-up was this:

“The Rogues always told Wally there was a mutual respect between them and Barry, and that was a lie.”

The funniest, though: Someone asked about Mopee. No one on the panel knew who he was, except Geoff Johns, who sighed and joked that he’ll be in issue #715.

Recent Acquisitions Part 1

As you all should be aware of by now, I’m a die hard Flash collector and I’ve been collecting Flash memorabilia for some time now. This includes action figures, statues, plush toys, hats, t-shirts, shoes etc etc. A few months ago I moved, and as a result a lot of my collection isn’t on display anymore. Furthermore I’d fallen behind on collecting due to various reasons and I had a lot of catching up to do.

In the last couple months I’ve been focused on filling in a lot of the holes that I hadn’t had a chance to fill until now. And with The Flash getting renewed focus in the DC Universe I didn’t want to fall too far behind and miss my chance to acquire a lot of stuff that are being made in very limited quantities.

To that end I present to you part 1 of my Recent Acquisitions. These were all picked up in the last month or so from various sources (including retail, surprisingly) and I’ve made great progress on getting back on track as far as my collection goes. There are quite a few things that are present in my collection that have yet to be showcased online, but it’s called “Recent Acquisitions” for a reason and I’m only trying to show what I’ve gotten in the last month or so. So without further ado, my Recent Acquisitions:

Click for Larger View

From left to right we have:

Batman: Brave and the Bold Action League feat. Batman vs. The Top

Batman: Brave and the Bold Action League feat. Batman vs. Gorilla Grodd

Batman: Brave and the Bold “Gotham City Battle” feat. Batman vs. Gorilla Grodd

Justice League Unlimited Fan Collection Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang I (Since Justice League Unlimited is exclusively sold through Target, I had a huge headache tracking these down. Partly due to that and partly due to my own carelessness. But I will get into that soon.)

C3 Minimates Flash Variant (based on the Timmverse design)

DC Direct’s 1:6 SCALE Golden Age Flash

Justice League Unlimited Fan Collection The Streak (A Mattycollector.com exclusive, now SOLD OUT)

DC Universe’s 3¾ Scale Infinite Heroes Barry Allen (I got the Mattycollector.com exclusive variant a few months back as well. Also SOLD OUT)

DC SuperFriends Stuffed Flash Plush

Not bad at all if I do say so myself. Especially since acquiring these guys took a little more leg work than usual. After my Local Comic Book Shop closed up shop around ’07 or so, I’ve had to use the internet to acquire most of my collectibles. Every once in a while I would run into something at retail but very rarely have I not used an online source to obtain most of my stuff. This time around however was a nice mixed bag.

I picked up the two Brave and the Bold Action League sets along with the Infinite Heroes Barry Allen at Target.

I got the larger Brave and the Bold set at Toysrus.com. This was the very last place I expected to find this. Paid a lot less than people have it for on eBay.

The Streak as mentioned previously was a Mattycollector.com exclusive that was sold along with the majority of the Justice Guild (which I may sell off at a later date).

The Golden Age Flash 1:6 Scale Figure was purchased from Superherotoys.com.

And Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, the C3 Flash minimate variant, and the SuperFriends Plushy were all procured through eBay.

Captain Cold was without a doubt the figure that gave me the most trouble tracking down. When I first heard about the Target Exclusive Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang set being released and available I scoured Targets everywhere to no avail. I finally had to resort to the secondary market (eBay) to pick it up. I lucked out and found a great deal on both overall. They were loose and out of package (I don’t keep my stuff MOC so that isn’t an issue for me) and the prices on both were reasonable. They were both from the same seller so I even saved on shipping. Mission Accomplished right? Not quite. In my efforts to clean and organize my room and collection I had Cold and Boomerang sitting on a shelf, with a large trash bag underneath that I was using to throw out useless clutter. Captain Cold must have fallen into the trash bag or something, because when I went to find it later for my recent acquisitions picture a week ago I could not find it anywhere.

So back to eBay we go. Now it had been several weeks since my initial purchase and prices on Captain Cold had skyrocketed. That is if you could find one (at the time) anyway. Being a Target Exclusive made the action figure set virtually impossible to find at retail so people were jacking up the prices online accordingly. I’m not going to say exactly how much I paid for the second Captain Cold but I will say I was not happy. But thinking about how awesome he is going to look with the rest of the Justice League Unlimited Rogues that I have puts a smile on my face.

And there you have it. Part 1 of my Recent Acquisitions. Part 2 and 3 will be on the way shortly. I plan on writing some reviews on some of these guys in the near future as well. If there is a particular collectible you would like spotlighted please don’t hesitate to let me know. Also with this part out of the way I am now able to free them from their plastic prisons and add them to my display. Look for updated pictures of my collection in the near future. I also have some old collection pics on my facebook. The link to the gallery is HERE

Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Review: Blackest Night: The Flash #3

The conclusion of this miniseries — to the extent that it concludes, anyway — is more satisfying than the middle chapter. The story is more solid, and it’s visually more varied as characters with colors beyond black and blue join Blue Lantern Barry Allen onstage.

Speaking of color schemes, I noticed something interesting about the covers: they get progressively brighter. The first issue is mostly black and silver, with a dark blue logo outline. The second issue adds some color by putting Captain Cold in the center, and has a brighter logo outline. By the third issue, Blue Lantern Barry takes up the entire cover, and the logo is again a tiny bit brighter. I don’t know whether it’s intentional, but it’s certainly thematic.

The story follows three main threads: The Rogues in Iron Heights; Captain Boomerang; and the Flashes.

The Rogues’ story gets the least attention this time around. Once again it picks up right where they left off, but instead of focusing on emotional manipulation, it’s basically a dungeon crawl as they try to work out something that will shut down the Black Lantern Rogues. It does, however, give away a little more about the resolution of Flash: Rebirth

Captain Boomerang’s story is a sad one, and while moving, I’m afraid it significantly damages the character for future use. More on this in the spoiler section.

This time around the Flashes’ story works best. Barry Allen is still dealing with an unfamiliar power set, but by this time he’s gotten accustomed to it, rather than spending the entire issue learning how to use the blue ring…plus there are other speedsters around to keep the “Fastest Man Alive” theme on track. There’s also a solid resolution to one of the major story elements from last month.

Of course, since this is a side story to a larger event, it ends — or rather stops — with a big “To be continued” sign as several characters head back into the main Blackest Night story, and the big question from issue is left unanswered.

Spoilers below!

Continue reading