Tag Archives: ComiXology

This Week’s Digital Speedsters: New Impulse in Smallville, Flash(back) to Razer & More

Smallville Season 11 #9 by Scott Kolins

I haven’t been able to confirm it, but the numbers line up. On Friday, DC will release the digital edition of Smallville Season 11 #25, which I believe is the first part of the story guest-starring Bart Allen/Impulse which will appear in the print edition Smallville Season 11 #9–11. A cover isn’t up yet, so this is the spoiler-blocked version of the print #9 cover.

These digital-first comics are set in the continuity of the Smallville TV show, not the New 52 or old DCU. DC releases three weekly issues at 99 cents each month, then collects them as a single $2.99 print issue the following month. Smallville Season 11 on Comixology.

And in digital reprints from the 1990s, we have…

Flash #85

Flash #85: Part two of Wally West’s battle with Razer, as a Keystone shopping mall is, well, razed to the ground. Something that happens in the background will turn out to have a major impact a few issues down the road. Flash on ComiXology.

Impulse #40: “It’s Manchester High’s annual parent/kid picnic, and this wouldn’t be an Impulse story if something as simple as potato salad and three-legged races didn’t lead to big trouble.” Impulse on ComiXology.

Impulse #40

This Week’s Digital Flashbacks: Flash vs. Razer & Impulse with the Trickster

Flash #84

ComiXology has made another change in their Flash/Impulse re-issue schedule. For a while they were releasing three issues of the 1987 series starring Wally West each week, then two issues of that series and two of Impulse. Recently, they caught up to where the comics released for the Flash 101 sale left off, and pause the Flash but kept Impulse going. This week, Flash is back, but they’re releasing just one issue of each 1990s speedster series: Flash #84 and Impulse #39.

Flash #84: Fresh out of the dual wringers of “The Return of Barry Allen” and “Back on Track,” Wally West carries on protecting Keystone City, this time going up against a blade-armored mercenary known as Razer.

Impulse #39: The Trickster returns, pulling in threads from the organized crime, toxic dumping and flood storylines.

Update: Here’s the Impulse summary from ComiXology (I can’t believe I forgot this one): “The Trickster is back in town. And you can bet he’s got something up his sleeve when, working with Impulse, he tricks Manchester’s rival crime families into believing the toxic waste they’ve been dumping in town is actually a formula that can turn metal into gold!”

Impulse #39

This Week: Flash #14 and Impulse vs. Grim ‘n’ Gritty

This week sees the release of The Flash #14, part two of Gorilla Warfare, by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. Preview at CBR.

Gorilla Grodd’s more powerful than ever, and the Flash is completely outmatched! Who will give their life defending Central City against the ape invasion?

ComiXology’s digital backissues have paused in releasing the early 1990s Flash, but Impulse is still going, with issues #37-38 by William Messner-Loebs and Craig Rousseau.

Impulse #37 parodies the grim-and-gritty 90s excess as Bart encounters the Glory Shredder, a vigilante who takes his anti-crime crusade too far.

In Impulse #38, a rising river threatens to flood Manchester, Alabama. Can two speedsters and a handful of quirky villains make the difference as the townspeople struggle to save their home?

This Week: Impulse vs. History

Impulse #36

ComiXology has paused in its digital Flash reprints (last week their library caught up with a large chunk of previously-released issues), but Impulse is still going.

Impulse #35: Part 2 of The Devonian Age, in which a villain alters history to make himself ruler of the world…but the timeline isn’t exactly stable, as Impulse and Max Mercury find out.

Impulse #36: Bart and his friends testify in court about the events a few issues back when they caught a group of criminals dumping toxic waste outside town. Also: Impulse shaves his head, because, y’know, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

This Week’s Digital Flash(back)s: Gold and Alchemy

Flash #72: Solid Gold

This week’s ComiXology back-issues include Flash #72-73 and Impulse #33-34.

Flash #72 concludes the two-parter with The Alchemist, a short-lived successor to Dr. Alchemy, and is also the issue in which Wally West and Linda Park start dating. Flash #73 features the return of Jay Garrick to the title after the Justice Society’s years in limbo, and what was at the time a shocking last page that led directly in to “The Return of Barry Allen.”

The Return of Barry Allen itself is already available, launched during the Flash 101 sale last year, as is the following storyline, “Back on Track,” in which Wally teams up with Nightwing and Starfire. That means that as of this week, the first 83 issues of Wally West’s Flash series are all available online. No doubt next week ComiXology will jump ahead to #84.

Impulse #33: Thanksgiving

I don’t remember anything about Impulse #33, and as fun as the cover is, it doesn’t jog my memory of the contents. ~~The title is “Time Out,” so it might be the one where Bart’s school’s new guidance counselor calls Max and Helen in to go over Bart Allen’s guardianship. (It’s funnier than it sounds.)~~ ComiXology describes it as featuring the return of White Lightning, and the kids dealing with the missteps of the school’s new social worker.

Impulse #34 is the first half of “The Devonian Age,” a story in which Bart and Max Mercury get caught up in a time travel experiment gone wrong (don’t they always?) and have to try to repair history from the butterfly effect.

This Week – Flash: Move Forward HC, digital Gorilla Warfare & The Alchemist

Struck by a bolt of lightning and doused in chemicals, Central City Police scientist Barry Allen was transformed into the fastest man alive. Tapping into the energy field called The Speed Force, he applies a tenacious sense of justice to protect an serve the world as The Flash!

The Fastest Man Alive returns to his own monthly series as part of the DC Comics—The New 52 event with the writer/artist team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. The Flash knows he can’t be everywhere at once, but he has seemingly met his match when he faces DC Comic’ hottest new Super Villain, Mob Rule, who really can be everywhere at once!

As Mob Rule wages a campaign of crime across Central City, including an electromagnetic blast that plunges the city into darkness, The Flash learns the the only way he can capture Mob Rule and save Central City is to learn how to make his brain function even faster than before—but as much as it helps him, it also comes with a steep price.

This volume collects issues 1-8 of the monthly series.

— Amazon’s description of the book.

And yes, contrary to previous reports it does collect issues #1-8. I met Brian Buccellato at Long Beach Comic & Horror Con over the weekend, and he showed off a copy of the book.

Digital Backissues

ComiXology adds Flash #70-71 and Impulse #31-32. Flash #70 concludes the 4-part “Gorilla Warfare” crossover with Green Lantern #30-31, while Flash #71 is the first part of a 2-part story with an all new Dr. Alchemy. Impulse #31 has Max Mercury going up against his old nemesis Dr. Morlo, and Impulse #32 focuses on one of Bart’s friends, Preston, as he deals with both being injured as a bystander in a superhero/villain fight and facing his mother’s mental health problems.