Tag Archives: Dan Didio

Speed Reading: Sales, Humor, TPBs, Movies

Rounding up a week of links:

Major Spoilers has the Top 300 Comics for August 2009, and Flash: Rebirth #4 is #14. They’re also holding a costume contest.

Dan Didio’s latest 20 questions explains how Geoff Johns & Francis Manapul moved from Adventure Comics to The Flash. He adds, “my goal now is to get those guys going on Flash as soon as possible.”

High Five! Comics lists their top ten second-string couples, featuring both Barry & Iris Allen and Ralph & Sue Dibny. Their latest Things I Learned From Comics feature covers How to Gain Superpowers.

Collected Editions has updated their DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline and moved to its new, post-GeoCities home.

Humor

The Onion brings the “news” that melting ice caps are exposing hundreds of secret arctic lairs. Does anyone remember whether Dr. Impossible had one?

Noah Van Sciver continues his comic-strip Flash: Rebirth Recaps with issue #4.

Movies

We Are Movie Geeks has made a list of five projects for DC Entertainment to jump on, starting with the Flash.

And finally, Crimson Lightning has the results of the casting poll. Fans cast Neil Patrick Harris as the Scarlet Speedster. Next up: Who’s your favorite Reverse Flash?

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

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.

Speed Reading

A whole bunch of linkblogging for the week!

Reviews and Commentary

The Comic Treadmill is doing summer reruns with a look back at Flash v.2 #206-219 from 2005.

Blog@Newsarama looks at a panel from Blackest Night #1 and concludes that Barry died sometime between 1991 and 1996 if “the internet” is new to him today…and then there’s his using the term “geek” to refer to himself and Clark Kent, and Grant Morrison’s comment that “When geeks get power, you get Hitler.” Um…yeah.

Comix 411 reviews Green Lantern #44, guest starring the Flash.

Video Store Blues shows a couple of pages from the 2000 Superman and Bugs Bunny miniseries, featuring the Flash vs. the Road Runner.

The Weekly Crisis wishes DC and Marvel would engage in more world-building dealing with the impact of superheroes on Earth, like the Flash Museum and Superhero Memorial Day.

News and Interviews

CBR interviews Karl Kerschl and editor Marc Chiarello on Wednesday Comics

CBR has their own write-up of the DC Universe panel.

The Source has pictures from Geoff Johns and Dan Didio on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

The Source announces JSA All-Stars, a spinoff of Justice Society of America, and Newsarama interviews Matt Sturges.

Art

Comics Should Be Good has a John Byrne commission showing Doctor Doom defeating various DC heroes including Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash.

CBR has The Nerdy Bird’s Flight to San Diego, including pictures of her as a Red Lantern with her custom-made plush Dex-Starr, Red Lantern Kitty of Rage!

The webcomic Kidd and Geezer presents Kiddo Cosplays at SDCC [link gone] with a trio of super-heroes who all have something in common…

DC Universe at Comic-Con: Big Flash News UPDATED

AARGH! Liveblogging failed. Lots on Twitter. BIG news: Geoff Johns on Flash ongoing after Blackest Night: Flash, Sterling Gates on Kid Flash ongoing.

Update: Now that the day’s tweets have been imported, here’s my full running commentary on the panel.

  • Inkpot award to Bob Wayne
  • SDCC is like “longest Thanksgiving dinner ever” – con staffer
  • Flash:Rebirth – bunch of Flashes behind him on final cover
  • GEOFF JOHNS ON FLASH ONGOING!
  • Some costume changes & a new speedster by end of Flash:Rebirth
  • Sounded like Flash ongoing starts after Blackest Night:Flash. They’re all Geoff Johns-written.
  • Troia, Batman, Hal &…Monel w/ S symbol In JLA.
  • Good Dr. Light vs Black Lantern evil Dr. Light
  • Guessing Batgirl’s ID: Stephanie Brown? DD: “No spoilers here.”
  • DCU panel info is coming fast & furious – hard to keep up
  • Titans’ new leader…let’s just say it’s not Wally as rumored on ComicBloc.
  • GS: WW to renounce Amazons & become more of a super-hero than ever
  • Sterling Gates on Kid Flash series!
  • Rainbow Raider will be a Black Lantern. GJ: “I guess he’ll be the Black & White Raider.”
  • C’mon, random fanboy…wait till you see the new writer’s work before begging Geoff to come back to Teen Titans.
  • Question cosplayer at mike: “I have a question…”
  • DD on renumbering books that have been relaunched: content more important than number on cover, low numbers may bring in more new readers.
  • Geoff Johns: artist lined up for Flash ongoing, can’t talk about it yet. [Edit: GJ adds that he can only say the artist is “awesome.”]
  • Fan requests a Snapper Carr & Jimmy Olsen team-up in Brave & the Bold.

See Also: Comic-Con 2009 Complete Index

DC Nation at Comic-Con


3:06:09 PM: Posing for photo w/ Liberty Belle&Stargirl. Dan Didio walks up: “I hate to do this to the Flash, but I need the ladies.” [Edit: here’s a picture with the same people from earlier in line.]

3:10:21 PM: Huge applause for Geoff Johns

3:11:21 PM: Plush Dex-Starr red kitty of rage [Edit: Dex-Starr was brought by The Nerdy Bird]

3:13:05 PM: Full of rage because of crappy con food! [Edit: DD came out wearing about 10 layers of T-shirts, including all the Lantern Corps, and asked the audience to shout out why they should get the red lantern shirt, the orange lantern shirt (“I want that shirt!” was the winner there), etc.]

3:21:03 PM: Fan: like seeing characters reacting to other chars’ deaths.

3:23:53 PM: DD: What did you like abt LO3W5? Fan: it finally came out.

3:26:47 PM: JR: JLA Cry for Justice will have major implications for JLA & America

3:30:51 PM: Black Lantern Billy Mays asks about Damian, West kids, etc. as new gen of heroes. DD says they’re really trying to work in new chars

3:32:17 PM: Fan: Will there be white lanterns who show up and save the day? Other fan: why does it always have to be black vs white?

3:33:27 PM: Let Hourman ask his question, he’s running out of time!

3:38:21 PM: Dancing Sinestro?!?

3:40:24 PM: The bit about new chars earlier includes, ex. the rainbow lantern corps, the New Krypton chars, etc.

3:42:47 PM: Ambush Bug #6 – “We got so awesome that we ran out of things to make fun of” Ian Sattler. DD real answer: too busy, in the works

3:44:46 PM: Geoff Johns: it’s not a trinity, it’s a pentagram (Supes, Bats, WW, GL, Flash)

3:45:57 PM: DD: Kids’ books have to read as kids’ books, not what adults remember from 60s

3:47:26 PM: GJ: will explore time, nature of Speed Force, all speedsters & what’s beyond in Flash:Rebirth

3:48:48 PM: Ravager asks: w/o Trigon, what’s Raven’s role? DD: will be involved in TEEN Titans

3:49:46 PM: GJ: Blackest Night: Flash will explain Captain Boomerang Jr

3:51:02 PM: GJ: entire story of Flash: Rebirth is in the Flash Museum at the beginning

3:53:44 PM: #BlackestNight 3: who do you want to come back? Ted Kord, Pa Kent, Max Lord…Jesus…Michael Jackson…

3:55:03 PM: And that’s it!

Speed Reading: What If? Cool Moments, and Death

More linkblogging! This rounds out a week’s worth of Flash-related pages I’ve stumbled across.

Kid Flash has a cameo up in this Adventure Comics #1 preview over at The Source.

Robot 6’s Grumpy Old Fan considers several major creative decisions by DC over the last 25 years, including making Wally West the Flash after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and considers what might have happened if they’d gone differently. In the case of the Flash, if they’d gone for a new, unrelated character instead of Barry’s former sidekick, the 90s focus on legacy characters might never have happened.

Four Color Media Monitor dissects interviews on Flash: Rebirth and Barry Allen given by Dan Didio and Geoff Johns, comparing their statements to the miniseries’ emphasis on death.

Comics Should Be Good highlights another Cool Comic Book Moment from The Flash detailing a pivotal moment from Flash vol.2 #78 — second-to-last chapter of The Return of Barry Allen.