Tag Archives: Flash: Rebirth

What I want to see after Flash: Rebirth

Okay. Time to lay it all on the line. As much as I’m a Flash fan, I’m more specifically a Wally West fan.

I’ve read Barry’s entire run. I’ve read nearly half of Jay’s (and spent way too much tracking down back issues). I’ve read all of Impulse and the one year of Bart’s run as Flash. But Wally will always be my Flash. So obviously I’m facing Barry’s return and practically-guaranteed retaking of the spotlight with some trepidation. Some of the rumors floating around haven’t helped matters.

But I’m trying to be positive.

So, DC, I know you don’t care about one particular fan’s preferences, but here’s what would make me happy at the end of Flash: Rebirth and the start of the new era in The Flash.

  • Barry and Iris together.
  • Wally and Linda together.
  • Iris II and Jai alive, preferably somewhere between 8 and 17 years old physically & mentally so they can actually be characters. Powers optional. (Yes, I’m one of the weirdos who likes the twins. And yes, I’ve read last month’s issue. I’m still holding out to see how the cliffhanger resolves.)
  • Wally still prominent as the Flash, not shoved off into a corner or renamed “Mr. Zip.”
  • Jay alive.
  • Bart alive, if possible. It’s okay if he’s in the 31st century. And I think he worked better as Impulse (though I think he could have worked as the Flash, if DC had really gotten behind the series and given it a chance instead of bailing at the first sign of audience discontent).

What would make me feel that Wally hasn’t gotten shafted?

  • Nothing that screams “demotion” or “second-rate” or “sidekick.” No “Thanks for filling in, the real Flash is back. Go back to the kids’ table.” (Obviously some of this is inherent in Barry taking over the spotlight and Wally getting the costume change, but let’s minimize it, okay?)
  • Put him in an outfit that doesn’t evoke his old Kid Flash costume.
  • Have him appear in more than just The Titans on a monthly basis. I spent most of a decade picking up various incarnations of that book solely out of hope that it would get better, and finally broke myself of the habit during Infinite Crisis. (Actually, I did like the first year and a half of Geoff Johns’ run, but other than that, I didn’t really care for more than the occasional storyline from Titans Hunt onward). Unless I start hearing that it’s fantastic, I’m not going to pick it up just because it’s the only place I can read new stories with Wally West.
  • Wally in Justice League of America and Barry in Justice League. This is such an obvious win-win solution, especially since Barry’s friends Hal, Ollie and Ray are all supposed to be in the latter book.

Also, assuming Barry takes over the main Flash title, I’d like to see Wally in a parallel title. Some ideas:

  • Pick up Barry’s series as The Flash with #351, and start Wally’s series up again with #248 and a title change.
  • Launch The Flash starring Barry with #1, and launch All-Flash with a rotating cast of Wally, Jay and others, also with #1.

So, there you have it, DC. One of many points you can add to your marketing data.

Linkage: Ethan Van Sciver on the Future of Wally West

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CBR reports on last week’s Spotlight on Ethan Van Sciver at Comic-Con. Among other things, he talked about redesigning Wally West’s costume and how he sees the personalities of Barry Allen and Wally West.

“I’m redesigning Wally West’s costume right now, and it’s terrifying.” While Sinestro’s costume, with its seemingly random blue color and “jester collar,” was ready for a redesign in Van Sciver’s eyes, “Wally West is the most perfectly designed costume ever, aside from Green Lantern’s costume, in my opinion.” Van Sciver said the challenge was to redo the costume without either making it less cool or more cool than Barry Allen’s and thus implying that one character is better than the other.

“I want Barry to come back and be King Arthur. He’s the most straight-laced, perfect Flash, rigid in his morality and his ethics,” making the looser, cooler, more laid-back Wally a Lancelot figure. Van Sciver told the audience “Kick me in the ass if I fail.”

So there’s at least some hope for Wally fans that he won’t be totally shoved off to the side. Maybe.

On the other hand, he also confirmed that the monthly Flash series will “stop” for Flash: Rebirth. How it will be relaunched afterward — picking up where it left off, or where Barry’s series left off — or with a new #1 — he wouldn’t say.

Linkage: Scott Kolins on Rogues’ Revenge and the Future of the Flash

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Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers interviewed Scott Kolins on Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge and Barry Allen’s return in Flash: Rebirth

You know, we’ve talked about doing a “Rogues” mini-series since… well, ever since back when I was on The Flash with Geoff. But last year in San Diego, I got a phone call from Geoff saying he’d just had a big meeting, and he said, “Dude! Now’s the time to do Rogues! I’ve got all these ideas. We’re going to do this, and it’s going to lead to all this stuff going on in the DC Universe. We’ve got all these things going on, so now’s the time to do it! Come on back! Come on back!” And I thought, OK, this sounds great! So I came back to DC.

And he told me right then what was going on with the Rogues. And we’d talk every once in awhile, getting ready for it. But there would be a couple weeks that would go by that I wouldn’t hear from him because he was busy writing all his 20 million other books he’s working on. And finally, he called up and said, “I just got something! I want to bounce it off of you and see what you think!” And he does that. He always tells me his latest ideas. And he told me the one about Zoom, and my jaw just fell on the floor.

More at Newsarama.

Filling in the San Diego Gaps

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Some Flash news bits from Comic-Con panels that I missed this weekend, dealing with DC news in general and Flash: Rebirth in particular.

DC: A Guide to Your Universe at CBR

A fan asked whether Flash Wally West would be replaced by Barry Allen. “You’ll have to read ‘Flash Rebirth,” Johns said. “I hope I’ve shown I am a Wally West fan–I wrote the book for five years.”

On the final page of “All Flash” which includes an image of a Batman costume coming out of a Flash ring, Johns said “I think Mark [Waid] just wanted to put a Batman suit in a ring.”

A fan asked whether Flash Wally West would be replaced by Barry Allen. “You’ll have to read ‘Flash Rebirth,” Johns said. “I hope I’ve shown I am a Wally West fan–I wrote the book for five years.”

Newsarama adds:

Any chance of a Hal/Barry team-up book? “It’s too early for that,” said Johns, but adding that Hal Jordan will be in The Flash: Rebirth.

As for the Geoff Johns Spotlight, CBR’s write-up has a ton of Flash-related info (and now I’m really annoyed I couldn’t make it). Some highlights:

Were the Rogues’ statements that they didn’t mean to kill Bart Allen a retcon on Johns’s part, or a self-justification on the part of the Rogues themselves? Johns said it was a bit of both, and that more will be revealed regarding their motivations in the next two issues…Johns said he thought they’d be smart enough to know that killing a Flash would bring down a lot of heat, which it did….they mostly feel bad about being caught. Johns teased that we would soon discover that one of the Rogues actually was trying to kill Bart.

He then quoted from his “Flash: Rebirth” script: “One of Barry’s good friends says, ‘Has the world gotten too fast for you?’ Barry smiles and says, ‘The world’s finally catching up.'”

As I said, there’s a ton of Flash info in that panel, and I highly recommend reading the whole thing.

CBR has a video interview with Geoff Johns, which I have not yet had time to watch.

CBR also interviewed Ethan Van Sciver about Rebirth.

Flash @ DC Nation II

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A few more bits about the Flash from my notes on the Sunday follow-up DC Nation panel here at San Diego Comic-Con:

Dan Didio was tired and asked the audience to pipe up with announcements that had already been made. When he asked about the Flash, only one person stuck up his hand. (No, it wasn’t me. I was waaay in the back with a pen and notebook.) “Only one person can tell us what’s going on in Flash?” He then asked, “Barry Allen: Rebirth — a good thing or a bad thing?” The audience applauded.

Geoff Johns said of Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds that “If you like speedsters, you should read the book too. Actually, it you like teenage speedsters, you should read the book.” Perhaps a hint about Bart returning as Kid Flash/Impulse?

One fan asked about speculation that Barry Allen might be Libra. Dan Didio simply said, “Flash: Rebirth.” Geoff Johns added, “I can’t comment, but… I hope not.”

Another asked if, with Barry’s return, we would get some trade paperbacks from his series, specifically the Trial of the Flash. Bob Wayne said, “You mean the Fastest Man Alive and the Slowest Story Printed? Don’t make us!” Someone (possibly Geoff) piped up with “I liked that story!”

Flash @ Final Crisis Management

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A couple of items from my notes at the “Final Crisis Management” panel Friday at Comic-Con.

Geoff Johns mentioned that some stuff in Rogues’ Revenge spills over into Flash: Rebirth.

A fan asked Geoff, since he wasn’t alive when Barry died, what he was going to do to make him care. Geoff reiterated his “Trust me” line from yesterday.

Three fans got to go up on stage and read a photocopied proof of Final Crisis #3 and were given the chance to answer questions from the audience. Yes, Barry Allen is in issue #3.

Someone asked, why bring Barry back? And why now? Geoff Johns answered that he led the Silver Age, there were lots of thematic ideas, and that the question will figure into Rebirth, with Barry himself asking, “Why am I back?” Dan Didio added that it brings the Crisis story full circle. And that, like Hal Jordan, Barry never really left — people were always bringing him into stories through flashbacks, time travel, impostors, etc.

And, not that anyone should doubt it by now, the lightning rod from “The Lightning Saga” will be addressed in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

Update: More complete coverage of the panel at CBR, at Newsarama, and at The Pulse.