Tag Archives: Flash: Rebirth

Flash: Rebirth Wraps Next Week!

1 Reply

It’s been a long wait, but Flash: Rebirth #6 is on Diamond’s upcoming releases list — meaning it’s almost guaranteed* to ship next week! The second half of the miniseries has been plagued by delays, which artist Ethan Van Sciver has been willing to own up to…but he only recently talked about the health problems that threw off his work schedule.

So here’s the final (okay, maybe I’m being a bit trusting!) schedule for the miniseries:

Issue Orig. Date Actual Date Gap Delay
Flash: Rebirth #1 April 1 April 1 3 months† On time
Flash: Rebirth #2 May 6 May 6 5 weeks On time
Flash: Rebirth #3 June 10 June 10 5 weeks On time
Flash: Rebirth #4 July 22 Aug. 26 11 weeks 5 weeks
Flash: Rebirth #5 Aug. 26 Nov. 18 12 weeks 12 weeks
Flash: Rebirth #6 Sep. 30 Feb. 24‡ 14 weeks 21 weeks

Blackest Night: The Flash finishes this week, and next month sees the release of Flash Secret Files 2010. A new ongoing series launches in April with the Brightest Day-linked The Flash #1.

*It’s rare for a book to drop off Diamond’s schedule between “next week” and “this week,” but it does happen occasionally.

†Since Flash v.2 #247

‡Well, scheduled date, but unlikely to change at this point.

EVS Talks Flash: Rebirth at Word Balloon

4 Replies

I finally finished listening to last week’s Word Balloon Podcast with Ethan Van Sciver this morning. During the 90-minute interview, he talks about Flash: Rebirth, the personal issues that caused the delays, redesigning Wally West’s costume, bringing back Impulse, the balance of power between writers and artists, and Cyberfrog.

Some points that Flash readers will find interesting:

Last spring, Ethan Van Sciver started experiencing chest pains and was told that if he didn’t do something about his health, he was going to have a heart attack. So he embarked on a complete lifestyle change, which threw off his work schedule, slowing down Flash: Rebirth. The final issue, originally scheduled for September 30 of last year, will be out in two weeks on February 24.

It was his idea to make Iris “Irey” West II the new Impulse. He wanted the character back, and deliberately made Iris and Jai younger than they had been previously because of that (and because he didn’t like them as tweens). He also made an effort to draw Bart Allen as Kid Flash looking a bit more like he appeared as Impulse: round face, big feet, slightly exaggerated features. On a related note: Geoff Johns has plans for Jai.

He had a really hard time redesigning Wally West’s costume. The way he put it was that it’s easy to design a speedster costume, but it’s hard to design a Flash costume. Whereas with Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night he basically had free reign with new designs, this time he kept getting notes and had several designs rejected. The final version was quite literally a composite of other Flash costumes: EVS wanted the straight cowl from the TV series & Dark Flash, to make it look like a knight’s helmet (in line with his Barry = King Arthur and Wally = Lancelot metaphor), Geoff Johns came up with using the animated-style emblem, etc. To this day, Van Sciver isn’t happy with the way it turned out.

There’s a lot more in there — it is an hour and a half long — and it’s worth listening to if you have the time. There’s also a discussion at Comic Bloc that’s gotten into the writer/artist balance.

Related note: Daniel Way interviews EVS in connection with Cherry Capital Con.

Flash: Rebirth #6 Variant Cover (And Still Due Feb. 24!)

13 Replies

Over at The Source, DC has posted the variant cover for Flash: Rebirth #6 by Ethan Van Sciver.

More importantly, they’ve listed the release date…and it’s still February 24, 2010…just three weeks away!

We still haven’t seen the full standard cover yet. The one used in solicitations is clearly modified to hide the background and/or other characters. Most likely it’ll appear sometime in the next few weeks, when DC posts a preview of the issue.

Readers’ Favorite Flash Story of 2009

1 Reply

Earlier this month I posted a poll asking readers to choose their favorite Flash story of 2009. The poll closed today, so here are the results.

Not surprisingly, Flash: Rebirth — the only Flash-titled series we’ve really had during 2009 (not counting one issue of Blackest Night: The Flash in December) won the poll…but it only pulled in 35% of the vote!

Making a strong second-place showing was Blackest Night at 28%. While not primarily a Flash story, the Green Lantern-based universe-wide event has focused heavily on Hal Jordan and Barry Allen.

Third place, with 13%, is the Flash feature in Wednesday Comics. (This one was my favorite.)

Some of the write-ins are rather telling, though. While many readers have liked this year’s Flash stories (or at least some of them), others have been extremely disappointed. I have to admit getting a chuckle out of “It’s like asking which punch in the face was better.”

Update: Sadly, Twtpoll purged the complete results before I thought to copy them over.

Flash: Rebirth #6 Moved UP to Feb 24

3 Replies

Flash: Rebirth #6 (thumb)In mid-December, DC rescheduled Flash: Rebirth #6 from January 27 to March 24. Artist Ethan Van Sciver thought this was strange, as he was nearly finished drawing the book. At the end of the month, Diamond listed February 24 on their shipping updates page, but DC left their website at March 24. That left readers with this question:

Which date was correct? DC’s or Diamond’s?

In the past I would have relied confidently on Diamond’s date, since DC’s website was notorious for outdated or otherwise wrong shipping dates, but in the last few years it’s generally been accurate.

Well, today DC updated their website, and their listing for Flash: Rebirth #6 now shows a February 24, 2010 release date!

I believe this is the first time an issue of Flash: Rebirth has been rescheduled for an earlier date!

It’s still after Blackest Night: The Flash wraps, but only by one week, and it should be out a month before Flash: Secret Files.

Flash in the Top 500 & Blackest Night: The Flash Outsells Flash: Rebirth

3 Replies

Diamond has released its Top 500 comics for 2009, and Flash: Rebirth comes in at #16.

Other issues come in at:

Issue Rank (Year)
Flash: Rebirth #1 16
Flash: Rebirth #2 55
Flash: Rebirth #3 75
Blackest Night: The Flash #1 102
Flash: Rebirth #4 107
Flash: Rebirth #5 125

Meanwhile, ICv2 has posted sales estimates for December 2009. We already knew Blackest Night: The Flash #1 was ranked #5 for the month, and the actual sales estimate comes in at 80,313 copies sold. For comparison:

Issue Rank (Month) Units Sold Change
Flash: Rebirth #1 2 102,429 +286.6%
Flash: Rebirth #2 4 86,183 -15.9%
Flash: Rebirth #3 10 83,086 -3.6%
Flash: Rebirth #4 14 78,107 -6.0%
Flash: Rebirth #5 9 73,875 -5.4%
Blackest Night: The Flash #1 5 80,313 +8.7%

Yes: that’s right. Blackest Night: The Flash outsold the last two issues of Flash: Rebirth. Most likely one of two things is happening:

  • The Blackest Night brand is helping sales, bringing in readers who otherwise wouldn’t be reading a Flash solo book.
  • Flash fans who have gotten tired of waiting for Flash: Rebirth are picking up Blackest Night: Flash.

Probably both, though I wouldn’t try to guess which factor is more significant.

Update: The Beat has posted their analysis of DC’s December sales.