Tag Archives: Flashpoint

Sterling Gates talks Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost

Newsarama interviews Sterling Gates on his Flashpoint tie-in miniseries, Kid Flash Lost. As he describes it:

In Kid Flash Lost, Bart also remembers the regular universe. The only difference is that Barry is in the present day of Flashpoint, while Bart is in the future…. So he wakes up in a very, very different future from the one in which he grew up, the one he knew when he was a very small kid…. Bart realizes he needs to get back in time, or else the timestream will sort of correct itself, meaning he will pull a Marty McFly and fade out.

(Key points clipped together from several different paragraphs.)

We’re going to see a lot of things that aren’t covered in the main Flashpoint book, as Bart explores the future and finds out what happened to the Flash family.

What happened to Jay Garrick? What happened to Wally West? And where’s Max Mercury? Bart’s going to dig in and dig through some historical stuff over the course of the three issues, and we’re going to see where a lot of our speedsters are. It’s a Flash story as well as a Kid Flash story.

There’s a lot more in there about the tone, how Hot Pursuit fits in, and Bart Allen’s idea of “Kid Flash Facts.” Read the whole interview!

Flashpoint #1 Cover

The Aquaman Shrine posted this image of the full cover for Flashpoint , with full logo and credits.

Flashpoint ships next week, along with Flash #12, the “final” issue of the series. (We’ll just have to see see how DC relaunches it afterward.) A preview will also appear in DC’s Green Lantern special for Free Comic Book Day this Saturday.

In related news, USA Today writes about Flashpoint, “Not the DC heroes you know,” interviewing Dan Didio, editor Eddie Berganza, artist Andy Kubert, and comics retailer Brian Hibbs. Kubert talks about redesigning Wonder Woman and Batman, and Didio talks about the way DC is trying to combat event fatigue.

Geoff Johns Talks Flashpoint, Dodges the Wally Question

So, even when asked point blank, “Are we going to be seeing Wally in Flashpoint at all?” Geoff Johns can’t bring himself to say anything more than “It’s more focused on Barry and the DC Universe.”

Look, we know Barry’s the star. We get that. But it seems that in a gigantic, sprawling event centered on The Flash, with a central miniseries, 16 miniseries and at least four one-shots telling side stories, there ought to be room for Jay Garrick (yeah, him too) and Wally West somewhere. Bart gets a miniseries, and even Professor Zoom gets a one-shot.

The question wasn’t, “Will Wally West be a major player?” It was “Will Wally West appear.”

How hard is it to say, “Yes, he’ll be there, but he isn’t the focus of the book.”

I can only assume at this point that Wally West isn’t anywhere in the event, or that if he is, it’ll be in line with his appearance in this week’s issue of The Flash: a cameo as part of Barry’s cheerleading section. Or dead. Because let’s be honest: DC hasn’t given me any reason to believe anything else.

Back when DC canceled their plans for Wally West backup stories, Geoff Johns assured fans that Wally would not only be fine — he was going to kick ass. I’m still waiting.

At this point, I’m beginning to wish DC would just stop talking about Flashpoint until it launches. (Or maybe I should stop covering it.) I was pumped at the beginning — finally, the Flash is at the center of a big DC event, and there will be room for everyone! And I figured on buying 5 or 6 of the tie-ins, a big jump from the one tie-in I bought for Blackest Night. But far from piquing my interest, it seems like every “Flashpoint Friday” kills a little more of my enthusiasm.

Anyway, head over to the full interview at IGN. He talks about Flashpoint and Green Lantern, and of course doesn’t reveal a whole lot, since this is spoiler-free “wait and see” Geoff Johns.

Flashpoint Hints: Grodd & Citizen Cold

DC posted more of its Flashpoint writers Q&A on Friday, including Citizen Cold writer/artist Scott Kolins and Grodd of War writer Sean Ryan.

Ryan says of Grodd of War:

Since my one-shot is about one of Flash’s greatest villains, Grodd, the conflict is what does Grodd do without his archenemy. He gets everything he’s ever wanted, but there’s no more challenges in his life. He’s got everything he wants, but he’s miserable.

When asked about his favorite Flashpoint character and a “surprise” character who “will have fans talking,” Kolins says:

I am having so much fun with Cold. Geoff and I have talked many times about how great it would be for Cold to have his own monthly series. Surprise character? Flash fans will be very interested in a mysterious masked character who plays a crucial part in the story.

As for personal stories, “It doesn’t get more personal than CITIZEN COLD. Can a hero with a bad secret fall in love?”

Check out part one, part two and part three from last week, including Scott Kolins’ Flashpoint Rogues, and go onto part four of the interview.

Flashpoint Checklist (Part 1)

Following up on the retailer perspective, here’s what DC wants the reader perspective to be:

I’ve always been kind of ambivalent about this sort of thing. On one hand, it’s nice to have a complete list. On the other, calling it a checklist does sort of imply that you should be getting everything. And while I’m sure the publishers would be thrilled if we all did that, it’s just not feasible for most of us. And I’m sure most DC Comics fans don’t want to read all of these books, just like they don’t want to read every comic that DC publishes.

I’ll give Geoff Johns props for stating up front that it’s a central story with a lot of side stories, and that you only need to read the main miniseries to get a complete story. That’s much better than, for instance, The OMAC Project, where the most important event in the book — the one that continues to have repercussions to this day — happened between two issues of the miniseries, in another comic book.

But it’s still a struggle between the creative team saying, “Read what you want, and I hope you’ll want to read a lot of it,” and the marketing department saying, “Read it all!”

At least it’s not presented as an actual checklist (as these often are), or worse: an ordered list that implies that you have to read the books –all of them — in a particular order to understand what’s going on.