Tag Archives: Linkblogging

Speed Reading — Flash: Rebirth #2 Review Round-Up

A bunch of reviews of Flash: Rebirth

Weekly Crisis – “For a book and character that thrives on speed, Rebirth has been a slow and plodding pace that threatens to bore me before Geoff Johns ever really makes me care about Barry Allen’s return or the new grimmer and darker motivation for the Silver Age character.”

Rokk’s Comic Book Revolution – “a good read that still had a few defects that might turn off some readers. I do think that most Flash fans will enjoy The Flash: Rebirth . Johns has done his best to try and make Barry accessible to all fans regardless of which Flash you grew up with. ”

Comic Book Resources – “The problem is, right now it feels like nothing is happening. There’s a whole lot of talking and reminiscing, but remarkably little forward movement in a book that is titled The Flash.

IGN – “At its core, the problem with Rebirth is the way it presents the vast tapestry that is the Flash mythology. There are countless speedsters running around these pages, most of whom dash in and out of the book in rapid succession and with little impact.”

Rikdad – “readers who feel like they need to scan dozens of old back issues can sit back and relax. There is a wealth of old material there, but the road ahead is cutting its own path.”

Comic Book Legacy – “the biggest problem I am having with this series, as of this issue, is the lack of an actual physical threat in the story”

Four Color Media Monitor – “this latest forced darkening of another Silver Age hero whose background was better when it was brighter.”

Read/RANT – “This book is entertaining. You probably won’t be bored. But I kind of wonder who it’s aimed at.”

Reilly 2040 – “I’m aware I’m sounding very down on the series here, and I don’t really mean to. While there are aspects that aren’t quite clicking in this issue, I’m still excited for the series as a whole, and events in this issue are key to the rest of the series”

The Homeworld – “Geoff Johns is trying to bring him back to life, but unfortunatly, the Barry Allen we all know seems to be dead.”

Major Spoilers – “I liked this issue a lot more than the first, mostly because of the insight into Barry’s state of mind. ”

Comix 411 – “A good mystery so far and I’m starting to get into the character of Barry Allen. The only Flash I’ve known has been Wally so this is a bit of a virgin experience. Looking forward to more. ”

Nerdage – video

Tpull’s Weekly DC Comics Review – “Get this now, unless you’re of the type that just cannot stand a little mystery.”

Comics And…Other Imaginary Tales – “The art on this book is just outstanding….The story is where I’m having issues with this book.”

Speaking of Comics – “There are some great set pieces in this book….But I couldn’t help feeling the overall effect of what should be a monumental, groundbreaking comic, came up short.”

Newsarama Best Shots – “I was one of the people who found last month’s debut issue to be more funeral than homecoming, so I was pleased that Flash: Rebirth to be a much more uplifting bit of superhero storytelling.”

Shipmates!: “I am filled with shock, confusion, understanding, horror, omfg I dunno if that’s awesome or not sort of things with my jaw hanging open and a few hours afterwards where I was just wandering around in a haze of trying to grasp what is going on with my beloved Flashes.” (She follows up with a flashback on the Black Flash)

Bureau 42 – “This is an original take on a character returning from the dead. I think this is the first time when the returning character struggled but others didn’t.”

Comic Book Bin – “the mystery of Barry’s return– and the surprising twist on the last page– really do grab the reader”

Comic Per Day – “This issue went a long way towards making Barry a character I’m interested in seeing more of. Just make sure Wally stays in the picture.”

Bee Boy’s Killer Sting – “If you are going to change a character so much, especially his personality, then you may have as well created something new.”

That’s a Wrap – “This latest rebirth is coming across as DC’s worst attempt to reintegrate a character in more than a decade.”

Flash-Back Podcast (audio)

Not exactly a review, but Daily Scans weighs in on the bow tie, Barry’s parents, and Wonder Woman.

There’s also my own review of the book.

Finally, there’s Comic Book Critics Round-up, which assigns scores to each review to try to get an overall sense of critic and reader response.

Speed Reading: Kadabra, Death, and the Marks

Linkblogging for a Friday afternoon…

The Absorbascon examines Abra Kadabra, go-to-guy for crazy, impossible things.

Now Read This! reviews Flash: Emergency Stop.

Death and Rebirth

The Alliterates ponders why dead men (Barry & Hal) tell more tales.

Dan Didio talks death and resurrection in his latest 20 Questions feature.

Where Are They Now?

Mark Waid talks Cyberforce/Hunter-Killer.

Marc Guggenheim (“Full Throttle”) and Michael Green talk about trying to get serialized fiction onto TV…not to mention dealing with religious themes on TV.

Speed Reading: Bow Ties, Variant Covers, and Top Villains

I’m working on a round-up of reviews of Flash: Rebirth , but that’s taking a while. For now, here’s some general Flash linkblogging.

Current Events

The webcomic Comic Critics takes on Wardrobe Origins. (If you’ve read Flash: Rebirth , you can probably guess where this is going.)

Major Spoilers’ Stephen is impressed to see DC unveil a variant cover he actually wants.

Star Clipper looks at Flash: Rebirth in the context of reviving a failing franchise.

CBR talks to Mark Waid about the “24/7” arc in Spider-Man.

Edit: Just after I posted this, I saw this scan of Tiny TitansBattle for the COW joke.

The Tops

Flash Comics #1The Judge declares Flash Comics to have the Best.Cover.Ever.

POP puts Professor Zoom on its list of 25 coolest comic book villains.

IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time includes Shade at #89, Mirror Master at #79, Zoom at #37, Gorilla Grodd at #35, Professor Zoom at #31 [Update:] Captain Cold at #27. (At this time, the top 30 20 is not up yet.)

Speed Reading: Covers, Talking Costumes and Ewoks on Steroids

Some weekend linkblogging:

Art

Covered features artist James Duncan’s reinterpretation of Flash v.1 #108.

Flash v.1 #159iFanboy’s Great Moments in Comics features a scan of the Flash’s costume begging Barry Allen not to leave it. “The Case of the Curious Costume,” which appeared in Flash v.1 #161 (1966) was a “bonus” story based on the cover from Flash v.1 #159. (Thanks to GCD for the scan!)

Crave Online’s Top 5 Covers for April starts the countdown with Flash: Rebirth at position 5.

History

Over at Comics Should Be Good, Scott’s Classic Comics Corner has been trying to pin down the start of the Bronze Age of comics (a much fuzzier boundary than the start of the Silver Age), and finishes his series with several less serious suggestions. Among them: Flash #220 (1973), the return of Turtle Man, 17 years after he first appeared in…Showcase .

Critique

Profzoom has launched a series of Flash: Rebirth Annotations.

Pete’s Rambling Observations suggests that Wally’s kids are “Ewoks on steroids”

Read/RANT considers How Many Green Arrows (or Flashes) is Too Many?

The Weekly Crisis’ Moments of the Week include several “anti-moments” from Flash: Rebirth .

Interview

Newsarama interviews Geoff Johns about his 10-year run on JSA and Justice Society of America.

Speed Reading: Ruminations and Reviews

Catching up on linkblogging before Flash: Rebirth hits the shelves…

Ruminations

4thLetter!’s Esther Inglis-Arkell considers the resurrection trend in comics, and likes it — “Because I like characters to be alive.” Photon Torpedoes, however, seems more resigned to the idea.

The Comic Treadmill considers what should go into an All-Star Flash series.

BSI Comics contemplates the fallout Blackest Night will have on DC’s many character variations.

Robot 6’s Grumpy Old Fan wonders if it was really necessary to kill off Bart Allen and a certain other character just to bring them back to great fanfare in Legion of Three Worlds.

Reviews

Last month I missed this review of Flash: Rebirth #1 at Secret Wars on Infinite Earths.

Major Spoilers reviews Legion of Three Worlds #4, giving it 2 of 5 stars.

Speed Reading: Waid, Infantino, Fan Films, Barry & Iris, Showcase Auction and More

Ain’t It Cool News interviews Mark Waid about his work on Flash, Fantastic Four, Irredeemable and more (basically his entire career). He’s got some really interesting things to say about the Flash. Eventually I’ll find time to read the whole thing and pick out some good quotes to post here.

Flash: CrossoverThe latest Fan Film Podcast episode focuses on The Flash: Crossover from Influence Films.

POP! lists Barry Allen and Iris West at on its 25 Greatest Super-hero Romances (via Robot 6).

The Comic Treadmill looks back at the 1970s revival of All Star Comics, featuring the Justice Society of America on Earth-2.

The best-condition copy of Showcase , first appearance of Barry Allen as the Silver-Age Flash, is “off to a fast start” at Heritage Auctions, already up to $100,000 with three weeks to go.

Comicbook Rockstar talks about lunch with Carmine Infantino, comics legend and co-creator of the Silver Age Flash, and the veteran artist’s advice for writers.

Comic Bloc user CreativeArtist has a new animation based on Flash: Rebirth.

Pegasus News reviews a production of Based on a Totally True Story (by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa), a stage play about a playwright on the verge of making it big in Hollywood — who also happens to write the Flash comic book.

Update: The first installment of Q&A column Geoff Johns Prime is up at Comic Book Resources. He doesn’t say much about Flash: Rebirth beyond “wait and see.”