Tag Archives: Max Mercury

This Week: Origin of the Shade, Digital Flash(back) “Nobody Dies” & Impulse: Ghosts of the Past

The final issue of The Shade arrives in stores this week.

The Source has a preview and commentary from writer James Robinson, artist Gene Ha, and editor Wil Moss.

Once a normal family man with a wife and two children living in London, Richard Swift was forced against his will into a life of the supernatural. What mistake did he make that would be his undoing and send him down a path of no return? Don’t miss this special issue of the critically acclaimed series that explored The Shade’s mysterious origins!

I expect it’ll be a bit more sophisticated than the Golden-Age explanation of his powers…

Seriously, I’ve been enjoying this series. It’s the kind of thing that could have (more) easily been done without the New 52, and I’m glad that they went through with it anyway, even if it required a few changes.

In the digital realm, ComiXology is adding The Flash #54-55 and Impulse #15-16 to their back-issue catalog.

Flash #54, “Nobody Dies” frequently shows up in lists of favorite single-issue stories from the Wally West series. It’s the one where Wally West watches a flight attendant get sucked out of an airplane and decides he’s going to jump out after her even though he can’t fly. CSBG featured the story in its “Almost Hidden” series, and Comics Bulletin has Messner-Loebs’ remarks on the story.

Flash #55 is a War of the Gods tie-in issue, and features the Flash racing against both Mercury and Hermes. (In the DCU at the time, the Greek and Roman pantheons were separate.) Also, IIRC, Wally and friends play Dungeons and Dragons.

Impulse #15 concludes the “Faith and Trust” two-parter in which Bart’s friend Carol finds her family caught in the middle of a double heist by the Trickster and White Lightning. Impulse #16 is one of the more powerful issues of the series. Max Mercury’s relationship to Helen Claiborne is revealed, along with a secret shame from Max’s past. These three issues together were among the most serious of the Mark Waid/Humberto Ramos run (though there’s always room for humor when the Trickster is around). Not surprisingly, the next few issues were all broad comedy.

Flash (1987-2009) on ComiXology
Impulse on ComiXology

This Week: Flash #12, Digital Dead Heat

This week it’s The Flash #12. The regular art team returns as all the individual stories of the Rogues come together, leading into next week’s Flash Annual #1.

Setting up The Rogues as a team as the next major storyline for the series begins!
Glider takes center stage!

Written by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato
Art by Francis Manapul

In the digital realm, ComiXology is releasing four issues of “Dead Heat”, the Flash/Impulse crossover from 1995. Flash #108-109 (Mark Waid and Oscar Jimenez) and Impulse #10-11 (Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos) cover chapters 1-3 and 5 of the 6-part story, and I’m sure we’ll see chapters 4 and 6 next week. With any luck, they’ll jump back and release Flash #50 soon as well, since they left of with one heck of a cliffhanger in Flash #49 last week.

Savitar, an old enemy of Max Mercury’s, has returned. Obsessed with speed, he has found a way to divert all of the Speed Force’s energy to himself and his followers. But there’s one speedster still in the running, someone who recently connected himself more closely to the speed force than even Savitar: Wally West. Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick, Jesse Quick, Max Mercury, Impulse and XS team up to stop Savitar, but more than one speedster won’t make it out alive!

Flash (1987-2009) on ComiXology
Impulse on ComiXology

New Flash Heroclix Releases Available Later This Month

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Some big releases on the DC side of Heroclix for their 75th Anniversary Set coming later this month including several Flash-related releases that are sure to rock the socks off of Flash and Heroclix collectors alike. First up Heroclix.com released a preview yesterday of the Monarch of Motion, Barry Allen in his first solo release in his traditional uniform. We had previously seen him in his dying form from the climax of Crisis on Infinite Earths, his Blue Lantern uniform and even in a few team ups with Wally, Green Lantern, and Superman. But this is the first time we are getting classic Barry and I’m pretty elated.

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Site Updates: Barry, Max & Intro

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I’ve started in on the big catch-up project to bring Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning up to speed. Updates today include:

Introduction to the Flash – I still need to add new images here.
Barry Allen – I’ll probably do at least one more pass on the text.
Max Mercury

Plus a bunch of minor housekeeping bits scattered around the site. Typo fixes. Series in which characters are regulars. Team memberships. Things like that.

Alternate Deaths of the Reverse Flash

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I’ve been slowly scanning my pre-digital photos, and stumbled across these pictures I’d taken of my DC Direct (and a few other) action figures around 2000 or so.

Display Case Figures 1

Display Case Figures 2

I had fun coming up with a situation that could combine the New Teen Titans, Flash, and Sandman figures.

In retrospect, I really wish I’d used a camera that had a little depth of field. I think it may have been fixed-focus as well.

Speed Reading: Flash in the 1990s

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Strangely enough, a lot of the sites I’ve linked to on Twitter or Facebook over the last few weeks were looking back at the 1990s and Mark Waid’s run on The Flash

High Five! Comics profiles Max Mercury: The Speedster Time Forgot (for a while). Of course, Max goes back farther than — he started as Quality Comics’ Golden Age hero, Quicksilver — but the version of the character known today was established in “The Return of Barry Allen,” “Terminal Velocity,” “Dead Heat” and Impulse.

For Valentine’s Day, Comics Should be Good’s Year of Cool Comics spotlights Flash: Terminal Velocity and a key event in the relationship between Wally West and Linda Park.

Westfield Comics’ Josh Crawley looks back at Mark Waid’s first run on The Flash, picking up with Flash #0 and running through “Terminal Velocity,” “Dead Heat” and “Race Against Time.”

Mania spotlights the 1990s Flash TV series in 15 more shows that were canceled before their time over the last 25 years. It’s an interesting mix of shows I remember fondly (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), shows I remember hearing about but never watched (Murder One), and shows I’ve completely forgotten (Street Hawk?). It also reminds me that I never got around to watching the last few episodes of Journeyman.