It’s the end of an era. A fan favorite character is leaving the series, and this episode is his swan song. Let’s all grab the tissues and get ready for a good-bye to Cisco Ramon. Don’t worry, there’s one last adventure for Cisco with Team Flash, though it’s a bit of a bumpy ride. Wanna know more? Follow us after the jump!
SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Just a few Flashes (and a Rainbow Raider) who I saw at WonderCon this year. There were a bunch more, including a TV Barry/Iris couple, a Jedi Flash, and more. These are just the ones who slowed down long enough for me to take a photo! 🙂 Check out my full cosplay gallery on Flickr.
You’ve probably seen this panel of the Rainbow Raider triumphantly shouting, “I believe in me!” (especially if you follow Lia’a Rogues blog). It’s from Brave and the Bold #194 by Mike Barr and Carmine Infantino. As a motivational therapist, Professor Andrea Wye approaches Bivolo and D-list Batman villain Dr. Double-X about their failures as super-villains, and convinces them to “Trade heroes and win.”
So Rainbow Raider goes after Batman, and Dr. Double-X goes after the Flash. The heroes aren’t used to fighting each other’s villains, and actually get captured. Of course they turn the tables before she’s able to learn what she wants from them, and overpower the villains before going after the mastermind. She escapes, but Flash figures she’ll return sooner or later. As far as I knew, she disappeared at that point.
I recently discovered that she does return, after all, in the opening two-parter of the 1985 Outsiders series — no surprise, also written by Barr. This was when the team had just split off from Batman, causing a title change, and moved from Gotham to Los Angeles.
In “Nuclear Fear,” Prof. Wye stages a fake terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant near Los Angeles to observe how the city reacts. It’s research material for her next book on the psychology of fear. (Ethics, schmethics, right?)
The Outsiders stop her team before it can make a scene, but the scientist she contacted to help plan the raid wants to go further. He wants to actually blow up Los Angeles in order to make people understand the horrors of nuclear war, and he sends a group of robots modeled after his dead family to do it. Naturally they’re called The Nuclear Family, and they’re this weird idealized 1950s family — except for the fact that they want to kill everyone. (Strange that nuclear war and twisted nostalgia for the 1950s are suddenly topical again.)
Once Wye learns about her ally’s plan, she hightails it out of town. Meanwhile the Outsiders are in a race to find the robots before they detonate themselves. In the end, the only thing they can do is destroy the robots in a normal explosion before they go critical and take out the city. The Nuclear Family is never seen again, as far as I know…and neither is Professor Wye.
I wonder if she ever finished her book?
Rainbow Raider (known as Chroma in the New 52)
Roy G. Bivolo
Roy was born with complete colour blindness, and saw the world in shades of grey. He was quite a talented young artist, but his inability to see colour meant that his work was often garish and ugly, something for which he was mocked. His father — who happened to be a brilliant optometrist — spent his life trying to find a cure for his son, but failed. However, on his deathbed he gave Roy some special goggles he’d recently invented. The goggles didn’t give Roy colour vision, but he discovered they had all sorts of fantastic abilities, which he then used to become an art-thieving criminal.
More after the jump.
Some weekend linkblogging.
Comics Alliance presents (in comic book form): Blackest Night in 60 Seconds….and on a more serious note, spotlights Comic Book Cartography — maps of various fictional worlds, buildings, and more. Edit: Here’s a direct link to the Comic Book Cartography blog.
Frank Ziegler draws a Cartoony Jay Garrick.
Multiversity Comics looks at The DCU According to Geoff Johns, covering the entirety of the writer’s DC work to date.
Grumpy Old Fan considers The Gospel According to Geoff, looking at what made Blackest Night work as more than merely a “process story.”
It’s Just Movies’ Ben Fowler discusses, If I Was Making … ‘The Flash’.
Cool-Mo-De starts a Goofy villains series with the Rainbow Raider and Flash vol.2 Annual #10 (Pulp Heroes), with art by the late Dick Giordano.
Comics Daily asks, How do you solve a problem like Wally West?
A Comic Book Blog interviews Ethan Van Sciver.
Some links of note before this holiday weekend:
Comics Should Be Good’s Year of Comic Book Moments features Flash v.2 #73, Wally and Linda’s first Christmas together and a surprise visit from the man in red.
Somehow I missed this when it was posted, but Mightygodking has an off-kilter profile of the Rainbow Raider.
Comic Coverage looks at the time Mirror Master managed to transform the Flash into a mirror.
Silver Age Comics looks at the way crime was treated as an addiction in many comics of the era, particularly The Flash — again focusing on the Mirror Master.
Update: Karl Kerschl has posted a progress shot of the Flash being inked for Wednesday Comics.
The Source previews what’s in store for Justice Society of America as Bill Willingham, Matt Sturges and Jesus Merino take over the book.
Darcey McLaughlin of the Miramichi Leader notes that death has lost all meaning in comic books.
Scott’s Classic Comics Corner (Comics Should Be Good) has an interesting post on measuring scarcity in comics collecting.
Karl Kerschl’s (Flash in Wednesday Comics) webcomic, The Abominable Charles Christopher, has reached its 100th episode.
Finally, if you’ll excuse the plug, please take a look at my eBay auctions if you haven’t recently. I’ve got several DVDs and CDs up right now, as well as a promotional Star Trek T-shirt from San Diego 2007.