Straight from The Source, it’s Ivan Reis’ variant cover for The Flash #1, due in stores and online at the end of September.
It reminds me of the Flash Secret Files 2010 cover, only with the new transformation sequence added to the new costume design.
DC has also revealed the third variant cover, a sketch version of Francis Manapul’s main cover for the book. Continue reading
DC editorial insisted repeatedly over the weekend that there’s no escape hatch, no trap door, no possible way for the old DC Universe to return after the New 52 establishes itself post-Flashpoint.
This is, to put it mildly, an exaggeration.
If the last decade at DC comics has shown us anything, it’s that a determined writer with a supportive editor (or a determined editor with a willing writer) can undo any change he wants, no matter how set in stone it was before.
There was no back door put in place during Crisis on Infinite Earths to bring back Kara Zor-El as Supergirl, or Krypto, or any of the Silver-Age elements of the Superman mythos that were removed by the “Man of Steel” reboot, but they came back anyway. Emerald Twilight was deliberately written to make it impossible to bring back Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, but we not only got Hal back, we got the Guardians and the entire Corps. Neither the reboot nor threeboot Legion of Super-Heroes set up a way to go back to the previous version, and yet the pre-Zero Hour Legion is back in action.
Marv Wolfman actually did write a trap door into Barry Allen’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The idea was that, since he was running through time at the time he died, he could be plucked out of that run at any point for more adventures, but would live always knowing that he would eventually have to go back and sacrifice himself. It sat there, unused, for over 20 years, and when DC eventually brought Barry back to life, they did it another way, without using the trap door.
Trap doors don’t matter.
What matters is editorial direction.
When Dan Didio, or Eddie Berganza, or Jim Lee stands up there on stage at Comic-Con and says, “There’s no escape hatch,” they don’t mean they’ve set up the premise so that no one can go back. If they really want to, they’ll find a way.
It’s just an “in-story” way of saying that they’re committed to the new direction and determined to see it through.
At Comic-Con’s Sunday “The New 52” panel, Dan Didio stated that he’d wanted to reboot the DC Universe for five years, since Infinite Crisis*, but that the time didn’t seem right. Why not? And why is it happening now?
It makes more sense to tie it to Infinite Crisis: follow up a classic universe-changing event with a new universe-changing event 20 years later and usher in a new “age” of DC comics.
It seems clear that his plans morphed into One Year Later. Like the New 52, it was an attempt to establish a new status quo and provide a new jumping-on point for the entire line.
Something else Didio wanted to do with Infinite Crisis was bring back Barry Allen. He was coy about it for several years, but in the DC Nation column that ran the week of the last issue of Wally West’s Flash series, he explained that he’d wanted to bring Barry back with Infinite Crisis, but things didn’t work out, so they set up Bart instead. Then he’d wanted to bring Barry back in The Lightning Saga, but again, things didn’t work out, so they brought Wally back instead.
So what does it mean that things didn’t work out? Continue reading
One of the things that frustrated me about DC Comics’ post-Zero Hour “soft” reboot was the 10-year sliding timeline. Not that it existed, but that it crammed everything from DC’s Silver Age (1956) onward into a timeline tied to the first appearance of Superman, 10 years ago.
It always seemed to me that it would free things up if they’d just allow the characters to be different ages. Let (for instance) Barry Allen and Oliver Queen be a decade older than Superman, and let their super-hero careers have started earlier. They can still have worked together in the Justice League. Superman launched the age of super-heroes in the real world, but he doesn’t have to have done so in the fictional world. Especially when you have a whole Golden Age worth of characters who started their careers decades earlier.
Of course, the Golden Agers introduce another problem: If DC keeps them tied to World War II, but keeps the rest of the timeline sliding at 10 years ago or even 20 years ago, the gap keeps widening. It makes it increasingly hard to explain…
You can mitigate this a bit by rearranging some of the Silver Age characters to be older than Superman, as I suggested — or by letting Superman himself be older — but eventually DC would have to bite the (speeding) bullet and disconnect the JSA from one end of the timeline or the other.
So.
Now that details of the Superman relaunch are out, DC has clarified a bit of their latest timeline juggling. Continue reading
DC has announced their October Justice League comics, including the second issue of the new Flash run.
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
Variant cover by GREG CAPULLO
1:200 B&W variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale OCTOBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
The Fastest Man Alive learns he can make his brain function even faster than before – but as much as it helps him, it also comes with a steep price. Plus: The mystery behind Barry Allen’s friend Manuel Lago deepens as Barry investigates his kidnapping at the hands of Mob Rule!
DC has started releasing information about its October comics this week, including several miniseries launching in the second month of the DC relaunch. Among them: James Robinson’s 12-issue miniseries featuring The Shade, as reported by CBR.
The Shade is probably more associated with Starman these days, but he started life as a Golden-Age Flash villain, one of the trio whose place in DC history was later secured by appearing in Flash of Two Worlds.
Even though he only made one appearance in the Golden Age (as compared to the many tines Jay Garrick fought the Thinker or Fiddler), the Shade is the oldest Flash villain to survive it. The only older themed/named villain, the Threat (All-Flash #2), was a one-off who died in his first appearance and never returned.
THE SHADE #1
Written by JAMES ROBINSON
Art by CULLY HAMNER
Cover by TONY HARRIS
1:10 Variant cover by CULLY HAMNER
On sale OCTOBER 12 * 1 of 12, 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US * RATED T+
James Robinson returns to the world of his acclaimed STARMAN series with a new 12-issue series starring the antihero known as The Shade! An attack at the Starman museum kicks off a globe-hopping, centuries spanning quest that will irrevocably change The Shade’s life, and ultimately shed light on his true origin! Artist extraordinaire Cully Hamner (RED) kicks off the series, and upcoming issues will feature art by such luminaries as Darwyn Cooke, Javier Pulido, Jill Thompson, Frazer Irving and Gene Ha!
UPDATE: CBR interviews Robinson about the series.