Newsarama has posted a second part to their recent “Going West” interview with Flash team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. This time around, the duo discuss their plans for Gorilla Warfare and beyond, including what is in store for the Rogues and the tragic nature of the new Grodd.
Follow the jump for more on each of the Rogues, what drives them and the story behind some of the changes to Flash’s gallery of super-villains.
In addition to the solicitation and cover for issue #15, today brings a new interview with Flash scribes Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato at Comic Book Resources. Looking back at the past year on the title, which climaxed in last month’s Flash #12 and Flash Annual #1, the duo discuss the many-faced challenges of ushering in and keeping pace with the Fastest Man Alive.
Media Blitz! features highlights from recent Flash news items. Follow the jump for personal revelations, a nuts-and-bolts look at the cast of the New 52 Flash universe and a possible timetable for the culmination of this team’s Flash run.
Written by Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Art by Francis Manapul & Marcus To
DC has a spotlight article and a preview of the issue.
As far as back issues go, ComiXology is releasing Flash #110-111 and Impulse #12. This concludes the “Dead Heat” crossover started last week. The Flash and his allies have tracked Savitar to his lair, but can one Flash and a team of powerless speedsters stand against an army of super-speed ninjas? And how can Wally West defeat someone who has dedicated his life to studying the speed force?
In the aftermath, time-lost Legionnaire Jenni Ognats (XS) joins her cousin Bart Allen trying to fit in as a 20th-century teenager.
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.
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!
As part of a weeklong look at the upcoming New 52 Annuals, DC Comics’ Source blog has a new post up with some new information on the upcoming Flash Annual #1, by Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato and a cast of artists working from Manapul’s layouts. From Brian Buccellato:
“We couldn’t be happier with the collection of talent we assembled to work from Francis’ layouts. Broken up into chapters, on art duties we have Marcus To, Diogenes Neves, Marcio Takara, Wes Craig, and FLASH legend Scott Kolins! We just had to offer Scott the Rogues ‘flashback chapter,’ and were delighted that he accepted. His take on ‘The Old Rogues’ is new and fresh, yet pays homage to the gang’s history. It might sound clichéd, but it’s truly everything we hoped for and more.”
In the post, Buccellato also promises that the Annual will deliver the first Rogues team-up of the New 52 Flash series, as well as the much-anticipated tale of their journey from “…the old ‘gun-toting’ Rogues that everyone remembers from previous continuity, and the new meta-powered incarnations. In the Annual, we finally reveal HOW the Rogues got their super powers and at what cost.”
Check it out at The Source! Flash Annual #1 is in stores August 29.
In an interview posted on Friday, Flash co-writers Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato talked to comic book resources about the arc of their speedster saga. Going into this week’s first New 52 Grodd story, and upcoming reintroductions of Weather Wizard, Heat Wave and (Golden) Glider, the Flash team delved into the existing relationship between the Rogues and the road to September’s Flash Annual.
Manapul kicks things off by explaining the crescendo of the series thus far:
Francis Manapul: I think there’s a theme that the book is really about overwhelming the Flash. In the first arc, we created this villain who could really be in multiple places at once, so in that sense, the Flash is overwhelmed physically and also overwhelmed emotionally because of the fact that he’s [fighting] an old friend, a guy that he grew up with. It’s kind of an overwhelming time for Barry Allen, having discovered that the weight of the world is on his shoulders. On top of that, the Rogues are slowly starting to get back together; we’re slowly showing what kind of a threat they would be to Barry Allen.
For highlights, including choices made during the redesign of the Rogues and the team’s answer to the Wally West question, follow the jump!