Tag Archives: San Diego

Looking Back: The Flash in 2008

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2008 was a busy, if tumultuous year for the Flash.

The Main Series

As 2008 opened, the Flash was just wrapping up the six-part story “The Wild Wests,” the relaunch featuring Wally West as head of the Flash family and introducing his super-powered twins, Iris and Jai. To put it mildly, it was not received well by fans, and former fan favorite writer Mark Waid quickly left the book.

Flash #243After a one-shot by Keith Champagne, Tom Peyer picked up the regular writing chores and Freddie Williams II stayed on for the 6-part “Fast Money,” which resolved the twins’ super-speed aging problem and gave us a glimpse of an adult Iris West II.

The series wrapped up with the year, as Alan Burnett, Paco Diaz, and Carlo Barberi brought us “This Was Your Life, Wally West.” The four-part story arc looked back at Wally West’s career as Kid Flash, then the Flash, and his relationship with his wife Linda and their children.

Rogues’ Revenge

Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #1The Rogues’ Gallery were off-limits to start with, as they were off-planet for Salvation Run. Early in the year, DC released the news of Flash: Rogues’ Revenge, a miniseries that would spotlight them after they returned to Earth, going after Inertia for tricking them into killing the Flash. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins would return to the speedster mythos for six issues.

By the time the series was launched, it had become Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, and instead of six regular-sized issues it was three oversized issues.

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Heroes & San Diego

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A couple of recent posts on my other blog that might appeal to this audience:

Thoughts on Heroes Volume 3: Villains. I’ve really liked the storyline with Hiro, Ando, Daphne and Matt (and got a kick out of the speedster saying, “Back in a flash!”), but other parts of the show have just bugged me lately.

San Diego Weekend, mainly for the bit in the middle about the Omni Hotel and the San Diego Convention Center.

Heroes’ Brea Grant: Comic Fan

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Access Hollywood writes about “rising star” Brea Grant, who plays speedster Daphne Millbrook on Heroes. While it had previously been reported that she prepared for her role by reading a box of Flash comics, it turns out it wasn’t just research: she’s a self-professed geek.

Brea is so much of a fan, that she attended this summer’s San Diego Comic-Con as a regular fan of the genre and caused quite a stir on the convention floor when other fans who were treated to a sneak peak of the new season of “Heroes” recognized the actress — something Brea got a kick out of.

They also ask the fluff question of which super-hero she’d want to date (No one asks the guys this kind of question, do they? Do reporters ask Milo Ventimiglia, “Which superheroine would you date?”), and the Flash does make her list, even though “he wasn’t always a good boyfriend.” Judging by Wally West’s track record, it’s pretty clear which Flash she’s talking about.

Flash Rings

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DC has been handing out plastic Flash rings at conventions this year. Sadly, I managed to miss the relevant panel at San Diego (IIRC it was the Geoff Johns panel, and it conflicted with Robert J. Sawyer), and I never managed to hit the DC booth at the times they were giving them out either.

Johanna Draper Carlson of Comics Worth Reading was kind enough to send me an extra that she picked up at Baltimore Comic Con.

As you can see, it’s just plain yellow plastic, but it’s sculpted. Try as I might, though, no matter how many times I hit that button on the side, it didn’t open up to release a costume. 😀

Actually, I do have a Flash ring with a miniature costume somewhere in storage. DC Direct released a replica Flash ring with a stand. It’s held open slightly so that you can see the costume inside. Rather than hunting through storage, I searched online and ganked the first photo I found, from Planet Krypton.

Convention Behavior

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The post on sexual harassment at Comic-Con on Comics Oughta Be Fun has been making the rounds. It’s disturbing, but worth a read. It lists a few examples of women being harassed during the con, then points out that there’s no written policy against harassment, and no clear procedure for reporting it.

In theory, it shouldn’t be necessary to spell out “Don’t stalk or assault people” in the program. We’re talking about behavior that’s already unacceptable and, once you cross a certain line, illegal. Unfortunately some people either lack basic social graces (I’m trying to keep the language family-friendly, here), or think that costumes give them a free pass.

I do think the convention needs a clear reporting procedure. Let people know they can report incidents to security, and follow through.

They also need better coordination between convention staff and security. My wife and I spent an hour and a half dealing with what we thought was the theft of her purse. She stood up at the end of a panel and it was gone. She reported it to security, filled out a missing property report, checked lost and found, canceled her credit card…and in the end it turned out that the room’s staff had removed it from under her seat during the previous panel break, thinking someone else had left it behind, and put it at the back of the room. But they hadn’t said anything to security about it, and security didn’t ask them.

(Found via several blogs.)

Linkage: Rumors of Bart

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While many fans seem to be taking it as given that Bart Allen will return in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, there’s been considerably less certainty as to where he might continue to appear afterward. Will he return to the present, or stay in the 31st century? Will he return as Impulse, Kid Flash, or the Flash? Will he appear on any sort of regular basis, or just be an occasional guest star?

Rumor column Lying in the Gutters suggests he might be staying with the Legion, or at least be available in that setting:

One San Diegoer tells me, “I was waiting at the Aspen booth at Comic-Con getting a sketch done by current Legion Artist Francis Manapul, when Geoff Johns came over and interrupted to talk to him for a second. Johns had a copy of…his first Teen Titans trade, and handed it to Manapul, which Manapul said, ‘I eventually did get my hands on a copy and read it last night.’ The two of them talked about Bart Allen for a couple of minutes, with Manapul being very complimentary of how he was written. Johns looked around, saw people were watching, and turned his back and the two of them continued to talk inaudibly for about 10 minutes about something before Johns left.

“Combine that with the vague question that Johns asked at one panel: ‘Does anyone miss Bart Allen?’ and there has to be something there.”

Rich Johnston gives the rumor a yellow light on his traffic-light scale of reliability, so even he isn’t sure what — if anything — the conversation means. It could mean absolutely nothing.