I’m still working on my review of The Flash #4, and hope to have it ready by tonight. In the meantime, you may want to check out this Flickr gallery of Flash costumes at Comic-Con (photos taken by other people), or my Thursday Con Report.
It’s been a crazy week here at Speed Force. To help you keep track of it, here’s an index to all of our Comic-Con coverage, between me covering the show onsite and Devin covering the online news.
I’m going through my Comic-Con photos looking for Flash-related pictures I may have missed, and found this pair from the DC display including Blue Lantern Flash and Black Lantern Reverse-Flash…
…along with Orange Lantern Lex Luthor, Indigo Lantern Atom, Black Lanterns Batman, Hawk, Hawkman & Hawkgirl, and Green Lantern Hal Jordan. And I think that might be Star Sapphire Wonder Woman behind Hal.
One of the downsides to attending a convention is that you miss all the announcements at panels you didn’t attend — like an Astro City movie deal! *ahem* Anyway, on to speedster news.
At DC Universe Event Horizon, James Robinson stated that the Justice League would be battling the Crime Syndicate at some point, with Jesse Quick battling Johnny Quick , Batman vs. Owlman, Supergirl vs. Ultraman etc.
At DC Focus: Teams, incoming Teen Titans writer J.T. Krul said that Bart Allen “is past the Impulse stage but he still has that innocent, light-heartedness about him.” (Quote from Newsarama, may be paraphrasing him.)
At the Superman panel they announced that Superboy #3 will feature the first-ever Superboy/Kid Flash race.
Somehow, at San Diego I hardly spent any time on the convention floor at all from Thursday through Saturday. I was always running from one event to another, and spent maybe half an hour in the main hall at a time. So on Sunday, I made a point of walking the entire hall until I couldn’t stand it anymore.*
Among the things I’d been meaning to do at the con was to get my copies of The Flash #1-3 signed by Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul, and if possible to get a sketch by the artist. I never managed to make it to a Geoff Johns signing this time around, but I did catch up with Francis Manapul at his Artists’ Alley table.
There were five or six fans ahead of me in line who asked for sketches of various characters including Sinestro, Hal Jordan, Batman and the Flash. After a while I was beginning to wonder whether I’d make it to the front before he had to leave for a signing at the DC Comics booth, but I made it to the head of the line with plenty of time to spare.
In a revelation that I’m sure will surprise no one, I asked him to draw the Flash.
While he sketched, I asked him about the TV series he was on, Beast Legends, in which a team traces the origins of various mythical creatures. It’s airing in Canada now on History Television, and will hit the US on SyFy in September. It sounds like fun, and in some cases they actually traced legends to surprising sources — like tracking griffins to Mongolia!
Check out the finished sketch:
Cool, isn’t it!
» Full index of Comic-Con coverage
*This was a real issue, since with no events in the gigantic Hall H to warehouse 6,000 people plus more waiting in line, the main floor was actually more crowded on Sunday.
For those who haven’t been able to check out the SDCC 2010 DC Universe Online Trailer here are some captures of The Flash in an alternate reality sporting an armored look.
Now for those who haven’t seen the trailer and care to know why The Flash is wearing those armored duds, this takes place in an alternate future in which Braniac quietly abducted superhumans and then finally launched an all out invasion force that wiped out humanity leaving only that world’s alternate version of Lex Luthor intact. He traveled through time to warn the Justice League of the past of what may be coming to them in the future. The story reminds me a little of the recent DC animated release, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths or JLA: Earth 2, the book the movie was loosely based on. Right down to the alternate version of Luthor trying to change things and the involvement of Braniac in the main plot. It’s not too similar though, where I feel like we’ve already seen this before. I can’t wait to see how the story ends up unfolding.
I’m digging the armored look overall. I know it’s probably not going to be present in the main part of the game but it’s still cool to see heroes armored up for super threats or super battles. It also reminds me a little bit of the Kid Flash design for the upcoming Young Justice animated series. Would be kind of cool to see it as an action figure and I wouldn’t be surprised to see an action figure line released with this game.