Tag Archives: Wally West

High Speed Hauntings: 4 Ghost Stories Featuring the Flash

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Flash Annual #11: Ghosts - Cover

Ghost stories seem a natural fit with some superheroes. Not so with the Flash. An origin based in science, scientifically trained alter-egos, villains who use technology. Even the “magician” villain, Abra Kadabra, is more of a techno-mage, using highly advanced future technology to carry out transformations that seem like magic to our experience. The closest the Flash mythos gets to the supernatural is the metaphysical nature of the speed force, and even that is described in terms of energy and the nature of space-time.

So it makes sense that for 1998’s “Ghosts” annuals, the Flash story would feature not a traditional ghost, but one tied to the speed force: Johnny Quick, who had vanished into the speed force two years earlier during Dead Heat.

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This Week’s Digital Flash(backs): more Gorilla Warfare

This week’s digital back issues at ComiXology include Flash v.2 #68-69 and Impulse #29-30.

Flash #68 concludes the two-parter re-introducing Abra Kadabra, and presents a new vision of the 64th century: a highly regulated world where everyone’s lives are planned down to the second, controlled by a massive computer called the Chronarch. (Mark Waid, Greg LaRocque)

Flash #69 & Green Lantern #30-31 feature the first three chapters of “Gorilla Warfare” — not the current storyline of course, but a crossover between Flash and Green Lantern in which Hector Hammond teams up with Grodd. (Mark Waid, Gerard Jones, Greg LaRocque, M.D. Bright, Romeo Tanghal)

Impulse #29 marks William Messner-Loebs’ debut on the series, as Bart and his friends stumble on a group of criminals dumping toxic waste near their town.

Impulse #30 is a tie-in to the Genesis crossover in which all the super-powers…and all the hope as well…are drained from the world…and an old enemy of Max Mercury’s takes the opportunity to settle the score. (William Messner-Loebs, Craig Rousseau)

Today’s half-remembered quote that I’ll fix when I have time to look it up:

“What kind of super-villain puts the location of his evil lair on his web page?”

This Week: Flash #13, Showcase vol.4, Digital Flashbacks

Out this week, it’s The Flash #13 by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. “Gorilla Warfare” begins as Grodd and his army attack Central City and the Flash is forced to team up with the Rogues to defend it.

Showcase Presents: The Flash vol.4

This week also sees the release of Showcase Presents: The Flash vol.4, continuing DC’s low-cost black-and-white reprints from the Silver Age. This 500+ page volume features Flash #162-184, covering the mid-1960s as Barry Allen fights classic Rogues and teams up with Jay Garrick and Green Lantern. Written by John Broome, Gardner Fox, E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates, and Frank Robbins with art by Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru and others.

Here’s what I said about the contents when it was announced:

Let’s take a quick look at what’s in here. Barry Allen and Iris West’s wedding…Reverse-Flash…oh, no, it’s the Mopee story!…a three-Flash team-up with Wally West and Jay Garrick…the Stupendous Triumph of the Six Super-Villains with the now-iconic, frequently-homaged cover of the Rogues standing over the Flash’s dead body…the second Superman/Flash race (the first was in the pages of Superman)…the Giant-Head Flash…Cary Bates’ first Flash story, introducing Earth-Prime…the Samuroids…and the Most Tragic Day. They stories 1966-1968, as the Flash inches its way from Silver-Age goofiness toward the more serious (but still odd) Bronze Age.

In the digital realm, ComiXology continues its re-releases of Flash (Wally West) and Impulse. Flash #66 features a team-up with Aquaman. Flash #67 is the first half of a two-parter featuring the return of Abra Kadabra and a new look at the 64th Century from which he came. Mark Waid writes and Greg LaRocque draws both issues.

Impulse #26, Mark Waid’s final issue, sees the teens of Manchester occupying the local shopping mall to protest a curfew. Impulse #27 by Tom Peyer and Sal Buscema features the first appearance of Arrowette, who would go on to become a member of Young Justice.

This Week: Digital Flash Year One & Impulse in the 30th Century

This week’s digital releases at ComiXology include Flash #64-65 and Impulse #25-26.

Flash #64-65 conclude the Mark Waid/Greg Larocque “Flash Year One” story telling Wally West’s origin, focusing on his first summer as Kid Flash. Impulse #25-26 finish up the story revealing the future world Bart Allen left behind when he came to the present, and the family who stayed to protect him. But when he returns to our time, Max Mercury has mysteriously vanished!

This Week’s Digital Flashbacks: Born to Run and Impulse’s Family Reunion

Flash #62: Born to Run Part 1 Impulse #23

It’s an all-Mark Waid week in ComiXology’s digital Flash/Impulse back-issues. Last week they finished re-releasing the last of the William Messner-Loebs run on The Flash, and this week, they begin Mark Waid’s classic run on the series with the first two parts of “Born to Run,” re-telling Wally West’s origin in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths universe (Flash #62-63).

In Impulse #23-24, it’s an origin of sorts for Bart Allen as well: his mother catches up with him from the 30th century and wants him to return to his own time, and we get to see for the first time the centuries-spanning Thawne-Allen feud. Interestingly enough, this is near the end of Mark Waid’s run on this series. In a few weeks, they’ll begin on the run by…William Messner-Loebs.

This Week: Completing the Messner-Loebs Run on Flash (digital back-issues)

Flash #60. Beware the Last Resort! Flash #61: Get me to the church on time

This week’s digital back issues at ComiXology include Flash #60-61 and Impulse #21-22. This means we’ve reached a milestone: for the first time in nearly two decades, the entire William Messner-Loebs/Greg LaRocque run on the Wally West series (Flash #15-61) is available to read without digging through the back-issue bins. Mark Waid gets a lot of credit for Wally West’s character arc, but all the groundwork is laid here, as Messner-Loebs shows Wally growing from the selfish jerk he is in the early issues to a someone more mature (if not entirely grown up).

Flash #60 follows up on the Icicle storyline as the Flash and his allies go up against a mercenary known as the Last Resort…who just happens to be Wally’s roommate Mason Trollbridge’s estranged son. Flash #61, Messner-Loebs’ farewell issue, features a surprise wedding as Wally West’s mother gets remarried. Naturally, her late husband shows up, with a date. And the minister gets delayed by a supervillain. You know, the usual.

In Impulse #21, the time-lost Legion of Super-Heroes visits the time-displaced Bart Allen, hoping he and the cosmic treadmill can send them home. In Impulse #22, Bart talks Jesse Quick into helping him find a missing Max Mercury.

» Flash v.2 on ComiXology
» Impulse on ComiXology

Impulse #21: A Legion of Impulses Impulse #22 guest starring Jesse Quick

In related news, ComiXology has upgraded the digital versions of Flashpoint and all its tie-in issues to CMX-HD, enabling sharper images on the new iPad and other high-definition devices.