On Friday, Ethan Van Sciver posted two covers to the Jinxworld Forums. One was the cover to Flash: Rebirth #5 which was also released through The Source. The other? Check it out:
EVS doesn’t say which issue the cover is for, but judging by the end of issue #2, it’s almost certainly the variant for Flash: Rebirth #3.
(via Speedster Site)
Update (May 11): DC has posted a slightly larger image at The Source, and confirmed that it’s the variant cover to Flash: Rebirth #3.
Some weekend linkblogging:
Covered features artist James Duncan’s reinterpretation of Flash v.1 #108.
iFanboy’s Great Moments in Comics features a scan of the Flash’s costume begging Barry Allen not to leave it. “The Case of the Curious Costume,” which appeared in Flash v.1 #161 (1966) was a “bonus” story based on the cover from Flash v.1 #159. (Thanks to GCD for the scan!)
Crave Online’s Top 5 Covers for April starts the countdown with Flash: Rebirth #1 at position 5.
Over at Comics Should Be Good, Scott’s Classic Comics Corner has been trying to pin down the start of the Bronze Age of comics (a much fuzzier boundary than the start of the Silver Age), and finishes his series with several less serious suggestions. Among them: Flash #220 (1973), the return of Turtle Man, 17 years after he first appeared in…Showcase #4.
Profzoom has launched a series of Flash: Rebirth Annotations.
Pete’s Rambling Observations suggests that Wally’s kids are “Ewoks on steroids”
Read/RANT considers How Many Green Arrows (or Flashes) is Too Many?
The Weekly Crisis’ Moments of the Week include several “anti-moments” from Flash: Rebirth #2.
Newsarama interviews Geoff Johns about his 10-year run on JSA and Justice Society of America.
Newsarama has a preview of DC’s July solicitations, including Flash: Rebirth #4:
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver
Barry Allen left a legacy that thrived after his death. Now his return threatens it all. What secrets does Barry hold inside him about the fate of the Flash Family? What destiny awaits Wally and his twins? What murderous force targets Bart Allen? And what does it truly mean to be a speedster?
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale July 22 • 4 of 5 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
My take: This sums up every concern held by fans of Wally West, Bart Allen, or the legacy aspect of the character. “Guess what! We might be throwing away what you like most about the Flash! Buy this issue and find out!”
Update: See the full list of Flash appearances in July.
Back in February, DC’s Executive Editor Dan Didio stated that one of the reasons they are bringing back Barry Allen as the primary Flash is because “you can’t tell the origin of Wally West without Barry Allen.” I have to agree with Comics Should Be Good that this isn’t a valid reason. It doesn’t take that much more time to explain Barry’s involvement in Wally West’s origin.
I had the same problem with complaints that Bart Allen’s origin was too complicated.
The origins are only complicated because we, as fans, want to include every little detail.*
When it comes down to it, all you really need to explain the Flash — any Flash — is that he’s really, really fast, and he helps people (as Marc Guggenheim pointed out in his brief run on Flash: The Fastest Man Alive).
How about an origin? For Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West, the key element is: “A laboratory accident gave him super-speed.” You can get a little more specific if you like, say, “Gained super-speed after being struck by lightning and splashed with chemicals.” As for Bart Allen? “Inherited super-speed from his grandfather” — kind of like Zatanna, who inherited her magic from her parents, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone complain that her origin is too complicated.
Sure, you can go into all the time-travel and accelerated aging for Bart, but you don’t need that for the sales pitch. It might help explain his personality during his years as Impulse, but even then, all you have to add is, “He was raised in virtual reality and has no concept of danger.”
Of course, if you’re going to tell a 7-part, 150-page epic Secret Origin story, I think there’s plenty room to cover a mentorship with a classic hero.
Now, if you’re going to do a Wally West story that really focuses on the fact that Barry Allen was his idol, his uncle, and his mentor, then yeah, you need to explain that relationship. But for the typical Flash vs. some Rogue story, the reader doesn’t need that level of detail. It’s enough to know that he trained under the previous Flash and later succeeded him. Kind of like how Hal Jordan trained under another Green Lantern (Sinestro), and succeeded a third Green Lantern (Abin Sur). Not only does the training under Sinestro seem to factor into most retellings of Hal’s origin, but the history between Hal and Sinestro seems to be extremely important to the current Green Lantern mythology.
And yet I’ve never heard anyone claim that since you need to know Sinestro in order to know Hal Jordan’s origin, you might as well focus the Green Lantern series on Sinestro.
Or, for that matter, that since you need to know Obi-Wan Kenobi in order to understand how Luke Skywalker became a Jedi, then you really ought to focus on Obi-Wan instead of Luke. (Though given the current focus of the Star Wars franchise on the prequel era, perhaps that’s not the best example.)
So, is Barry Allen important to Wally West’s origin? Absolutely, no question about it. Does it make his origin more complicated? A little. Does it mean that DC can’t tell compelling, comprehensible stories about Wally West as the Flash? Of course not. Admittedly DC hasn’t been telling the best Flash stories possible lately, but having Barry in Wally’s background certainly didn’t stop them from telling good stories over the previous 20 years.
This is not to say that DC shouldn’t tell stories with Barry Allen instead of Wally West. Just that if they want to claim that it’s somehow necessary or better to focus on Barry, this particular rationale doesn’t hold up.
*Update: It’s not just comics fans, either. I once asked a family friend what Les Misérables was about, and she spent at least twenty minutes describing the plot of the three-hour stage version. And consider this tribute to “excruciatingly detailed” movie plot summaries on Wikipedia.) I don’t know if it’s our attention to detail, or our love of storytelling, but it’s just so easy to pile things on that a new reader doesn’t really need to worry about until a story warrants it.
(Thanks to comics.org for the cover scans.)
Kaiser The Great sent me a link to a photo-comic re-creating the battle between Flash and Zoom in Blitz at this year’s MegaCon.
Here’s one panel:
Mo sent me a link to this music video by keeptheheat. It’s an original rap song about “The life of Wally West (a.k.a. The Flash) and the many little perils he encounters on a daily basis.”