Tag Archives: Wally West

Speed Reading: Favorites

Usually I save these up for the weekend, but there’s been a lot more Flash commentary around the net than usual. I blame the new year.

First, some more year-end lists:

The Flash Companion makes the #2 spot on Scoop’s Best of 2008: Publications About Comics, Characters, or Collectibles! (via Keith Dallas)

The Comic Treadmill’s 11th Day of Christmas features the team’s favorite Flash covers.

Grumpy Old Fan (now at Robot 6, along with the rest of the old Blog@Newsarama crew) lists Ten from the old year, ten for the new — items he watched at DC in 2008 or will be watching in 2009. Not surprisingly, Geoff Johns features prominently in both.

Now, on to more general stuff

Crimson Lightning has results of the Favorite Rogue poll. January’s sidebar poll: Who is your favorite regular writer from The Flash (v.2)?

4 Color Commentary profiles John Broome, who helped usher in the Silver Age Flash.

Lying in the Gutters’ Rich Johnston catches up to the fanbase by pondering whether Wally’s upcoming costume change comes along with an identity change, though message-board accounts indicate that EVS said at WWTX that Wally will always be the Flash, “just like John Stewart will always be Green Lantern.” (On the minus side, I remember when John Stewart wasn’t Green Lantern, and they kept trying to find other roles for him, such as joining the Darkstars…)

Comics In Crisis recommends the DC audio books by GraphicAudio, saying “these really are high quality and pretty faithful to the comic characters.” He particularly cites the adaptation of Flash: Stop Motion as “one of the best Flash stories I’ve ‘read’ in a long time.”

Looking Ahead: The Flash in 2009

14 Replies

While The Flash is currently on hiatus, it’s clear that DC is making a major push this year to promote the Scarlet Speedster.

Flash: Rebirth

The centerpiece of this push is Flash: Rebirth, a six-issue miniseries by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. In addition to re-integrating Barry Allen into the modern DC Universe, it’s described as an attempt to revitalize the Flash franchise and expand the Flash mythos. More info: what we know so far about Flash: Rebirth.

It’s a given that a new Flash ongoing will launch after Rebirth finishes, almost certainly starring Barry Allen. While Geoff Johns has been strongly hinted as the new writer, there have been no hints as to who might draw it, and DC has not confirmed a creative team or even a start date.

Of course, with Barry Allen taking over the main series, what happens to Wally West? All we know is that he’s getting a new costume.

Collections

2009 is going to be a huge year for collected Flash books.

First up is Emergency Stop in January, collecting the first half of the Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run on the book from the late 1990s. (They filled in for a year while Mark Waid went off to do JLA: Year One.) The second half of their run comes out in June as The Human Race. This includes the introduction of the Black Flash, who figured prominently in the last few issues of Bart Allen’s series.

Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga, the story which brought Wally West and his family back from limbo, also gets a trade paperback this month.

March brings The Flash Archives Volume 5, picking up 1962–1963 (see also: write-up of the contents).

In May, the first Impulse collection in a decade will be released in the form of The Flash Presents: Mercury Falling (more info).

June, concludes the Morrison/Millar run with The Human Race.

July sees the release of two Flash hardcovers: DC Comics Classic Library: The Flash of Two Worlds collects the first few team-ups of Jay Garrick and Barry Allen during the Silver Age. Then Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge collects last year’s miniseries. [Edit: fixed date for Flash of Two Worlds.]

Seven collections — and that’s just half the year!

Around the DC Universe

All indications are that Jay Garrick will continue to appear in Justice Society of America, and that Wally West will stick around in Titans.

Justice League of America is another question. It looks like Wally will be there at least until the series catches up with the events of Final Crisis. What happens afterward, and when Barry Allen becomes DC’s primary Flash, remains to be seen. The two most popular theories:

Barry replaces Wally in Justice League of America, bringing us back to the Silver-Age status quo of Barry in the JLA and Wally in the Titans.
Barry joins the new team in James Robinson’s soon-to-launch Justice League, alongside Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen, and Ray Palmer — the heroes he knows best — and Wally keeps his spot in JLA, ensuring that each team has a Flash.

The Flash will probably continue to appear in Super Friends, and Kid Flash in Tiny Titans.

No one seems to know what’s in store for Bart Allen. Despite strong hints of his return in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, delays have prevented us from actually seeing it. We know he’s one of very few dead characters who have been ruled out as potential Black Lanterns in 2009’s big event, Green Lantern: Blackest Night.

Other Media

Animation: With Batman: The Brave and the Bold featuring regular team-ups with other DCU heroes, there’s a good chance of seeing the Flash on the small screen again this year. Articles about the soon-to-be-released Wonder Woman animated feature have indicated that an animated Flash movie is in the works. (Though at two a year, we aren’t likely to see one until at least 2010.)

Live Action: The long-planned Flash feature film seems to be stalled at the moment, but if this year’s big Flash push succeeds, its fortunes may turn around again.

Video Games: The Flash appears in Sony’s DC Universe Online MMORPG. A firm date hasn’t been set for release, but the earliest quoted is late 2009.

Looking Back: The Flash in 2008

2 Replies

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 #243 After 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 #1 The 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.

Continue reading →

Review: Flash #247: “Incubation” (Final Issue)

9 Replies

Flash #247

Well, if Wally West’s series had to end — again — at least he got a decent send-off. Flash #247 concludes Alan Burnett’s four-part “This Was Your Life, Wally West”. This story wraps up threads from the current run of the series, looks back on Wally’s entire super-hero career, firmly establishes his roots in the Justice League and Titans, and sets up a few beats that can be picked up for future stories with the characters.

It picks up immediately after the previous issue’s cliffhanger, resolving the threat to Linda before rushing headlong into battle with the Queen Bee. This month does feature another flashback, this time to the West family’s time on the planet Savoth, but it’s only two pages. It ends with a conclusion that’s not quite an ending, but a place to stop. DC isn’t burning any bridges here the way they did with “Full Throttle” and the end of Bart’s series.

It’s also much better than “Finish Line,” the four-parter that wrapped up Wally’s series the last time it was canceled, from Flash #227–230. It was better written, better researched, and actually made an effort to tie together the rest of the series. The only thing “Finish Line” has over “This Was Your Life, Wally West” is consistent art.

While the first issue of the arc was penciled entirely by Paco Diaz, and the second and third were penciled entirely by Carlo Barberi, this issue was done by committee. Barberi gets the cover spot, but is joined by J. Calafiore and Andre Coelho. I’m not familiar with either of their work, so I couldn’t tell who did which pages, but the shifts in style were jarring. Normally changes in artist don’t bother me, especially if their styles are similar or if the change is done for thematic effect. (An example in The Flash would be Race Against Time, in which each issue used one art team for Wally’s storyline and another for John Fox’s.)

Brian Stelfreze’s cover, on the other hand, has got to be one of the best Flash covers since the relaunch. (I’d also include issues #243 and #246, both by Freddie Williams II) The starkness of it, with the plain white background, the shadow of the grim reaper, and the Flash standing barefoot with his boots off, says everything that needs to be said about what he’s up against. Honestly, I think it would work better without the “Wally West — Finished?” caption, or even the title logo.

Spoilers after the cut: Continue reading →

Flash: Rebirth — What We Know So Far

1 Reply

Flash: Rebirth The current series of The Flash ends with #247, arriving in stores tomorrow.

Flash: Rebirth will be a ~~6-issue~~ 5-issue miniseries written by Geoff Johns with art by Ethan Van Sciver, and is scheduled to start in April 2009. Ethan Van Sciver is drawing it, and has released one panel of preview art (see below).

Flash: Rebirth is centered on Barry Allen, but will “touch on all the other Flashes”—presumably meaning at least Jay, Wally and Bart.

Geoff Johns wants to “make [the Flash] mythology even bigger” in Flash: Rebirth, much like Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War expanded the Green Lantern mythology. Johns says it “will be very science based, but will also blend in the quasi-science of the Speed Force”

Wally West will be getting a new costume designed by Ethan Van Sciver, and will still be called the Flash.

Update (Jan 19): The solicitation for the first issue is now available, confirming a release date of April 1 and the format: 5 oversized issues, 40 pages each for $3.99 (like Rogues’ Revenge).

Update (Feb 6): DC has released a 5-page preview through New York Comic-Con and Newsarama.

Update (Mar 27): The covers for issue #1 have been revealed.

A new Flash series will almost certainly launch after Flash: Rebirth finishes. DC hasn’t officially announced when, who will write it, who will draw it, or even which Flash will be the star. Geoff Johns has been very strongly hinted, and it’s almost guaranteed that Barry will headline the book. It seems unlikely that they’d go to all the effort to bring him back, do a high-profile mini-series, and relaunch the book, just to keep someone else as the focus.

I think that covers the major issues. There is, of course, lots of speculation. Here’s a quick link to all posts here about Flash: Rebirth.

Trade Contents Confirmed: Mercury Falling and The Human Race