Tag Archives: Weird

Vibe: Rebirth – For Real (sort of)

Vibe in FCBD: The New 52

Long-time Speed Force readers may remember an April Fools’ prank I did with the Irredeemable Shag of Once Upon a Geek and Firestorm Fan, “revealing” that Geoff Johns and Ethan van Sciver’s next project after revamping the Flash would be Vibe: Rebirth.

Three years later, Vibe did indeed turn up in the background of DC’s Free Comic Book Day offering, and he’s been making appearances on the animated DC Nation.

Today, in a CBR interview with Geoff Johns & Jim Lee, there’s this bit of news that should make Scipio of The Absorbascon happy:

As for what underused character he’d like to explore next, the answer was simple.

“Vibe!” Johns replied with a laugh. “They told me you can’t make Booster Gold work, and we made it work; you can’t make Aquaman work, and we made it work. I want to find the B character who everyone says is a complete waste of time, and Vibe is — he’s recent, he’s Detroit League and I have a soft spot because I’m from Detroit, so he’s my next challenge.”

Yes, that’s right: Geoff Johns wants to revamp Vibe.

Now if he can just get Ethan van Sciver on board…

Flash Oddities: Homer and Rat-Bear

Jesse Richards sent in these photos of some bizarre Flash merchandise he found:

One is a knockoff of not one, but two, franchises as it’s Homer in a Flash costume. It’s a pretty well-sculpted plastic piece with a surprising amount of articulation but some sloppy painting in places. I got it in a street fair in Brooklyn – no packaging or anything. They had other superheroes, too. I don’t know why he’s angry.

The other one is possibly even weirder … my parents found it at the gift shop at Great Adventure (Six Flags in NJ). There has always been a lot of DC superhero stuff there, but this one is freaky – I thought it was a rat in a Flash costume but now I think it’s a bear in a Flash costume. The hat is the most interesting part, a baseball cap with lightning bolts.

Flash vs…the Threat! (Updated)

What Were They Thinking?! is doing a series of posts this week on the weirdness that is All-Flash Quarterly #2 (1941).

  1. All Flash Quarterly #2 is Special
  2. All-Flash Quarterly, Part II: THE BLOOD RED RAY!
  3. All-Flash #2 Part 3
  4. All Flash #2 Part 4. Almost Done. Really.
  5. All Flash Comics #2 ends with…ew

It’s notable as the first Flash story to be longer than the standard Golden Age length of 13 pages. Throughout its run, Flash Comics featured several 13-page stories starring various characters, and All-Flash featured typically four, then later three stories per issue of that length — but they were all Flash. Occasionally, All-Flash would feature two 26-page stories…or, as in this case, one really long one, broken up into standard-length chapters.

The full story is available in The Golden Age Flash Archives Vol.2.

Strange Searches

The top search terms lately have been variations on the following:

  • Flash Rebirth 6
  • Blue Lantern Flash
  • Wally West new costume
  • Speed Force

But then there are the search terms at the bottom of the list…the weird ones that make you wonder either, “What was this person thinking?” or “How the heck did that term bring someone here?”

is final crisis canon or not? – Why wouldn’t it be?

is there a way to smoke speed – Umm… I don’t know. In fact, I don’t want to know.

can you name that dc character – You know, the who suffered a severe childhood trauma involving the loss of a parent, and everything in their past seems to be related to the costume gimmick or powers? Yeah, that one!

full episodes of Bones – I think you reached the wrong site.

kill the beatniks – I can blame Tom Peyer for this one.

batman/wally west romance fanfic – I’m sure it’s out there (and probably more than there used to be, now that Dick Grayson is Batman), but I have no idea how they landed here.

irredeemable comic reading order – Seriously, there’s, what, 10 issues out, and they’re numbered sequentially. Why is there a question here?

colour of ww1 brodie helmets in green – Umm…I’m going to go with green.

wally west’s hair – Umm… it’s red.

what’s the last bus to leave golden lantern and hidden hills – I don’t know, but you’d better not miss it.

where to buy batman ice cream – Is there such a thing? I’ve heard of Superman ice cream, but Batman?

flash gordon super speed – *sigh* – He doesn’t have it. I hope you learned something today.

Deadly Nightshade After Closing Time

Comic Cavalcade was an anthology series that ran from 1942 until 1954, publishing super-heroes and other adventures for the first six years. Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern were the headliners. DC has reprinted the first three issues as The Comic Cavalcade Archives, Vol. 1. (At 100 pages per issue, it’s still a pretty big collection!) I bought a copy, mainly for the Flash stories, and it finally arrived yesterday.

I read a few of the stories this afternoon, and these panels from the Green Lantern story in issue 1, “The Adventures of Luckless Lenore,” made me laugh out loud.

Two panels from Comic Cavalcade #1

Green Lantern’s sidekick, Doiby, has been trying to romance Lenore, whose “bad luck” seems to be engineered. At this point he’s been captured. I didn’t even notice the name of the bar the first time through, it was the menu that caught me off-guard. Continue reading