Tag Archives: WWC 2008

Ethan van Sciver at Wizard World

Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers spoke with Ethan van Sciver at Wizard World Chicago last week about his upcoming projects, including Green Lantern: Blackest Night with Geoff Johns and an untitled Wonder Woman project with Gail Simone. They also discussed the rumors of an upcoming Flash project with Geoff Johns.

The artist had just come from a DC panel where Dan DiDio seemed to always turn to him to answer any question about The Flash. We asked: Why is that?

“Because he’s a sadist, deep down. He even told me that. He said, “I just like to see you squirm.’ I honestly have no idea. He likes to get the rumors going,” Van Sciver said.

We talked about the rumor mill and how most fans think his upcoming “secret project” with Geoff Johns is either Aquaman or The Flash.

“Aquaman’s leading the pack?” Van Sciver said in obviously feigned surprise….

The mysterious van Sciver/Johns project — whether it’s Flash, Aquaman, or something else — will be announced in San Diego later this month.

More at Newsarama.

Ethan van Sciver is no stranger to the Flash, having worked with Geoff Johns on the 2001 graphic novel The Flash: Iron Heights (now collected in the second edition of Flash: Blood Will Run, released earlier this year). He also worked on Impulse with Todd Dezago, where he helped create Inertia, and did several covers for The Flash in 2004 and for The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive in 2007.

More WWC Flash Hints

Saturday’s Wizard World Chicago panel, DCU: Crisis, added a few more tidbits of Flash news to the many hints from the DC Nation panel on Friday.

Newsarama’s report

Didio looked at Ethan Van Sciver, teasing about his involvement. EVS deadpanned, “Yeah, good stuff. I wish Geoff were here.” Didio followed up, “Which Flash would you talk about?” Van Sciver shot back, “Why not all of them?” Didio pretended to be incredulous “In the same book?” Van Sciver drove it home with, “Why not?”

Rumors of a Van Sciver/Johns Flash series were already floating around. But all Flashes? They might have to come up with a team name at this rate! (Blog @ Newsarama points out the reason Geoff Johns missed the panel: He was close friends with Michael Turner, and left the con for Los Angeles when he learned of the artist’s passing.)

CBR’s write-up adds:

DiDio didn’t want to comment on a rumor that Peyer and Williams would leave “The Flash” and a the series would be restarted with a new #1…

Well, we already know that Peyer and Williams are off the book. And it certainly looks like a relaunch of some sort is in the cards. But another #1?

Personally, I think if the series relaunches with Barry Allen, it would make more sense to pick up with #351 — right where his series left off. If Wally keeps the central spot, it should stay with his numbering. If it’s going to be a combined Flash book, I’d like to see them take a cue from Spider-Man and pick up where the numbering would be if the series had never been renumbered.

Let’s suppose that “This Was Your Life, Wally West” is a 4-parter, which would make it finish the same month as the end of Final Crisis. That would take the series to #247. So we’d have 350 issues of Jay’s and Barry’s series, plus 247 issues of Wally’s, plus 13 of Bart’s, bringing it to 610 issues total, with a relaunch picking up at #611. Or if you include All-Flash #1, Flash v.2 #0, and Flash v.2 #1,000,000, all of which fit into the normal monthly schedule, it would pick up with #614. Okay, so neither of those has the magic of a #500, but very few comic books have reached numbers this high.

Flash Hints from Wizard World Chicago

CBR has been live-blogging the DC Nation panel at Wizard World Chicago, and reports these comments regarding the Flash. Update: Newsarama’s coverage is up, with a few more bits. I’ve tried to merge them together more-or-less in order.

“Barry Allen’s back,” a fan yelled. DiDio polled the audience to see what Flash they liked best. Jay Garrick and Bart Allen didn’t win, but Barry Allen and Wally West were both favorites.

“Flash came back and Martian Manhunter died, doesn’t that balance the scales?” [Dan] Didio said.

This is interesting phrasing, given how balance is such a central theme to Final Crisis.

– With Barry Allen back, does DC have a better plan for what to do with Barry than “what you had for Wally?”

Van Sciver: “Oh of course.”

DiDio: “Wally will be around. He’s part of the Titans team right now, and he’ll be part of that team for the foreseeable future.”

On the plus side, that again suggests that Wally West will live through Final Crisis despite Barry Allen’s return. On the minus side… who knows what they consider “foreseeable” at this point. (And they have misled us on future Flash plans before.) And it’s The Titans.

It would certainly fit with rumors that Wally may stay in the Titans while Barry rejoins the Justice League. Though it doesn’t preclude Wally staying in Justice League of America while Barry joins James Robinson’s Justice League cast with Hal, Ollie, Ray and company.

Will they bring back Bart Allen? “You have read the first issue of ‘Legion of Three Worlds,’ right?” Didio asked, and Johns hid his head in his hands.

“I haven’t read it,” [Bob] Wayne said. “It hasn’t come out.”

At that point, [Geoff] Johns put his head down and shook it, then leaned toward the microphone in front of him and said, “You’ll read it now.”

“No plans at this time,” Didio came back. “How did I cover, Geoff?”

Hmm, perhaps the carrot-dangling has officially passed from grandfather to grandson… 🙂 (This part was mashed together from both write-ups.)

Seriously, fans have been speculating as to “who was in the lightning rod” since Justice League of America #10 wrapped up The Lightning Saga a year ago. It was made clear that the Wests’ return was unintentional, but strongly implied that the Legion did manage to bring someone back. Barry? Bart? Someone else? Barry’s return in Final Crisis seems to eliminate him as a possibility, so Bart’s a strong candidate. (Looks like I’ll be adding another miniseries to my pull list this summer.)

– Any more Elseworlds? DiDio: “As a matter of fact, we have a couple in production right now… We have one story coming out from Cary Bates.”

Aside from this being big news, since they’ve been avoiding the Elseworlds name, there’s a possible Flash connection…since Cary Bates wrote Barry’s series for the better part of 15 years. Could this be a similar project to the Teen Titans Lost Annual?

– Wally’s twins? DiDio: “Montessori School,” he joked. Van Sciver: “They’re going where Nightwing’s going.”

Okaaay… I’m going to guess these were both joke answers.

– After writing Rogues Revenge, does Geoff Johns have anything else with the Flash? Johns: “Ummm… I don’t know!”

Update: There’s more Flash news from Saturday’s DCU: Crisis panel.