Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
I don’t mind the super-deformed shapes or even the mix of Wally’s eye lenses on Barry’s costume… But slapping a New 52 label on a series where Superman still has his red underwear, Batman has his yellow oval, Flash’s belt is straight and no one has seams, armor or collars?
Meeting Flash writers Mark Waid, Geoff Johns & @brianbooch at @longbeach_cc 2009 & 2012
![I work near an airport. Every time I see a Wally Park shuttle, I think of this scene. [K]](https://socialposts.kvibber.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/1381109404.jpg)
The #speedforce5th challenge is still open! Post your favorite flash memorabilia with that tag. As for this pic, I love the expression on the doomed construction worker that the Flashes of two worlds are racing to rescue. I couldn’t use this for the announcement, but wanted to put it somewhere.
#theflash #comics #collectibles #doomed
The last time I went to a comic con in costume, I went as Jay Garrick, the original Flash. I ran into someone else with the same idea. On a related note, I’ve brought @SpeedForceOrg to Instagram for Flashy photos. #ThrowbackThursday #theflash #cosplay #jaygarrick
The thing is, the New 52 reboot was rushed compared to COIE.
COIE was a 12-issue event created specifically to clean house and combine what they wanted to keep into a new reality.
Flashpoint was a stand-alone “fix the broken timeline” story that grew. Somewhere along the line, DC decided to use it as the springboard to launch the New 52. They added a double-page spread with some mumbo-jumbo about merging timelines, and drew the new costumes on Batman and Barry for the last two pages. (I can’t confirm this, but given the timeline of when Johns and Kubert started Flashpoint, when the reboot got greenlit, the story of Flashpoint itself, and all the stuff Johns talked about putting into his Flash run that didn’t make it, this makes the most sense.)
In my mind, Flashpoint and the New 52 are completely separate entities.
And speaking of things that are completely separate…
“Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato are doing amazing work.”
Yes. Yes they are.
I’ve never heard of a case where a physical comic store closed because of digital comics. Everyone keeps predicting it based on the way things have gone with bookstores, video rental stores, and music stores, but it either isn’t happening or hasn’t happened yet (as far as I can see).
Interesting historical fact: In the 1940s, DC contracted out to a second publisher, All-American comics, to produce more comics under the DC brand. The top three characters at DC proper were Superman, Batman and Robin (starring in World’s Finest). The top three at All-American were Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern (starring in Comic Cavalcade). In the middle of the decade, DC bought All-American outright.
Those six characters are still the most recognizable from DC, but… Robin is always the second half of “Batman and…” Green Lantern and the Flash disappeared for several years before being completely reinvented in the late 1950s, and have never reached the level of mainstream recognition that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have.
That’s what I think matters here: the “trinity” are the three DC characters best known to the American public at large over the last 7 decades, not those who are most popular among today’s comic book readers: Those would be Batman, Batman, and Batman
I’ve done Amtrak from LA a couple of times, and it’s a nice way to cut down on the driving stress. Driving 2.5-3 hours twice daily is grueling, especially when it overlaps with rush hour. Plus you have time to read your new comics on the way home!
But it does lock down your schedule a bit on the days you take it, and the line to get on the last northbound train of the evening is…actually not too much worse than some other comic-con lines, now that I think about it.
I think one problem we tend to run into as fans is that we often can’t tell the difference between background that’s important for this particular story and background that exists, but maybe isn’t critical to know right now. That carries over into the writing style as fans turn pro and as writers target the fan audience.
Geeking the toddler update: Not sure if “Natnan” is Batman, but “Hlash” is definitely the Flash.
“Why should Comic Con be an exclusive comics-only club? What is wrong with welcoming all things geeky? For four days, the spotlight is on the things we love. Isn’t that a good thing?”
EXACTLY.
I do not understand why people who have traditionally been excluded from the cool kids’ hangout are so determined to turn around and exclude someone else.
I was looking at the program grid this weekend. Events are color-coded for comics, movies, TV, gaming, sci-fi/fantasy, and “everything else.” The majority of the events were comics-related. Comics aren’t missing from comic-con. They’re the nucleus around which everything else is built.
I sort of see digital comics in their current form as renting indefinitely, not purchasing outright. But when I think about it, there are an awful lot of comics that I read once and then toss in a box never to be seen again. Under those circumstances, the risk of losing those digital comics to a combination of DRM and company whim and/or business failure doesn’t make much difference.
Sure, there’s no resale value when I’m done with those comics. But let’s face it: there’s very little resale value on most of the physical comics I’ve bought and read once.
I still buy most of my comics on paper, but there are a few series I’ve tried out digitally, and so far aside from the fact that ComiXology could really benefit from a usability expert overhauling their UI, it’s mostly worked out so far.
See, this is why I don’t understand when people claim the premise of Final Crisis is hard to describe. You summed it up in three words.
As others have mentioned, dropping stuff you don’t actually read is a good idea. I’ve got two books that I haven’t read in the last three months, though in one case I’ve been holding off so that I could read a whole arc at once.
I’ll go one farther: If you ever find that you don’t like a book much, and you’re only reading it for completeness’ sake, or because you feel like you have to in order to keep up with the publisher’s shared universe, drop it. I used to get every big DC event comic, but I didn’t actually like a lot of them, and they just took up space. So I made a decision that from now on, I won’t buy events just because they’re universe-spanning. I’ll only buy the events that look interesting to me.
One more thing I’ve found helps is to start with “what if I could only buy one comic?” Pick one. Then “What if I could only buy two?” Pick the second one. Keep going until you reach the number that fits your budget. It’s a ranked list, but taking it one item at a time really forces you to think about the top of the list.
I think there’s something to the big-universe effect.
I’ve read mainly DC since I was a kid, with more indie books mixed in over the last decade, and only the occasional Marvel book. What kept me coming back to DC was the familiar universe. What’s kept me away from Marvel, I think, is the unfamiliar universe.
I’m a lot more willing to pick up an indie book that takes place in its own self-contained world than a book in a big established world that’s likely to pull in the rest of the line. This has been true for Marvel, certainly, but also for WildStorm (when it was its own universe), Top Cow, etc. The books I’ve read from those publishers, Marvel included, tend to be creator-driven or take place in their own little corner of the shared universe.
TLDR: I think Marvel’s fine, but I’ve just never gotten into it.
It’s been stated that Flashpoint wasn’t originally going to be a reboot, and it’s been stated that Dan Didio has wanted to do a reboot as far back as Infinite Crisis. (I think that plan ended up morphing into “One Year Later” and 52.)
I have no idea whether Final Crisis was at some point planned to be a reboot or not, though.
I remember when Geoff Johns wrote “Blitz” and “Ignition” in order to make the points that (a) heroes don’t need tragedy to make them great and (b) grim & gritty and decompression have their place, but aren’t the best fit for a character like the Flash.
Then a few years later he gave us Flash: Rebirth, Flashpoint, and the New 52.
