DoubleDCoverage #2
I’m back with another installment of DoubleDCoverage at the Girls Entertainment Network.
This week I take a look at two very different number ones. The one, the only, Barry Allen is back but should anyone who hasn’t been reading comics for over twenty years care? Also, there’s a new “good vampire” on the block trying to make a name for himself created by a new writer to DC Comics trying to do the same. Does he succeed in making a vampire I can obsess over? Read DoubleDCoverage #2 to find out.
While you’re there, check out this years list of Eisner Award Nominees as well!
It's true what folks are saying here. You're not at a disadvantage coming to Flash:Rebirth without decades of experience of Barry Allen because this guy isn't Barry Allen. There's a myth that I've heard/read spouted often that Barry didn't have a personality, that he was inter-changable with all the other silver-age super-hero leads. But that wasn't always true. No-one could claim he was a sophisticated, realistic character, but he did often exist as a distinct figure & Johns hasn't caught him here. To be truthful, the old Barry was somewhat dull, but that was part of his charm. His worst vices were lateness & a tendency to procrastinate in his private life. Steve Engelhart showed us that he found it hard at times to move amongst amazon princesses and the like when he was a middle class ordinary joe from Ohio. He was the most decent and kind professional guy the DC Universe ever had & there's a lot to be said for having such a bloke in amongst the "over-people". I miss him & wish he'd come back rather than this guy. Oh, well. Comic books, eh?
Convincing people that Wally has turned villain will go over as easily as it did convincing people that Kyle Rayner was the new GL.
It would be a few years’ worth of uphill battling.
Oh, Wally’s giving some serious dirty looks while recounting how great Barry is/was. Bart is the red herring.
@Dhaise. Wally the next Zoom? Interesting
@Kafein, thanks so much for the compliment. You’re right, the art is fantastic.
Barry maybe filling the void of the Black Racer….hmmm….
Actually, I am convinced Dan Didio’s grand design is the recreation of 1970’s DC, as those seem to be the only comics he has ever read.
Awesome reviews, and I couldn’t agree more about the Manbat, though I freely admit to having a fetish for Mary.
This is where DC has its biggest challenge…how to get an audience raised on Wally West Flash interested in Barry Allen Flash. I think that once they get past this initial mini-series, things will be a bit different.
I see a Barry Allen CSI style of flavor to the next Flash series, now that people in this decade know what a police scientist is, unlike in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Personally, from where I sit, as someone who started reading comics when Challenge of the Superfriends was new on TV and Barry Allen was the Flash, I don’t see how they can say that the public prefers Barry Allen as the Flash. I think the last 20 years has done a good job of seeing Wally West grow from kid sidekick into a man with a wife and family.
Wally’s earned the title of Flash. However, it’s Geoff Johns and I trust him. I happened to like the first issue. I did like how Bart seemed t sum up the feelings of the current age of readers. I did also like Jay acknowledging that Barry made him the Flash. I got it and had never thought about it that way.
The story went that people ‘forgot’ about Jay Garrick when Barry Allen came on the scene. It was only because of Barry’s comic book habit that people even remembered there was a Flash before him. Then ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ brought him back, followed by the JSA.
It’s nostalgia, pure and simple. I’m interested to see where this leads.
hello.
been checking out your blog and reading ur reviews for the last couple of weeks. (dont remember exactly how i stumbled upon your blog). I gotta say, i really like ur reviews; much better than some of the stuff at newsarama.
I bot Flash:Rebirth, even though i’m not sure either why i should be excited (except that Bart Allen is in it), but i mostly got it for the art; that alone will keep me buying future issues.
I’m really not a fan of Flash:Rebirth. Barry Allen is written so incredibly differently that I don’t see the nostalgia in bringing him back, the general story seems too self aware and meta using cornball fanboy sentiments voiced via cast members (with horrid dialogue), and of particular note- Iris Allen.
Iris Allen rated ONE page? Barry’s last thoughts were on Iris. His last years in a book were focused on his loss and grief over losing Iris. His first act upon returning from the dead was to race around the final crisis landscape so he could liplock iris. And instead of sitting down with her, he’d rather resume a bromance with (I hate) Hal Jordan at a parade in his honor? And when did Barry Allen go from Gil Grissom to Dirty Harry in his attitude? whiskey tango foxtrot….
Two characters are responsible for 98% of all Barry Allen references in a DC comic book in the past twenty years, Wally and Iris. Wally is giving off a serious ‘the next zoom’ vibe in #1 and Iris is magically de-aged and practically invisible. DC really torqued me off with that.
And I’m not getting into how phony it sounds for jay Allen to credit Barry with ‘making him the flash’.