Ed and Sarah Talk About Comics, Part Two!

Ed was waaaay more proactive about getting on top of his reading list this past week, so let's start off with his thoughts on Swamp Thing #1 (which chronicles Alec Holland's recovery from the nightmare of thinking he was ACTUALLY Swamp Thing), Animal Man #1 (in which Buddy Baker struggles with how to be a hero and a family man, while finding out his daughter can do something mega-creepy) and Action Comics #1 (during which Superman gets chased by cops, forces a confession out of a crook and generally kicks butt before being ingeniously handed his own butt by none other than Lex Luthor).

Ed's Thoughts:

Alright. So i stopped by my local comic store and picked up three of the new re-launches. I probably wouldn't have picked up so many, but Challengers (best comic store in chicago, yeah?) offered a B1G1 offer with Justice League, so... free comics.

Let's break it down:

Swamp Thing #1: I'm not super familiar with Swamp Thing. I've only just started working my way through Alan Moore's run, and really, my knowledge of the character is sorely lacking. That being said, I thought this was a hell of a fun ride. Scott Snyder's never been one to shy away from gore, but he's got a great grasp on how to use it effectively, and how to use violence to serve the story. The creepy stuff in here works great, but I think the best parts are the character building with Alec. He comes off as very smart, very educated, but also humbled by his experiences, and you get the sense that he's been changed by his past. I'm really excited to see where this goes, especially since they seem to be building to a semi-crossover with....

Animal Man #1: This was fantastic and creepy and great. Buddy has always been a favorite of mine, and it's lovely to see him get another chance at a starring role. It's also good to see that Jeff Lemire understands what makes the character interesting, and that's his family. Buddy's family is sketched out really well, and that allows the story the extra emotional oomph it needs to succeed. It's so nice to see an author realize that a character's supporting cast aren't an albatross.

The direction of these two books makes me wonder about the future of the Vertigo imprint, as both of them seem like they would fit in quite nicely there. The DC universe is getting more horror-driven, it seems. (Not "darker." Batman's been plenty fucking dark for awhile, and from what I've heard about Detective #1, it's only going to get worse. Ugh.)

Action Comics #1: This was just so much fun. This legitimately felt like a fresh, new take on Superman/Clark, and I really enjoyed it. His sense of youthful brashness, his landlady bugging him for rent, "Always one of you wants to test what The Daily Planet says about me, huh?", all just so joyous. Then the transition from fun and games to the fury at civilian damage, and the ending, oh the ending. I loved this comic.

Question: I'm unsure how Clark knew the train was in trouble? That link was not especially clear to me. Ah well.

Sarah's Response to Ed:

Swamp Thing 1: I don't know much about Swamp Thing, either, but I think Scott Synder wraps everything together in a nice package here. When the story opens up, we learn everything we need to know about the character through a lovely conversation with Superman, and we get to see how he's physically struggling with the plant life that's clawing at him to return to being Swamp Thing ... or so we think!

I think it's such an amazing set-up to have a man conflicted about what he can do -- and having that man literally be chased down by the forces of nature is just icing on the proverbial cake. Seriously, when I think about what makes comics have a grand scope, it's ideas like this, where one man can save the world, but he has no clue what his past is or what his abilities are, yet the world is LITERALLY calling out to him to do something, i.e., to let vegetation choke the planet. Talk about stakes! And just when he's about to give the world what he thinks it wants (his crazy plant-growing formula), boom, there's Swamp Thing to stop him. That's a hell of a story to start us off with!

I'm really excited to follow this, not just because the story is so well put-together, but because I care about Alec Holland as a person, and the artwork goes a long way towards grabbing my interest. The creation of the tornado that dismantles and reassembles a dead mastodon, plus the opening sequences where fish, birds and bats are dying around Aquaman, Superman and Batman -- that is amazing work by Yanick Paquette.

Animal Man 1: I have also never read Animal Man before (so I guess this drawing new readers thing might be working to some degree, eh?). But I liked his turn in 52, and I love the importance of Buddy's family to him. It reminds me a bit of what The Flash used to be, where the people grounding our lead character were just as loveable and had high stakes in all the adventures surrounding the hero. I've never read anything by Jeff Lemire before, so the extra weirdness of a dude walking around as a red vein monster really freaked me out. To the point where I might be a little bit too scared to see where this story is going. But dang it, I wanna know what's going on with Buddy's little girl! So Lemire's probably got me for the next issue.

What also has me is the art. Check out those crazy wide panels, with lots of empty space and tans and beiges dominating the landscape, with Buddy's blue uniform popping off the page when it appears. So strange and otherworldly.

I'm not sure I know what the heck is happening in this comic, or with this nightmare villain. But that doesn't bother me. I know what's in danger, and I'm hoping Buddy will figure out how to fight against it.

Action Comics 1: This was a fun, fun, economical comic. A lot of people accuse Morrison of being high-concept and confusing. Sometimes that caaaaan be true, depending on how much you enjoy the crazy things he does. But people also forget what a solid storyteller he is. In this short 22 pages, he introduces us to a new Superman, introduces the supporting cast, has Clark show up for a bit and then speeds into our villains' brains, one of whom (let's be real; we all knew it was gonna be Lex Luthor) has been working to undermine our hero the entire issue. But we don't realize how UNTIL THE ISSUE'S VERY LAST PAGE!

This Superman is a revamp of the Superman Siegel and Shuster created, with the irony of a god fighting for the common man stripped away. Which is good, because I believe the need to be ironic about Supes and what he can do and why he does it -- well, those are all the things that have hurt the character over the years. This guy is Clark in that he's a farmer's son; he wears a cape AND jeans. He's Superman because he's a badass,

That bit we get with Clark talking to his landlord proves how scary Superman is, going after seemingly every wrongdoer with the pleasure of an omnipotent being. What's a regular person supposed to do with a guy who peeks through walls to see if you're behaving? Sure, he's a champion of the people, but if you step outta line, angry Superman will hop into your apartment and kick the crap out of you.

This Golden Age version of Superman is one I've appreciated more on an intellectual level, though he makes an appearance in Mark Waid's Bithright every once in a while (three words: scary laser eyes). Superman's powers and what he does with them will clearly make this an action-packed book, and one that showcases what this rougher version of the character is capable of. I dig that.

P.S.: I really had a hard time forging a connection of Morrison's here revolving around the train crash. I think Superman was supposed to think that the train tracks were faulty because the guy he forced to confess at the top of issue had paid for cheap labor to build them shoddily. And then it turned out that Lex had planted a bomb to blow the bridge? So Superman was both right and wrong about sensing danger. I dunno. Morrison doesn't always make small time jumps between panels work. And while Rags Morales is an amazing artist, I wonder if maybe he could have telegraphed this connection somehow?

Ed and I also read Batgirl #1 and were so turned off by its violence and the erasing of Barbara Gordon's disability, we found we didn't have much to say about it. We also read Stormwatch #1, but felt kinda eh about it. Certainly, I wouldn't not recommend it. I would simply say, know your The Authority, because it's hard to track the characters.

Also, if they don't make Apollo and Midnighter a homosexual couple now that they're operating in a mainstream book, there will be angry letters written by myself to DC Comics.

Riding the Lightning to Greatness: Wally West Appreciation, Part 2

In the interest of making way for several more DCnU roundtables between my friend Ed and myself, I am going to lickety-split finish up my love letter to Wally West by counting down my other ten favorite moments in his run as The Flash.

Currently these moments are not ranked in any particular way. I mean, I'm presenting in chronological order (though I have a major soft spot for Flash jumping out of a plane), to represent Wally's maturation over time -- from jerky whiner to family man in a few short lightning bursts.

BEST WALLY WEST MOMENTS,
PART DEUX

From Flash #101:

Not everything is hunky-dory for our hero after he returns from heaven to defend Keystone and make time with his lady love. In fact, she kinda can't cope with the fact he actually choose her over Speed Force heaven. Certainly it's a lot of pressure to put on a relationship. How could a person live up to a dream deferred? Wally thinks it's no biggie, Linda thinks he's not seeing the forest for the trees. Which might be a real problem, if he becomes so powerful, she can't even relate to him.

11) So in one of the most interesting allelgorical moments of Mark Waid's run, Wally -- having just realized he can share his powers with others, thanks to his return trip from Speed Vahalla --takes Linda jogging with him at 100 miles per hour. He shares part of his world with her in a way he was never able to before, while realizing that giving her the chance to live the way he does won't solve all their problems. He's only taking things one step at a time, putting in the work everyone needs to put in for their relationship to last. Linda acknowledges this, and they're off and running, a look of excitement and shock on her face. It's a beautiful moment in a complex relationship that deservedly ended in marriage and kids.

From Flash #111:

While struggling to train an impulsive protege and keep the Flash family (The Quicks, Jay Garrick and beaten up Max Mercury) from being shredded by speed ninjas, Wally also has to contend with their psychotic leader, Savitar, a man anxious to kill all speedsters and lay claim to the mysterious Speed Force that now serves double duty as heaven and power source for fast folk. In the "Dead Heat" storyline, Wally separates himself from his team in an effort to find a way to stop the cult-leading maniac.

12) A surprise visit from a descendent from the future (this happens more and more as Waid's run examines the nature of time on both a universal and human scale, i.e., proving there's never enough time, while simultaneously pointing out you can always make time for the adventures you really want to have) gives Wally the answer. He can't outrun the villain, but he can give him what he wants: eternity with the force he's hording. Wally'll run Savitar into the Speed Force, where he'll be dissolved into a billion particles of light, and no longer be a threat to friends and family. In a fluid splash page, Wally stretches out his powers and gives Savitar speed enough to reach the force. "I'll drive," Wally says with determination while Savitar cackles with insane laughter in the background.

It's an incredibly cool-looking shot, but what I love most about it is the difference in temperament displayed by our hero and the villain. Savitar spends most of his time killing his followers, in order to steal their powers and chase Flashes some more. Wally does everything he can to save his fellow heroes, and is clear-eyed enough to risk sacrificing his life for their comfort. Savitar, on the other hand, is blind to his fate, living only as an infinitesimal bit of bits, scattered across heaven and powerless.

In this arc, Wally becomes the self-sacrificing hero his uncle was, taking the step from superhero to experienced leader in a single run towards oblivion.

From Flash #117:

Brushing against the Speed Force sometimes sends you hurtling through time. Don't ask me how this works. As Waid expanded the powers gifted to Wally by hanging out in heaven, he also opened a deus ex machina that pushed Wally into different eras -- different eras he had to run through to reach his present life and love Linda Park (instant story tension, that!).

After killing Savitar, Wally gets thrown several millenia into the future, and his race back to Linda proves fraught. But not as fraught as what he returns to. A frozen popsicle of a girlfriend and a new Ice Age looming over Keystone. Man, wearing those yellow boots can be rough on a guy!

13) Wally's response to this crisis is one of his most badass moments. It involves a crazy-good bluff on the villain Polaris. Taking the purple-suited menace in a headlock, Wall points him at the glacier engulfing the city -- a glacier Polaris helped created. "So, now that I have your attention ... let's review your choices," Flash says. One: Polaris can change the course of the water and ice before it crushes him; Two: Wally can leave him to get crushed by a frozen tsunami (which he'll do, since Linda's been hurt and he owes Polaris nothing.) "Choose! NOW!" Wally shouts, as Polaris uses his magnetic laser beams to push the flow back into the river.

Pretty gutsy move from a desperate guy. But at the same time, you gotta admire a man who gives a bad person the opportunity to do the right thing.

From Flash #119:

Once things in Keystone calm down, of course all hell breaks loose elsewhere! At some point, a suneater devours the sun and the whole world is left to freeze to death, all while Linda's still recovering from being recently iced herself.

In a spin-off issue to the "Final Night" saga, Wally stops city looters and does what he can to keep from panicking about the near-certain death facing humanity. When Linda gets the chance to report about the possibility that the superheroes' last ditch plan may actually incinerate the Earth, Wally demands she not say anything, for fear of driving people into even deeper despair. She argues that people always need to be prepared for the worst, since it allows them to say what they mean, to say goodbye. At this, Wally of course runs into the night to avoid bidding farewell to his girlfriend.

14) But eventually, he ends up at a hospital waiting room, where tons of stranded people are watching Linda report the risk associated with saving the sun. And he listens to her comfort her audience, telling them to have faith in their heroes, even when the night looks blackest. "So long as their confidence shines," she says, "they will not let us down." A little girl reaches up and takes Wally's hand, and tears shimmer in his eyes. "Find the hope to let strength flourish," Linda finishes.

It's her confidence in Wally that prompts him to say goodbye to her by issue's end, to tell her loves her "till the end of time," but that he has a job to do in the long night ahead of him regardless of his fears. And he reaches this point not because he's powerful, but because people like Linda inspire him to keep moving forward. Of everything Mark Waid has to say about what heroes represent to him, this tiny thing may be most important: Our heroes are the people we believe in, but their belief in us is important for their work to succeed. It's a two-way street, in which everyone becomes a hero. Even that little girl who took Flash's hand.

From Flash #129

15) So I've already pointed out how crazy I think it is that Peter Parker and Mary Jane sold their love to the devil. But I gotta say, it's a gimmick The Flash got right. After both Wally and Linda give their love to DC Satan (aka, Neron), they expect that the reign of released hell hounds and dead Barry Allen Rogues he managed to stop running amok. Suffice it to say, they're let down. O. Henry-like bargains don't tickle Neron's fancy.

So what stops his run at taking over the world? Wally and Linda's love for one another. That's right, folks. Their love is corrupting the devil. He's even starting to give food and water to the demons he's been starving since the fall of Rome! He desperately crawls up to Earth to return their hideous kindness, but in an amazing set of panels, Wally and Linda look at one another, then look at Neron, and refuse to take their love back.

Heartbroken over their lost passion or not, Wally and Linda both understand something bigger than them is going on, vis a vis the world succumbing to a hellacious frenzy. So they bargain; they'll only ease Neron's suffering and take their love IF he returns everything to the way it was; no exceptions. He does, and they continue their happily ever after.

If anything, these panels of Wally/Linda shared thought demonstrate how alike in cleverness and brazenness the two are, and how deep their trust runs when it comes to atoning for mistakes and taking a chance on one another.

From Flash #137:

Waid needed a break on his long run on The Flash going into 1998, so he worked with hip young kids Grant Morrison and Mark Millar to keep Wally hitting new speeds in his absence. My favorite of their story arcs is "The Human Race," in which Morrison takes Waid's examination of human potential and multiples it by a bajillion, making the whole human race fight for their survival alongside their champion marathoner, Wally West.

16) Chosen to run a race imposed on Earth by inter-dimensional couch potato space gamblers, Wally struggles while running against a being from a radio frequency world (and this is one of Morrison's less wacky plots!). Exhausted after days of running across planets and through pocket universes, Wally collapses in a pink desert. The headset he wears while running connects him to Linda, who gives him the pep talk of a lifetime. Did Planet Earth ask the other Flashes to run this race? Did they ask Superman? NO! They voted for Wally West--

Wally struggles ...

--Because he's The Flash! He's the fastest man alive!

Wally finally stands up.

"And then some, baby," he says to himself as he begins to run. "And then some."

Getting up and keeping going, even when you're at your limits ... well, that's just what The Flash is all about.

From Flash #150:

In a waaaaaaaay complicated (some might argue too complicated) series of events, Wally finds himself racing across time with the other Flashes, to save each successive generation from being butchered by Barry Allen's identical twin brother, who's crazy and out to kill the legacy of The Flash, aka, everyone and everything Wally cherishes.

At the conclusion of this adventure, Wally finds all his colleagues have gone down in battle, and he alone must change the past to save everyone. Except he can't. Time and again, he tries to undo the damage that's been done, but he fails. Finally, he realizes that the greatest lesson Barry ever taught him was to put his faith in his future, in his ability to shape tomorrow -- "by living up to the standards" Barry had set. In fact, "by living beyond them."

17) He races back to the present, grabs the evil twin and shoves him up to high speed, aiming for dissolving them both into the Speed Force. A sacrifice (once again) worth making, but for perhaps the most touching reason of all: loyalty to the people one cares about. Everything Wally does boils down to the final words he shares with Barry's twin:

"I stop now, you're after Barry like a shot! You hated him! But I loved him! And do you know what that means? That means I WIN!"

And KRA-koom! The villain dissolves into eternity, the day is saved and Wally dies an honorable death (for like the millionth time). But there's no sense grieving, because Wally has fulfilled his destiny -- to surpass the legacy of the other Flashes, to do the title proud, and to succeed based not on guts or glory, but in the gift of gaining total and unselfish love.

Of course, he comes back from this one, too. But it doesn't make the end of Waid's big run on the character any less interesting ...

From Flash #159:

So The Flash finally got married in issue 159, after Morrison and Millar laid the groundwork and Waid ruined one version of a wedding. And Flash mostly gets this second ceremony together because he's worried he'll turn into a creepy alternate universe version of himself. And Linda's not having any of that. So, she objects to her own wedding, when the minister asks if anyone has any words to share, "or forever may you hold your peace."

18) Wally protests that fear of turning into alter-Flash is only one of the reasons he rushed the marriage, and in a stunning bit of business on writer Waid and long-time editor Brian Augustyn's part, he makes up his own vows on the spot, telling Linda he can't wait to find out what they can learn from each other for the rest of their lives. This, of course, melts her worries, and the two are hitched on the spot -- proof positive that no problem is insurmountable if your love is epic and you know how to communicate. Thanks for the lesson, Wally!

From Flash #205:

From the looks of the letters column at the back of each comic during Alberto Dose's run, many were not fans of his artwork. I actually found it delicate, if overly inked, and appropriate to Geoff Johns' noirish tale of everyone forgetting (including our hero), then remembering that Wally West is The Flash.

Johns took the reins from Waid and a series of guest writers, and while I don't think he gets Wally as much as his predecessor did, he built up a Detroit-like Keystone and gave Wally a dogged Midwesternness that served him well in tight jams. I highly disagree with Johns' handling of Barry's return in light of Wally's maturation since 1987 (he's downplayed all of Wally's achievements and made Barry create the Speed Force, just to give the guy a single way to be greater than the other runners), and I definitely disagree with DC's need to erase Wally from their timeline (if that's indeed what they're doing). But every once in a while during his too-Rogues heavy run, Johns found an elegant moment for Wally.

19) This one occurs after Linda's endured a tragic miscarriage, brought on by the villain Zoom, a time-displaced sociopath hell-bent on making Wally a better hero through heartbreak. Linda was going to have twins, but now she's not, thanks to a violent altercation with Zoom. And in response to that accident, Wally talked with God's vengeful spirit, aka The Spectre, and forced everyone on Earth to forget he was The Flash, including himself and Linda. After a while, he figured out who he was, but he can't tell Linda, because she's still reeling from the loss of her children.

She's sitting at their local diner, eating with Wally and talking about quitting medical school (a noble pursuit for her, while Wally's stuck fixing cars, despite his smarts at science -- seriously, GJ?), and he wonders why. She admits it's because people look at her funny when they talk about birth trauma; it's raining outside and it looks cloudy in her eyes, too. He stands, walks over to her, picks her up and holds her. And then we see the rain freeze in drops. Wally literally vibrates both their molecules in a hug to make the seconds stretch out so he can hold her longer. It is a subtle and stunning change of art. Then he lets go and tells her that they'll survive, that nothing is her fault, that her living is more than enough for him. She agrees it's fine for her, too.

And the strength of their relationship in its small moments shines through. Seriously, I can think of no other comic where a husband's comfort is showcased as a heroic moment. Which, of course, it is.

From Flash: Rebirth #6:

Like I said, I'm not nuts about how Barry Allen was made the center of every speedster's (and everyONE's universe in "Flashpoint") during his reintegration as the prominent hero-runner at DC. And I think Flash: Rebirth is a largely wasted opportunity to bring new fans to the book; GJ does almost nothing to explain any of the subjects mulled over by various writers over the years, including the Speed Force, and he can't stop Barry Allen from being boring as paint, or someone we can cheer for outside his old feats.

But there is one way Johns succeeds. It's in a moment of extreme Wally fan service, but it also serves as a nice closer to over twenty years of stories about a young man looking up to, surpassing, and then redeeming his mentor through heroic actions and building a family of his own.

20) And so we come to our final moment with Wally West. By the time Flash: Rebirth rolled around, Wally had kids, the twins who were restored to him through a twist in time, and had taken a confident place at the head of The Flash family table. So when Barry returns from death, he has to step up and help his mentor readjust to society and find a purpose in being alive again.

There's a bunch of malarkey about Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, creating a negative Speed Force (is that hell?), and none of it makes much sense. But things get serious when Zoom runs back through time to kill Barry's wife and Wally's aunt, Iris. Understandably, Barry freaks out and barrels ahead without conserving his energy, burning out and sure he'll lose the only woman he's ever loved. Then Wally appears in the timestream, running hard and grasping his uncle by the arm, saying, "I've got you."

"I've got you." He sure does. Wally may have had to carry the mantle of The Flash only to return it to Barry Allen, but his run on the character deserved all the praise it got. Wally strapped himself in for a wild ride and never gave up; even when facing insurmountable odds, he was always able to quip a joke and think up a solution to the problem facing him, all while learning from his mistake and honoring those who came before.

That's some hero.

I hope he returns someday.

We should be so lucky.

Ed and Sarah Talk About Comics, Part One!

So, my comics aficionado friend Ed and I have taken it upon ourselves to review a variety of the DCnU books as they come out over the next couple weeks. We've decided, for this first post at least, to share with you some brief thoughts we had about Justice League #1, the flagship title in the revamping of the entire DC Universe.

Below is a synopsis of the book, a look at the art and then our conversation about the book as a whole:

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1

Synopsis: We're five years in the past, when heroes were fresh from the mint. This book begins with an ominous showdown between Batman and some Gotham City cops; he's being chased over roofs for criminal activity of some kind, mostly the crime of being real instead of an urban legend.

But before the cops can gun him down from helicopters or whatever, this happens ...

Well, who else could be behind that little green fire engine that could? Nobody but:

Green Lantern, who can't believe Batman's real, and whom Batman dislikes for drawing attention to himself. As they escape the cops and go after some weirdo monster, mostly they discuss their disbelief in each others' methods and existence. Case in point:

This goes on for a while. Like, for pages and pages, as they debate whether it's better to be a flashy optimistic space-cop, or gritty and fearsome and a scourge of the night.

Then they see that weirdo monster in the sewers, and when it cries out:

... it blows itself up. At least that's what Green Lantern and Batman think it does. Oh, and somewhere along the way, they pick up a weirdo box (better known in pre-DCnU land as a mother box), and wonder what its deal is.

They figure it might be alien technology. And they only know one alien. That guy in Metropolis. So they fly over there in a cool green light jet made from GL's mind and zoom past a young football star Vic Stone, who's got problems getting his superhero scientist dad to come to the big games where scouts want to sign his son for hot college scholarships.

Then Bats and GL land in Metropolis, arguing about who's going to approach this strange visitor from another world. GL decides to saunter right into his quarters and smack him around a bit. Surprisingly enough, Superman isn't having this and punches GL's lights out. Then he stands before Batman and says:

Cliffhanger issue ending!

Sarah and Ed's Thoughts

Sarah Getting the Ball Rolling:

Okay, Ed, after reading the issue a few times, here are my thoughts ...

DC is shifting its Big Three Trinity; no longer is it Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, their three biggest legacy characters. It's now Bats, Supes and Green Lantern, a character with the most convoluted of all origins. This is not a slam to him necessarily, it only tells me that DC's emphasis is no longer on the wonder and impressiveness of their big three anymore, at least not in this book. Justice League will be all about what sells the best.

This is not to say Wonder Woman isn't confusing, but that's because writers made her that way, to fit their whims or what they thought might sell her books. Hal Jordan's GL is a character who's been twisted inside-out often enough, and whose basic ingredients have been rewritten time and time again, all to make him cool to readers in the moment (he's not fallible to yellow anymore, he never killed a planet-full of people -- a bacteria or something made him do it etc.). He's not timeless like Batman (the avenger) or Superman (the symbol of justice and prime male physique) or Wonder Woman (the epitome of female love and danger). Having him present in the first issue of Justice League tells me this rewrite focuses less on the myth of superheroes and more on the accessibility of superheroes.

Which okay, fine. But accessibility is impossible! Because superheroes don't EXIST in real life. Why make things edgier with heroes on the run and scared of one another in a five years' prior timeline? What does that running-scared story -- that origin story, nonetheless -- tell me about my everyday life?

I have to say this is a safe comic. Barely anything happens, other than establishing the characters' temperaments. Also, the fact that Geoff Johns writes the most ridiculously exposition-heavy dialogue ever needs to not go unnoticed. Especially considering he has to explain where GL's from for almost two pages and also why these characters aren't accepted by mainstream society -- and in both cases, the explanations take up valuable action time.

I feel bad that I don't have more to say about this narrative or the art, but I legit don't care much about this origin story, when there's little in the way of stakes as to whether or not these heroes care about each other. I assume next issue, Superman and Bats'll fight and learn from their misunderstanding in the way Hal and Bruce didn't. But what does that mean, when we're living in a world where heroes are scarce? I dunno and that's an issue, aka, a problem in a rebooted world.


Ed's Response:

I guess I've never really bought into the idea of the "Big Three." I mean, the book is the Superman/Batman Adventures, you know? So, the idea that they're shifting focus from WW to GL doesn't particularly bother me, nor does it come as a surprise. GL is one of their main properties, especially with the Color Corp and whatnot. I guess my big problem with this whole reboot, and especially this "FIVE YEARS IN THE PAST" conceit, is that I just don't care about these characters with their mistakes stripped away. To me, Hal Jordan was only an interesting character when he was unsure of himself, either be it through his road-trip with Green Arrow, or post-Parallax. Cock-sure fighter pilot Hal Jordan is aggravating, and I found myself hoping Batman trapped him in a yellow room and kicked his teeth in. This complaint goes for Bats, too. After reading the past couple of years of Morrison's work, it's hard to be invested in this sort of clean slate Batman. I vaguely like the idea of GL being a stark contrast to Supes and Bats (both of who are tremendously aware of their power, and their need to control it), while Hal is all "HAI GUYS I FOUND THIS RING AND HAVE NOT SPENT YEARS LEARNING HOW TO HANDLE MYSELF," but I don't feel like it's going to be explored more than "Shut up, Hal." "No, seriously, shut up, Hal."

Pretty much nothing happens here. I think this will read better in trade, but I think it was a big mistake to make this the flagship issue of the DCnU, especially at the price point of $4. How many splash pages were there?

[Editorial Answer: Too many. A lot of people like Jim Lee and he brings a cinematic scope to his work at times. But here a continuing problem pops up, which is the lack of facial emotions in his characters.]

Sarah's Response:

Agreed on your points about this clean slate thing. I don't really care whether or not anyone gets blown up by a mother box because I don't know these characters. I know a lot of people might find the "new yet familiar" approach exciting. I myself have a hard time investing in a story where we learn about the world solely through exposition and not the characters' actions. Because while I love the idea of these guys meeting and having to forge an alliance in theory ... in practice, it gives me the snoozes. Because I no longer know their archetypes or origins, I have no idea of their motivations or their skill sets. I don't know what choices they'd make or why. So why would I spend four bucks and my valuable time on these cookie cutter versions of characters I used to know?

Frankly, I have a hard time believing these guys haven't been heroes for very long (even if in just the public eye), because what they do here is so blah-blah generic superhero stuff, i.e., "Let's handle things attacking us; now let's figure out the mystery; now let's be sidelined by an evil minion, and even more sidelined by another character's surprising arrival (here, Superman)." To me, it all reeks of very calculated plot points meant to not scare people away. Which makes me sad. Because if you're going to go a new direction, why not tell an origin story in a different way?

Ed's Response:

Well, I don't want to sound like I'm hating on the reboot just because it's a reboot. I loved the way Ultimate Spiderman started, the way we got to know everyone involved in the story even before the costume showed up. The stakes were explained, like you mention, through actions and characterization, not through "YOU'RE THE BATMAN. I DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE REAL. YOU FIGHT CRIME." word balloons.

It (the story) does feel really... pat, i suppose is the best way I can put it? Bats is grumpy, Hal is cock-sure, there's a monster! There's a mystery! There's Superman! Darkseid! I'm interested to see how Gotham's super villains are explained away, since Batman is still a myth right now.

I guess I kind of wish all the JL-ers had their single titles come out so you kind of knew the status quo before seeing them all meet? I guess I also wish there was a story here.

Well, that wraps up our first DCnU roundtable discussion. Don't be too sore about it, Bats! We'll be back to talk about other titles later this week!

POST-SCRIPT: I know we didn't spend any time talking over the Vic Stone section of this book. It's pertinent in that Vic eventually becomes Cyborg, a member of the Justice League. But this was a snippet of his story, and I can't tell where it's going, based on the scant amount of time dedicated to it. I felt it best not to comment on it until it develops into an actual narrative.

My Name is Wally West. I'm the Flash. The Fastest Man Alive.

Last Friday, Brian Cunningham, the editor of the DCnU Flash book posted the following on The Source blog:

"The Flash is a single man. He’s a bachelor who has never been married."

This is the most major change in the Flash history that I've heard about so far. And it explained to me just HOW the folks at DC intended to disappear my favorite of the five Flashes that have existed in continuity since the late 1980s/early 1990s. That favorite is Wally West.

Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash who will be the focus of this rebooted book, used to be married to crusading reporter and time traveler Iris Allen. Iris West-Allen, to be exact -- aka, Wally West's aunt, and the person who ushered Wally into his first meeting with the Flash, and so is in some part responsible for his receiving the power of super-speed in the first place, which led to him becoming The Flash in the last place.

(Actually, technically, Barry's the one who ensured Wally was standing next to a weird batch of chemicals that fell all over Wally when he got hit by lightning and gave him super-speed, but that's such a ridiculous origin, I don't really want to go into it.)

By making Iris a supporting player in Barry's book (now she's a crusading blogger, so she's hip with the times), the DC editors are essentially making sure Wally and Barry never meet. This is about the cleverest way I can think of for DC to resolve having no more than one Flash running at top-speed at one time (apparently having five million Batmans is okay, but having two Flashes crowds the buyers' market.).

This change reminds me what a family-based book Wally's Flash has always been. The emphasis has always been on a legacy of heroes growing up underneath each others' wings. But also, almost every Flash is related to one another: uncle, nephew, grandson, son and daughter, etc. What makes The Flash a strong hero is his family and friends, and seeing Barry without his wife will give a whole new slant to a legacy book that's been running on family fumes for the last twenty years or more. Certainly it will mean the emphasis will be on a loner and not a paragon of a family man.

Brian Cunningham continues his thoughts on this change by saying:

"... I make no apologies for opening up a traditional storytelling avenue with our hero’s romantic life, something that’s been shut closed for a very long time now. This is no indictment of marriage. I’m a married man and wouldn’t trade it for anything. But in the realm of fiction, I feel strongly that this change to Barry opens up fresh, new creative directions and exciting new storylines."

He further points out that Barry's romantic life needs to be freshened up for 2011. This reasoning reminds me of what's going on with Superman's love triangle with Lois Lane. Like Lois, Barry will start his book with a new significant other. And my feelings about this change and DC's general attitude toward marriage and divorce can be found in other blog posts.

What really makes me sad about downsizing Iris is that it effectively takes Wally West out of the picture (as well as makes Iris a girl Friday, instead of an agent in her own story). My favorite Flash grew from being an inexperienced, scared, often whiny blowhard after Barry's death, to the most creative, honest and human hero I can think of. As a reader, I was able to relate to his ego and fears as well as his desire to make good on the legacy laid before him by a fallen comrade.

All these factors contributed to many fans hating him when he first debuted in Flash #1 waaaay back in 1987, but I've always found him fascinating. Because he had personality flaws to work on, because he had doubts but squelched them to do what was right, because he made mistakes and tried desperately to correct them. Because he struggled to become the kind of adult his Uncle Barry would be proud of. Who hasn't had these types of growing pains?

And watching a character grow to fulfill the promise that lay inside them all along ... well, I can't think of a more satisfying or American journey. And I'm sad I won't be seeing Wally grow into old age with his wife and kids. But in honor of his memory, I'm posting a list of my all-time favorite Wally West moments, from the twenty-four years of his run as a character. Because I'll still have those stories, even though he's been taken out of the DC Universe (for now, maybe forever). And I think you ought to share in the memories, too. They're fun, they're heartfelt and they show what comics writers can do when they allow their heroes to touch the ground and build a life, as well as run around and be rad.

BEST WALLY WEST MOMENTS

From Flash #1:

The first ever Wally Flash comic took the titular hero in a whole new direction. After Barry's death, Wally moves to New York City and takes up the mantle of The Flash (having been known as Kid Flash for years). Celebrating his twentieth birthday with the Teen Titans takes up the majority of the first part of this issue, but things really get going when Wally's engaged with the task of running a heart across the country in order for doctors to complete a transplant on time. He does the job with gusto, then demands health insurance in exchange for his good deed, claiming Barry died a pauper and it's only right he find a way to protect himself, however selfish he looks. Jaws drop and he skulks away towards a flight home, paid for by the hospital.

So already we have an unlikeable protagonist, a man who is expected not to cover his own back because he wears a costume. Wally callously ignores the looks he gets at the hospital, but the impact of these judgements (and a run-in with immortal villain Vandal Savage) haven't gone away. Which leads me to "Favorite Moments 1 and 2!"

1) Wally's describing Barry's debts via narration as he runs to the plane. Wally reminds himself that Barry taught him he had to treat his powers as a precious gift, but that he died with no money and left the Justice League to pay for his funeral. "He left me his costumes," Wally points out. "And a picture of what a hero should be." It's the emptiness of both those items, costumes and a picture, that drew me to Wally immediately upon meeting him. How hard it is to know what the right action is when all you have are totems and not the actual man to guide you. In moments like this, Wally's immaturity belies his loss and self-doubt.

2) Now comfortably ensconced on the plane, Wally looks up from the crossword he's completing to see terrorists attempting to take over the flight. "I don't think about it," his narration states. "I can't think about it," referring to both his previous Barry wallowing and the guy having a heart seizure in the seat next to him. He zips out of his seat and lunges at a man with a gun.

"Speed, properly focused, becomes power," he claims as he punches the guy once. Then he punches the guy twenty-five more times at super-speed, feels his knuckles break, and hits him twelve more times. Geez, Wally, subdue that dude much? Here we see Wally for what he is -- a man so burdened by the loss of his uncle, that fear drives him to be callous and angry, in the guise of protecting himself and others. It's a trait we see develop in his actions and relationships over the course of premiere writer Mike Baron's run, and it marks this guy as a hero to both dislike and pity. Control is key, Wally thinks he has it, but he couldn't be more wrong about that as he sleeps with another man's wife, gets hopped up on Velocity 9, a speed drug, and has to learn how to live with his overbearing, insufferable mother.

From Flash #19:

After a year or so of stories, Mike Baron made way as writer of The Flash, and William Messner-Loebs joined the title. He stayed on the book for four years and was an extremely popular scribe. He went a long way towards turning Baron's grittier, jerkier version of Wally into the heroic Flash he's considered today. Along the way, he had Flash tackle the issue of AIDS, homelessness and the wealth gap in 1980s America. For me, this stuff wasn't always a good fit, but lightening Wally up from his grief led to his gaining a solid support cast of scientists, villains, girlfriends, and a guy who had a black hole inside him. The goofier moments and gentler, more amiable tone of Wally makes this run a fun read, and nothing exemplifies that more than Flash #19, in which he crashes a party thrown by Barry's old Rogues Gallery with his sometime-lady, hot but dumb model Connie.

3) Looking for a way to impress her with NYC nightlife, Wally ushers Connie into a party of low lives and half-reformed psychopaths, with such ridiculous names as Captain Cold, Mirror Master and Rainbow Raider (who's colorblind but throws color at you, I guess?). As the party reaches its paranoid climax, Rainbow Raider and Weather Wizard get into a skirmish over a body mike he's wearing to sell their story to the National Snoop.

The result of this betrayal? A rainstorm inside the posh hotel where the event's taking place! In a hilarious set of panels, the Wizard runs from the room and everyone gets drenched. Captain Cold asks Wally what he's going to do about it, and Wally asks what he should catch the man for, "Raining without a permit?" Besides, he points out, no one really wants the Wizard to come back. With that, the party returns to normal, and the hobnobbing continues.

That Wally has good priorities when it comes right down to it. I wouldn't leave the party, either.

From Flash 34:

4) While being held by super-slow villain The Turtle, Wally is forced into a deprivation chamber where he hallucinates his worst fears, chief of which is disappointing Barry. Beaten down by his mentor's insults and judgements about his performance as The Flash, Wally finally retaliates, unleashing the thinly veiled resentment he's had for the man since issue 1. He lunges at Barry, both sporting Flash costumes. "You pretended to love me," he screams as they wrestle with one another. "Then you left! You died! You betrayed me! I'm a monster, but so are you!" He begins to choke Barry. "I'll kill you!"

Up till now, Wally has never expressed his extreme sense of betrayal as the result of Barry's noble sacrifice (he basically saved the entire universe in 1985, dying in the process). Messner-Loebs had lightened up Wally's anguish considerably by this point, but here we see it scream to the forefront during an Oedpial explosion that leads to Wally pwning Barry, killing him, claiming his rightful place as The Flash and realizing nothing he's being seeing or doing is real, all in the space of two pages. Barry's often a peaceful guide to Wally in later issues, but it's here, in Wally's struggle to best his mentor, that we see how deeply ambivalent Wally can feel about the shadow of expectations and grief that lay over him. Only by confronting these feelings can he become a true hero to others, something Mark Waid picks up in his run on the title. But I'll get to that in a bit.

From Flash #54:

5) Nobody Dies: This might be the craziest "done-in-one" story in Flash history. At this point in Messner-Loebs' run, Wally is working for the federal government to catch baddies who ran out on paying their taxes. In this issue, Wally impressively saves someone from falling out a window first, and then when the plane he's aboard later is sabotaged, he realizes that the escaped air pressure has sucked the stewardess he'd had a lovely chat with out into the open air.

What can he do? He's not Superman, but he had a nice conversation with this lady, and he wants to do what he can.

SO HE JUMPS OUT OF THE PLANE.

Just to sum up, Flash can't fly. At all. And in a priceless splash page, you see his tiny frame rocket out of the damaged plane, and his narration opines, "This is so stupid."

Miraculously, he finds the stewardess, she feeds him some peanuts to help his super-metabolism and he's magically able to motor them down to the ground by winding his legs around a lot. (I think?) It all sounds ridiculously dumb when I type it. But on the page, it is chock-a-block with the tension of someone attempting the impossible and succeeding.

Because that's what The Flash does. And this is the first time Wally realizes that. It's why the audacious plane splash page is moment number five.

From Flash #72:

And now we come to the Mark Waid era of The Flash. Waid has said that he IS Wally, and it'd be a hard thing to argue. He took this character from the ridiculous/hard-hitting stories previous writers had involved him with, and made the character's journey into adulthood and hero-dom somehow achingly personal. No one has the speed this man has, but Waid's use of the Flash mantle as an allegory for the quest each man and woman goes through in order to fulfill their amazing potential -- well, that gets at what the heart of Wally West is to me, and justifies why comics are our modern mythology. But I digress.

7) Waid is a romantic at heart, and he pairs Wally with epic love Linda Park in issue 72. He and this TV news reporter had a love/hate relationship when Messner-Loebs first introduced her, but Waid takes their attraction to new levels early in his run, by having Linda ask for once and all if she and Wally are more than friends. She's leaving for Midway City for a new job, and if he wants to keep her in Keystone (where he's relocated to pal around with the first Flash, Jay Garrick), he needs to make a move.

After almost being encased in gold, he does. Once he's defeated Dr. Alchemy, he races her train to keep her close to him. In a series of amazing Greg LaRoque panels, we watch as Wally races the train in the same amount of time it takes Linda's purse to fall from the baggage loft in her car.

And just when you wonder if he won't make it before the train hits her destination, he catches the purse. He's fast enough to deflect Linda's protestations that he showed up at the last minute and kisses her. Then he picks her up, as well as her baggage, and runs off the train. To which she asks, what'll I tell the folks in Midway City? To which he replies, "Tell them the truth. Tell them you got carried away."

Mushy? Yup. Corny? You betcha. And yet, somehow perfect for these two people and Wally's strides towards being an adult and making a serious connection.

From Flash #77:

So in an incredible move, Waid and company brought back Barry Allen to usurp Wally's place as The Flash in 1993. My friend Nick found this to be Silver Age garbage, but I'd argue his take on Geoff Johns' run on the Barry Allen Flash suffers far more from putting things back as they were in order to live out the comics he loved as a kid (You probably wouldn't think this unless you'd read the entirety of Wally's run as The Flash, which lamely enough, I have). There's nothing wrong with the Silver Age revamp in theory, but I don't want to go along for that nostalgia ride, especially when Waid does a great job of having Wally face his fears here. Is Waid always the most adventurous storyteller? Not always. But he kills when it comes to generating strong character arcs, and it is in "The Return of Barry Allen" that Wally lets go of comparing himself to Barry, who's gone insane and may not be who he says he is.

8) This culminates in one of the best splash pages of LaRoque's run on the character. Barry's just trounced Jay Garrick at a construction site, and Wally (who's been pitying himself at home while watching the destruction on TV) arrives too late, picking up the unconscious Jay's helmet and staring into the distance. Knowing now who Barry REALLY is, and knowing he's the only one who can stop him, Wally narrates, "I wasn't fast enough. But those days are over. My name is Wally West. I'm the Flash. And now that I know the secret of Barry Allen, I'm going to bring him down ... or die trying."

In most circumstances, this would be waaay melodramatic, but Wally's simple assertion of his identity shows that he's ready to take this fight to the next level, and take on the responsibility of doing hard things as a hero. And that makes for an exciting conclusion to the story!

From Flash #91:

After having Wally finally, truly step out from under Barry's shadow in his first major character arc, Waid moved on to having Wally accept one of the hardest things about being a hero: You can't be everywhere at once.

9) In this issue, Wally uses the Speed Formula (some weird arithmetic that will increase his velocity) to effectively freeze time. One of his swifter friends, Max Mercury, points out why using this trick is a terrible idea. They walk around Keystone City and Max shows him all the people he can't help in the same frozen second, people trapped in fires and crashed cars. Wally didn't know about these people when he froze time to avoid a helicopter disaster, and he can't prioritize everyone. All he can do is help where he can, all he can do is make a choice, or he'll be immobilized in time forever, just like he is now.

In several solid, workman-like panels, artist Mike Wieringo shows Wally heading back to the helicopter, and during this frozen time, stopping its crash, all the while narrating, "There are always choices to be made. ... In the end, all I can do is find the courage to keep choosing ... and make those choices count." Then he whispers, "Go."

And time starts again. Because Wally has to move forward in his life, just as the world does.

From Flash #100:

In "Terminal Velocity," Wally dies to save Linda Park and the whole universe from eco-terrorists intent on using the world's resources to destroy the planet. In comics land, Wally goes to heaven by running too fast to stop a laser beam from hitting his lady. But his link to this heaven, the Speed Force (a name Waid always hated), is also what gives him super-speed. And it's love for Linda that allows him to re-materialize his atoms and return to a long, loving life with her.

10) Basically, Wally dies in issue 99 and this issue opens with Linda losing it, picking up a gun and kicking some serious eco-terrorist ass, along with Wally's bereft superhero and non-superhero friends. But a ghost-like Wally returns to amp up the speed, heal a broken Jesse Quick and take down the villain, Kobra. Then he vanishes in an explosion.

And Linda loses it again, running from the friends pleading with her to accept his death. But when she runs, she runs smack-dab into Wally. They kiss, and she exclaims, "I knew! I knew you were back! But what ... How did ...?" To which Wally replies, "Took you long enough to get over here."

Typical. And perfect. Wally goes to heaven, comes back because his love for Linda won't let him dissolve yet, and it ain't no thang.

Yikes. Even for a nerd, this post is long. I'm going to take a break and let you catch your breath from my gushing. Part two, or Wally's next ten greatest moments according to me, will be coming up real soon.