| The Flash (vol. 1) | |
|---|---|
 Cover of The Flash #123 (Fall 1961) |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | Superhero |
| Publication date | March 1959 – October 1985 |
| Number of issues | 246 |
| Main character(s) | Flash II |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Various |
| Artist(s) | Various |
| Creator(s) | John Broome and Carmine Infantino |
The Flash is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character's first incarnation, Jay Garrick, appeared in Flash Comics #1. When Silver Age Flash Barry Allen was introduced, that character took over Flash Comics numbering and the series was retitled simply as, The Flash.
Although the Flash is a mainstay in the DC Comics stable, the series has been canceled and rebooted several times. The first series featuring Barry Allen was canceled at issue #350 in the event of the character's death in the universe altering event Crisis on Infinite Earths.[1] When Wally West succeeded Allen as the Flash, a new series began with new numbering in June 1987. That series was briefly canceled in 2006 in the wake of the Infinite Crisis event, but was restarted with its original numbering in 2007, only to be canceled again in 2008 in the wake of Barry Allen's return in Final Crisis and The Flash: Rebirth.[2] In September 2009, DC Comics announced on its official blog that the series would be revived for a third volume by writer Geoff Johns and artist Francis Manapul after the completion of the Blackest Night event in 2010.[3]
Contents |
Premise
The Flash saga has taken place primarily in the fictional municipalities of Central City and Keystone City. The citizens live under constant threat of supervillains and a number of "blue collar" costumed criminals, known as the Rogues. After being caught in an accident at the Central City Police Department's Crime Lab, forensic scientist (previously "police scientist") Barry Allen is gifted with incredible speed. Inspired by his childhood hero Jay Garrick, Allen creates a new persona under Garrick's moniker "The Flash." Using his incredible speed, and stepping up where normal men and women cannot, Allen fights for the citizens and protects them from supernatural harm.
Publication history
After the cancellation of Flash Comics in 1949, the character was rather stagnant for the rest of the Golden Age era. When editor Julius Schwartz joined DC Comics in the 1950s, he envisioned bringing many old DC characters back in new and interesting ways. Some of Schwartz's more notable reinventions include bringing back the Justice Society of America as the Justice League of America, re-imagining the Golden Age Green Lantern mythology as a universal law enforcement unit along with a new main character, and creating a new Flash character and restarting his series.[4]
Volume 1 (1959-1985)
Volume 1 primarily starred Barry Allen as the Flash. After the character's first appearance in Showcase #4, industry insiders and fans widely believe that the Silver Age of Comic Books came into existence.[4] Allen starred in The Flash when the series started, assuming the original Flash Comics with issue #105. Many notable events occurred in this era, such as the birth of the Flash Rogues. One of the most notable issues to come out of this run was issue #123, which featured a story known as "The Flash of Two Worlds". In it, Allen meets his inspiration in Jay Garrick, after accidentally being transported to a parallel universe where Garrick existed (in this previous continuity, Garrick and the other characters of the Golden Age only existed as comics characters in the mainline shared universe).[5] This brought about a new concept in the formative stage of what would become the DC Universe, and in fact gave birth to the current conceptualization featuring it as a multiverse.[6]
Due to Allen's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths, the series was canceled with issue #350 in 1985. In the actual Crisis event, Wally West (previously known only as Allen's sidekick Kid Flash) stated his intent to take up his uncle's mantle as the Flash.[7]
Volume 2 (1987-2006, 2007-2008)
| The Flash (vol. 2) | |
|---|---|
 Cover of The Flash (vol. 2) #1 (June 1987) |
|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | Superhero |
| Publication date | June 1987 – December 2008 |
| Number of issues | 247 |
| Main character(s) | Flash III |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Various |
| Artist(s) | Various |
| Creator(s) | Mike Baron and Jackson Guice |
Featuring Wally West as the main character, the Flash mostly operated out of Keystone City. Featuring long, illustrious runs most notably by writers Mark Waid and Geoff Johns, the second volume originally went in a different direction from the series starring Barry Allen by making Wally West more flawed. This Flash could not constantly maintain his super-speed because of a hyper-metabolism, and would consume gargantuan amounts of food in order to continue operating at top speed. This metabolic limitation would later be continued into Barry Allen's character for the brief Flash TV series that ran in 1990.
When Mark Waid began his run in the early 90's, he brought back more traditional Flash aspects from Barry Allen's era by reforming the Rogues, some of which were new incarnations of old characters, and bringing more of a sci-fi/fantasy aspect that had been lost in Flash titles since Allen's departure. Waid had also made Wally West much more powerful in an attempt to take him out of Barry Allen and Jay Garrick's shadows. When writer Geoff Johns stepped aboard with issue #164, he refocused the character on some of the Silver Age aspects by spending single issues on building the psychology of the various Rogues. Johns also created Zoom, the third of the Reverse-Flashes, and fleshed out the environmental character of Keystone City in an attempt to make it unique in the faces of other DC fictional cities like Metropolis or Gotham.
In the wake of the One Year Later event and Wally West's disappearance in Infinite Crisis, DC canceled Flash volume 2 in favor of a new series starring Bart Allen as the Flash. The new series ran only 13 issues and ended with Bart's death. Mark Waid returned to the title briefly in 2007 to bring about the return of Wally West, but the series was canceled again in late 2008 with the return of Barry Allen in the event series Final Crisis. Spinning out of Final Crisis, writer Geoff Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver created The Flash: Rebirth, a 6-issue mini-series bringing Barry Allen back to a leading role in the DC Universe as the primary Flash. Allen is also an integral character in the crossover event Blackest Night, and will have a self-titled limited series tying into the main event.[8]
Volume 3 (forthcoming in 2010)
On September 8, 2009, DC Comics official blog "The Source" announced that after the completion of Rebirth and Blackest Night, Geoff Johns will return to writing a new Flash ongoing series with current Adventure Comics collaborator Francis Manapul in 2010. The only released story information is the initial arc's title, "The Dastardly Death of the Rogues!"[3]
Notes
- ^ Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium (2006)
- ^ Flash #247 (Final Issue) Review @ SpeedForce.org
- ^ a b “The Dastardly Death of the Rogues!”, new Flash Announcement at DCU's The Source
- ^ a b Super Heroes United! The History of the Justice League on the Justice League: The New Frontier DVD release
- ^ Fox, Gardner (w). The Flash 1 (123) (September 1961), National Allied Publications (DC Comics)
- ^ Marv Wolfman's introduction to the Crisis on Infinite Earths collected edition
- ^ Wolfman, Marv (w). Crisis on Infinite Earths 1 (12) (March 1986), DC Comics
- ^ Blackest Night: Flash confirmation at SpeedForce.org
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