> No no, not the arc from several years ago.
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Issues #75 to #79, right? In which Professor Zoom posing as Barry is the one to return.
> I'm talking about the Flash: Rebirth. Though, surely he's not being "reborn," as I understand it, like Hal was, but returned to the present continuity. In fact it should be called Flash: Redux.
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I think it's called "Rebirth" for commercial reasons. "Green Lantern: Rebirth" was very successful, so they're trying to catch greater reader interest by giving this Flash story the same title, and bringing in the same creative team to do it.
Both, Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver are in it.
> But I digress. I was wondering if anyone else thinks Flash: Rebirth is yet another way to reinvigorate the Flash Mythos? I mean, look what we've had in the past 5 or so years with Flash:
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No, I think they have for some time now, followed on a trend of bringing some aspects of the Silver Age back.
Having Hal Jordan again is indicative of that, and so are many other instances.
> Johns on Flash: Title does very well.
> Johns leaves Flash: Title is cancelled.
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> Bart Allen as Flash: Title survives for 8 or so issues.
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13. Bart Allen's run lasted 13 issues. And it wasn't even the same title. The title we've been readin was cancelled at the time, and Bart was the star of a new one, titled "Flash: The Fastest Man Alive".
> Writers kill Bart Allen and resurrect Wally West. Old
> numbering restarts.
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Wally was never dead to begin with. He was lost in the Speed Force.
And it wasn't the same series, as I explained above. That's why they continued the numbering without taking Bart's 13 issues into account.
> Wally West as Flash: Waid writes for a few months, leaves. Now plans
> are to remove Wally as Flash (again!) and bring
> back "Barry Allen."
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Waid's approach didn't sit well with fans, mostly. Many didn't like the family dynamic that Waid introduced by having the kids as superpowered pre-teens. Plus, there was also the factor of Waid going to Boom Studios, another comic company, to become their editor in chief, so he was leaving DC anyway.
> If Johns stays on, writing Flash, the title will probably continue to do well.
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Probably. He's got a huge fan following.
> However, I must wonder if Johns or some other novel/hot writer or artist were on the book, might it also do well?
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It depends of who it is.
> For that matter, was it really necessary to kill Bart and replace him with Wally,
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> whom DC seemed to think was a failing idea and good enough to kill during Infinite Crisis, anyways?
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That wasn't the case. Wally was never a failing idea. There was (and still is) a lot of mishandling of DC characters at the time, and even before Infinite Crisis started every fan was already speculating that Flash was going to be one of the "Big Guns" taken down in the saga, because they wanted to mirror what happened in the 1985 Crisis.
But Wally wasn't a failing idea, never was. He was in fact, a very well received legacy character, having many published years under his belt as Kid Flash, as Barry's sidekick, as well as a member of the Teen Titans.
> Thoughts? Ideas?
>
> Frankly, I thought it was brilliant to have Bart Allen be the next Flash,
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Not me. Like many, I think the succesion was very forced and unnatural.
> making his time as Flash be a nod to early Wally years, but also have him taking up Barry's legacy. To have the Flash character now go backwards, first to Wally (whom DC seems ready to give-up again), and not to Barry, seems abysmal.
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It's a way of seeing it, but I disagree. DC wants to bring some aspects of the Silver Age back, that's why they're bringing Barry back.
I agree with you about the "going backwards" bit tho', but for different reasons.
> Also, making Barry Allen into a CSI, while not really different from what he did before, but given the context that the idea has now with the popular tv show, this title will change dramatically.
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Barry was always a CSI. That was his work.
> It's going to be really dark, and not at all what Flash was when Barry Allen was a CSI.
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Leave darkness for barbarians, westerns, horror (specially horror!), and some sci-fi books.
All the grim and gritty don't sit very well in the superhero genre for me.
> I should wonder if the rogues gallery are going to be revised as well.
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> Can you imagine some of those characters showing up in any of the CSI shows? Basically, short of his name being the same, this is going to be a totally different character. I see Flash:Rebirth as yet another shot at making Flash work; i.e., new concept, new character.
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The concept is the same, and the character is not new.
> Further, at least five years of comic book time has passed since Barry "died."
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More or less, sure.
> He's going to have to relearn everything.
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Of course. I think that at the time in which Dick Grayson became Nightwing for the very first time in the '80s, Flash was already in the 30th Century living with Iris, shortly before going to fight in the Crisis.
Barry's got a lot of catch up to do. He never met any of the current generation of teen heroes. A whole new generation debuted while he was dead, and they became very experienced before he came back. Tim Drake, Kon-El, Cassie Sandsmark, Cassie Cain, etc.
He never knew that Dinah was tortured in "The Long Bow Hunters" in which she lost her Canary Cry, to regain it later in issue #32 of "Birds of Prey". He never knew what happened to Barbara Gordon, being shot by Joker. He never knew what happened to Jason Todd, killed by Joker.
He doesn't know half of the members of the JSA now.
He doesn't know what happened to the Dibnies.
A lot of stuff happened, and he missed everything.
> I hope Johns acknowledges that.
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He will, he always does lots of research, and is one of the best writers there is when dealing with troubled continuities.
> I don't buy the, "he's the Flash, so he can learn faster" nonsense. Just because he can read faster and maybe think faster, doesn't mean that his mind stores concepts any better.
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The brain has to work very fast for someone whose motor function work in such a manner.
> Anyways, curious to hear what others think.
>
> Battlin Jack
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