Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Flash Fact!

I don't think I ever mentioned this here, but I was a finalist in a Flash memories contest over at Speed Force.  This was several months ago, but I did win a prize!  I feel a little guilty reading their e-mail updates, since I haven't read The Flash since Geoff Johns left the pre-New 52 book just before Flashpoint.  The neat thing, however, is that they've been doing a series on "The Trial of the Flash," something I know a thing or two about.  If you click on the first link, you'll see how my memories involved Mark Waid's run with Wally West, which included the debut of the Speed Force concept that gives the site its name.  While a lot of fans consider it a black mark on the New 52 that West still has yet to appear, his legacy in previous continuity is so distinct, and tied into his succeeding Barry Allen as The Flash, that it's a little difficult to picture how the two could co-exist at a time when Allen is still being re-established.  The Flash isn't like Green Lantern.  Waid crafted a whole legacy of speedsters, but that was a different time.  Fans enjoyed two ongoing series (The Flash and Impulse, both of which were written by Waid, sort of like Irredeemable and Incorruptible), partly because Bart Allen was rebelling against tradition in much the way Robin and Nightwing did when they received their first series.  Now, maybe that's what it would take, reimagining Wally West to be the exact opposite of what he was known for in his best era, but who would want that? 

Another thing I haven't mentioned is that my entire Wally West/Mark Waid collection that is not in trade collection format, along with every comic I bought from 1992 to 2011 (to Flashpoint) was sold at the end of August in the interests of helping me with a transition.  It was an extremely painful if necessary decision.  There are a great many regrets, comics that I wish I could save, but if I had, it would only have complicated it.  The simple answer in this case was the best one.  I still have the memories, and that's what counts.  I may at some point write about the best of the lost comics, gems I hope their new owners can appreciate.  But, as I'll never know, there's no point speculating about that.  It was a considerable milestone in my life, however, and well worth mentioning on a blog I run dedicated to my comics experience.  I simply did not want to get maudlin about it.  Readers who sift through the archives already know that in the early days of Comics Reader I was in a transition I thought would create a split between me and the new comics reading experience.  That lasted about half a year.  Things change all the time.  It's our ability to adapt that keeps things interesting.

5 comments:

  1. I definitely would have come in last in a competition like that. All I know about the Flash is he's that dude who runs really fast and had a short-lived TV series on CBS in the late 80s or early 90s.

    It is another one of those like Wonder Woman where you wonder why the hell they don't have a movie yet. I mean how hard can that be?

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    1. I think the recent spate of Marvel flicks has drastically affected the curve. All these characters who've now had movies because they're Avengers, not to mention the fact that there was an Avengers movie at all, are all part of that cycle. Thor and Captain America, they wouldn't have had movies without the Avengers. The Avengers wouldn't have been nearly as successful without all those other movies.

      Wonder Woman had a TV series, and it made a huge impact on pop culture, the same way the Incredible Hulk did. Hulk has had a few shots at a movie franchise now because he fits in with the sf zeitgeist. Wonder Woman would have been a natural in the '80s, but she was just coming off that series.

      It's harder to figure out what to do with her now, because we've only just gotten something like The Hunger Games be a huge success. Sure, we've had female-centric action franchises like Underworld and Resident Evil, but no one wants Wonder Woman to be a niche hit like that, more or less at the level of the Blade franchise. She's supposed to be up there with Superman and Batman.

      Figuring out how to make that work takes time.

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    2. To clarify one detail in the above response, I meant to write "sfx zeitgeist."

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    3. It's true no one's really made a good female superhero movie but then the only attempts so far have been "Supergirl" and "Catwoman" if you don't count the "X-Men" movies which were more of an ensemble. I suppose with that traditional costume it is hard to take a character like Wonder Woman seriously but if you try to revise it then people complain as happened with that David E. Kelley pilot when they tried long pants.

      Anyway, someone just needs to adapt my book into a big-budget movie, then we'll have a great female superhero movie.

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  2. Congrats on your win Tony! I know your love of Wally West is deep and abiding. I hope he does appear. Adaptation is the spice of life

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