List of the Final Pre-Flashpoint DC Universe Trade Collections

Shortly after DC Comics announced their New 52 relaunch initiative, we published "Trade Waiting at the End of the Universe", a speculative list of what the last trade paperback collections would be of the DC Universe series before they restarted with new #1 issues.

Six months later, not only do we know how the New 52 will be collected, we also know how DC plans to collect (or not collect) all the final issues of their previous series, with more "complete" series than I expected. Bookmark this list and please share it with the following URL -- http://bit.ly/v2o6KT -- and I'll update this if DC's collection plans change. Here's the list:

Action Comics (Superman: Reign of Doomsday)
Complete
Reign of Doomsday collects all the final Action Comics issues. The Return of Doomsday trade collects all the issues leading up to Reign of Doomsday, including Steel #1.

Adventure Comics (Legion of Super-Heroes: When Evil Calls)
Complete
When Evil Calls collects the final issues of Adventure Comics and Legion of Super-Heroes before the relaunch.

Batgirl (Batgirl: The Lesson)
Complete
Batgirl: The Lesson collects all the final issues of that series, #15-24. All Batgirl issues are collected.

Batman (Batman: Eye of the Beholder)
Incomplete
Batman: Eye of the Beholder collects through issue #712 of Batman (skipping issues that will be collected in the Batman: Gotham Shall Be Judged crossover trade), and ends without collecting Batman #713, a closing tribute issue (not well-regarded) by Fabian Nicieza.

Batman and Robin (Batman and Robin: Dark Knight, White Knight)
Incomplete
Batman and Robin: Dark Knight, White Knight collects the stories by Peter Tomasi and Judd Winick that follow Grant Morrison's run, but not the book's final fill-in issue by David Hine, #26.

Batman Beyond (Batman Beyond: Industrial Revolution)
Complete
Batman Beyond: Industrial Revolution collects all eight issues of the Batman Beyond series, though not the Superman Beyond special (maybe there's hope it'll be collected with the new Batman Beyond/Justice League Beyond series. We give this one a tentative "complete."

Batman Inc. (Batman Inc. Vol. 1 Deluxe)
Complete
DC will collect all eight issues of the initial Batman Inc. series plus the Leviathan Strikes special (containing the originally-solicited issues #9 and #10) in 2012.

Batman: The Dark Knight (Batman: The Dark Knight: Golden Dawn Deluxe
Complete
DC is collecting the entire original Batman: The Dark Knight series along with other samples of David Finch's artwork.

Batman: Streets of Gotham (Batman: Streets of Gotham: House of Hush
Complete
Collects the final issues of Streets of Gotham short of one fill-in issue, #15. We'll call this one "complete."

Birds of Prey (Birds of Prey: The Death of Oracle)
Complete
Birds of Prey: The Death of Oracle collects all the final issues of Birds of Prey, both Gail Simone's last issues and the fill-in issues by Marc Andreyko.

Booster Gold (Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Superman)
Incomplete
Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Superman collects Booster Gold #44-47, a Flashpoint tie-in by Dan Jurgens. These are the last issues of the series, though not collected between the Booster Gold: Past Imperfect collection and the finale are Booster Gold #39-43. That's enough to make this "incomplete."

Detective Comics (Batman: The Black Mirror)
Complete
The sleeper hit collection Batman: The Black Mirror collects all the final Detective Comics issues, picking up with the issues just after Batman: Imposters through to the end.

Doom Patrol (Doom Patrol: Fire Away)
Incomplete
DC cancelled Doom Patrol: Fire Away, leaving the end of Keith Giffen's Doom Patrol series uncollected.

Flash (Flash: The Road to Flashpoint)
Complete
As mentioned before, Flash: Road to Flashpoint collects Flash #8-12, ending just before the reboot.

Freedom Fighters
Incomplete
As mentioned before, this title was never collected. Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti now write the miniseries The Ray, a character of the same name but unrelated to the Freedom Fighters character; remains to be seen if that will be collected.

Gotham City Sirens (Gotham City Sirens: Division)
Complete
Gotham City Sirens: Division is currently scheduled to collect all the final issues of this title, through #26.

Green Arrow (Green Arrow: Salvation)
Complete
This collection, which ties directly into the end of Brightest Day, collects the final issues of Green Arrow, completing writer J. T. Krul's run. (Side note: no collections so far that include Brightest Day: Aftermath, I notice.)

Green Lantern (Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns)
Complete
War of the Green Lanterns collects the final issues of the Green Lantern series.

Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors (War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath)
Complete
The War Aftermath collection includes both the final issues of Green Lantern Corps and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors.

JSA All-Stars (JSA All-Stars: The Puzzle Men)
Incomplete
DC cancelled JSA All-Stars: Puzzle Men, leaving the end of this series uncollected.

Jonah Hex (Jonah Hex: Bury Me in Hell)
Complete
Thanks to commenter Michael; the full Jonah Hex series has been completed. Becomes All-Star Western in the DC New 52.

Justice League of America (Justice League of America: The Rise of Eclipso)
Complete
Rise of Eclipso collects the final issues of James Robinson's Justice League run, plus a previously uncollected issue of Justice Society written by Robinson.

Justice Society of America (Justice Society of America: Monument Point)
Complete
Monument Point collects the final issues of this Justice Society series. With this (plus one issue collected in Justice League: Rise of Eclipso) all issues of this series have been collected.

Legion of Super-Heroes (Legion of Super-Heroes: When Evil Calls)
Complete
As mentioned above, When Evil Calls collects the final issues of Adventure Comics and Legion of Super-Heroes before the relaunch.

Outsiders (Outsiders: The Great Divide)
Complete
Outsiders: The Great Divide collects all the final issues of the series, through issue #40.

Power Girl (Power Girl: Old Friends)
Complete
Power Girl: Old Friends is solicited to collect all the final issues of the series.

REBELS (REBELS: Starstruck)
Incomplete
DC cancelled REBELS: Starstruck, leaving the end of this series uncollcted.

Red Robin (Red Robin:Seven Days of Death)
Complete
This collection includes the final issues of Red Robin; every issue of this series has been collected.

Secret Six (Secret Six: The Darkest House)
Complete
Darkest House collects the final issues of this series; all are collected.

Superboy (Superboy: Smallville Attacks)
Complete
DC modified the original contents of Superboy: Smallville Attacks to include all eleven issues of this series.

Supergirl (Supergirl: Good Looking Corpse)
Incomplete
DC cancelled the Supergirl: Good Looking Corpse trade that would have collected the Supergirl series's final issues. Supergirl: Bizarrogirl ends at issue #59; at least they got all of Sterling Gates's stories.

Superman (Superman: Grounded Vol. 2)
Complete
The second volume of Grounded collects the final issues of Superman, aside from one fill-in issue. We'll call this "complete."

Superman/Batman (Superman/Batman: Sorcerer Kings)
Incomplete
Sorcerer Kings collects Cullen Bunn's story of the same name, Joe Kelly's single Final Crisis-related issue, and Chris Roberson's DC One Million story "World's Finest" from issues #79-80. It stops short, however, of Joshua Hale's story "The Secret" that ended Superman/Batman, issues #85-87.

Teen Titans (Teen Titans: Prime of Life)
Complete
This trade collects Teen Titans up to issue #100, completing the series.

THUNDER Agents (THUNDER Agents Vol. 1)
Complete
DC has solicited a collection of Nick Spencer's THUNDER Agents that collects the entire ten issues of the pre-relaunch series.

Titans (Titans: Broken Promises)
Complete Incomplete
Broken Promises collects to the end of Eric Wallace's Titans run, plus the Titans annual. Broken Promises has been subsequently cancelled by DC, leaving the end of Eric Wallace's Titans run uncollected. The final trade of Titans is now Family Reunion.

Weird Worlds (Weird Worlds)
Incomplete
DC cancelled the collection of this series, despite that they're publishing a sequel miniseries.

Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman: Odyssey Vol. 2)
Complete
The second volume of Odyssey collects the final issues of this series.

Xombi (Xombi)
Complete
The Xombi collection is scheduled to include all six issues of the pre-relaunch series.

Zatanna (Zatanna: Shades of the Past)
Complete
Zatanna: Shades of the Past collects through issue #16, completing this series.

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Review: Flashpoint hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

The DC Universe has restarted before, with a bang. With Flashpoint, the DC Universe begins again not with a whimper, but with a whisper. Flashpoint places an astounding focus on interaction rather than action; it is perhaps the most accessible of all the great DC Comics events, one that may disappoint long-time fans even as it has the best chance of standing the test of time for new ones.

[Contains spoilers]

By the end of the first issue of writer Geoff Johns's Infinite Crisis, we'd already seen Bizarro beat the Human Bomb to death; the number of deaths and decapitations would only rise before the story ended. The body count rose equally quickly in Johns's Blackest Night. Each of these stories were two-to-three issues longer than Flashpoint, and yet I believe those books had really started by the second issue (the Indio Tribe whisking away Green Lantern in Blackest Night, for instance). In contrast, Flash Barry Allen is powerless until the third issue of Flashpoint and spends most of those three issues in the Batcave talking to Batman -- almost half the miniseries -- and ultimately only engages in one or two action sequences in the entire book.

That's not wrong, necessarily, but to be sure it singles out Flashpoint as something else -- a different kind of event miniseries than Geoff Johns has delivered before.

Flashpoint does present the first appearance of the DC New 52 costumes (and some characters), but the new continuity is not its focus. Whereas in DC's ultimate continuity-shattering tale, Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Golden Age Superman Kal-L famously wakes up in a world that no longer remembers him, Barry Allen never explicitly understands that the "real" world has changed (things are the same, Barry says, with a fourth wall-breaking glance at the camera, "as far as I can tell"). In this way -- and perhaps because Flashpoint's role in the DC New 52 relaunch was decided after the story's original conception -- Flashpoint is not about continuity-cleaning in the way the other events are. Flashpoint has that as its result, but not as its focus.

Instead, Flashpoint examines one of the central conceits of the DC Universe, that the death of a parent might inspire a child, perhaps obsessively, to a lifetime trying to make up for that loss. Batman is the best example of this in DC Comics, of course, and Flashpoint is very much about Batman even if Bruce Wayne only appears in a handful of pages. Superman is another, the consummate orphan even if, depending on your continuity, he never much knew his Kryptonian parents.

And under Geoff Johns's pen specifically, over the past five years or so, we've seen Superman lose his father Jonathan Kent, Green Lantern Hal Jordan's origin revised so his father died in Hal's childhood, and then Flash Barry Allen's origin revised so his father went to jail for the murder of his mother (and this is aside from Johns's creation Stargirl who dealt with her father's abandonment). It got to be repetitive, frankly, and possibly Johns knew it.

Barry Allen takes a Parallax-like turn in Flashpoint, only worse. The shocking revelation in issue five is that the alternate Flashpoint reality stems not from the villainous Reverse Flash, but from Barry himself having ventured to the past to prevent Zoom from murdering his mother, thus mucking up history but good. Barry's depression over his mother's death -- for which he's been so uncharacteristically distraught that the Flash family staged an intervention in Flash: Road to Flashpoint -- has him so unhinged that he broke superhero rule #1 and messed with time. In the context of Flashpoint, at least, Johns offers no excuses or mitigation for Barry's act -- Barry knew what he was doing was wrong, thought he could get away with it, and nearly destroyed reality instead (with consequences he himself can't perceive).

Johns suggests that this is the end of "parent's death as inspiration for heroism" in the DC Universe. Barry's sorrow over his mother's death has reached outlandish heights, culminating in Flashpoint. Hardly, we know, would Barry's parents want him to torture himself to this extent in their memory -- and if Barry's familial reason for heroism dissipates as he realizes the error of his ways, then so too do some of the others start to thin. Childhood trauma has long since stopped being an effective excuse for Bruce Wayne's nocturnal activities, and when Barry delivers a time-tossed letter from Bruce's father, and Bruce cries and thanks Barry, the reader gets a sense of something ending. These are grown men, unknowingly entering a new universe supposedly more "modern" than the one they just left, and Flashpoint brings a sweet, gentle end to childish things.

There are no absolutes in comics, of course, and even as I write these lines, I have no expectation that this is the last time we'll ever see Batman kneel before the graves of his parents and swear vengeance for their deaths. I was surprised, however, that Johns even kept Barry's mother's death "in continuity," so to speak; I imagine it might be a while before we see Johns visit that particular well again.

As Blackest Night re-established for modern audiences the friendship between Green Lantern and the Flash, Flashpoint does the same for Flash and Batman. This has so far been a juggling act on Johns's part -- Batman missing the Flash at the end of Justice League: The Lightning Saga is one of my favorite comics moments, but for the majority of the time since Flash Barry Allen has been resurrected, Batman Bruce Wayne has been presumed dead. When Barry tells the Flashpoint Batman that Bruce was one of his closest friends, we believe it to be true but in fact we've yet to see Barry and Bruce have a substantial conversation in any comic since Barry's return.

Flashpoint is essentially proof of its own hypothesis; the six-page conversation that Barry and Bruce have in the end is their first, really, and ties up a hanging thread from Johns's Flash stories. It is not the only thread that needed tying, but it does bring to a satisfactory close one aspect of the pre-Flashpoint Flash storyline.

In an interview I gave last year with German writer Stefan Mesch, I commented on how DC's growing emphasis on their most iconic characters (Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Flash Barry Allen) was at odds with the growing demand among fans for diversity; there's no escaping that the Justice League's founders are for the most part white men. I could not conceive of the plan DC already had in the early stages, to retroactively alter the make-up of the Big Seven Justice League to include Cyborg (I know one character of color does not achieve "diversity" necessarily, but it's a start). Flashpoint has a significant moment, pre-empting the changes of the DC New 52, in which President Obama addresses Cyborg as the Flashpoint reality's Superman, essentially; the Flashpoint reality may be a dystopia, but it seems to be a post-racial one, at least.

Johns does not present Cyborg very strongly in Flashpoint -- Johns's Cyborg Victor Stone comports himself well, but he's far from the dynamic breakout star of Flashpoint that Mera was in Blackest Night, and also Cyborg simply disappears with no closing arc at the end of the book -- but I thought Johns's use of Barry Allen here with Vic offered a unique opportunity. Had the Flash in the book been Wally West, his relationship with Vic would be more emotional, like Barry and Bruce; had it been Superman, his relationship with Vic would be more paternal, like hero and sidekick. Barry remarks on Cyborg's increased armor, but otherwise accepts him for who he is; there's no diminutive applied to Cyborg, but rather he's simply a hero.

This is a rare moment for Cyborg -- better, perhaps, than in the New 52, when Cyborg may be a Justice Leaguer but Superman will be back to being Superman. In a rare pointed moment, one of Johns's S.H.A.Z.A.M. kids (the real breakout stars of the book) notes that "perception is reality," and it couldn't be truer here. Cyborg's role with the Justice League may be retroactive continuity, but it's important; more so is seeing Cyborg here, if only for a moment, as the preeminent hero of some DC Universe.

Andy Kubert's art helps Flashpoint's slower moments, to be sure. His crowd scenes are no slouch, but the real power is in his close-ups, whether it's a young Barry Allen on the first pages, the gathered Flashpoint heroes on the Gotham rooftops, or Bruce Wayne with tears in his eyes at the end. It's a rare treat to have a DC Comics mega-event drawn just by one artist throughout; I very much wish DC would leave the covers for the end and let a book like this read like a graphic novel. I'm looking forward to Kubert's guest-stint on Action Comics coming up (though only one issue, sadly); it seems to me that Kubert's art in Flashpoint is slightly stronger in the early issues with inker Sandra Hope than it is later in the book (and the most important reality-warping page, in issue five, looks unfortunately quite hurried), but I'm happy to see him on other titles either way.

At the end of the DC Universe as we know it, a reader expecting Crisis on Infinite Earths will be sorely disappointed. There's not much here, either, for a reader who wants the white-knuckle action of Blackest Night; Flashpoint is closest, in terms of its self-containment, to Final Crisis, but Flashpoint is minuscule next to Final Crisis's scope. Flashpoint is instead exactly what we heard it was from the beginning but perhaps didn't quite believe: a Flash story bigger than some but much smaller than others, which mostly focuses on Flash and Batman. Despite that Flashpoint may not have some of the "wow factor" of any of DC Comics's other event stories, it wins in one crucial area -- accessibility.

Flashpoint is perhaps the most accessible event story DC has ever produced, the one I'm most sure I could give to a new reader and they'd understand it. For a long-time reader, it may feel somewhat unsatisfactory in the end -- what, no red skies? -- but at the dawn of a new DC Universe, maybe this very simple book is exactly what we need to start off a new day.

[Includes original and variant covers, sketchbook section]

Tomorrow at Collected Editions, we'll finish off the week with a Trade Perspectives column not to be missed. Be there!

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Review: Flash: The Road to Flashpoint hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

If it's possible for a book to be exceptional and significantly disappointing at the same time, Flash: The Road to Flashpoint is that book. The story is action-packed and emotionally complex, and beautiful, to boot; however, it fails as the next volume in the Flash series, if not also as a lead in to the Flashpoint crossover. Knowledgeable readers won't find what they're looking for here, and the casual reader is likely to be confused.

[Contains spoilers]

A word, first, about the art of Francis Manapul. His airy pencils will always be synonymous for me with his depiction of rural Smallville in Superboy: Boy of Steel, such that his Central City also seems old-fashioned, more 1950 than 2011, despite the prevalence of cell phones in this book. Despite this, Manapul's lines are clean; his action sequences exceptionally clear; and the women that he draws in the book, specifically, are all pretty without sexual gratuity. (Scott Kolins does an equally good job mimicking Manapul in his fill-in sequences, with neither artist inking over their pencils).

What would comics look like, I wondered, if Francis Manapul drew everything? What would the public perception of comics be? It's unfortunate, I think, that what we find in Flash is the exception, and not the rule.

The story itself involves Flash (and forensic scientist) Barry Allen in a rather intriguing mystery, at least to start. Super-powered children are showing up dead, unnaturally aged; the first is a new "Elongated Kid" wearing a variation of Barry's late friend Ralph Dibney's old costume. This alone should be enough to hook most Flash fans, and writer Geoff Johns is at his best when a police officer asks if Barry recognizes the costume and Barry, in plain clothes, must utter a simple "no." It's a quiet and painful moment, the first of a number of such in this book.

Unfortunately, abandon hope all ye hoping for much clarity after this point. A motorcycle-riding speedster named Hot Pursuit emerges, chasing a time anomaly related to the murders. Pursuit reveals the details of the situation to Barry in an elaborate speech over the course of one issue, but then inexplicably refuses Barry's help in solving the case. In the conclusion, Pursuit mistakenly believes Kid Flash Bart Allen has caused the anomalies, for no good reason this reader could understand; it turns out to be Professor Zoom, conducting "experiments" that also involve him de-aging himself.

Why does Pursuit take up half of one of the scant four issues of this story (a fifth issue is devoted to a Professor Zoom profile) to explain to Barry a situation for which he doesn't want Barry's help (other than Johns offering exposition to the reader)? What value is there to Professor Zoom to becoming a kid and pretending to have witnessed a murder for an issue? Why does Pursuit think Kid Flash is a "time anomaly" when as far as Flash and the reader are concerned, he isn't? None of this is explained in the book, couched in Zoom's "secret plans" and vague "you'll find out soon enough" statements.

It's a reasonable expectation that some of these items might be addressed in Flashpoint itself, this book being a prologue to that. However, the phrase "Flashpoint" never warrants a mention in Road to Flashpoint, despite that Pursuit mumbled about it to himself in the previous volume, Dastardly Death of the Rogues. Road ends on a rather uncertain note -- Zoom says, "It all changes," a lightning bolt strikes, and that's it. A casual reader, at this moment, knows no better whether Flashpoint will be about alternate realities or a Sun-Eater; some surprise is good, but at this same penultimate point in Green Latern/Blackest Night, I felt the reader had a better sense of the story as a while. I count that as a failing of this as a prologue.

What Johns does well here is present Barry's emotion. Barry has struggled since his rebirth (or, Rebirth) to engage with his family and not withdraw, feeling he doesn't deserve his new life. Learning Zoom killed his mother in the past because of his hatred of the Flash was another significant blow, but not one much mentioned in the previous volume. That revelation is now in the forefront; Barry pulls away from his family for fear of enticing Zoom to kill one of them, too. It's an interesting time-traveler's dilemma, and at the same time Barry's depression seems very real -- he can't enjoy a family picnic, for instance, because he imagines his mother there and feels her absence is his fault. Barry's wife Iris stages a speedster intervention, and Johns paces the scene with a slowness that conveys the seriousness of the moment. All convincing and moving.

Only, Barry's sorrow over his mother really isn't mentioned all that much in Dastardly, and this issue of Barry pulling away from his family is one seemingly already solved in Rebirth. Barry, it seems, is regressing, and to Road's credit that's a point Iris makes within the book. But why? Are we to attribute this to the secret emotional weapon that the Rogues used in Dastardly? If so, the book never even hints at it -- nor do the Rogues appear here at all, nor Captain Boomerang, who was so much a part of the last book's cliffhanger.

In terms of solid storytelling, Road to Flashpoint succeeds, but in terms of a sequel to Dastardly Death of the Rogues, it emerges largely disconnected -- not a satisfying reading experience in terms of the Flash book. Similarly, and perhaps by necessity as a lead-in to Flashpoint, Road doesn't offer much closure for the Flash series -- there's the absence of the Rogues, to start, but also the reintroduction of Barry's old flame Patty Spivot. The informed reader knows Patty plays a role in the DC New 52 relaunch version of Flash -- creating a strange relationship between new Flash and old -- but the casual reader may have trouble determining what Johns tried to say with all of this. Road to Flashpoint is, in a sense, a fair preview of the series that replaces it, perhaps, but not an entirely solid package on its own.

Crossover-mad fans (like me) will undoubtedly feel incomplete without Flash: The Road to Flashpoint on their shelves next to the main event, but the story was less than what I'd hoped for -- a tease, more than a lead-in, to Flashpoint itself. New readers drawn to Flashpoint by news of the DC New 52 might not feel they miss much if they leave Road to Flashpoint back on the shelf.

[Includes original and variant covers]

Unfortunately, Road to Flashpoint wasn't the lead-in to Flashpoint that I'd hoped -- then again, Salvation Run and Countdown to Final Crisis weren't so stellar lead-ins to Final Crisis, either. Coming up later this week, however ... the Collected Editions review of Flashpoint. Don't miss it!

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Flashpoint and Flashpoint tie-in collection details solicited

Right on the heels of news that DC Comics will release a massive 1,216 page collection of all their September #1 issues in December, and confirmation that DC will release the hardcover collection of the Flashpoint event in October, comes word that DC will release (at least) five hardcovers collecting the Flashpoint tie-in series ... next March.

This means that whereas Flashpoint concludes at the end of August, DC's relaunch begins in September, and fans can read the Flashpoint collection essentially one month later in October, it will be essentially six months later (when DC's new #1s reach #7) that trade fans can read the tie-in issues.

Despite that some of the Flashpoint tie-in books introduce concepts that will continue into the new DC Universe, I think DC's waiting too long to release these. These books tended toward irrelevance anyway in the shadow of the DC relaunch, and delaying them this long only worsens that; also, to release the the main Flashpoint collection and then to release its tie-ins six months later must affect reader enjoyment of the story as a whole (imagine if they'd done the same for Blackest Night!).

On to the books, however -- here's a list of what's been solicited so far:

* Flashpoint

* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Batman
Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso

Chances are this contains more than just Azzarello and Risso's Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance miniseries. I'd venture we'll see JT Krul's Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons here, too.

* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Green Lantern
Pornsak Pichetshote and Mark Castiello

Interestingly, the Flashpoint: Green Lantern collection lists as its author Pornsak Pichetshote, the writer of the Flashpoint: Green Arrow Industries one-shot. I think it's a safe bet we'll see Adam Schlagman's Flashpoint: Abin Sur - The Green Lantern and Flashpoint: Hal Jordan here.

* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring The Flash
Sean Ryan and Ig Guara

Again, early notes have this as written by Sean Ryan, who's only contributing the Flashpoint: Grodd of War one-shot. There's a lot that could also be in this one -- Sterling Gates's Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost, or Scott Kolins' Flashpoint: Reverse-Flash one-shot or Flashpoint: Citizen Cold miniseries.

* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Wonder Woman
Tony Bedard and Ardian Syaf

Tony Bedard writes Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman #1–3, while Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning write Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies. Unless we see a Flashpoint: Aquaman collection come down the pike, probably this is where we'll find both miniseries.

* Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Superman
Mike Carlin and Rags Morales

Carlin is only the writer of the Flashpoint: The Canterbury Cricket one-shot, so possibly that's collected here along with Scott Synder's Flashpoint: Project: Superman and Abnett and Lanning's Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance, or another of the more Superman-centric Flashpoint miniseries.

On the horizon ...
That still leaves a number of Flashpoint miniseries potentially unaccounted for, including most notably villain books like Flashpoint: Legion of Doom and Flashpoint: Frankenstein & the Creatures of the Unknown. You heard it here first -- keep watching Collected Editions, and we'll update as soon as there's new information.

UPDATE 11/14/11 - DC Comics solicitations reveal these books will contain all the Flashpoint miniseries plus issues of Booster Gold, arriving in stores in March 2012 along with the Flashpoint paperback.

Which books will you be buying? How would you like to see Flashpoint and its tie-ins collected? Still considering that giant $150 paperweight?

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Review: Flash: Dastardly Death of the Rogues hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Beautifully drawn and full of fantastic superheroic saves, Geoff Johns writing a Flash title again with Francis Manapul and former collaborator Scott Kolins feels like coming home. If I had wondered if Johns had exhausted his arsenal of fantastic Flash saves, there's more; if I had wondered if Johns had revealed all he could about the Flash's Rogues, there's more. And to an extent, I appreciate Flash: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues, a story about a man who can accomplish things very fast, the most because of how it wastes time -- with scene setting, with conversation, with silly bits of humor. All of it suggests that Johns's intention here is to give the reader a firm introduction to the character of Flash Barry Allen and his supporting cast, even if this story might proceed more slowly than Johns's audience is used to.

[Contains spoilers]

It is not just because of Francis Manapul's art that Johns's first book of the Flash ongoing series reminds me of his Superboy: Boy of Steel. As with Superboy, this Flash volume is a slow, methodical book, from the initial splash page not of our hero, but of Central City, to seven pages of the Flash restoring a decimated apartment building that has no real tie to the ongoing story. This includes a page and a half dedicated to the Flash fixing a little girl's doll; Spawn this is not. That sequence is followed by two pages of Barry chatting with his wife Iris, and then again Barry and Iris sit down for coffee for four pages an issue later.

I'm not complaining, mind you. Johns writes Barry's saves with the right mix of fun and exhilaration, as when Barry leaps into midair to save the pilots of a crashing helicopter (and I appreciated that Johns knows Barry's limits; the Flash saves the people, but the helicopter crashes in flames). Barry's relationship with Iris and their meetings over coffee form the backbone of this book; they are exactly the right mix of confidantes and professional rivals, and Johns makes the writing of the relationship seem so effortless that its a wonder scores of Superman writers haven't been able to accomplish the same over the years. Johns's circuitous route in the story -- Barry fixing the girl's doll, for instance -- seems to me to stem from the same place as Johns's Justice Society riding in a fire truck with cutesy dalmatians, but this feels much more natural, maybe because Manapul's art lends itself better to the pastoral than Dale Eaglesham's did on Justice Society.

Time travel plays a large role in this story (one that will likely increase with the coming Flashpoint crossover), but I liked that Johns didn't cover ground already well-tread in Booster Gold. Flash's time travel issues are less "is it OK to go back in time and kill Hitler," and more determinism -- if the future exists somewhere, do I have any say over my own actions? Am I destined to make my mistakes or can I change them? Johns cleverly has Barry interpret time travel not as physically changing the past, but rather as overturning the wrongful conviction of a young man. The future Reverse Flash Task Force arrest Barry because they're trying to prevent all crime in their time; Barry works to do the same, but by uncovering the truth rather than shaping the truth to his own ends.

I chuckled at Johns's assertion on Flash: Rebirth that Barry Allen is the wellspring from which all other heroes emerged. Johns is accurate in that we credit the Barry Allen Flash for launching the Silver Age of comics, including Green Lantern Hal Jordan and the Atom Ray Palmer, though for Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick to give Barry that credit in-story seemed too much Barry worship (let alone that I dislike DC Comics's move of late to give Hal and Barry greater roles than Superman). Barry is perhaps a bit too perfect in this story, too, always dutifully worried about others, whereas even Hal Jordan gets overconfident or runs his mouth off once in a while. Johns reinforces Barry's "wellspring-ness" in a scene toward the end of the book where he single-handedly convinces the Central City police to re-open all of their hastily finished cases for the past six months; the scene is true to Barry as Johns presents him, though I worry if Johns presentation of Barry as never tripping or sneezing might at some point get old.

Johns certainly differentiates the adventures of Flash Barry Allen from "previous" Flash Wally West at least in Barry's approach to superheroics, which is always dutifully steeped in the language of police investigations. As a fan of Johns's last Flash series, however, I was glad artist Scott Kolins played a role here, and in a "Rogue Profile" issue no less (Kolins' art even blurs a bit to look more like Manapul's). I'm not sure we learned much more about Captain Boomerang Digger Harkness than we knew before, though the villain is a favorite of mine and I was happy to have him in the spotlight nonetheless. Boomerang's face-off with the Reverse-Flash was interesting, since I believe Reverse-Flash's daughter was the mother of Boomerang's child -- this was not addressed in the issue, but I hope Johns gets to it at some point.

The hardcover of Dastardly Death of the Rogues, at least, contains a couple of Johns's one-page "Flash Facts" backups, and a teaser for Flashpoint. As an advocate for collections readers getting as many of the little extras as the monthly readers, I was glad to see these here. Johns emphasizes both in one of the "Flash Facts" and in the story that the first Mirror Master Sam Scudder had control over forces in his mirrors that the reader never knew; if I thought Johns had said all he had to say about the Rogues in his first Flash run, it's interesting how he's now even exploring the history of dead Rogues. My guess is that the "alternate reality" that Barry sees here in Scudder's mirror is in fact the way events were "supposed" to unravel, with Barry's mother alive to old age; I wonder if one aspect of Flashpoint will be Barry having to decide between the life of his mother or preserving DC Comics reality as we currently know it.

Flash: Dastardly Death of the Rogues will be intriguing for fans of Geoff Johns's Flash new and previous, and certainly if you intend to pick up the Flashpoint crossover, that all starts here. It's clear Johns is playing the long-game with Flash, however, and this book's story delays and digressions will delight some but potentially alienate others. Johns's Green Lantern, to be sure, doesn't move this slow, and I wonder how well the Flash title will support a major crossover in just a few short months, with all the world watching.

[Contains full and variant covers, "Flash Facts" and Flashpoint teaser. Printed on glossy paper]

More reviews on the way!

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Review: Flash: Rebirth hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

One thing about a Rebirth is that when you finish it, invariably you're left with a handful of easily encapsulatable nuggets that help to sum up the newly reborn character.

One of these after Flash: Rebirth is this: the Silver Age Flash Barry Allen is one of the few fellow heroes that Batman genuinely likes. The significance of this, of course, is that if we understood nothing else after Green Lantern: Rebirth, it was that Batman didn't like Hal Jordan. But Batman likes Barry and Barry likes Hal, and all of the sudden fans know exactly where Barry fits in the DC Comics pantheon -- even if you were thirteen when Barry died and never really experienced him inside the DC Universe.

Someone who was thirteen when Barry Allen died, by the way, is Rebirth writer and newly minted DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns. Sure, I recognize there's back issues, and Johns is undoubtedly familiar with the entirety of Barry Allen's history by now, but I can't disregard that there was never a time for Johns when Barry was "the" current Flash. Whereas I overall enjoyed reafing Flash: Rebirth, the story distinctly like a modern-era recreation of Barry Allen by someone approaching him second-hand, and not a rejuvenation of the original character.

[Contains spoilers]

Johns likely had first-hand experience with Hal Jordan prior to resurrecting him in Green Lantern: Rebirth, and that story served to present all the cool things about Hal Jordan that had already been there but we never fully realized. Flash: Rebirth makes up a couple of things about Barry Allen that are indeed pretty cool and make one want to follow the character, but they're made up nonetheless and not true to the original source.

For instance, if the most a modern fan knows about Barry Allen is that he had a penchant for bow ties, is considered DC Comics' enduring patron saint (by virtue of his long-standing sacrifice and death in Crisis on Infinite Earths), and otherwise seemed like something of a stiff, Johns turns all of these on their ear. Barry himself confronts his reputation as a saint, repudiating it with a host of "angsty" bad deeds including killing the Reverse Flash and abandoning his friends to live in the future. As for the bow tie, Johns retroactively reveals, Barry didn't even wear one until it was slipped on him last minute and his wife Iris liked them. So, Johns seems to say, not so much a stiff as you might have thought.

All of this is clever, especially Barry's sainthood being within the DC Universe as well as without. But, it's a far cry from Johns re-explaining Green Lantern's yellow weakness in light of new evidence; rather it's more like Identity Crisis re-imagining earlier adventures of the Justice League. What we learn in Flash: Rebirth is that Barry Allen truly is so much of a stiff that Johns needs a villain to alter the time-stream in order to make Barry cooler; that it's not enough for Barry just to be a police scientist and a good Flash, but that he needs some kind of "edge" to appeal to audiences, something I thought comics outgrew in the late 1990s.

Even as Flash: Rebirth heralds the return of Barry Allen, it also apologizes for Barry's lack of coolness, when really no one expected Barry to be all that cool to begin with. In this way, we find in Rebirth that Barry Allen isn't returned so much as the DC Universe now has a new Barry Allen-Prime, so to speak -- but I like this Barry Allen-Prime. Rebirth is heavy in Speed Force double-take, but Johns suggests that the forthcoming Flash series will be more of a police procedural, something that's often suceeded in the DC Universe. Barry will solve cold cases against the backdrop of a corrupt police force -- this has worked for most every CBS police drama (complete with an equally "angsty" murder that Barry witnessed in his childhood) so likely it'll work for Flash, too, and I'm excited.

Not to mention that, even as Johns wrote a dynamic Flash Wally West for a number of years, here Johns surprisingly serves to suck most of the remaining fun out of Wally, leaving Barry as the only viable Flash choice. The best part about writer Mark Waid's recent brief return to Flash was how charmingly cute he made Wally's children; Johns presents them here as absolute brats. Even as Barry is the mentor and Wally the sidekick, Barry ends the series seeming the more youthful of the two. Wally gains a new costume reminiscent of his metallic, white-eyed costume again of the 1990s; whereas this does speak to the era from which Wally is best-known, it makes him look dated and Barry the more "modern" Flash.

Yet, there is plenty for Flash fans to like in this story, though as with Johns' Superboy: The Boy of Steel, some might venture it suffers from too much nostalgia. At the end of Rebirth, the Flash-family status quo is essentially the same as around issue #100 of Mark Waid's Flash run, with Jesse Quick back in the Flash fold and Max Mercury resurrected. This latter item is one of the few great surprises of the book, and as happy as I am to see Max, it feels like something of a regression for the Kid Flash character to have his teacher looking over his shoulder again.

The book's other great cameos are of Wally's villains Savitar and Lady Flash; again, I like these characters and I'm glad to see them, but they've each been out of comics for fifteen years, such that Rebirth's intended audience does seem to be fans who've followed the Flash that long, and not necessarily ones who might've joined the DC Universe more recently. In fact, a good 99% of the knowledge you need for Flash: Rebirth comes from the one story where Savitar appeared, Dead Heat -- now, that's a great Flash story, but it makes Flash: Rebirth feel more insular whereas Green Lantern: Rebirth was more expansive.

Early in Flash: Rebirth, the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick explains how Barry Allen actually inspired him to become a hero again after Jay's initial retirement. Johns is being cute here, too; this is a not-so-subtle reference to the Barry Allen character heralding the Silver Age of comic books in 1950s, which itself helped return the Golden Age heroes to popularity. As such, Johns posits Barry Allen as the DC Universe's preeminent Flash (Barry created the Speed Force, we learn, and gifted every speedster past or present with their super-speed [though completely by accident]) and perhaps even the DC Universe's preeminent superhero (I, for one, like that accolade to go to Superman, but what can you do?).

The irony of the story, ultimately, is that even as Johns takes great pains to suggest that Barry isn't as perfect and unrelatable as we all thought he was, Johns also offers a dozen reasons why Barry is the greatest superhero who ever lived, not to mention having created a multi-dimensional cosmic force that apparently contains the answer to every question ever asked in the entire universe ever. It's a lot to live up to, and I'd venture Flash: Rebirth might've done well to have reigned itself in just a bit. If one detriment of Barry Allen the first time around was too much perfection verging on sainthood, Geoff Johns toes a dangerous line this second time. I'll be watching to see what happens to Barry Allen next in the DC Universe, but if the skies turn red again, he might just want to watch out.

[Contains full and variant covers, introduction, original proposal by Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Skiever sketchbook]

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Review: Flash: The Wild Wests hardcover (DC Comics)

Continuing Flash Week at Collected Editions!

Undoubtedly one of the prices of a successful run for a comics writer is that your fan base expects you do to the same every time. Such must certainly be the case for Mark Waid; his Flash: Wild Wests is nothing like The Return of Barry Allen, nor should it be, even though I might have been hoping so. Wild Wests is a fair entry into the genre of superhero family stories, if there is such a thing; but unfortunately, it doesn't really distinguish itself as a Flash story nor rise much above standard superheroics.

Without a doubt, the very best thing about Waid's new foray into Flash is Wally West's children Jai and Iris. Waid ages the twins, but wisely not too old, such that they're rare adorable preteens in a DC Universe mostly populated with smarmy Damian Waynes. That Iris notes she's special because her parents say so, or Jai delights in his mother wearing a funny hat, is just plain cute, and Waid does well mining a "cute" vein that DC doesn't much else see outside Tiny Titans. Even the kids' powers are cute -- Jai bulks up to a tiny muscleman, but has to take a nap after he does so; Iris teases her brother by vibrating through him to steal his breakfast.

Under the cuteness, however, Waid addresses a problem to which many parents can likely, unfortunately, relate: how to let a sick, possibly terminal kid still have a childhood? Wally and Linda (Park) West are exactly the parents that long-time Flash readers would expect -- cool, funny, understanding, and up-for-anything, but with a significant undercurrent of constant worry about their children, who could rapidly age, even to the point of death, at any moment.

Waid does well to let Wally receive some criticism from the Justice League for putting his children in harm's way (not unlike the parents of recently-stranded sixteen-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland). Wally decides in full, after a heart-rending talk with Jai, to let his children face danger if that's what they want; it's a decision that seems obvious on the pages of a comic book, but has proved more controversial in real life, and I appreciated Waid approaching the issue.

The character moments, however, don't make up for a rather lackluster plot involving a very standard alien invasion. The aliens are bad guys all along and end the story as bad guys; as such, there's no nuance to the story, short of the children, beyond the Flash running around and punching things. To make the unfair comparison, Waid's previous Flash stories were so full of Speed Force mythology and cool speed tricks; here, Wally's speed is mostly a weakness in that the aliens make him dehydrated (of all things) faster, and not much of a boon.

Daniel Acuna's art in the first chapters has a fluidity that shows off both the West kids' powers and the aliens well, but later Freddie Williams' pages suffer from lack of detail (no one has eyes, for instance) and awkward poses that keep the story's climax from popping.

In addition, I have to pick at a production level difficulty, too. When these Flash issues came out, they had a backup story about various Flashes visiting the planet Savoth; DC collects those backup stories all together at the end of the book. Only thing is, something that happens in that story is vitally important to understanding the main story's resolution, but reading this book in order, the main story's resolution is unintelligible (out of nowhere, they're on a friendly alien planet) and lacks much of its intended weight.

(Not to mention -- if I can be really picky -- I remain entirely confused about what's meant to have happened to Wally West after Infinite Crisis. Distinctly we saw Wally go into the Speed Force with Bart Allen, Max Mercury, and Barry Allen; Bart himself recalls living on a duplicate Earth with Wally and Barry where they imprisoned Superboy-Prime; but Wild Wests would tell us Wally was never there and on Savoth instead. My hope is that Flash: Rebirth will explain all this, but I'd bet it's just an overlooked story point that'll ultimately just be ignored.)

Little of that is Mark Waid's fault, but ultimately this story doesn't have the gusto of a Flash comeback; I really wonder if the run collected in Flash: The Wild Wests was ever meant to be ongoing, or if it was instead a miniseries-posing-as-series (as, if you believe DC, Flash: Fastest Man Alive was supposed to be). I would read a West family miniseries by Waid, no doubt, but for the content of the main Flash title, this isn't quite it.

[Contains full and variant covers, brief bio page, backup story]

Coming tomorrow, the main event ... the Collected Editions review of Flash: Rebirth. Be here!

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Review: Flash: The Human Race trade paperback (DC Comics)

This week, we're featuring all things Flash at Collected Editions! Here's another guest review from Kelson Vibber of the Flash-centered Speed Force blog and Those Who Ride the Lightning Flash reference site.

Flash: The Human Race covers the second half of the year-long Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run on The Flash from the late 1990s, plus one more short story. This volume rushes even deeper into "mad ideas" territory than the first, with the Flash racing across time and space first against his childhood imaginary friend, and then against death itself.

The Human Race
The Flash is forced to compete in a cosmic footrace, or else the Earth will be destroyed. The concept is simple, but the details are crazy: The racetrack loops across space and time. One obstacle is a collapsing star. Another is running through the last moments of the exploding planet Krypton. And the Flash's opponent -- Krakkl of the radio-based people of Kwyzz -- is Wally West's childhood imaginary friend (who turns out to have been not so imaginary after all).

This book absolutely revels in the kind of crazy stories you can tell when you don't need to worry about a special effects budget.

Despite that, it manages to feel very familiar. Several of the Bronze-Age races between Flash and Superman had them running across space and time. One race was controlled by cosmic gamblers. Krakkl looks vaguely like Sonic the Hedgehog if he were made out of energy (with Kirby Dots, of course). Even the twist is similar to something Morrison himself does just two years later near the end of his JLA run. (Come to think of it, that same twist fits in well with certain elements of Flash: Rebirth.)

The Black Flash
I'm surprised that this wasn't used as the title of the collection, considering that the concept of death for speedsters has had so much more impact. The Black Flash has shown up in Full Throttle, was referenced in Final Crisis, and showed up again in Flash: Rebirth. Radioland? Not so much.

The basic premise: Max Mercury learns that Wally West is about to die, and tries to save him. But death doesn't leave empty-handed, and takes Linda Park instead. Wally is devastated . . . and death isn't satisfied. It begins stalking him in the form of the skeletal Black Flash.

Two things change with The Black Flash: Grant Morrison drops out, leaving Mark Millar flying solo as writer, and Pop Mhan and Chris Ivy take over the art. The writing comes off a bit awkward in some places, while in others it's absolutely dead on. For instance, at one point, Captain Cold is holding the city for ransom in a way that makes absolutely no sense for Captain Cold; Impulse's characterization, however, is absolutely perfect.

The story bounces back and forth between the utterly ridiculous and the devastatingly real. It's at its best in the character beats in the middle chapter. Sure, several Rogues show up, and the third chapter is one long stuck-in-time battle with the Black Flash . . . but Impulse saying, "Wrote you a letter when you blinked," or Wally West trying to explain to Jesse Quick why he can't handle super-heroics anymore in the absence of Linda, or the absolute bleakness of the funeral . . . those are the moments that that stick in my head.

The ending, unfortunately, relies on not one but two of those cool-when-you-read-it ideas that make absolutely no sense if you think about them for more than a half-second.

I remember severely disliking Pop Mhan's art when this first came out, and I still feel it's not a good match for the Flash. People's features are very exaggerated, and everyone seems to be about 9 feet tall. At the same time I have to admit: he does the best rendition of the Black Flash that I've ever seen.

Flash of Two Worlds
The last story in the collection is a short from 1990 in which Grant Morrison tries to adapt the classic "Flash of Two Worlds" into modern continuity. The original story had Barry Allen crossing from one universe to another and meeting Jay Garrick, but Crisis on Infinite Earths had changed things so that Central City and Keystone City were in the same universe, on opposite sides of a river.

The solution: The Thinker, Fiddler and Shade (who had simply gone on a crime spree in the original story) have cut off Keystone City from the rest of the world, and Barry manages to cross through that barrier.

It's told as a mix of standard comic book panels, childish sketches, and narration by an eight-year-old who witnessed part of the event and heard the rest from the Flashes themselves, giving the whole thing a fragmented feel, as if we're not really getting the whole story.

In a way, that's almost better, because like "The Black Flash," the story works better if you don't think about it too much. Sure, the Rip Van Winkle angle works great as a substitute for crossing dimensions, but it opens up questions that DC has never really been sure how to answer. How long was Keystone City kept separate from the world? Months? Years? Decades? Did people age? If they didn't, that's got to make for some awkward families. If they did, imagine all the young children who woke up as adults without actually growing up.

Overall
This is a much more uneven collection than Emergency Stop on creative team alone. Paul Ryan drops out part-way through "The Human Race," to be replaced with Ron Wagner, but their styles are similar enough that it's not too jarring (John Nyberg inking both of them has to help); whereas Pop Mhan's exaggerated style is a huge change, even coming at the beginning of a new story. "Flash of Two Worlds" feels even more out of place, but given how critical it is for the modern Central City/Keystone City dynamic, it's good that the story is available somewhere that today's audience can find it.

On the plus side, the stories of Flash: The Human Race are far from the fill-in tales they could have been. Just as Emergency Stop introduced the Speed Force costume and set up Jakeem Thunder and the modern incarnation of the Thinker, this volume introduced the Black Flash and set up Wally and Linda's engagement . . . a major development which would factor into the next two years of stories when Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn returned to the book.

Tomorrow at Collected Editions, we'll look at the last trade paperback of Wally West's adventures, before the Collected Editions review of Flash: Rebirth on Friday. Don't miss it!

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Review: Flash: Emergency Stop trade paperback (DC Comics)

The Collected Editions Flash Week continues! Today, we're thrilled to have a review from Kelson Vibber of Speed Force, your one-stop blog for all things Flash! Also don't miss Kelson's Flash reference site, Those Who Ride the Lightning.

Flash: Emergency Stop is the first of two volumes collecting the Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run of The Flash from 1997-1998 (the second volume is The Human Race). They stepped in for a year while the regular writing team of Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn took a year off to work on such projects as The Life Story of the Flash and JLA: Year One.

The first half of the book is the actual "Emergency Stop" storyline, while the second half is made up of three one-shot stories.

"Emergency Stop" is about a suit, or more specifically, it's about two suits. One: the ultimate super-villain suit come to life. The other: Wally West's Speed Force-based Flash costume.

The story also introduces an idea that shapes most of this volume and the next, a line that Wally West attributes to Barry Allen: "With powers like ours, you have to learn to fight the way a science fiction writer writes." The Flash is confronted with his own dead body and given an hour to solve his own murder. A sentient costume runs around possessing minor super-villains, draining their life energy and using their powers. Wally West breaks both his legs.

Wait, what? Yes, early in the story, the Flash is taken out of commission. What follows is a lightning-brigade story, with Wally having to act as strategist and send Jay Garrick, Max Mercury and Impulse out to do the actual fighting. As you might expect, he doesn't take well to being out of the action, and tries to find a way to fight through his injury.

There are a whole bunch of new villains who appear in this story, but most of them are incredibly generic. Only a few are even named, and I can't think of a single one who appears again. But then, they aren't really there to be individuals, or even a team; they're there to be a mob.

Next up is a tale of the Mirror Master in full-up "mad ideas" mode. A mirror dimension where time goes backwards? Check. Sending the Flash through a prism at light speed, splitting him into a whole spectrum of Flashes? Check. Mirror duplicates? Check. A second Earth about to crash into Keystone? Check!

The next two stories settle down a bit.

"Still Life in the Fast Lane" is a solo story focusing on Jay Garrick, and is one of my favorite single-issue stories from the series. It's a day-in-the- life story, but because Jay is the Flash, it's a very full day!

The main plot involves the Thinker, who is dying of inoperable brain cancer. Jay has been visiting his one-time arch-enemy in the hospital, and they've become friends. Not one to let go, Jay sets on the idea of tracking down the Thinker's old Thinking Cap to boost his intelligence and find a cure.

So in and around visiting most of the original Justice Society members, he also finds time to do nanotech research, fight three supervillains (including a single-panel fight with the "Golden Age Reverse Flash"), have lunch with Wally West and Nightwing, give a TV interview, give a talk at a school, and have dinner with Joan!

It's a fascinating look at the sheer potential of super-speed for living, not just for fighting.

The final story isn't really a stand-alone story, but the third part of a crossover with Green Lantern and Green Arrow, "Three of a Kind." It mostly works on its own, since it's structured as a courtroom drama with flashbacks to the incident set up in the first two parts, but it still feels like something's missing. It's an odd choice, and one which makes it clear that DC's real interest in these volumes was in the name recognition of the two writers. Still, there are nice touches, like Green Arrow Connor Hawke applying martial arts philosophy to a legal case, Linda complaining that Kyle Rayner's power-ring- created coffee mugs make everything taste like vinegar, and an explanation of how super-heroes testify in court while preserving their secret identities.

Over the course of Emergency Stop, it's interesting to see just how many elements introduced in these six issues have ended up sticking around. Jay losing Johnny Thunder's pen was deliberate setup for Jakeem Thunder. The speed-force suit that Wally uses to support his shattered legs is still the way he changes into costume, and was used to justify redesigning everyone's costume in Flash: Rebirth. The quest for the thinking cap became the setup for the new, completely computerized Thinker.

Looking back at Flash: Emergency Stop, from a time when DC is being accused of "bringing back the Silver Age," I can't help but think that Morrison and Millar did it a decade ago . . . and did it the right way. They didn't bring back just the trappings of the Silver (or Bronze) age -- the characters, settings and situations; instead they brought back the energy and creativity of a period in comics in which everything was new.

Join us tomorrow as we continue the Collected Editions Flash Week, leading up to the Collected Editions review of Flash: Rebirth!

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Review: Flash: Return of Barry Allen trade paperback (DC Comics)

It's Flash Week on Collected Editions! Check back every day this week (yes, now five reviews this week!) for special Flash reviews.

One of my favorite collected stories is writer Mark Waid's Flash: The Return of Barry Allen. It was my gateway and first introduction to all things Flash in the form of Wally West, as I imagine is true for many modern readers; as I'm on the precipice of reading Flash: Rebirth, which replaces Wally West with Barry Allen as the titular Flash of the DC Universe, I re-read The Return of Barry Allen with some uncertainty. The book builds the case for Wally West as the Flash so well that it's difficult to imagine an equally strong argument in the other direction.

[Contains spoilers]

I recall from the text pieces of 52 that Mark Waid has some affinity for "locked room" mysteries; similarly, Return of Barry Allen distinguishes itself perhaps first of all because it's such a cogent whodunit. Waid gives air to all the readers' natural suspicions, through Wally, in the first chapter, and seemingly brings that mystery to a close; for much of the book, the reader's question becomes "What's wrong with Barry Allen," not "Who is Barry Allen," effectively distracting from the mystery's solution. Waid can't possibly let slip the book's mystery villain's name else the surprise be spoiled immediately; instead the book offers clues in supposedly innocuous mentions of the death of Wally's Aunt Iris -- without saying so outright, Waid gives the readers all the clues they need to solve the mystery.

(It's interesting to note, reading The Return of Barry Allen trade paperback, that the trade dress veritably shouts the book's conclusion in as much as possible. Look at the image of Barry on the back cover. Now look at Barry on the very first title page. Note Barry uncolored on the last page of the introduction. I wonder if this was intentional or not; reading the book with this in mind, I found a number of instances in artist Greg LaRocque's artwork -- mirror images, uncolored flashbacks, statues -- all of which hint at the same thing.)

Waid's later Wally West stories like the also-great Terminal Velocity and Dead Heat would give character arcs to a veritable Flash-family around Wally, but Return remains for the most part Wally's story. The three speedsters who fight alongside Wally serve primarily to represent a kind of "ghosts of Christmas" -- Johnny Quick, for instance, tries to teach Wally about speed through science, much like Barry Allen did in Wally's past, and Wally finds little he doesn't already know. Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, represents Wally's present; neither he nor Wally really think about their speed so much as they just let it come naturally. And though Wally is skeptical of the "zen" teachings of Max Mercury, Max ultimately represents Wally's future in both offering the solution to defeating the faux Barry Allen and also later introducing Wally to the concept of the Speed Force.

Wally realizes through Max that his memory of Barry Allen has been holding him back; I was never a Barry fan myself, but I imagine this to be Waid's specific message to the Barry fans of the time -- that their love for the past hindered their enjoyment of the present. To drive that home, Wally ultimately finds an even more slavish Barry fan than himself in his mysterious enemy, someone who's so even in love with Barry as to want to replace him; in that way, Wally sees the healthy way toward honoring Barry when faced with the decidedly un-healthy way. Long before Superboy-Prime, the faux Barry Allen is the reader here, and as such we must accept Wally when shown the evil of our ways.

As someone who was new to the Flash, what I believe made me accept Wally as "one to watch" at the conclusion of this story is the leadership he demonstrates. In the presence of much older, experienced heroes, Waid has Wally concoct a truly ingenious plan to not only reveal the mystery villain but also to send him on his way, and Wally fulfills the plan with much aplomb. Of course, I also credit Waid for any number of just-cool moments in Return of Barry Allen, from echoing for Wally a deadly scene from Barry's own life to one of the first (and still the coolest) cameos of Barry Allen's ghostly spirit, and from four heroes just sitting around talking about speed for a while to a shout out to Stan Lee and John Romita's "Spider-Man No More," there's little in this story that doesn't work extremely well.

(Though, one picky item I noticed, foremost because it changes sharply in every Waid-era Flash story afterward, is the complete absence of a meaningful female protagonist here. This is perhaps accentuated by LaRocque's artwork, which offers standard superheroics until a woman comes onscreen, and then every one is posed like a magazine model, especially Wally's girlfriend Linda Park, such that women seem even moreso like objects than people than is usual for comics. Waid's Terminal Velocity, Dead Heat, and others will have strong roles for Linda, Jesse Quick, and Iris Allen, but I was surprised in re-reading Return how centered on male relationships -- Jay's friendship with Max, Wally's admiration for Barry -- the book seems to be.)

It's been a couple years since Green Lantern: Rebirth, and while I recall some trepidation at the time about accepting Hal Jordan as Green Lantern when he'd bored me before, it's nowhere near what I feel about Barry now replacing Wally. Wally's personality has come and gone in recent years, hindered tremendously by his more jokester portrayal in Justice League Unlimited, but in a story like Waid's Terminal Velocity or Dead Heat, the reader has a sense that Wally was the guy, a leader, someone who was going to pull off a magnificent feat. Geoff Johns' later Flash run only cemented Wally as a deep, mature, edgy-but-still sunny hero. In this first story, Waid introduced me to Wally West as the Flash and put to rest for me immediately what hero deserved to be inside that red suit; right now I feel like Barry Allen will have to have a heck of a rebirth to replace what Flash: The Return of Barry Allen set in motion.

[Contains full covers, introduction by Mark Waid]

The Collected Editions Flash Week continues ... tomorrow! Don't miss it!

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Flash: Rebirth hardcover collection solicited

DC Comics's big news of yesterday is that Flash: Rebirth will now be six issues instead of five, causing much debate on the blog and Twitosphere.

At the same time, DC has now quietly solicited the Flash: Rebirth hardcover collection for January 2010. Of course we all knew a Flash: Rebirth collection was inevitable, but I'm mildly surprised to see it when we're only in the second issue of the series. Those not pleased with purchasing a sixth issue might very well decide at this point to wait for the trade.

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Top Flash Trade Paperbacks

With all the attention the Flash is getting lately with Flash: Rebirth, seems like a good time for another top essential trade paperbacks list (see our previous Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman lists).

Since there's more modern Flash collections out from a variety of teams, this list will run down what you should read to be in the know.

* JLA: Year One
Both this and Flash and Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold were written by Mark Waid, who writes a significant number of the Flash Wally West stories below. These two collections show the Flash Barry Allen during the formation of the JLA; while both have been largely retconned out since their publication, they may be useful for giving the reader a sense of Barry Allen's personality.
- JLA: Year One
- Flash and Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold

* Crisis on Infinite Earths
This mega DC Comics crossover, which saw the temporary end of the Multiverse, also brought with it the death of Barry Allen. This brought full-circle the Silver Age of comics, since stories with Barry also launched the Multiverse. You can find many of those in:
- Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups (Barry meets Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick)
- Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups Vol. 2
- Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 1
- Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 2
- Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 3
- Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 4
- DC Comics Classics Library: The Flash of Two Worlds
- Crisis on Infinite Earths

* The Flash: Born to Run
Mark Waid wrote eight years worth of Flash stories and his name is near synonymous with Barry Allen's successor, the former Kid Flash Wally West. Waid's run wouldn't really hit its stride, nor make drastic changes to the Flash, until later, but this trade collects his first arc on the story along with some extras.

* Flash: The Return of Barry Allen
Heralded as one of the all-time great comic book stories, and an excellent collected volume, this storyline (including Flash #75) put Mark Waid and Flash on the map. Twists, turns, and emotion abounds when Barry Allen returns from the dead, causing Wally West to rethink his role as the Flash. If you read one trade only on this list, this is the one to read. Still gives me chills every time I read it.

* Flash: Terminal Velocity
Oftentimes sequels are not as good as the originals, but Mark Waid's next big storyline on Flash (and its lead-in volume, Impulse: Reckless Youth) prove that adage wrong. Every major speedster of the day appears in this story that pits Wally West against the villain Kobra in a breathtaking finale, and also introduces the Speed Force that's become such a part of the Flash mythos. More from Mark Waid:
- Flash: Terminal Velocity
- Impulse: Reckless Youth (leads in to this volume)
- Flash: Dead Heat (with characters from Terminal Velocity)
- Flash: Race Against Time
- The Life Story of the Flash (a prose/comics biography of Barry Allen written by Mark Waid)

* Flash: Emergency Stop
Shortly before a big time-spanning Flash storyline by Mark Waid called "Chain Lightning" (currently, unfortunately, uncollected), Grant Morrison and Mark Millar guest-wrote on Flash for about a dozen issues, heralded for their Silver Age-like creativity. Wally gets a new costume, races an alien speedster, and most importantly must escape the Black Flash, a speedster grim reaper who's reappeared in the Flash titles. These stories continue in:
- Flash: Emergency Stop
- Flash: The Human Race

* Flash: Blood Will Run
Flash had a couple of fill-in writers after Mark Waid left with issue #159, before a then-relatively-unknown writer named Geoff Johns took over. Johns's run began modestly enough with the six-part Flash: Wonderland, but really took off when artist Scott Kollins joined for the "Blood Will Run" storyline. Not only does Geoff Johns write a detailed, thoughtful examination of Wally West and how he's unique among most every hero out there, but Scott Kollins delivers two-page spreads that will blow your mind. The fight between Flash and Gorilla Grodd in Flash: Rogues is one for the ages. This series includes:
- Flash: Wonderland
- Flash: Blood Will Run
- Flash: Rogues
- Flash: Crossfire
- Superman vs. The Flash (contains a Geoff Johns story)
- Flash: Blitz

* Flash: Ignition
Still part of Geoff Johns's run on Flash, Ignition represented a tonal shift for the series. With changes in both Wally's identity and his supporting cast, Johns truly put his mark on Flash beginning with this collection (see the Collected Editions retrospective on Geoff Johns's Flash run.) While former JLA artist Howard Porter would later join Johns on Flash, this particular story had fantastically dark art by Alberto Dose. One of my favorites. Johns's run concluded in:
- Flash: Ignition
- Flash: The Secret of Barry Allen
- Flash: Rogue War

* Flash, The Fastest Man Alive: Lightning in a Bottle
Shortly after Rogue War, the Flash title ended, concluding in the DC Comics crossover Infinite Crisis. Out of that series came the thirteen-issue Flash, the Fastest Man Alive, starring the fourth Flash Bart Allen. Fans agree that most of the issues in this series, written by Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo and later by Mark Guggenheim, do not match the quality of Mark Waid or Geoff Johns's stories, but I did enjoy the conclusion, at least, which offers a nice tie to Crisis on Infinite Earths. This series is collected in:
- Infinite Crisis
- Flash, The Fastest Man Alive: Lightning in a Bottle
- Flash, The Fastest Man Alive: Full Throttle

* Flash: The Wild Wests
After the end of The Fastest Man Alive, Wally West returned to the mantle of the Flash, this time with his new family in tow. There's only one collection of that Flash series (which picked up its numbering from the previous), before it ended just before the DC Comics crossover Final Crisis. The following stories bring you up to date to Flash: Rebirth:
- Flash: The Wild Wests
- Final Crisis
- Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge

There you have it! If there's any I missed, let me know. You can find all of these collections on sale at the new Collected Editions trade paperback store.

What's your favorite Flash story?

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