It’s not just me; this is an odd thing to have a blog post about, right? From the official DCU blog:
It goes without saying that Geoff Johns is a talent to be reckoned with. For the past several years, Johns has been writing numerous FLASH titles – including the recently released THE FLASH OMNIBUS Vol. 1.
As he did with Hal Jordan and GREEN LANTERN, Johns has completely reinvigorated the character of Barry Allen and THE FLASH. Working with such incredible artists including Scott Kolins, Ethan Van Sciver, Angel Unzueta, Andy Kubert and rising stars like Francis Manipul, Johns has solidified The Flash’s place in the DC Universe. In fact, he’s placed Barry Allen front and center of this summer’s bestselling event, FLASHPOINT.
But like issue #12 was the final issue of THE FLASH by Johns, the final issue of FLASHPOINT will conclude Johns’ run on FLASH titles for the foreseeable future.
The point of this post is to… formalize that Johns won’t be writing whatever new Flash series that launches post-Flashpoint? To stealth-confirm that there will be a new Flash series post-Flashpoint? To promote the just-released Flash Omnibus in a really unexpected way? If it’s just meant as a “Geoff has written his last issue of Flash, didn’t he do well” post, shouldn’t it have come out a couple of weeks ago, when his last issue of Flash was actually released?
The post finishes by teasing the “Don’t talk about what comes after Flashpoint” slogan that’s been bandied around everywhere recently – One that’s entirely facetious, consdering everyone involved is probably loving that everyone is talking about what comes after Flashpoint, even if no-one seems to know…
May 30th, 2011 at 10:12 am
I have to wonder if perhaps its DC’s way of saying “the new Flash title could star anyone,” given that Johns has been Barry Allen’s biggest (and sole?) supporter at DC.
With the release of the aforementioned Omnibus which is filled with Wally West stories, this at least suggests that we might see the return of the Flash most comic book readers know the best (and care about the most).
I’d give DC credit if that’s the case, too, because they’d be admitting they dropped the ball with the return of Barry Allen.
May 30th, 2011 at 10:44 am
As they did when they tried to replace Wally with an unrecognisably characteised Bart Allen. Let’s just get everyone back in their most-popular roles, please. Wally as Flash, Bart as Impulse, Barry as corpse/saint.
May 30th, 2011 at 11:54 am
That’s a good point — why the multiple attempts to replace Wally? That’s just strangely vindictive.
Although I actually like Bart as Kid Flash, to be honest.
May 30th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
DC have no clue at all how to handle this (or indeed most) of their characters. Barry is (these days) in the same position in fans heads as Jay Garrick was to Barry’s fans in the late fifties, they know there was another Flash but he was 24 years ago, that means there’s (hopefully) a whole generation of fans who think like this. NO ONE really wanted Barry back except a few hard long timers because everyone knew Wally was THE Flash. Barry should be shuffled off and a third generation of character should really be born with Wally, Dick and so on taking the lead.
I’d go as far to say that the movie should use Wally as he’s more recognisable as the Flash these days than Barry, but let’s be honest WB is run by a bunch of old suits that don’t understand the properties they own.
May 30th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Have to say that it feels like the return of Barry Allen has been an unforeseen dud. Everything that Johns did right with Hal’s return he did wrong with Barry. Which, given how often Geoff’s books have been good to downright amazing, is startling.
And now we are left wondering if the Flash franchise, like the Superman franchise, has become hopelessly screwed up when both were, not that long ago, reasons to care about DC.
May 30th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
I am 38 so ill put that out there first and say i prefer Barry allen as flash hands down. I didnt like the way wally was written and when they had him graduate to his own series after Legends ended, it started off ok, but he just became annoying. I stopped reading for a long time, and when i started again i still didnt like him as the Flash. Now DC really botched it putting Bart in as the Flash, and when the did the Rebirth series i loved it. I dont know what happened with the series but it wasnt as good as i thought it could be, i wonder if thats because of the change in roles for Johns or if the Flashpoint event screwed things up. I think after Flashpoint is done they need to start it again or continue and have it be Classic Barry in modern days and have him in the JLA as well. Wally needs to be kept as well( put him in a speedforce type book as well as another team) but NO more with this killing crap. I have had enough
May 30th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Yeah, I think the point is to promote the Flash Omnibus. That’s what The Source is for, after all. But they’re also trying to slightly deflate expectations a bit for any new Flash series, so there isn’t a big backlash of disappointed Geoff fans jumping off when they discover it’s written by somebody else. By releasing the news now, when there’s no Flash series being published, they’re giving the market time to get used to the idea and (hopefully) judge a new series on its own merits.
May 30th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
When I first read the announcement, I was disappointed that Johns wouldn’t be the one following up on wherever the Flash characters end up after Flashpoint since he has had the opportunity to guide Green Lantern from Rebirth to present.
My second reaction was that it makes sense. As busy as he is, since he’ll be staying on Green Lantern, he had to open up a slot so that he could work on Aquaman. I really think it’s just a matter of time before he stops writing altogether and takes on more of an editorial role. I mean, aren’t the Green Lanter and Flash teams following his creative direction anyway?
May 30th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
Barry is still dead to me and Wally is the only Flash I care about. Nothing done during Johns run has convinced me that Barry’s return was worth it. Flash isn’t Green Lantern.
May 30th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
With Hal, it made sense to bring him back, to redeem a character that was basically destroyed in the 90′s. I’m not hugely satisfied with everything that has happened since his return, most specifically how Kyle has been treated overall (but at least he wasn’t killed), but it made sense and was a pay-off to people who used to love the character.
With Barry, though, he went out a hero, and in a huge way. Not like how they tried to sell us on how Ted Kord “died a hero” when he was shot in the head by Max Lord (in a story that did make sense based on the history of the characters at all). Barry helped save the universe. Barry was remembered fondly, an inspiration to Wally and pretty much everyone else in the DC pantheon. Arguably, the best part of Barry, his Rogues, got past on to Wally and made even stronger. Barry’s stories had stagnated. Wally reinvigorated what the character of the Flash could be. Further, as the first real sidekick to make good on moving up to “the majors,” he gave us the everyman feeling in his book.
What happened to Wally though is that, despite what people claim they want, he grew, and changed, and his story progressed instead of just hanging in place. He developed a relationship with Linda. They got married, had kids. The kids got accelerated in age (why does every comic book child have to do that?), and it became a family book instead of a Wally book. And then it bombed. Under Mark Waid. Flash was no longer interesting to read. Maybe Waid could’ve done better, but the end of Wally’s popularity seemed to be at hand.
So… They aged Bart, made him an absolutely jerk, and nobody liked it. In that case, the writing DEFINITELY could’ve been stronger. But overall, we just had someone unrecognizable as The Flash in the suit. So they killed him, and eventually brought Barry back, because Wally still had kids, but they wanted someone familiar that had actually proved themselves to be worthy of being Flash in the suit, but didn’t want to take the time or put forth the effort to prove why he’d be worthy. Barry was a step backwards, but at least he was, in some people’s minds, “The Flash,” and that was better than what they had.
But Barry is dull. Barry has that vibe of Captain America, that fish out of water thing, without the being a “man out of time” to go with it. Worse, he’s done nothing bue alienate every other character in his stories since he came back. The cop thing, the one part that could be cool, has been nothing by an annoyance instead of a base to build new stories on. And a year in, DC has built their next big Event on a book about an unlikable character that hasn’t can’t even come out of time, at the same time Johns is heading another Event in the GL books. Seems like a pretty big gamble to me.
As far as I can see, Johns stepping away from the Flash characters after Flashpoint is a good thing. Not to slam the guy, but he wrote some incredible Wally stuff, and some mildly terrible Barry stuff. Getting the characters, whomever they choose, into someone else’s hands could possibly reinvigorate the Flash family of characters. Or, you know, like they did with Bart, it could bomb horribly.
I think Johns is most likely going to do a team book. That makes the most sense. Aquaman, Barry, perhaps Hawkman… That would give him access to the characters he feels close to, be a big series launch that would make DC happy, and maybe leave the main Flash book (whatever it is) to the other characters. Best I think we can hope for at this point.
May 30th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
I think the problem with Barry coming back is that they’ve just been setting up flashpoint with him. He basically just complained that he has to live up to how everyone see him and avoided all of the characters we’ve been reading about in Flash books for the last 25 years.
At least when Hal cam back and Kyle got demoted, he was still around, plus he was already being a bit overshadowed by Jon Stewart in the team books. But he had his miniseries, then countdown and GLC. Where’s Wally? Why would Bart be so hurt over a grandfather he never met when he has Max Mercury back, the guy who raised him.
If Johns didn’t try so hard to make Barry the sole focal point we’d probably be a bit easier on him.
May 31st, 2011 at 10:56 am
I was never an advocate for bringing Hal Jordan back but somehow, they made it work. I think because there’s a lot more background story for Green Lantern (with the cosmic angle and all). Wally was like DC’s Spider-Man at one point. The Every-man. I would love to see him come back as THE Flash.