Newsarama has the announcment that Mark Guggenheim will be taking the writing reins of The Flash with issue #9.
Mark Guggenheim, you might recall, was the writer on the Civil War tie-in issues of Wolverine, an iFanboy favorite book of 2006.
The article neglects to address one of the most important questions, namely will there be a new artist as well? Because as much as the writing of Paul DeMeo and Danny Bilson didn’t thrill me, it was really the art that drove me from the book.
But I will definitely be picking up The Flash #9 because I loved Wolverine that much.
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I’ll uhh… read vicariously through you guys until he makes his way back to Marvel.
Well i dropped the current series pretty early on, both the writing and the art were a disaster imo, so the fact that he says he’ll be writing his first issue like it was Flash #1, gives me enough hope to pick up his first issue.
I’ll be interested to see who the artist will be, what has Ron Adrian’s stuff been like?, i’ve enjoyed his art on other titles.
Yay! The dark age of Flash fans is over!
All things considered we had a pretty short one. Lets hope Guggenheim gives us something on par with his Wolverine.
There goes another book to my buy pile…awesome
This is great news!
I really loved Guggenheim’s Wolverine arc. He took a book I don’t normally read and made it one of my most anticipated books each month. I was hoping he’d pop up on something else soon.
Phew. Now why couldn’t DC have done this from issue 1? To me it seems like much of the OYL relaunch was a disaster, Flash being a prime example. Stupid DC.
I think all of DCs big launches this year have been disasters, and this includes Wildstorm. You have The Flash without Wally, Wonder Woman without Diana, and the JLA with too much nostalgia and Red Tornado. Geez, I’m so whiny! Let me end this on a positive note: Superman Confidential is good, Dini and Morrison are great for Batman, and Busiek/Pacheo on Superman almost makes me want to buy it.
I disagree. Wonder Woman has been awesome.
Um, when it has come out.
How do you define “big launches”?
Well, I’m referring to the books featuring DCs ‘big names’ like Flash, Wonder Woman, and JLA. I will say that DC appears to have done well with 52, though I don’t read it, and Seven Soldiers. I just had big expectations for those three books in particular, and found them all TOO steeped in continuity and lacking in punch. WW was okay, but thought it was a missed opportunity to expand the core audience.
I’m with Horatio. When One Year Later started, I was all in. I bought Superman, Action, Detective, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman (HELL YEAH!), Robin, Checkmate, and Ion.
Today, I’m reading Detective, Batman, Robin, and Checkmate. And I read Action for Donner.
That’s like 50/50. But I do agree that I thought the books would be getting a fresher start than they did. They were very traditional when they came out.
I’d say that, on balance, the OYL books I’ve read have been better than average, in my opinion.
Good: Detective Comics, Batman, Superman, Action Comics, Wonder Woman, Robin, Teen Titans, Checkmate, Green Arrow, 52, Outsiders
Average: Aquaman, Green Lantern, Birds of Prey
Bad: Nightwing, Justice League of America, Martian Manhunter, The Flash
I would love it if every episode had a special message from Maine Aquaman. That’s good pod, right there.
I was hoping JLA, Flash, and WW would give me a good place to jump in, but I felt like I’d walked into the middle of something. Not something good, like maybe a cheerleader pillow-fight. Something bad, like your parents doing it or something equally unpleasant.
Birds of Prey = average? I thought you guys hated Gail Simone.
I’m with Conor on the OYL relaunch. On the whole, it was good for me. (I’d switch Outsiders and JLA on the lists though).
As for the new FLASH writer, this is great news, but who is the artist going to be? Who is Ron Adrian? Why not Kerschl from issue #3?
Also, I have to give DC credit to reacting quickly on this. When the books seem to be getting negative buzz from readers, they pull the plug and switch gears (and cause me to mix metaphors). Nightwing and Flash have been the big failures critically and commercially, and the creative teams are overhauled. Compare that to how long Dan Jurgens was able to run the JLI into the ground. Internet: making a difference in the quality of your comics.
Thank god for a new writer. Looks like I’ll have to endure the current team until Issue #9!
I agree for the most part with Conor that the relaunch has been good. I have enjoyed reading The Flash, but I know its not “good” or at least could be much better. I DISAGREE totally about JLA not being good. I have really enjoyed this slow build to get the team together. I don’t see how people don’t find them interesting now, but I’m sure it will make sense soon. I can’t help but have blind faith that Meltzer will make these 3 issues pay off somehow.
I have never read The Flash prior to this re-launch. And with all the OYL titles coming out I decided to expand DC’s world to be bigger than Gotham. And I have to say I dropped The Flash after issue #2. I just thought it flat out sucked.
The Googe’s run on Wolvie was great. But I can’t say it really makes me want to read The Flash at all. He isn’t a man bent on his own directive like Wolvie, so I will just listen to the pod cast and see what kinda action is in the book. That is as far as I am willing to go with The Flash.
Eh, I thought Guggenheim was ok on Wolverine, but I’m pretty done with Flash. I got spoiled with Waid and Johns and at one time the book was at or near the top of my list every month. It’s going to take something more than this to get me to pay attention to the book again, which is a crying shame after Geoff Johns elevated the Rogues so brilliantly.
i dont get the flash….ive never really read it but come on..hes fast, big deal…what kind of conflict does he have to make him interesting…wolverine ust found out who he really is about 5 minutes ago (comic book time)….then there is batman with his 9845239872 inner demons….what is it about the flash….or am i just missing something…
A good comic book story isn’t about the power, it’s about the character.
Ther powers don’t really matter. Neither of the things you just mentioned had anything to do with their powers, or lack thereof. Batman’s demons are psychological, as are Logan’s, or Spider-Man’s or Superman’s.
The last Flash, Wally, had the “I’m trying to fill the shoes of the great Barry Allen” complex, and he had a wife and no matter how fast he was, he couldn’t make enough time for her. Now there’s a new Flash, and the dramatic conflict is about the fact that he has to accept that he’s a grownup now. Or at least, that’s what I gather, having not read it in a while.
But yeah, Waid’s Flash spoiled me. I miss those books.
I think the appeal to the Flash isn’t actually the hero so much as it is his circumstances. There have been four of them (at last count), but The Flash is uniquely embraced by his city, and the city is a blue collar, working class town, where they revere their protector to the point where there’s actually a Flash museum. His villains are also unique in that they are organized in this union that polices itself. The powers and the Flash itself are cool, but the attraction to strong runs of the title in the past have been the atmosphere in Keystone City.
i absolutely agree about it not being about the powers but the circumstances…although that begs the question about the powers being important because they often create the circumstances….but i digress…ive never read the flash…but ive also never heard anything about his circumstances…so he appears to have a shallow existence…i see though that i was wrong…thanks for the input!!