"Why Eclipso, You Got New Legs."

I guess you can thank/blame Gary for this one.

When reading about his site updates(which you can go directly to when you click on his name) specifically about the annotations to certain DC events from the past he's gone to the trouble of annotating, there's one about the 1992 event concerning the villainous Eclipso.

    Remember this?

Well whilst looking for ads for it that Gary and I might not have seen, I stumbled upon a sample piece of art for the Flash annual involved in the event. The sample at the top of this post.

Anybody remember the artist? It's a very young Travis Charest.

Yeah him. The same guy who would go onto work on the late 90's WildC.A.T.S. reboot with former X-Men writer Scott Lobdell. 

Good times. Good times....

Anyhoo, you can tell just how much Charest's styles has changed from his early 90's image comics style to stuff like this:

Yeah, he's definitely changed since those awkward days....

Back-Issue Spotlight: Flash#100 (Vol. 2)

Happy Hump Day People

Wrapping up the April only-themed back issues that get highlighted this month, today I've chosen an old favorite of mine, Flash#100. This was the last part of Terminal Velocity, an amazing arc by Mark Waid.

It was also one of a few centennial isues coming out back then. Wonder Woman, Superman, and Justice League of America all hit the centennial mark around this time, and this was Wally's turn.


Flash#100 (Vol.2) Terminal Velocity: Overdrive "The Quick and the Dead" by Mark Waid, Salvador LaRocca, Carlos Pacheco, and Oscar Jimenez.

Quick recap time: Okay so Waid had a lot of plates spinning up in the air within this arc.
Kobra and his international terrorist organization had set its sights on Keystone City, trapping the city and all of its people inside a seemingly impentrable forcefield. So Wally has to deal with that. He's also trying to mentor Impulse(Bart Allen), teaching him to grow up and use his powers responsibly....and failing miserably.
Wally's sense of urgeny about this is due to the fact that the Speed Force keeps calling him every time Wally runs, pulling him to merge with it. And since running is what he does, yeah, Wally's kinda' fucked. Wally's trying to smarten Bart up because he needs him to be his replacement. Replacement? Yeah in the beginning of the arc, Wally has a nightmare, a premonition, that he and his city would die.
And then there's his not-yet-wife, Linda to deal with. So yeah, lots of stuff to deal with, and only a short time left to do it all in.

By #100, Kobra's seemingly killed Wally, which he didn't but the rest of the city doesn't know that, and now the rest of the speedsters(Max Mercury, Jesse Quick, Bart, and Jay Garrick) along with Linda and the Pied Piper have to save Keystone City by themselves.

And man are they having a rough time of it....

Jesse and Jay get put on the shelf, leaving the rest to pick up the slack.

Oh and while this is happening, Kobra's hedging its bets by simultaneously attacking multiple cities around the country. Leading to scenes like this:

Yep, cue obligatory scenes of various heroes doing their thing.

But Wally's still "dead", and dispite their best efforts, it looks like Kobra's going to win out in the end.

Not that brave Linda believes that, as she intends to go out guns blazing. Literally.

Try as she might though, Kobra's just too powerful.

 And just as it seems that Kobra's won, it starts to storm.....and lighting crashes.


Talk about a timely save right?

Wally seemingly comes back from the "dead" and heals his friends' wounds, and saves the city he loves, thus preventing the horrible future that haunted him at the beginning of the arc.

But was it really Wally, or all just a dream?

 Of course it wasn't.....

Now that's how you tell a story, but you hacks at DC wouldn't know anything about that.

As it turns out, Wally didn't die, but merely merged with the Speed Force. Other speedsters got permantely stuck there once they followed the call, but not Wally. His love for Linda is what kept him grounded, much like Barry had Iris as his anchor. Of course, up to this point, Wally was the only speedster that came back, thus further moving him out of his Uncle Barry's shadow.

Waid would stay on for a few more years, take a break, and then finally end his legendary run. But most think, myself included, that he should've ended his run with this issue since the rest of his run after this just wasn't as good.

Still, this is definitely a key arc in Wally's overall story as Flash, and it would go on to define him for the rest of his career.....until Flashpoint and Dan Dildo fucked all that up.

You can find Terminal Velocity in trade form or the individual issues on the cheap in the quarter bin.
Do yourself a favor and go find it. Its well worth it.

What The Fuck Were They Thinking!?: The Pied Piper

Happy Hump Day Suckas!!!!

Welcome to another edition of King's favorite column, What The Fuck Were They Thinking, where I spotlight and critique characters and concepts that just don't work.

Today's newest inductee to my hall of shame, is the Pied Piper.

Yep. The Pied Piper. 

And no, not the famous one from children's literature and fairy tales.














This Pied Piper debuted in The Flash#106.

Piper, who's real name is Hartley Rathaway, was born deaf, but thanks to genius Dr. Will Magnus(creator of the Metal Men) he regained his hearing. And because of that experience, he became absolutely obsessed with sound.

I imagine if he was created today, he'd have like 50 million blogs and fan-sites devoted to the concept of sound. He seems the obsessive/stalkerish type;)

It wasn't too much longer when Rathaway found a way to create a electronic flute that could hypnotize people. Once he had that, instead of oh I don't know, helping out other deaf children and adults, he decided to turn to a life of crime. You know, just 'cause.

And since he happened to live in the same city as a certain Scarlet Speedster(Central City bitches), He and the Flash often got it on like Donkey Kong.

After Barry's death, he wound up forming a strange friendship with Barry's replacement and former sidekick, Wally West. From there reforming was the order of the day, and the Piper went straight.

Well not that STRAIGHT, apparently....

Yeah, the Pied Piper's a butt-pirate. Wanna' fight about it?;)

He became a general stable of Wally's supporting cast over the years up until the Rogues War in 2005.
It was revealed that the rogue the Top(trying to be helpful to Barry) took a big page out of Zatanna's playbook and brainwashed certain rogues to be good guys. Only rogues like the Trickster and the Pied Piper stuck, and just like that, years of character development went up in smoke.

The Trickster(the original) and Piper would then find themselves chained together and hunted down by members of the Suicide Squad during the abortion that was Countdown to Final Crisis.

As far as I know he has yet to appear in the NU52 universe. Whether or not he will remains to be seen.

Now before King goes on the offensive here, let me be clear on that I find ridiculous about the Pied Piper as a concept.

The obvious first one would be his debuting outfit.

One look at that, and you'd know he was gay before he even came out.
I would also like to point out, that turning or revealing Rathaway gay was a pretty good move character-wise on the part of former Flash writer Bill-Messner-Loebs. Not because he was gay, but because it was used as a way to make the character more multi-dimensional. Great discussions and character advancements were made on both his and Wally's part because the topic of homosexuality was brought up and mentioned in a very realistic and intelligent manner. Not just, Piper going "Hey Mary, I love cock you silly goose!"

Getting back to the point I was making, Carmine Infantino did not do Piper any favors by using that redonkulous outfit.

To me, if you're going to go with a Pied Piper gimmick, he should be creepy and sinister. He should have an unsettling, almost pedophilic-vibe to him.

The last updated version of his outfit worked better, but seems to be missing something.


I'd also suggest tweaking his personality a bit. He seemed to finally be on the right path to being taken seriously before the reboot happened. I'd like to see that again. Maybe give him a slight inferiority complex because of the whole growing up deaf thing. Hell, maybe even make him deaf again, so as to really turn the pathos/emotional screws.

If he were to remain a homosexual, that's always nice fodder for discussion. Would he be harassed by both the villains AND heroes for being gay? If so, would that add to the resentment he may hold, turning that on society as well as friend and foe alike?

Again, I'd give him a darker edge. make him slightly more creepy but without falling into the stereotypical thinking that just because he's gay, he'd have to be a child-molester, or something like that.

There's usually a way to make most characters work, even oddball ones, if and when the right creative can find the right hook/angle.

Hopefully a new and improved Piper will debut that is totally believable.....even if its comics we're talking about.

Until then, and based SOLELY off his initial concept and costume,
Mr. Gardner Fox and Mr. Infantino.....

\WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING!?

An Unfortunate Turn Of Events

The End

Poor Barry. somehow I just don't think he saw his day turning out this way;)

So, Who Would Win......?: Barry Allen VS. Wally West

TGIT!!!!!!

You know you've always wondered about it and some point in time.
"Who's really the fastest; Barry Allen or Wally West?"


For most of his career, Barry was easily always the fastest. Wally really didn't come into his own until he broke a huge mental block, and admitted that he was scared he was faster than his former mentor and partner.

Eventually we saw over time just how right Wally was, as he became the first person to enter and successfully escape from the Speed Force.

After that life-altering revelation, he gained the powers to out right borrow or steal speed from other objects or speedsters, while also embuing certain objects with a portion of his own speed.

Even Barry never did that.

And so we were content to know that as good and as fast as Barry was, Wally was faster.
Hell back in the late 90's during Grant Morrison's run on the JLA, He and Wizard Magazine choose Wally over Barry as the better, faster Flash. Especially, as was pointed out, since Wally grew up with a working knowledge of his powers and the Speed Force, while Barry was just a scientist cop who learned while on the job. Maybe a bit of flimsy reasoning, but not too crazy to consider.


Then Final Crisis came, and Barry(the Silver Age martyr of the DCU from the first CRISIS) came back to us, creating a new problem for DC.

The problem(although I don't see it that way) was there was too many speedsters/Flashes running around.
Wally was then but on the back-burner, while Barry was allowed to re-take his place as THE Flash.

Not how I would've handled it, but that's what happened, and where we are now after the reboot.

So........

     Barry Allen


VS.



    Wally West





......Who Wins and why?

 Btw, if was I in charge of all this, I'd have had Barry(if brought back and the rest of the Silver Age characters allowed to age) eventually take over Jay Garrick's role as the elder statesmen speeder of the DCU.
Think about it, he'd be all but retired, secure in the knowledge that his protege Wally had successfully taken over the mantle of the Flash. He could go back to being a foresnic cop, and really make a difference in that area, occasionally coming out of retirement for an odd battle or two.
Barry would finally be allowed to enjoy his life with Iris, be in in the future or the present.

Wally would then really be in a postion to likewise train his eventual successor, Bart. But it'd be a natural progression instead of just aging him to fit the role.

But alas, that will never happen, unless it's on in an alternate universe.