It feels weird to make a post without a picture, so I decided to share this shot of my Lightning McQueen remote control car, which I just realized looks exactly like my favorite superhero. Kinda neat, huh?
Anyway, on to the business. While I was preparing my review for Green Lantern #14, I got the impression that Flash may have appeared in Green Lantern #13 as well. Some research confirmed this suspicion, which led me to investigate whether Barry Allen has shown up in more New 52 titles that I've missed. I eventually found dc.wikia.com, which has a convenient list of every character's appearance in every major comic. I thoroughly combed through the Flash's list and found 11 comics I missed, most notably a cameo in Batman: The Dark Knight where he helps Batman fight Bane. But most of the other issues I missed had very small, brief pseudo-appearances, where the Justice League is shown in a vision or something like that.
I initially had some difficulty placing these new issues into my timeline, but then I realized that every superhero appearance can be classified into one of two groups: active and passive. An active appearance is where the character is psychically present in the issue and says/does something tangible. A passive appearance is where the character or a form of the character is only shown in a dream, vision, photograph, etc. Taking this into mind, I have created two overlapping timelines.
Active Appearances:
Origin: Flash #0
Darkseid Invasion: Justice League #2–#6
Early JL Meeting: Action Comics #10
Fight with Bane: Batman: The Dark Knight #3, #4, #6, #7
Libyan War: Captain Atom #3
Mob Rule: Flash #1–#5
JL Adventures: Justice League #7, #8
Trip to the Speed Force: Flash #6–#10
Superman Sees Krypton: Action Comics #14
Villain's Journey/Cheetah: Justice League #9–#14
Third Army: Green Lantern #13, #14, Green Lantern Corps #14
Rogues/Gorilla Warfare: Flash #11–#17
H'El on Earth: Superman, Superboy, Supergirl #16, #17
Expanding JL: Justice League #18
Trickster's Arrest: Flash #18, #19
Fight with Swamp Thing: Justice League Dark #19, #20
Passive Appearances:
Cover Only: Justice League #1
Darkseid Invasion: DC Universe Presents #0
Superman's Dream: Action Comics #12
Virtual Reality: Resurrection Man #12
Magical Vision: Stormwatch #0
Variant Covers Only: Justice League #15, #16
Rotworld: Animal Man #12, #13, #16, #17
Formation of JLA: Justice League of America #1, Vibe #1–#3
Powers Stolen: Dial H #11
Impersonated by Shape-Shifter: DC Universe Presents #19
So here's what I'm going to do: I'll focus mainly on the active appearances, but I'll still try to cover the passive ones when I can because some of them are kind of significant. For the sake of the timeline, I'd like to immediately backtrack and review those Dark Knight issues, but I'm so close to the battle with the Rogues and Gorilla Warfare I can't stop now. So I'll keep going where I was at with the Flash's three appearances in the Third Army story. After I've finished Gorilla Warfare, I'll go back and do some passive appearances and the Dark Knight issues. Then I'll go back to H'El on Earth and I should be caught up by then. Unless, of course, I find more back issues I missed and/or DC publishes more stories that happened in the past. In which case, I'll just joyfully rework my timeline and keep moving forward!
And by the way, thank you for reading this blog. I started this blog because I felt there wasn't enough love for the Flash online, and now I feel like I've started to fill that need just a little bit. Currently, my most-read post is Captain Atom #3, which I attribute to a lot of Flash fans being curious about that issue, but still a little hesitant to purchase it. In addition to being a place where Flash fans can share their love of the character, I hope my blog can inspire people to buy some more Flash stories, because the more Flash stories we buy, the more Flash stories DC will make. And I think we can all agree having a little more Flash is a good thing.
Hey, Dallin! I completely agree: there is not enough love for the Flash. Not only on the web, but in general. For instance, here in Brazil, they've just cancelled the publishing of the Flash title, due to low sales... Thank God for the Comixology website, which is where I get my Flash titles now!
ReplyDeleteThat's really sad they canceled Flash in Brazil! Just curious, did they translate it to Portuguese or just give it to you in English?
DeleteIn Brazil, all comic books are translated, printed and distributed by a company called Panini Comics. However, they sell the new 52 books combined into mixes. For instance, we had one magazine called "Flash", which collected three titles: Flash, Green Arrow and Deathstroke. Due to poor sales, they've dediced to cancel that mix. Other mixes, such as the "Superman" magazine, which collects the Superman, Supergirl and Action Comics titles, have been maintained, because they are more popular. It had been decades since the Flash had his own title here in Brazil, and now it's gone again. I don't know what I would do without Comixology!
ReplyDelete...and in Portugal we get those same Brazilian books six months later or so. Which means The New 52 started a couple of months ago in Portugal. Those "mixes" Miguel mentioned have the advantage of making comics much cheaper. Since a book is 76 pages (3 American issues), it's much cheaper. That 3-issues-in-1 book costs the same as an American issue in America (ok, bad paper quality also has a lot to do with it).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Dallin, you said: «Currently, my most-read post is Captain Atom #3, which I attribute to a lot of Flash fans being curious about that issue, but still a little hesitant to purchase it.»
I also came to your blog because of it. I googled «flash captain atom tank», because in The Flash #3 there's this tank and the editor's note says it's the same tank we see in Captain Atom #3. Well, I just re-read Captain Atom #3 and it doesn't make any sense... There's a tank, but it's in Lybia. Well, maybe it's explained in further issues. I doubt it, that's why I did the Google search. Anyway, cool blog!
BTW, your reviews should be in this review aggregator: http://www.comicbookroundup.com/
Drop them a line: http://www.comicbookroundup.com/about.php
Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for teaching me more about comics overseas. It's too bad you have to wait so long, but if you have access to digital comics, you'll be right in line with us Americans.
DeleteSadly, there has not been anymore explanation about that tank. Honestly, I think there was no intended connection of that tank with the Captain Atom story, but editor Brian Cunningham after the fact decided to try to send readers to that issue. To make it work in the comic sense, I guess we'd have to assume that the combination of Captain Atom's and the Flash's powers opened a small wormhole that sucked in just that one tank and it happened off panel. Kind of a stretch.
But thanks for telling me about ComicBookRoundup.com. My reviews might be too Flash-biased for them, but I'll give it a shot.
Actually, I think the explanation for the tank is in Flash #8 (Speed Force / Turbine). I think they don't mention the tank but it pretty much explains it.
Delete