Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Damn, Dan.

I'm too tired for a fully coherent post, but here's what I've got:

According to Kelson's SpeedForce.org post,


[...]they’ve decided to go back to “the original game plan” and focus on a single Flash book starring Barry Allen.

Wally West’s backup stories, by Geoff Johns & Scott Kolins? “On hold.” [Edit: This may be the result of DC restructuring the second features.]

The Kid Flash book by Sterling Gates? “On hold.”

He goes on to say, “Your Flash fix will be Barry Allen, pure and simple, for 2010.”



Kelson's unhappy about this and so are a number of other Flash fans - including me. DC has been fumbling the ball for a long time, now, when it comes to The Flash. They didn't know what to do with the character(s) or the concept.

Wally was the Flash.
Wally had kids and mysteriously disappeared.
Bart's age was accelerated, AGAIN, and he became the Flash.
The Speed Force was supposedly gone.
Bart was killed by his 12th or 13th issue.
Wally returned as the Flash, complete with super-powered, not-so-well-received kids in-tow.
Barry mysteriously (and poorly) was resurrected.
Barry was purported to be THE Flash - having created the Speed Force, despite the fact that Jay Allen held the mantle before him.*
We were told that Barry would have his own series with back-up stories about Wally.
We were told that Bart would have his own Kid Flash series.
We were told that Wally would have no back-up stories in Barry's series.
We were told that Bart would not have his own Kid Flash series.

That's off the top of my head. And it's a mess.**

I admired DC's attempts to reinvigorate their struggling franchises and characters. I even admired their willingness to try again when they failed (see Wonder Woman, the Flash, and maybe others).

But they've screwed up to often and they keep claiming that it was all just a part of the plan. I think that's crap and that conclusion is one of the reasons that I'm less and less interested in comics, these days.

There are non-superhero comics that I dig, but mostly I like the bright colors, fantastic powers, and tall tales. For ME, this is comics.

But these comics aren't for me, anymore.

Honestly, that's fine. And there are many good reasons why many of today's comics (and not just DC's) are not for me. I'm ok with them passing me by, but I'm not ok with being jerked around or, nerdy as this sounds, with the characters being jerked around.

My approach has been to step further and further back from the newer comics, focusing, instead, on the eras that were more to my liking. It's kinda unfortunate, though - especially when DC screws up enough to finally kill most of the remaining enthusiasm of fans like Kelson Vibber.

If you don't know why that's a shame, Google that name and consider that impact over a decade or more.

I'll understand whatever decision Kelson makes, but it's too bad that DC (or Dan Didio) caused it to come to this.

Many of Wally's fans done hate Barry. We just don't want to Barry's ascendancy to come at the expense of Wally and Bart's face-time.






* - although that almost jibes with the retcon that Jay's a metahuman.
** - both, DC's decisions AND my brain, right now.

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