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Post by Batflunkie on May 29, 2023 17:14:27 GMT -5
So recently I got bitten by a bug, a Flash related bug, and started a deep dive into The Flash
Growing up, Flash was a character that I "knew of", but never really read or was particularly on my radar. That was until the recent TV show came on and I got hooked. While the 60's era is fine I guess (haven't read too much Golden Age sad to say), much like Green Lantern of the same era, it's both imaginative and middle of the road bland. (Which isn't to say that it's that way for everybody, just me) So far, I've been enjoying Bronze Age Cary Bates Flash and Mark Waid's 90's run
I think what's so attractive about the character to me is definitely the rouges gallery, the legacy of all the speedsters, and just the down to earth feeling that Wally and Barry have
The thread's title is a line from one of the songs that I mentally associate the most with Flash, "Faster Than Light" by Lead Into Gold
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Post by commond on May 29, 2023 18:18:52 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of the Mike Baron and William Messner-Loebs runs, as they're totally weird and could only have been created during that period of American comics. I like Waid's multi-part stories, but find his work to be fairly generic. I don't really care for the whole Speed Force mythos, and he tends to go over the top with that. I began reading the Morrison/Millar stint a few months back and that was a nice change of pace from Waid. Unfortunately, the art gets worse and worse as the 90s continue.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 29, 2023 18:35:30 GMT -5
I like Waid's multi-part stories, but find his work to be fairly generic. I don't really care for the whole Speed Force mythos, and he tends to go over the top with that. I've liked what I've read so far of Waid (up to issue 106), but yeah, the Speed Force nonsense is kind of, well, it is what it is...
I've seen far better attempts at shoehorning elements from Star Wars into other properties, and The Flash isn't one of them
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Post by codystarbuck on May 29, 2023 19:25:51 GMT -5
I read it intermittently (how I read most comics), in the 70s. Loved the Rogues and the idea of them as blue-collar villains, career thieves who deal with The Flash like he is the head of the Robbery Division, for the local police department. Lots of great little tales, with nice gimmicks and the Silver Age stories I read had the same fun vibe, often with a more interesting art (Carmine, vs Irv Novick or the other artists in the Bronze Age, and Carmine when he came back, with his evolved style).
I read Baron, at the start; but it wasn't exactly grabbing me and school and budget kept me from picking it up regularly. I didn't really pick up Messner-Loebs; but, I have always enjoyed his writing. I did come back to Waid, when he was doing The Return of Barry Allen, after hearing a lot about his work. I then snapped up some back issues, especially his Year One, for Wally. I agree that the Speed Force business was overdone and I am with Jay Garrick about that.
He was a good character for imaginative writers and he drew more than his fair share.
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Post by tarkintino on May 30, 2023 7:15:05 GMT -5
So recently I got bitten by a bug, a Flash related bug, and started a deep dive into The Flash
Growing up, Flash was a character that I "knew of", but never really read or was particularly on my radar. That was until the recent TV show came on and I got hooked. While the 60's era is fine I guess (haven't read too much Golden Age sad to say), much like Green Lantern of the same era, it's both imaginative and middle of the road bland. (Which isn't to say that it's that way for everybody, just me) So far, I've been enjoying Bronze Age Cary Bates Flash and Mark Waid's 90's run
I think what's so attractive about the character to me is definitely the rouges gallery, the legacy of all the speedsters, and just the down to earth feeling that Wally and Barry have
The thread's title is a line from one of the songs that I mentally associate the most with Flash, "Faster Than Light" by Lead Into Gold
The Cary Bates / Alex Saviuk run on the title (late 1970s) is particularly memorable. |
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Post by Ricky Jackson on May 30, 2023 9:09:12 GMT -5
Im a longtime Flash fan, although mainly of the Infantino variety. Collected sporadically in the early 80s, then again during the Waid years in the 90s. Mostly I love the costume (maybe my all time favorite) and the Rouges, plus of course Infantino's take on the character (both classic and 80s). Recently, thanks to DC Infinite, I've been going through the Silver Age Flash I hadn't read before. Fun, but yes, very repetitive. Also at times extremely difficult to suspend disbelief when the supposed fastest man alive is foiled again and again by crooks who should be captured before they even know what hit them. Things we didn't notice when we were 8 years old!
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Post by badwolf on May 30, 2023 9:43:34 GMT -5
I never read Flash regularly until Geoff Johns' run.
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Post by Rob Allen on May 30, 2023 11:38:54 GMT -5
Most of my Flash reading was in the Bates/Novick era. I recall that for a few years they had a regular rotation of stories. I don't remember exactly but it was something like, every other issue was a Rogues Gallery villain, every summer had a team-up with Jay Garrick, etc. They described the rotation explicitly in a letters page, I think, unless that was in the Comic Reader or something.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2023 23:47:30 GMT -5
These were the first 2 Flash comics I ever read, and the Death of Iris would have been the first comic book death I experienced....I felt so sad for Flash (I was about 8 when I read them). I don't think any other Flash comics have had any similar impact...
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2023 0:35:58 GMT -5
I'm sure there were some random issues from earlier, but I know that the Green Lantern/Green Arrow/Flash crossover was the start of reading the series monthly for me.  I keep getting it monthly after that and sought out back issues all the way back to the start of the Mark Waid run. That's another one of those runs that I would love to revisit. |
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Post by codystarbuck on May 31, 2023 11:32:04 GMT -5
These were the first 2 Flash comics I ever read, and the Death of Iris would have been the first comic book death I experienced....I felt so sad for Flash (I was about 8 when I read them). I don't think any other Flash comics have had any similar impact... I had the death of Iris and some of that storyline, including when he catches up to Prof Zoom. Kind of shocking, at the time. I had a few, off and on, from that time frame....     If memory serves, I got the death issue and later in the Whitman packs. This was a favorite, since it had all of the Rogues and a bobbytrap plot, set up by the recently deceased Top.  The Master Villain one reminded me of Barry's neighbor kid, Barney, who was a big comic book collector, like Barry. |
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Post by badwolf on May 31, 2023 15:57:35 GMT -5
This was the only Flash comic I had as a kid, apart from an issue of Adventure with a Flash story.  |
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Post by codystarbuck on May 31, 2023 16:52:04 GMT -5
Man, they got a lot of mileage out of Golden Glider! The ice skating gimmick was kind of lame; but, the relationship to the Top kind of gave her some depth.
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