A big advantage to creating a new label: no preconceptions. Prospective readers won’t look at the cover, see a DC logo, and wonder where the super-heroes show up and rip off people’s arms. And they won’t see a Vertigo logo and assume that it’s a “mature readers” book. On the downside, a new label has to build its credibility from the ground up, instead of starting with name recognition.

This got me thinking: an established brand associated with customers of one gender creates a new brand in order to target the other half of the population. Where else have I seen this?

I own a jacket labeled Claiborne, which is of course made by the Liz Claiborne company.

Mervyns sells (or used to) H&H Men clothing, which was clearly a variation on their Hillard and Hanson brand.

All the examples I could think of (other than Minx itself) were companies that had traditionally been aimed at women, but were adding lines aimed at men. It made me wonder: is it the names? Do men feel odd buying a product named “Liz,” while women are used to buying brands named after both men and women? (Sara Lee notwithstanding.) Maybe it’s the stigma of a man participating in something perceived as feminine? Sort of like the assumption in children’s TV that boys will only watch shows about boys, while girls will watch shows about girls or boys (so they make shows about boys instead of girls, figuring they’ll get a bigger audience).

Then Katie pointed out LEGO Belville, the line aimed at girls which entirely misses the point of LEGO by making as much of each set prefab as possible. And pink. On the plus side, unlike Claiborne, Belville doesn’t try to hide the fact that it’s a LEGO product.

That makes it more like Men’s Vogue, a copy of which is sitting in the lunch room at work. In this case they’d have to call it something different (unlike a clothing line) because it’s not just a brand, but the title of the magazine.

I still think the craziest example of this has to be Men’s Pocky. It’s a cookie. One which I’d hardly consider a “girlie” cookie, but maybe it’s more associated with girls in Japan. I still can’t figure out whether it’s a case of cultural translation or deliberate absurdity.

I’ve read:

• Watchmen
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. 1 & 2
• V for Vendetta
• Sandman vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes
• Sandman: Endless Nights
• Fables vol.1: Legends in Exile
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Batman: The Long Halloween
• Batman: Dark Victory
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
• Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
• Kingdom Come
• Identity Crisis
• JLA vol.1: New World Order
• Crisis on Infinite Earths
• Transmetropolitan vol.1: Back on the Street

I haven’t read:

• Superman for All Seasons
• Superman: Birthright (but it’s on my to-read list)
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
• Batman: Year One
• Batman: Hush vol.1 & vol.2
• Green Lantern: Rebirth
• The Quitter
• Hellblazer: Original Sins
• Y: The Last Man vol.1: Unmanned
• Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne
• Sword of the Dark Ones
• Ex Machina vol.1: The First Hundred Days

The list is a bit heavy on Batman at a full 25% of the titles. And since it’s roughly 50/50 super-hero stuff and, well, other stuff, that means half their “essential” super-hero books are Batman. Come on, DC, show people a few more facets of your line!

On the plus side, they’ve chosen just one volume each for series like Transmetropolitan, Fables, etc.—so they can recommend as many different series as possible—and it’s the first volume. Unlike the well-known super-hero books, where the average potential reader probably knows enough to hit the ground running, it helps to start at the beginning, with a book that’s specifically designed to introduce each concept. And many of them are big, long stories. You wouldn’t recommend starting Lord of the Rings with The Two Towers, you’d tell someone to start with Fellowship of the Ring or get a combined edition.

Personally, I’d drop The Dark Knight Strikes Again (does anyone really consider it a “must read?”) and possibly the second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Maybe even Endless Nights, though I suppose it represents the overall tone of Sandman better than the first book does. Maybe Dark Victory, since it’s essentially a continuation of The Long Halloween. With the Justice League, I might replace New World Order with Rock of Ages.

I’d add the first Astro City book, no questions asked. For the other space(s), I’d plug in something less well-known, but highly regarded. Maybe some more WildStorm, like Planetary or The Authority. Or how about a another DC hero, like Wonder Woman, Starman, or the Flash?

Monthly or More (ongoing):

• Flash (DC)
• Fallen Angel (IDW, formerly DC)
• Fables (Vertigo)
• Countdown to Final Crisis (DC)
• Noble Causes (Image)
• Dynamo 5 (Image)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse)

Bimonthly, Less Frequently, or on Hiatus:

• Planetary (WildStorm, one more issue)
• Desolation Jones (WildStorm)
• All-Star Superman (DC)
• Astro City (WildStorm)
• Book of Lost Souls (Icon)

Mini-Series

• Salvation Run (DC)
• Countdown To Adventure (DC)
• Teen Titans Year One (DC)

Waiting for Trades:

• Powers (Icon, formerly Image)
• A Distant Soil (Image)
• Girl Genius (Studio Foglio)
• Freshmen (Top Cow)

Still heavily weighted DC over Marvel. 10 of 19 are either DC or an imprint (WildStorm & Vertigo), and one book started at DC. Both Marvel books are Icon, their imprint for creator-owned books. One is on hiatus and one is sporadic. Of the 7 books with a regular schedule, 3 are DC, and one of those is weekly. Plus I’m more likely to pick up crossovers or events from DC than from another company—see Salvation Run, for instance (though I’m mainly buying it for the Rogues, who were the viewpoint characters in issue #1 but strangely absent from #2.) So DC is still getting the bulk of my comics budget.

Very little shared universe stuff. Of the 5 DCU books, 3 are mini-series (4 if you include Countdown), and one of those is a flashback. No Marvel or Ultimates. Just two Image and one WildStorm universe (and that’s only got one issue left).

I’m also thinking I might drop All-Star Superman. While it’s certainly a more entertaining read than other books, I realized that I don’t really care about it.

What’s changed since my last post at the end of 2004?

Added: Desolation Jones, Dynamo 5, A Distant Soil, All-Star Superman, Book of Lost Souls, Freshmen, Buffy, Countdown, Countdown to Adventure, Teen Titans Year 1, Salvation Run.
Dropped: Teen Titans, Outsiders, Astonishing X-Men, Squadron Supreme
Ended: Tellos, Forsaken, Ocean (mini), Rising Stars
Tried: Shadowpact, Jack of Fables, Beyond Avalon, Justice Society of America, Jack Cross, Fell, Wonder Woman
Came and went: Infinite Crisis (and all 5 lead-ins), Seven Soldiers, Secret Six, 52; Otherworld, The Atheist, The Stardust Kid, Mnemovore, Eternals, Elric: Making of a Sorceror, New Spring, Neverwhere, several Angel & Spike minis

It’s interesting to note that all the books I’ve dropped were “big two” super-hero team books. And aside from Infinite Crisis and 52, most of the series that launched and ended weren’t standard super-her books. Seven Soldiers would be the closest.

#3.  Flash: Wally West
#29. Flash: Barry Allen
#41. Flash: Jay Garrick
#42. Kid Flash/Impulse: Bart Allen (tied with Bizarro)

Master list of all winners. Profiles of all four Flashes (and dozens of fill-in, alternate, and one-offs) at Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning.

From Showcase #13, it’s “Around the World in 80 Minutes,” a tale of the Flash. (Mostly he runs around the world, helps people out, and gets kissed by women. Aye, it be good to be a superhero.)

(Cover via GCD. This story appears in Showcase Presents: The Flash vol.1 and The Flash Archives vol.1.)

• Final Crisis II
• Post-Final Crisis
• Final Crisis X-2
• Final Crisis Leopard
• Final Crisis Vista
• Son of Final Crisis
• Finaler Crisis
• Final Crisis Again
• Final Crisis: The Final Chapter

(List put together at the Ghirardelli ice cream shop late Saturday evening after three long days of Comic-Con.)

The name first appears on the cover of Flash #93 (August 1994), with an out-of-control Bart Allen fighting the Flash. The cover is captioned, “Brash Impulse!” Over the next few issues, Wally West’s inner monologue refers to Bart as being impulsive, or (at one point) as “Mr. Impulse.”

It first appears on-panel as a name in Zero Hour #3 (September 1994), when Bart meets Superman for the first time, but Bart introduces himself as Impulse. Dan Jurgens writes.

Superman arrives in Keystone to see Velociraptors chasing Bart.

Superman: Dinosaurs from the merging timelines! Need a hand, kid?
Bart: Call me Kid Flash — and get your big “S” handed to you! The name’s Impulse!

After the events of Zero Hour, the name is explained in Flash v.2 #95 (November 1994), written by Mark Waid.

Wally and Bart are running through the city.

Wally: If we’re going to do this hero thing, let’s do it right. You need a code name.
Bart: How about “Kid Flash?”
Wally: Huh, well…
Bart: Pfffft! Just kidding. “Kid Flash.” Yeah, right…. Save yourself the brainpower. You already gave me a name. Repeatedly.
Bart stops and kisses a random woman on the street (yes, Bart).
Bart: I’m Impulse!
Wally: How terrifyingly accurate. And the mask?
Bart: Are you kiddin’ me? I saw so many guys wearing ’em, I just figured it was a law.

Fast forward several years.

Edit: (Thanks to Crazy Penguin for pointing this one out and scanning it) Secret Origins 80-Page Giant (December 1998) tells the origins of the members of Young Justice. In the Mark Waid–written Impulse story, the following exchange appears:

Carol: So who named you Impulse?
Bart: Batman. I have no idea why. Was he being funny?

Eight months later, Todd Dezago had just taken over as the third regular writer on Impulse. He started out with an unusual team-up in Impulse #50 (July 1999): Impulse and Batman against the Joker.

At the end of the issue, Impulse asks Batman a question:

Impulse: Wally said that you named me “Impulse”…what’s up with that?!
Batman: Wally misunderstood. I never meant for Impulse to be your name…. It was meant to be a warning.

Oddly enough, I don’t recall much complaining about the retcon.

Jump forward another half-decade, to the beginning of Bart’s brief career as the Flash. Danny Bilson and Paul Demeo have just taken over as series writers. A dream/origin sequence in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #2 (September 2006) states, “It was Max who first dubbed me ‘Impulse.’” Fans across the Internet raged at this retcon, even asking about it at conventions, complaining about the “poor research.”

And today, DC released a 6-page preview to Newsarama from the upcoming All-Flash #1 (September 2007). Mark Waid is back as writer. In it, Wally West thinks back on Bart’s life:

“The boy was flaky, unpredictable, and had the attention span of a bullet. Superman code-named him Impulse, and it was probably the first thing that ever stuck to him.”

The funny thing is, all that people seem to remember remember about the naming of Impulse was Batman. Not the name he chose himself.

Update: Part of me (the part that spent two years as an English Literature major) is thinking I should have titled this, “Today we Have Namings of Bart,” but I’m not sure how many people would get the reference.

Update 2: Countdown #43 reiterates the Batman version as Robin speaks at Bart’s funeral: “I remember it was Batman who first called him Impulse… and for a while, the name stuck. I never thought he’d take things seriously enough to be the Flash.”

Update 3 (July 18): All-Flash #1 came out today, and the wording has been altered from what was in the preview. It now simply says, “He was code-named Impulse,” rather than “Superman code-named him Impulse,” side-stepping the question entirely. At this point we have 2 votes for Batman, 1 for Bart himself, and 1 for Max.

Update 4 (September 6): Crazy Penguin at the Flash Message Boards pointed out that there is an earlier reference to Batman naming Impulse: Secret Origins 80-Page Giant (December 1998). That’s 8 months prior to Impulse #50. I’ve updated the article above. We now have 3 references to Batman, 1 to Bart, 1 to Max. (Scan added September 9.)

While looking for something in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1, I noticed something interesting. This is from the Barry Allen dream/origin sequence:

It shows Barry’s death, along with the Black Flash, who figured prominently in the last few issues. And that last remark: “Will you ever outrun the shadow, Bart?”

It could simply be setting the dark mood that pervaded the beginning of Bart’s run. On the other hand, maybe they did have this planned all along.

I went through the galleries at the Grand Comic Database for the 1959 and 1987 series, and managed to find no less than 23 covers on which the Flash, or a member of his supporting cast was depicted as dead, but managed to survive the story. Sometimes the events took place, but the character survived, or it turned out the body was someone else’s. Sometimes they were what I call “CPR deaths,” in which the character is technically dead, but not beyond the help of modern (or in comics, slightly ahead of modern) medicine. Generally they’re resuscitated in the following issue. And some are just plain misleading.

Hover for a description. Click to open the issue’s page at GCD.

Update: It’s Monday, and spoilers for the actual issue are starting to hit the message boards. Please DO NOT post any here. I’m waiting until Wednesday when I can read the book. Thank you!

Update 2: Added one cover from Impulse.

Update (June 25): I just discovered that Comic Coverage did a similar feature on The Many Deaths of Barry Allen last year.

Update (August 19): I can’t believe I missed Impulse #77.

That’s right, nothing happens in issues #14-15 — because they don’t exist! In an interview with Newsarama, Mark Waid revealed that DC is canceling the current series after #13, and relaunching it this fall with #231, picking up the numbering from the previous series. To bridge the gap, they’re also releasing a special All Flash #1 in September July.

And the plans have been in the works for almost a year. Given how closely everything is tied to Countdown, the JLA/JSA crossover, etc., DC knew going in that they weren’t going to pick up with #14, which means that the solicitations, the covers that they commissioned, and the retailer incentives were all a smokescreen to keep the relaunch under wraps.

Of course, why relaunch the book if you’re going to keep the same Flash?

On one hand, I think the new book was just hitting its stride, and Bart deserves his shot. On the other hand, Mark Waid on the Flash? And a 1-in-3 chance that it could be Wally? Where do I sign up?

First, here are the original 1940 panels from Flash Comics #1 (copied from Comic Coverage), showing grad student Jay Garrick taking time out for a smoke:

Four decades later, in 1986, Secret Origins #9 would retell his origin. Mindful of the details, but also concerned about modern sensibilities about health, writer Roy Thomas kept the cigarette break, but added Jay thinking, “I know I should give up these things…”

A decade later, the cigarette had disappeared completely. Flash Secret Files #1 (1997) featured a condensed retelling of all three (at the time) Flashes’ origins, and this time, Jay simply succumbed to the hour and nodded off, dropping the beaker.

(Via Crimson Lightning)

Notes:

1. The second Terra’s origins have been left ambiguous. One story says she was surgically altered to look like the original. Another says she was the original, brought back to life with amnesia
2. Kole reappeared mysteriously in Team Titans. The book was canceled before her presence could be explained.
3. Hawk became the villain Monarch in Armageddon 2001, then Extant for Zero Hour, and was eventually killed in JSA.
4. Zero Hour erased all the Team Titans from the future except for Mirage, Terra, and Deathwing. (Yes, Deathwing. An evil Nightwing from the future.)
5. In addition to the Titans killed in Infinite Crisis, three were maimed: Risk, Bumblebee, and Herald/Vox. Flash (Wally West) disappeared, and Supergirl (Linda Danvers) has been more-or-less erased from continuity—though a remarkably similar character found her way into the recent Fallen Angel story, “Predecessor.”
6. Changeling (Beast Boy) was clinically dead (no heartbeat) at the end of New Teen Titans #10, but was revived by Amazon science before his brain activity stopped.

The Titans Tower Meeting Room was a big help in finding Titans I’d forgotten.

Update: Added a few more (thanks to the Newsarama forums)

Update (July 1): I think by now anyone likely to be reading this knows what happened in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13, so here’s a Flash update. blankety-blank DC

Update (April 2008): Now that The Titans #1 has confirmed which characters actually died in the Titans East Special, I’ve updated this entry with Power Boy.

The image, with the battered Flash at the mercy of his Rogues Gallery and his name shown in giant stone letters, has been widely recognized as an homage to the classic Flash v.1 #174 cover by Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson (1967). What you may not know is that it’s not the first time that cover has been referenced. In 1989, Mike Mignola revisited the cover for Secret Origins #41, featuring the origins of the main Rogues.

I have a list of 15 26 Flash cover homages online. Admittedly, it’s due for an update. Aside from this, there was at least one in Rogue War, and people have pointed out a few that I’ve missed.

Meanwhile, does anyone know who did the art on the Countdown image? My first thought was Brian Bolland, but on seeing the full sized image it doesn’t look like his style. Edit: It turns out it’s Ryan Sook.

(via Crimson Lightning)

Update: Wizard has an interview with Marc Guggenheim [archive.org] on the significance of the teaser, and the relationship between Countdown and Flash: The Fastest Man Alive.

• Bottom Lines on Following Pages Tell What to Do While Battle Rages
• Tin Cans in the Garbage Pile Are Just a Way of Saying “Heil!”
• Waste Fats in Good Condition Help to Make Fine Ammunition
• Boys and Girls, Every Day, Can Give War Aid in Many a Way—
• Every Time You Buy a Stamp, You Feed the Flame in Freedom’s Lamp
• If You Have an Extra Quarter, Buy a Stamp to Make War Shorter
• However far soldiers roam, the want to have some mail from home
• Collect Old Paper, Turn It In—Help Your Uncle Sam to Win
• You Can Walk to School and Store! Saving Gas Helps Win the War!
• Boys Are Smart, Girls Are Wise, Black Markets Not to Patronize
• IF YOU STILL HAVE METAL SCRAP, TURN IT IN TO BEAT THE JAP
• Turn Out Lights Not in Use —War Production Needs the “Juice”

Case and punctuation are preserved as closely as possible. And yes, they used a racial slur in a kids’ book.

Out of 12 slogans, 10 give specific suggestions. They break down as follows:
4 on recycling (tin, scrap metal, fats, paper)
2 on conservation (electricity and gas)
2 on funding (stamps)
1 on morale (write to the troops)
1 on crime (black markets)

The black market warning doesn’t seem to fit in, since it’s not, as far as I can tell, directly related to the war effort. Concern that criminals might be funding the enemy, or undermining supply chains? Or maybe they just knew it was a problem (in response to rationing), and decided to include it in the list as a public safety issue?

Anyway, seeing this in a comic book, which at the time really was aimed at children, is an interesting reminder that, during World War II, we didn’t just mobilize the American military—we mobilized all of America.

I took a look at it to see what stories were included. (DC’s solicits didn’t say.) As expected, it features the first several years of Barry Allen’s run as the Flash, from the original Showcase appearances starting in 1956 through the beginning of his series in 1959–1961. That includes the first appearances of the Elongated Man (who got his own Showcase Presents book last year) and Wally West as Kid Flash.

There was one surprise: “The Rival Flash,” from Flash Comics #104 (1949). That was the final issue of the Golden-Age series, and the last solo Jay Garrick adventure printed for years. I’d heard that the Showcase Presents books were making use of restoration done for DC’s Archives series, and this tracks: That same story also appeared in The Flash Archives Volume #1.

It also appears as a backup in The Flash #211 (1971), and is listed in the contents for the upcoming Flash: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, tying the origin story in Flash Comics #1 for the most-reprinted Golden-Age Flash story yet.

Full contents:

• Flash Comics #104 (1949)
• Showcase #4, 8, 13, 14 (1956–1958)
• The Flash #105–119 (1959–1961)