Plotpoint

The DC Source blog released some promotional hype for the New 52 Flash reboot that’s coming in on September 28 with art by Francis Manapul and co-written by Manapul and Brian Buccellato. Here’s a taste; you can see the whole nut here.

Flash’s editor, Brian Cunningham, chimed in on the new series:

But it also has something else. It’s something we let slip at Comic Con, but many of you might not have heard it, so brace yourself for this SPOILER WARNING:

The Flash is a single man. He’s a bachelor who has never been married.

I’ll give you all a few seconds to take that in and digest it.

Yes, folks — in the post-FLASHPOINT world, Barry Allen has not only never dated Iris West, but he’s dating someone else entirely in issue #1! And that someone is…his longtime coworker Patty Spivot!

If that upsets you, sorry about that. But I make no apologies for opening up a traditional storytelling avenue with our hero’s romantic life, something that’s been shut closed for a very long time now.

Look: I love The Flash. Mike Baron’s stuff right after the first Crisis reboot is amongst my favorite 12 issues of comics. William Messner-Loeb’s run on the book was fun back when I was in college (I even have a soft spot in my heart for Chunk, fer Chrissake), and what Mark Waid and Geoff Johns did with the character was damn entertaining.

That said…

Since Infinite Crisis:

1. Wally retired as Flash, so they aged Kid Flash to take over.
2. The guys who created the blockbuster, long-running Flash TV series (Keeping America riveted to their tubes from late September, 1990 to early May, 1991) wrote a compelling beginning to Bart Allen’s career as the Flash by taking away his powers and killing him dog dead in only half the episodes it took them to do the same in their TV show.
3. Mark Waid brought Wally back as The Flash in what first appeared to be an effort to rejuvenate the character before eventually appearing to be an effort to cynically park the brand and sell some issues to those of us with subscriptions to the book before:
4. Barry Allen returned from the grave following his legendary self-sacrifice in Crisis to save the DC Universe, and reclaimed the mantle of The Flash, holding it for about 15 months, or just long enough to:
5. Selfishly destroy the DC Universe.

That’s in just FOUR FUCKING YEARS, guys. If you think Flash fans’ biggest concern about what you’re doing with the character is who he’s dating? Given how fucked-with The Flash has felt recently, the only way that becomes my biggest worry is if you release a teaser like this:

Stuff like this is why I’m reasonably excited about the New 52: let’s wipe the slate clean and get some good, consistent stories building up a head of steam again. (via DC Source)