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I’m completely fine with immediate retconning when it comes to something utterly stupid and ill-conceived.

Uh, not that I have an opinion one way or another.

I wonder if this is a weird case of giving the fans what they need and not what they want, just like Waid’s Zoom story was. I suppose Barry could be fresh and interesting as he hasn’t been used much in decades. I just can’t imagine more than a fraction of the current audience actually wants him back. Certainly very, very few people under the age of 32 or so.

Oh it’s true. I want Barry back, and I’m old. OLD!

[shrug] I remember Barry. (”I remember where I was when Barry died … !”) But I don’t really want him back, even if I think Johns will get some good stories out of it. The Barry-to-Wally transition worked so well, it’s a shame to see such backtracking.

On the other hand, considering that everyone else comes back (from Supergirl to Bucky to Jason Todd), it then becomes weird that Barry Allen is the only still-dead hero. And, purely from a sales perspective, I guess it was inevitable: “Green Lantern” is a hit again (and a franchise of two, to boot!) and the “Flash” book has been languishing. Of course, they shouldn’t have ever scuttled Wally offstage and promoted Bart prematurely (and then killed Bart!), but … I guess the the Big Two comics companies figure: Sure, we can take crazy chances and tell stories people don’t want and kill characters off. When it doesn’t work, we’ll just retcon it away with a “Rebirth”!

Barry was such a cardboard cutout of a character.

The only way I see this working has already been explored, with Captain America first in the 60’s, and again in “The Ultimates”; A hero out of time.

This event holds little interest for me. Wally West is the Flash.

Hmmm Magneto/Xorn anyone?

I’m extremely wary of this title. I have nothing against Barry, but I really don’t see a strongly compelling reason to bring him back, other than to make Silver Age fans (like Geoff Johns) happy. I’m also worried that Wally West will end up meeting the same fate as Kyle Rayner, shoved out of his solo title and out of his team books to make way for the “real” Flash. Wally’s been an integral part of the DCU for well over 20 years now, and he doesn’t deserve to get shoved aside just for nostalgia’s sake.

Of course, they shouldn’t have ever scuttled Wally offstage and promoted Bart prematurely (and then killed Bart!)

Which is the whole reason this “Rebirth” is necessary. If Wally was still enjoying solid sales on Flash — or hell, if Bart Allen as the Flash sold just as well — bringing back Barry Allen would not even be an option on the table.

Barry was such a cardboard cutout of a character.

So was more-or-less every DC character in the Silver Age. Look at an early issue of the original Justice League of America. Every character has the same typical voice, just different catchphrases. I can’t even think of when Barry ever started to feel three-dimensional — perhaps it wasn’t until after he died.

I can’t even think of when Barry ever started to feel three-dimensional — perhaps it wasn’t until after he died.

That’s what makes bringing him back so dangerous.

How do you take a classic character and add his personality without upsetting readers? He doesn’t really have a well defined character, so no matter who you make him into, it’ll be strange.

I’m honestly not the biggest Flash fan, but I do like the Justice League, and the Kyle/Wally dynamic was as important to my enjoyment of that book as the Clark/Bruce one. When they broke it up, I just lost interest.

I remember Barry. (”I remember where I was when Barry died … !”) But I don’t really want him back, even if I think Johns will get some good stories out of it. The Barry-to-Wally transition worked so well, it’s a shame to see such backtracking.

I loved the Barry Allen Flash. One of my favourite superheroes. And I am against this series for every reason you just said and more. I’m tired of comics being written to an agenda of bringing things back they loved when they were kids. It’s not 1971 anymore. Stop it.

Didn’t Johns tease that there would be a teenage speedster in Legion of 3 Worlds? Sounded a lot like Bart to me and would probably tie into the whole Lightning Saga rod that Brainiac has.

I don’t particularly care for the return of Barry and think it is a mistake, but this is by Johns and Van Sciver, so I’ll be checking it out no matter what and fully expect it to be a great story.

However, I hate the fact they are saying “this will do for Flash what Rebirth did for Green Lantern”. Doesn’t anyone remember 3 or 4 years ago when they were saying, “Rebirth will do for Green Lantern what Johns already did for the Flash”? I just want to know how DC screwed up the Flash series / franchise so badly in the span of 3 years that they needed to do something like this to fix it.

I’m with Kirk: I don’t think it’s necessary, but if anyone can do it right, it’s these guys.

The weird thing, to me, was the lack of fanfare in the actual announcement at DC Nation. I’d decided to liveblog the panel, and Dan Didio just casually mentioned it as he was introducing the panel members. I didn’t catch the actual phrasing, since I wasn’t expecting an announcement before everyone was up on stage, but it was something like, “And here’s Geoff Johns and Ethan van Sciver, the team on Barry Allen: Rebirth.” Within minutes, the interviews at Newsarama and CBR had gone online.

Wally’s been an integral part of the DCU for well over 20 years now, and he doesn’t deserve to get shoved aside just for nostalgia’s sake.

Wally has, in fact, been an important part of the DC for almost 50 years now — but yeah, he’s been the Flash for more than 20 of ‘em.

I’m very dubious about this. I’m firmly a Satellite-era reader, so Barry is “my” Flash, but he went out in a great way and has gained more prominence and honor through and after his death than he’d had for a long time, maybe ever. My own feeling is that I’d prefer to leave it at that.

It’s kind of the opposite of Hal Jordan, who went out in a truly horrible way in a horrible story, and so I was thrilled to have him restored, no matter how many stupid continuity tricks they had to use to get him back.

@Kirk Warren
I think the teenage Speedster will be XS. She’s the Speedster from the Post Zero Hour Legion and a descendant of Barry Allen and Wally West. I think one of her parents is the child of one of the twins from Barry.

Re “Flash: Rebirth”: When I read that announcment I felt, like someone just punched into my stomach. If Barry Allen returns, I fear that Wally West will be pushed aside like Kyle. Then the Focus will be on Barry and Barry alone. Wally will be lucky, if he will have a few guest spots in the Flash-Series oder a Spot in a B-Team. That’s just wrong, what DC is doing.

I totally support this move. Great team, even greater concept — I’ve been waiting 23 years for this (the 5 year old in me still weeps at the fact they killed him off. ).
Barry naysayers will finally understand why Barry kicks so much ass.
Please have faith in this creative team. You won’t regret it…

If you do, well I’m sure they’ll bring Wally back.

@Ghost Detective
I do have some kind of faith in the creative team. But my faith is slightly diminished by the fact, that their former collaboration was a certain “Green Lantern: Rebirth” Series, which was nice to read, to nice to look, but was still utter bulls***. I mean “Yellow Fear Monster”? Talk about a fanfic made official!
Geoff Johns is a great writer. I like his work on the Justice Society, which is currently my Must-Read. But he has his moments, where his inner fanboy, appearantly a fan of the Silver Age Stories, takes over and produces something like “Green Lantern: Rebirth”.
And Ethan Van Sciver is one of the most amazing Artists currently working in the business.

well i just want to say this thrills me to see so many people who do not want to see Barry Allen brought back. I thought i was the only one who wanted Flash to remain Wally or Bart. Either one would work, because both of them have more personality than Barry did, and this has already been adressed, i know that many other silver age heroes were flat and one dimensional as well, but most of them gained a personality in the seventies, while Barry never did. This is a bad idea in my book, and i just think that DC should merge Barry, Wally and Bart into one massive Speed Force creature like in Kingdom Come. That would make fans of all three characters happy and they could have the personality traits [or lack of] of all three appear in that amalgam of characters, and it would be cool to have something different.

Yeah, Green Lantern: Rebirth to me was like making sausage — I was happy to have Hal back, but how they made it happen wasn’t pretty.

It’s funny, I have no major investment in Wally and can’t stand Bart, but even so, I’d rather they let Barry rest in peace. I don’t have much faith that he could ever live up to the inflated importance he’s been given since his death.

My favorite bit where they described the Flash story as one that constantly moves forward, in an article describing the return of a character who was killed off over two decades ago.

Blech. Wally has been the Flash my whole life. Barry coming back from the dead completely destroys the concept of death in comics. He and Bucky were as dead as Batman’s parents or Uncle Ben my whole life. Now they’re back. And Barry really has no reason to be back. His story was told, and it led to a more interesting, more liked character in Wally. And with Barry around, Wally will be pushed into the Titans full-time and possibly even booted from the Justice League. yeah Barry’s a CSI, but is that enough justification to bring him back? Didio’s reasoning that this needs to come full circle as the last Crisis is ludicrous. Why do you feel that to celebrate a story you need to undo everything it did? Why not try something new?

Hmmm Magneto/Xorn anyone?

YES!

I think that’s the winner!

“Wouldn’t it be funny if this series mostly just reversed the whole “the Rogues blast Bart Allen and then kick him to death” story (I see Johns is already sorta addressing the silliness in Rogue’s Revenge)?”

I’m down with pretty much anything that brings Bart Allen back from the dead and undoes all the damage done to his character - but honestly, his death was just the rancid icing on a a crap cake years in the making at that point. If they bring him back as a teenager, and make him Impulse again? Then there’s a good chance I’ll check it out. I was a huge fan of the character in the ’90s, and I’d love to see him restored in all his fun, goofy, ADD-afflicted glory.

My Flash is named Wally.

He doesn’t have Incredibles children.

Kid Flash is named Bart.

The original X-Force dying and then, despite being replaced by Milligans team, showing up for no other reason but to show they weren’t really dead, was like two issues apart.

I’m a fan of Barry, but if they bring him back he should retire. Let Wally be the Flash; he’s earned it. Let Barry have a life; he’s earned it. Have Barry get together with Ray Palmer and start their own independent science/forensics lab. They could train new/young heroes part time as well.

I think this could be great. A lot of people said bringing Hal Jordan back was a bad idea, and that worked out pretty well, with the exact same creative team. Ideally, Johns will bring back Barry and Bart without getting rid of Wally, and we can have some kind of ‘Flash Corps’ spin-off title as well. Everybody wins!

Well, at one point we had Jay, Wally, Bart, Max, AND Jesse…
What’s wrong about Jay, Wally and Barry?

The three greatest Flashes! (Flashes Through the Ages!)

The only annoying thing is that the Silver age Flash comics are going to go up in price, making it even harder for me to complete my run…

I love Johns’ work… Sure GL Rebirth was messy, but in the end, it cleared the way for the Sinestro Corps War…

And Barry’s history was never that messy…

@FunkyGreenJerusalem: I think you are mistaken about X-Force. In the first issue of Milligan’s run, he didn’t kill off the original X-Force, he killed off a new team he created for that issue.

Re: Chris Griswold — FunkyGreenJerusalem was referring to the issue just prior to Milligan’s run (#115), which was reversed in Milligan’s second issue (#117) when he brought back the character that’d appeared to die in the earlier issue.

Have a good day.
John Cage

Wait: Really?

I had no idea!

“Wouldn’t it be funny if this series mostly just reversed the whole “the Rogues blast Bart Allenand then kick him to death” story ” How about if they whisked him away from the end of that beating, just before he died, but he knows he’ll have to go back there someday so he’ll live his life to the fullest now? I hear that’s a good idea for bringing back characters…

I don’t have a horse in the Flash race (to mix a metaphor). But what about writers actually, y’know, potentially writing the character differently? All the people who complain Barry’s got no personality - well, he’s a fictional character, writers can write him any way they want (barring Executive Meddling). Maybe someone will write him good? I don’t know how many times I’ve read “If you told me last year __ would be the best book on the market I’d've said you’re nuts” but it’s been a lot.

And I don’t mean to suggest by the following comment that all comics should be the exactly same as when I was growing up. But c’mon, this is Barry Allen, the definition of the beginning of the Silver Age of Comics. If he doesn’t deserve a ‘rebirth’ no one does. And it’s not like they just killed him off forever last week or something, it’s been 23 years.

The first sentence of my above post should be in blockquote. I don’t know why it didn’t format properly.