Who Should Write the Flash After Joshua Williamson?

[Denirac]

Slow your roll friend, we are only in two issues Now they were enjoyable issues, but only two issues!

I'd rather have Bendis on Flash, than say.... Tom King, even on his worst day because at the moment he's doing ok. Young Justice is good, Action Comics is good for the Most Part, I like what he's doing for some of the lesser known characters- Adam Strange and The Question apparently have big roles in Leviathan Rising and Q was confirmed during his AMA last night to be front and center of whatever Superman event he's cooking up, He claims to love Wally and clearly likes Bart. Sure his Superman (where we have the Infamous Ca Ca Poo Poo incident) needs work, but even with Barry, I think Bendis could do well if he just SLOWS DOWN. If we got the same handling from Bendis of Barry as we do with the cast of Action Comics and he took a more Forensic Scientist/Detective than Outright Superhero Approach then I think him on a Barry Book could work.

As Said here Bendis on a Wally book could work too

[Flash Gordon]

Joelle Jones would be cool too!

[Frontier]

Y'know, Tom King and Mitch Gerads haven't announced what their next project together is yet...

I can't think of a property that would be so outside of King's style then Flash.

Barry had modern stories and interpretations that captured and preserved his core character before he came back to life. Which involved some of the best writing for the character, no less. That's not really a good excuse. The Brave and The Bold or The Life Story of The Flash shows who Barry is and could be with modern writing and sensibilities without literally taking everything Wally did away from him.

Bonus points for never bringing up Barry's dead mom and imprisoned father .

[Timothy Hunter]

I can't think of a property that would be so outside of King's style then Flash.

Jeez. Honestly what I think DC editorial has to do right now is to just prohibit Tom King from working on any mainstream superhero ongoing (i.e. HiC, Batman, Superman) because conventional superheroes are clearly not his speciality. It was, in retrospect, a disastrous decision to give Tom King the Batman title.

Of course, there are Tom King fans out there, so just give him his own imprint, let him do his magic with more C list characters for instance, the Creeper or Animal Man. Material that would appease his core fanbase and rack up some potential Eisner Awards. Just get him away from the heavy players in the DCU .

[Denirac]

Jeez. Honestly what I think DC editorial has to do right now is to just prohibit Tom King from working on any mainstream superhero ongoing (i.e. HiC, Batman, Superman) because conventional superheroes are clearly not his speciality. It was, in retrospect, a disastrous decision to give Tom King the Batman title.

Of course, there are Tom King fans out there, so just give him his own imprint, let him do his magic with more C list characters for instance, the Creeper or Animal Man. Material that would appease his core fanbase and rack up some potential Eisner Awards. Just get him away from the heavy players in the DCU .

This. Give him the Bendis treatment and a Solo Imprint of Minis

[Slim Shady]

If you think Barry is too sad and mopey now, let King get his hands on him.

[Timothy Hunter]

Some writers who I would also like to take on the Flash

Brian Wood - Wally
Consistently good, also does quite well with younger characters. However, he typically works best writing indie comics in contrast to superhero fare. His contributions to the Battle of the Atom crossover was just embarrassing.

Steven Seagle - Wally
Essentially a more mainstream friendly version of Brian Wood. He can tow the line between alternative experimentalism (he has written a plethora of classic, underatted Vertigo titles) and popcorn superhero action (he is the co-creator of Ben 10 and Generator Rex.) This attribute can lead to the Flash being a both a critical and commercial success.

Brian Azzarello - Barry
His experience with the neo noir genre would be highly beneficial in providing the police procedural facet to Barry Allen's character. While many have come to the perception that he work is very cynical and moody, and that true to an exten, there is a vibrant, garish insanity to Azzarrello's comics seen most prominent in his Doctor 13 backup that would benefit the Flash character brilliantly.

Jeph Loeb - Jay Garrick
I would classify the majority of Loeb's comics bibliography into two categories. The first being imbecilic schlock such as Ultimatum, Ultimates 3, the Red Hulk storyline in Hulk, his Superman/Batman run. (Controversially, I'd add Hush to that list as well, but that's neither here nor there.) The second portion of his work is actually quite tolerable, that being his collaborations with Tim Sale. The two have produced a tremendous back catalogue to the comics medium: The Long Halloween. Dark Victory. Superman for All Seasons. Spiderman Blue. Daredevil Yellow. Hulk Grey. The Legends of the Dark Knight specials. If we get the same sort of synergy they had there on those aforementioned titles on a Jay Garrick Flash book, a new spark of interest could be created for the Golden Age era as a whole.

[SiegePerilous02]

Morrison. It'd be a great companion piece to his GL.
After that, I'd be fine with the Busiek suggestion.

[Kurisu]

Jeez, the King and Bendis wank on this forum is genuinely obnoxious.

Matt Fraction?

Came to say this, however.

[FlashEarthOne]

Stop trying to get the man killed. Sheesh. Haters.

How about Cary Bates for an old-school feel?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

It is these fans who also claim that Barry is being written like Wally in every medium. Best to just ignore them... they'll always make the same baseless claims. They constantly troll and then wonder why people have lost sympathy. Go figure.

Meanwhile this is the same fan base that claims they have nothing Barry. But I’m going to be quiet haha.

As for whoever should takeover after Josh. Since no one really named any names. I’m going to go with either Tom Taylor or Bryan Hill. I’ll even love to have Simone. I like Josh but he’s clearly doesn’t like Barry too much. But at the same time I don’t think he’s written like Wally. That’s just a cliched and lazy response for everything dealing with Allen imo.

I don't think he doesn't like Barry... I just think he is trying too hard to honor every part of the past mythos and not focus on developing Barry as best as he can. His attempt to give a "nod" to everything in the past is distracting him from giving all his attention to the title character. I think he is starting to move in the right direction... I just hope he doesn't back track again like he has in the past. The "written like Wally" is just lazy and inaccurate. This small, unhappy part of the fan base will be unhappy unless they get everything that they want. So yeah... they'll probably always be unhappy. The Wally West appreciation thread often looks an AA group with the same members coming back for meetings.

I agree. Mark Waid is past his prime. His quality of writing has derailed after the conclusion of his Daredevil series.

Yeah the 90's were a long time ago. People forget about how bad his third Flash run was.

[Rend20]

It is these fans who also claim that Barry is being written like Wally in every medium. Best to just ignore them... they'll always make the same baseless claims.

To be fair, it doesn't help when writers such as Williamson make similar claims in regards to the comics.

"For a minute there, especially once he came back, it felt like Barry's personality was really mimicking Wally's personality. In the New 52, it really felt like those two characters were completely merging."

[married guy]

Yeah the 90's were a long time ago. People forget about how bad his third Flash run was.

To be fair, he was in a no-win situation.
He was brought on after saying no repeatedly to Didio.
Then, when he DID decide to take a swing (to prevent someone else 'fridging' Linda & the kids) the artist slated to work on the book pulled out LATE without warning.
That's why those back up stories were in there.
I'll admit, those issues weren't great - but damn, there's been PLENTY worse since then!

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I think a Wally West book with King & Gerads would be great. Wally's got depths left to him as a family man that never got plumbed. Add in some time-travel mumbo jumbo, you've got a helluva book that a lot of people would want to read.

Yes, some wouldn't, but that's not how art works. Some people like stuff you don't.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

To be fair, he was in a no-win situation.
He was brought on after saying no repeatedly to Didio.
Then, when he DID decide to take a swing (to prevent someone else 'fridging' Linda & the kids) the artist slated to work on the book pulled out LATE without warning.
That's why those back up stories were in there.
I'll admit, those issues weren't great - but damn, there's been PLENTY worse since then!

People forget how bad Waid's middle run was too. Cobalt Blue? Eesh.

[Timothy Hunter]

I think a Wally West book with King & Gerads would be great. Wally's got depths left to him as a family man that never got plumbed. Add in some time-travel mumbo jumbo, you've got a helluva book that a lot of people would want to read.

Yes, some wouldn't, but that's not how art works. Some people like stuff you don't.

Great swaths of DC fans would be outraged to see the man who killed Wally off to receive writing duties on the first solo book starring Wally West in 8 years.

I'd think a more B list character such as Max Murcery or an antagonist such as Godspeed or Zoom would be a better fit for King.