Sorry I'm Late!: Barry Allen Appreciation

[Pharozonk]

I also don't get why Barry needs a dead mom. The plotline appears to have been dropped (like so many others). IMO, Barry didn't need that, and it shouldn't have been carried over to the new 52. Let Barry have a fairly stable childhood with loving parents.

The retcon also never made sense since Barry's parents were a constant presence during his pre-Crisis stories. Shouldn't that change in time by Professor Zoom also had much more drastic effects(the Butterfly Effect) on the DCU during Rebirth much like they did during Flashpoint?

[Waterfall]

Agreed. Wouldn't you want simplicity for a speedster's costume?

I really loved the way Manapul drew it. It was so beautiful, shiny and elegant. However Booth is treating it like a normal spandex costume. All those lines look ugly and crowded in his art. So yeah maybe he should go back to his classic form. (or at least get rid of lines)

[KurtW95]

I also don't get why Barry needs a dead mom. The plotline appears to have been dropped (like so many others). IMO, Barry didn't need that, and it shouldn't have been carried over to the new 52. Let Barry have a fairly stable childhood with loving parents.

Yeah. Not all superheroes are Batman.

[KurtW95]

This is interesting.

http://t.co/oxbeXXEwrw

[Pharozonk]

This is interesting.

http://t.co/oxbeXXEwrw

If only we knew what he was planning to do with Professor Zoom all those years ago....

[Waterfall]

This is interesting.

http://t.co/oxbeXXEwrw

Hah! That's a year before The Return of Barry Allen!

I wonder if Waid was ever inspired by this.

[Mia]

This is interesting.

http://t.co/oxbeXXEwrw

Johns must have been 17 when he wrote that. His stuff has improved over the years, but looks as if he was never in for 'deep' stories from the get go.

I also don't get why Barry needs a dead mom. The plotline appears to have been dropped (like so many others). IMO, Barry didn't need that, and it shouldn't have been carried over to the new 52. Let Barry have a fairly stable childhood with loving parents.

One thing I have learned as someone who writes as a hobby and one thing that I have noticed is that it is easy to write characters who are depressed, angry and colourful. Writing characters who are introverted and mild mannered is very hard. Good writers and great storytellers (ie. Chris Yost, Fabian Nicieza, Brian Azzarello) can breath life into a quiet or solitary characters.

But lousy, or mediocre ones can't. Not saying that Johns is a lousy writer. But I honestly don't think that he and the rest of at DC really had no idea how to treat or write a resurected Barry Allen, who prior to his death was considered to be boring. So they scrapped his back story and gave him this moppy Hamlet like personality. Or in the case of Buccellato and Manpul they turned him into Richie Cunningham.

As I mentioned in an ealier post, I don't think that Barry was boring or square (under Cary Bates anyway). I simply thought that he was just a mature man who knew how to control and behave himself. As opposed to being an unbelievable goody-goody.

I wonder if Mike Baron available?

[Kyer]

It looks like Barry Allen's Flash will be in Batman 3 (video game) again! And...he opens his mouth to talk! One of two disappointments I had with Batman 2 was that a) Flash did not show up until the end and b) he was the only superhero without a single line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5-w3mUQIzo (voice cast talking about the game)

Also has Batman Adam West and Bat-Mite plus the entire rainbow of Lanterns.

Me wants.

Well, me wants the eventual DVD of the animated scenes made into a full story like they did with Batman 2.

Lego Justice League Is. The. Best.

[Waterfall]

I really really want Barry Allen to be shown reading Earth 2 at the end of Multiversity. They implied he reads the comics (in his origin issue there was Jay's poster iirc) but beyond that we never got to see him holding one. He even came up with the name himself instead of being inspired by Jay. I silently hope there is sort of a retcon for that. It's too iconic to erase out.

[liwanag]

[liwanag]

[MetalWoman]

I also don't get why Barry needs a dead mom. The plotline appears to have been dropped (like so many others). IMO, Barry didn't need that, and it shouldn't have been carried over to the new 52. Let Barry have a fairly stable childhood with loving parents.

Pre-52 I agreed with you 100 percent, during Geoff's run all the dead parents did was add an un-need level of angst. Although post-52 they made a few changes that I think really made it work. First they changed it so that Barry's Dad was still alive in prison, and second they made Darryl Frye his foster father and established that they had a very good father/son relationship. The father in prison explains Barry's dedication to CSI, justice, and reform, even for his villains. He is chasing a potential happy ending for himself and his father, and wants to give that to anyone else who might be wrongly accused or even truly guilty. Darryl taking care of Barry after he lost his parents showed Barry that saving people involves more that defeating the bad guys or removing the immediate danger, it also involves helping them rebuild their lives. That is why Barry does things like rebuild an apartment building after he saves everyone living there when it collapses.

Metal Woman

[Waterfall]

I'm honestly really disappointed in Darryl Frye thing. He should be a bigger part of the cast instead of plot device for retcon.

[PennyDreadful]

Pre-52 I agreed with you 100 percent, during Geoff's run all the dead parents did was add an un-need level of angst. Although post-52 they made a few changes that I think really made it work. First they changed it so that Barry's Dad was still alive in prison, and second they made Darryl Frye his foster father and established that they had a very good father/son relationship. The father in prison explains Barry's dedication to CSI, justice, and reform, even for his villains. He is chasing a potential happy ending for himself and his father, and wants to give that to anyone else who might be wrongly accused or even truly guilty. Darryl taking care of Barry after he lost his parents showed Barry that saving people involves more that defeating the bad guys or removing the immediate danger, it also involves helping them rebuild their lives. That is why Barry does things like rebuild an apartment building after he saves everyone living there when it collapses.

Metal Woman

It just seems that the plot with Barry's dad was left dangling. By now, I'm disillusioned with all the ideas never followed and directions not taken vis a vis the Flash.

[Pharozonk]

Has Geoff ever explained how the dead mom retcon didn't fuck up the timestream? It's still bothering me