I remember watching the Flash on TV in the early 90's. It was not the best show, but still it was great to watch it every week. That is where I first found out about the Flash. The fastest man alive, with the ability at times to go back in time or run through buildings. I am not the biggest DC fan either, mainly because their heroes are so righteous. I tend to enjoy the anti-hero more, because I feel they are more human. Although, the Flash has always held a place with me. That is why I find it so cool that they are bring Allen back from the dead. The only person that could pull this off is Geoff Johns. Johns has successfully rebooted: Green Lantern, Hawkman and Justice League. Here is what he had to say about Flash:Rebirth.
"Captain Comics: Why do it? Why bring back Barry Allen, after a heroic death and successful replacement?
Johns: I think that's what the series is all about. The answers are all in there. But whenever I get on these characters, my goal has always been to kind of rebuild their world, their mythology, like with Green Lantern and JSA.
Barry Allen is, like Hal Jordan (in "Green Lantern"), sort of a centerpiece to the Flash. With Barry Allen, there's something clear I want to do and I want him to do it. For me, he's the character that's going to facilitate the stories I want to tell.
CC: The tagline on the DC house ads reads "Barry Allen is back from the dead, and it's the worst thing that could have happened to him." Can you elaborate?
Johns: That's kind of the book itself. "Flash: Rebirth," when you look at it, is a detective story, a mystery. Someone has perpetrated the worst crime ever on The Flash and the Flash family. And that's what "Rebirth" is: It's the solving of that crime.
CC: Some of the familiar aspects of old Barry Allen stories were silly plots and transformations taken with utmost seriousness. Are these light-hearted elements toast in today's grim-and-gritty environment?
Johns: You know, it all depends on the story. For "Flash: Rebirth," there's going to be a lot of heart in that series, but ... we're not going to go back to 1960s-style stories where we have stand-alone stories where Barry Allen turns into a puppet.
But the stuff I really want to focus on is with Barry Allen as a crime-solver. But his crimes are on the crazy '60s-physics level. A murder could span across dimensions or ancient cities or crazy places that are real cities. Or he could find a body where the crime is unsolvable through normal means, and kinda taking that "CSI" approach but putting it on a greater scale of wonder and scope and the DC Universe itself. If that makes sense.
CC: Now that DC has established 52 parallel Earths, it sounds like "CSI: 52."
Johns: Exactly, exactly, that's a great explanation. And that's what I want to do. He solves crimes that are unbelievably bizarre and unexplainable. And they take him to different places and strange foes and bizarre criminals.
The DC universe has always been epic in scope. That's why I like Green Lantern to span the corners of the universe.
One thing which I've really been focused on is that Flash and Green Lantern have always gone hand in hand. They always have, and I want to explore that. But it's going to be more like good cop/bad cop. Barry's good cop and Hal's bad cop. It's like time and space, where Barry covers time; Hal covers space. I want to build up Barry and Hal, and Hal's already on his way, as being really cornerstones of a greater sub-universe, a greater part of the epic and mythic scope of the DC Universe.
I'm really excited about working with The Flash again, and working with Barry Allen. I think he's a fantastic character and I think we're going to have a really good time with the book."
Thank you to Andrew Scripps for the doing the interview. The interview provides some unique and personal insight into the reboot. I think that the idea of dealing with crimes that spans dimensions and time is awesome, lets hope it works. I for one am excited to see how this will turn out. What do you think?
- Aaron