DiDio fails to provide logic for bringing back Barry Allen
Published by Avi Green on Friday, January 02, 2009 at 1:15 AM.
The Titans Tower Monitor provides a recent DC Nation column of Dan DiDio's, where he talks about why they're bringing back Barry Allen as the Flash:
All DiDio's doing is showing that things are not planned well, not even in advance. And here's a challenging question: if he wants to bring back Barry, then why doesn't he do the same with Tula, the original Aquagirl? Tula was never that big a presence in the DCU outside of Aquaman's series from the late 60s-early 70s, but she did have a few interesting moments, most certainly her teaming up with the New Teen Titans for their showdown with the H.I.V.E in 1984. Yet unlike Barry, Tula, who died from inhaling waters infected with toxic poison in the Crisis, is virtually forgotten today, and DiDio's bunch does not seem interested in resurrecting her. If Barry can come back, shouldn't Aquagirl be able to as well?
It's ludicrous how only select characters are seen fit for resurrecting.
From the time I started working at DC, I had a plan --no, scratch that, a desire to bring back Hal Jordan and Barry Allen. To me, they were the definitive Green Lantern and Flash, and they helped bring forth a generation of heroes. More important, they were the base from which all the other ring-bearers and speedsters would come. Nothing against Kyle or Wally, but you can't know who they are without knowing who Hal and Barry are first.He fails to make any distinction between why in Hal's case, bringing him back was because he'd been tarnished in Zero Hour (not that they've really done better since then), whereas in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Barry was given a decent sendoff, so it's not like he ever needed to be brought back. In any case, they've already lost me by killing off Impulse. And, he fails to realize that, if the audience needs to know who Barry is, all they have to do is read the older material.
In bringing Hal back, I found a "partner in crime" in Geoff Johns (remember that name; it is important later). Geoff was an even bigger Hal fan than I was and had the same desire to bring him back. Following that desire, we formulated a plan, and following the plan came GREEN LANTERN:REBIRTH. The success of Rebirth exceeded even our wildest expectations, so with Hal and better than ever, we turned our attention to Barry.
All DiDio's doing is showing that things are not planned well, not even in advance. And here's a challenging question: if he wants to bring back Barry, then why doesn't he do the same with Tula, the original Aquagirl? Tula was never that big a presence in the DCU outside of Aquaman's series from the late 60s-early 70s, but she did have a few interesting moments, most certainly her teaming up with the New Teen Titans for their showdown with the H.I.V.E in 1984. Yet unlike Barry, Tula, who died from inhaling waters infected with toxic poison in the Crisis, is virtually forgotten today, and DiDio's bunch does not seem interested in resurrecting her. If Barry can come back, shouldn't Aquagirl be able to as well?
It's ludicrous how only select characters are seen fit for resurrecting.
Labels: bad editors, dc comics
