The Four Color Media Monitor

The Nashua Telegraph does a little fawning job for Geoff Johns' tedious take on Barry Allen:

DC chief creative officer Geoff Johns can apparently do no wrong these days. He just finished re-imagining Green Lantern to critical and financial success, and now has turned his sights on the Fastest Man Alive, with promising results.

Yeah, and GL sure isn't selling much now; sales are well below 100,000 units. And if the same has occurred with the Flash (and indeed it has), I don't see how he can do no wrong today, or how he can be so promising either.

“The Flash: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues” ($19.99) collects the first seven issues of the Scarlet Speedster’s rebooted title, plus two stories from the “Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010” one-shot.

Not only do these stories lay the groundwork for the new series starring the resurrected Flash of 1956-84 (as a superhero forensics expert), not only do they tell you everything you need to know about the major characters, villains, background and milieu of the series, but they tell a whopper of a tale, as well.

Johns combines the innocent charm of ’60s Flash stories with the hard-nosed storytelling of today’s “CSI” franchises in a time-travel whirlwind using most of the Crimson Comet’s rogues gallery.

That’s a lot to pack in, but Johns does it effortlessly for a story offering revelation, mystery, thrills and charm. No wonder he’s CCO!

No wonder his work's declined in sales too! The late scheduling of the book didn't help matters either. I guess it's only fair that I note how these are mostly futuristic variants on the Rogues' appearing in the story, based on ones whom he overused drastically ever since he'd taken over the title, and that he's made this a variation on CSI's approach is exactly what I think is wrong with it. And if this topic on the Dixonverse forum tells anything, no, there are other people who aren't buying into this either. Besides, what does this take on the Scarlet Speedster have that couldn't be done with Wally West? Or rather, that couldn't if someone as pretentious as Johns was going to be in charge?

It'll be interesting to see how long this trade paperback remains in print: the compilations of Johns' earlier work, circa 2000-2005, have been out of print for a couple years, which suggests that long term, they weren't as popular as some might think (who knows how long the recent omnibus, costing at least $75, will last then). If the same result turns out for the latest material, I'd estimate it'll last on shelves for about 2 years or less.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Flash, Green Lantern, moonbat writers, msm propaganda