Bart Allen is back. More back than he was before!

Comic Book Resources did an interview with Geoff Johns here that's mostly about his work on various Flash-related things, and a little bit about Blackest Night. But only as it's related to Flash-related things.

During the interview, which I've got mixed feelings about (more on that later), he mentioned that Sterling Gates is going to be writing a new Kid Flash ongoing. Yay, Bart! Boo, Kid Flash, but yay, Bart!

I love Bart. I think I've been pretty clear about my love for Bart before. He's definitely my favorite Speedster by far, and as one of the six people that actually liked him as the Flash, I was pretty sad to see him die. But he's back! And after Flash: Rebirth he's getting his own ongoing.

Of course, he's stuck with being Kid Flash. Meh. That's just never anything I'd imagine Bart would settle for. But I've written about that before. I'm looking forward to seeing him grow up some at the hands of Gates, who's done a great job on Supergirl.

Johns also mentioned in the interview that Blackest Night takes place after Rebirth, which means Barry is... fine. Well okay then, so much for that cliffhanger. And since we're seeing a new Speedster by the end of it, one who may not actually be new, and Barry sticks around as the Flash, I'm guessing Wally takes a new name, gets a new uniform, and on we go from there. I'd actually rather have that happen than have some brand new speedster introed (or have someone like Owen Mercer become prominent or whatever), because with Barry back we've got plenty.

Meh, Barry's back. Whatever.

Anyway, things I'd like to see from the Kid Flash ongoing, in case anyone that has any say in these things stumbles across my blog, decides I have decent ideas, and feels like listening:

Bart grows up. Not in a complete, lose -his-Bartness sort of way. But let him adapt and change and move beyond just being the guy who used to be Impulse that's now stuck being Kid Flash even though he's not a kid... but he is again. Ahem. Tim's doing this over in Red Robin, and hopefully Kon will do this in Adventure Comics. I want Bart to move forward, not just stay the same old Bart.

Bart deals with his death. Not just "hey, cool, I'm alive!" but in a legit way. He was brutally beaten to death. I don't care if they brought him back with no memories of the incident. That can be retconned.

Bring back Arrowette! Hey, Mia's over in England doing nothing in particular (or so I like to pretend). And Arrowette was first introduced in Impulse back in the day. Last we heard she was going to school with Cassie, who's still out heroing. And while it's nice to see a hero walk away, she's one I want back. She's a good foil for Bart (Don't believe me? Check out canon to the left!). And I think this could relate well to the first two requests: she's had to deal with both Kon and Bart's deaths, and we haven't really seen any of that. We focus on Cassie, but not Cissie, because Cassie is Wonder Girl and Cissie is just a retired hero. So that could be cool. Also it is my personal fanon that they would be a great couple. But that's really just a side-issue, I swear. (No, really, canon. I don't want this to turn into a Bart/Cissie post, but I'm just sayin'.)

So my favorite Speedster is back in his own title, written by a writer I already know I like, and I'm excited. I'm also excited that the entire Flash family is getting more attention (even though, again, I'm meh about Barry). I'm excited that they're all going to be involved in the upcoming Flash title, even Bart.

Some more positivity! Not bad for a Monday.

Introductions.

So. Here I am. Trying to figure out why I started a blog about comics when I'm not exactly an expert.

In the past few months I've gotten back into comics pretty hardcore. I've always loved comics, but I haven't always bothered with going to my local comic shop and following along issue by issue.

When I was young, my treat at the local convenience store was a random comic of that spinny rack with random comics on it. I don't remember consciously having brand loyalty, but I do remember watching the filmation Shazam! cartoon on my family's Beta Max VCR every night. I've always been very attached to motion pictures - television and film both - so I know I probably stuck with what I knew when I was picking comics up. I can say that I've definitely leaned towards DC as long as I can remember, though there are certain characters of Marvel's that I love (and, of course, I read The Crow in the mid-90s, devoured Sandman, and followed WildC.A.T.S. fairly regularly for awhile, so I'm not limited to the major imprints).

I had no idea what the overarching storylines were (this was during Crisis on Infinite Earths), all I knew was that I loved the characters and seeing them do Cool and Super things.

A lot of things kept me from the comic book world growing up, and made me gravitate more towards the screen adaptations that were more readily available. First, and most importantly: I didn't have a comic book store nearby. As soon as one opened in the mall, while I was in high school, I became a member. That's when I discovered Frank Miller and Alan Moore. But it's also when I had pretty much zero income and had just logged onto this wild thing called the internet for the first time. Plus, the store closed down pretty quickly. Those were the dark days, prior to geek becoming cool again (thank you Matrix and Lord of the Rings) and before we had kick-ass mainstream superhero things like Heroes and the recent Batman and Iron-Man movies (which I think are probably due in large part to Singer's awesome adaptation of X-Men, my casting issues aside). So it crashed and I was once again left without a comic store until college (when I also didn't have much money).

Second, I'm not a dude. I know! Shocking! These days I walk into my local comic shop and see a woman behind the counter about half the time, which is awesome. But it wasn't always like that. And as much as I'd like to say that stuff like that doesn't bug me, there are only so many times I can be pointed towards the manga sections (seriously, I do not like manga) or asked what my boyfriend likes before I internalize that a little.

Third, I'm not straight. Sort of less of an issue, in that there have never really been gay or bisexual characters anywhere ever (unless you're into subtext, which I am), but by the time I was in college getting a Women's Studies degree (gasp!), that sort of thing kind of bothered me. On a side note, how excited am I for a lesbian title-runner with a lesbian back-up once Batwoman starts in on Detective Comics in June?

Wicked excited.

So there was that. And I kind of floated in and out of collecting. I own Superman 75, because... death of Superman... Mostly I got TPs (notably Reign of the Supermen and GenerationX) or graphic novels (would you believe I was lucky enough to snag a hardcover Watchmen, which I have since ruined by reading too much?). Meanwhile I had plenty of other things to keep me going: Tim Burton's Batman movies, the X-Men animated series, then the Batman animated series, Lois & Clark (yeah, yeah) and the occasional, more-than-likely-bad, movie (hey hey, Hasselhoff's Nick Fury).

The first thing that really drew me back to the fold was when Bart Allen became the Flash.

Sold! So I read up on the backstory, got a little annoyed at what had happened to the Flash Family, and then... Bart died.

WTF, DC.

But wait. While catching up on the goings on of the DCU, I found out that Superboy had died, too. (Superboy was a character I enjoyed in his eponymous TV series, that I totally adored rebooted during Reign of the Supermen.)

WTF, DC.

Meanwhile, over at Marvel... I had no idea. The X-Men movies had already come out, and they'd already massacred by favorite X-Man ever by turning him into a teenager.

WTF, Marvel movie division?

But now, as an adult, I've started to realize that a lot of what I love about things is... what I can hate. So having a teenaged Bobby Drake helped me rediscover my love of the real (in my head) Bobby Drake, so I got to reading. Having Bart die got me angry enough to read up on when he was Impulse, which led me to Young Justice and Teen Titans. The existence of Smallville made me want to bash my head against a wall - and keep current on the DCU. I don't know, that's just how I roll.

And along the way, I got involved with roleplaying. That helped, too. I keep up on what's happening so I can keep up. I discovered a new Captain America who could finally make me interested in Captain America (because Bucky Barnes has to atone, and that's more interesting than any of Steve Rogers' stories that I remember reading). I said hello to Supergirl for the first time since she was Helen Slater. And I found out that the writers at DC had brilliantly adapted Renee Montoya into the comic universe... and she had become one of my all time favorite heroes.

(Expect something on Crime Bible soon, 'cause I've got lots to say.)

I started to care about the characters again.

And, what do you know... I've got a local comic shop staffed with enough women (and I get treated with respect by the men that work there), the first GLBT lead of a major imprint is due in a month, and I've got a little disposable income handy.

So I'm back. We're on again, me and comics. And it's like I never left.