MAJOR SPOILERS About Comics in the Mainstream Media Today

Not too fussed about the Barry Allen news as I've never been a big Flash fan but the new Spidey villain looks good. I love variations on existing charecters appearing and kicking ass (no pun intended) and JRJr's art is pretty sweet.

Didn't Barry tell Wally that he would be there at the worst moment of his life? Considering how bad his book has been....maybe we're there!

WOW! Barry Alan retruning as Flash! And that new spidy villain looks bad ass!And John Romita Jr. art just amazing.

At first I thought, damn I'm spoiled. But then I remembered I've been expecting this since before last summer.

Barry Allen needs to stay dead. Wally West should've stayed dead, even though he was the Flash I "grew up" with.

They never shoulda killed Bart, honestly. What's the point of having legacy characters if you won't let the old ones stay in the grave? 

I was kinda mad I read this, but yeah, like Muady said up before, I was expecting this as well. Barry Allen, I now I get to see some stories with the silver age Flash. Should be good.

And the new Anti-Venom thing, pretty crazy looking. Let's hope they don't go and put it in the next film already.

Not reading it!

My main response isn't to the DC spoiler itself so much as that a 'mainstream' media source reported it.   I'm trying to figure out if there really is more interest out there in comics stuff, or if it's just that the publicity departments are working harder (especially since Cap's death made such big news) and occasionally something lands.

WAIT?! Somebody's back from the dead?

That never happens! 

I wouldn't get too attached to Barry Allen at this point. I mean, it's been like 23 years since he died, right? He's obviously a Skrull. 

I'm stoked over the the DC Universe book - the Batman preview pages that popped up yesterday, plus this news, have me really looking forward to it.

As far as Anti-Venom - JRJr on Spider-Man would have me there anyway, even if it was Rocket Racer, Molten Man and Grey Gargoyle (sorry, Ron).

Here's the link for an article about the Flash resurrection in The New York Times. The New York Times!

 http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/an-unexpected-comic-book-resurrection-the-flash/

Pushing the spoiler off the main page.

I fear change.

so just a question: what exactly was the tip off that it was Barry who was coming back? I picked up on it (mostly because of the Lightning Saga and a couple of other things between then and now), but all I saw was a thought box for a Flash... is there anything there (the place maybe) that says that it's Barry?

The fact that he's a bolt of lightning is a tip of the hat to his "ascension" in the first Crisis.  Plus, Barry coming back is epic.  Bart?  Not quite as much.

Enough with the Venoms. Just call him something else. If he really is an "anti-Venom," put the suit UNDER his skin.

Barry Allen I'm okay with. Cause I've never read a Barry story (beyond a few back issues) and am not against reading new ones.

with Anti-Venom...eh...I don'tk now, I thought we sorta got that with Toxic two years ago, but that was sorta ignored. Now is this supposed to be eddie brock? Cause if that's the case then that may be interesting.  

Isn't Brock dead?

@ Conor: No, he appeard in Sensational during Back in Black. He's thin as all hell and has cancer, but he's alive.

@Deezer

Nothing says its Barry. But the thought boz that progressively turns red is remembering things that imply a relationship with the rest of the Justice League only one dead Flash, Barry, could have had.

The Flash talking certainly isn't Wally or Jay, they're alive a corporeal right? And it wouldn't make sense for it to be Bart.

@Deezer & Muady - Read the article linked above.  It's definitely Barry.  Even if DC hadn't come out and confirmed it, it would be pretty clear from the issue.

Barry Allen coming back is epic level shit for DC fans. But I think the excellence of DC Universe Zero is unfortunately overshadowed by Barry's return. If you been following the DCU up till now, the book was epic in oh-so-many ways.

Final Crisis is going to rock my face off.

"Aw, fuck" was my initial response. I don't even care about the Flash all that much (what do I look like, Tom Katers?) but if he's coming back, I'm on board! I guess I'll have to buy DCU #0. Fuck you, DC.

Maybe this is why they've made Wally suck so hard. So we'd thank jesus that Barry is back.

DCU Zero cost $0.50, dude. It's so low risk, why wouldn't you pick it up if you have an interest in the fictional DC world?

Thanks for the heads up, but now I wish I had seen the spoilers. I avoided all of the media, then read DC Universe 0 and had no idea what the surprise was. I needed the spoilers to explain what happened in the issue.

I'm staying away from Final Crisis. What a mess DC has. 

Haha, I know its for sure Barry, Conor. I was just tellin him what the "tip off" was, since nothing explicity says Barry Allen in the comic.

Pushing spoilers again.

"Thanks for the heads up, but now I wish I had seen the spoilers. I avoided all of the media, then read DC Universe 0 and had no idea what the surprise was. I needed the spoilers to explain what happened in the issue."

That was my thought too... it makes sense now that I read this but I'm not a big enough DC fan to catch on I guess:-P

Five bucks says Wally West is a Skrull.

so maybe thats why wally west flash was so bad, so we can buy and be happy about barry being back.

I don't read the spiderman books or the flash (or much dc at all, really).

So, from my perspective, both of these news bits were "meh." 

There's already a Flash, so it's not like they are bringing back "the Flash."  Just one of the Flashes.  I don't know this Flash, so why should that be interesting to me?  I guess it just doesn't seem like a news bit that will get any new readers in.  (Like the death of Cap Am did.)

And the Spider-man thing is a little cooler. Also doesn't seem like something to get new readers, but the little teaser with MJ and Kravens grave and the venoms is kinda cool looking.  Probably still won't read it.

And anti-venom "designed" by JRJR?  They just reversed the colors... how did he design it, just press the "invert" button in photoshop?

Did anyone get the idea that Libra was Barry Allen???

No... but that's an interesting possibility.

Although this from the article would seem to dispel that:

Morrison and Johns had been waiting for the right moment to bring back their childhood hero. In Johns' words, "When the greatest evil comes back to the DC Universe, the greatest hero needed to return." 

I have read comics for about 20 years. I started just after the first crisis. The past few years I haven't read much DC (only Morrisons stuff) and I didn't realise that the last page of DCU #0 meant Barry Allen was coming back until I read it on this website!

He should stay dead. Move on! Nobody cares about Barry!!

@Conor - I guess the reason I thought that was really that last panel before the last page when it says "This is Me." or something like that and its on a panel with close up on Libra's blue eyes.  We know Barry has blue eyes, plus I heard Morrison say at NYCC panel that we would see the face behind Libra's mask.  Just kind of made me wonder.

Then, if you know Libra's history, he dispersed throughout the Universe when he ate up too much power back in Justice Leauge of America #111 (his 1st & only previous appearance which I picked up last wk and Pittsburgh Comicon.)  So if he was dispursed back then, he had to reconstitute himself.  And what other character is reconstituting himself throughout the issue... Barry Allen.

Hence, is Barry Allen really Libra?

At this point, who cares?  Every time they have one of these events, they kill one or two characters, resurrect or revive one or two more, and sometimes try to "fix" the status quo, although that rarely works across the board (you know, like in "The Flash").  I mean, the best stories are generally stories, not "events" and aren't engineered but created, generally by one or two inspired individuals who actually have a story to tell.  

Wow. Well I resisted this for over a week, and I was still trepidatious about checking it today, but fairly confident the spoiler window had passed, and for the most part it had.

I'm on a wait-and-see approach for Barry Allen. I'm a bit fearful they're going to go the Hal Jordan/Parallax and/or Superboy Prime/Earth-Two Superman route, making Barry turn a little dark.

As for the Anti-Venom, it's exciting to see JRJR back on Spidey, and that's all I have to say about that.