Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Barry Allen, back on duty:

This was a quick one I knocked out to celebrate getting the new DCUC Flash. I need to get back to a lightbox setup, though, since the red plastic reflects light something fierce; and I encourage you to check out real review sites for better pictures, I know I will.

It was tough trying to write Barry, though; I don't think I'd ever tried him before. He's a bit of a straight arrow, and he lacks Wally's predominant traits of womanizer (at least, before Wally got married) who tries too hard to live up to his predecessor. Barry didn't have to struggle to live up to Golden-age Flash Jay Garrick's example; partly because Jay was on Earth-2 in most of those issues, but mostly because Barry outshone Jay on a technical level almost from the start. Even though his powers are almost godlike, Barry's still just a guy, and an almost-quiet one at that. He'd definitely be the straight man in any sort of JLA setup, though.

Getting Wonder Woman to hug Barry, without it looking inappropriate, wasn't a picnic. But I figure she would, I think Diana liked Barry a lot, as a guy friend. Barry was married, or as good as, to Iris pretty much from the time Diana met him; which would probably make him more comfortable around her than some of the single guys. Maybe.

Green Lantern as a young Ted Danson? God, I hope not. And Hal gets the jerkiest lines in this one partly because he can be a bit inconsiderate, but also because of positioning. And Firestorm: you're not in the JLA because you're overpowered, your powers require a vague knowledge of chemistry and physics to write, and Alex Ross hates you. (I think Ross considers Firestorm's joining the team the cutoff point of when he stopped reading Justice League of America.)

Red Tornado explodes. It's what he does.


4 comments:

Tom Bondurant said...

It looked to me (not necessarily from your photos) that the Barry figure has the same basic body as Hal. Is that accurate? In other words, is Barry as bulky as Hal, and does it work for a Flash figure? (The JLA-series Wally/Flash is about the best Flash figure I've seen. I have the original DC Direct Barry, which came with a Cosmic Treadmill, but he's about a head shorter than the current figures.)

Yeah, I think Alex Ross's childhood must have ended rather abruptly when he realized Captain Marvel and Plastic Man had been passed over for JLA membership in favor of Firestorm. It's like if he draws Cap and Plas in his League lineups for long enough, he can rewrite history.

googum said...

Tom,
Without having them in hand right this second, I gotta say, yeah, there's probably a lot of reuse between Barry and Hal. Somehow, it's OK, especially since I'm used to old-school JLA issues where everyone was drawn with the same body type...
And you've got the Flash box set, right? With kid Wally in the red suit, which is weird since it's like he wore that for twenty minutes. Between that, the JLA Flash, and this DCUC one, I very likely may have spent more on Flash figures, then on Flash comics. (I have a ton from the quarter boxes!)

SallyP said...

Hilarious. Of course Hal would have the jerky lines. That's just Hal.

Barry strikes me as being the "John Stewart" of the Flash Clan. Quiet, and competent. Plus, Barry's just...well...sweet.

Tom Bondurant said...

Yep, the box set, with mini-me Wally. I still haven't found a way to justify actually putting that Wally figure on a shelf. Maybe next to the Ancient-West Alexander which came with Ancient-West Worf.

Flash figures are hard to resist, aren't they? I have the New Teen Titans Kid Flash, the JSA Flash, and Impulse and Max Mercury too. None of them will keep a running pose, though.