Catching Up with
the
Fastest Man Alive (Part 4)
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Part 6 | Part 7
[Jay
Garrick]’s like
the coolest old guy you know.
He’s William Burroughs in a tin hat.
Let’s see: I read Flash
this morning, had a ball while I was reading it.
Great. Oh, I’m glad you
liked it.
Lots of quirky villains.
Yeah! [Laughs.]
Double Negative, the
Fashioneer—the Suit, for God’s sake! I mean, come on—!
[Laughs.]
Is this going to be
something that we can look for to be a hallmark of the Millar/Morrison
run? Are we going to look back next year and go, "Oh, man, remember
all those great villains from ‘97-’98?"
Yeah; for some reason,
that’s what The Flash means to me. I mean, somehow the Flash, as much
as he’s the hero of the book, the villains were always the stars as
well. No one else’s rogues gallery, I think, (except Batman’s) is as
good as the Flash’s. The Flash has got at least eight great villains,
you know? And really colorful ones! They’re not the sort of guys that
would have you trembling in your boots, but it’s great fun writing a
Mirror Master story or something.
So we just thought we’d
add to that crazy legacy with a good few. And we’re doing this all the
way through it. This is going to be bubbling with villains. That’s the
kind of thing we like.
Oh, terrific.
[N]ext issue ends with a
super-villain break-out at Keystone Prison, and we’ll get a million of
these crude characters.
[Laughs.]
We’ve had a ball doing The
Flash. It’s been great.
You know, the one thing
I’m looking forward to [about] handing it back to Mark [Waid] and
Brian [Augustyn]—and us end—is because I’m looking forward to
reading it again. Because it was really sad this month whenever the
freebie box came in from DC and suddenly I didn’t have The Flash
to
read because I’d already written it, you know
[Both laugh.]
‘Cause ... there’s
nothing I enjoy more than sitting my little pile of comics there and
reading through The Flash and all the things I like. So it’ll be nice
to give it back to Mark in that sense.
Are we going to be seeing
any of the Flash’s traditional villains during your run?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, very much
so, actually.
Because Mark and Brian
redefined some of the villains through Underworld [Unleashed] and in the
recent "Hell to Pay" storyline, the one just before we took
over. And they’re supposed to be back now with a slightly darker edge
than before. They’re back with more of an agenda.
And so the first thing we
did—Well, we’ve got this three-parter where you don’t see any of
them ... in the first storyline. But issue 132 ends with the Mirror
Master coming back—you know, the Scottish Mirror Master that Grant had
in Animal Man.
Oh! I haven’t seen him
in a while.
Oh, yeah. Well, see, no
one can do the Scottish dialogue. That’s why.
[Both laugh.]
But we loved it, you
know. We had such a great laugh doing it, we did the next issue as just
an all-Mirror-Master issue ... . And it’s crazy shit, you know? It’s
the weirdest one of the lot. I mean, the opening scene has got the
Mirror Master creating a big prism in the middle of Keystone, and as the
Flash is running towards him—and he’s running at the speed of
light—the prism splits him into seven Flashes, like all the different
colors of the [spectrum].
Mm-hm.
So it’s just crazy
stuff like that, you know?
Oh, that sounds like fun.
Oh, we’ve a great—
The one I’ve just
finished, actually, [is] a Jay Garrick—an all-Jay-Garrick issue, which
is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever written, I think. I had a great
time doing that too. ‘Cause I love Jay, and actually doing a whole
story about Jay Garrick was a treat.
Is Steve Lightle going to
be the regular cover artist on the book?
As far as I know, yeah. [H]e’s
certainly drawing the first four.
Terrific. And what’s
coming up after "Emergency Stop"? How much can you reveal
about the master plan?
I’ll tell you all.
Well, I don’t want to know
it all, but—
[Laughs.] The tape will
run out, yeah?
But immediately after
"Emergency Stop" you don’t get a breather, actually.
"Emergency Stop" ends with the next thread, you know? It’s
the Flash in his new suit up against—
You know the Flash has
broken both his legs at the end of the first issue? And we have to come
up with a way of getting him mobile again? So the Flash has got this new
costume just made of pure Speed Force that holds him upright while his
super-metabolism’s repairing his legs.
And right after
"Emergency Stop," he’s up against the Mirror Master.
The issue after that is
an all-Jay-Garrick issue, which is the one I was saying is a really,
really sad little story, but it’s trying to show Jay in a light
we’ve never seen him [in] before. [T]he most obvious thing to do with
old super-heroes is to make all the jokes about incontinence pants and
all that kind of stuff, and I thought it’d be quite cool if somebody
who had been connected to the Speed Force for 30 years [was] actually so
glad to be alive and so full of life that he and his wife are always—
You know, one second
he’s up Mt. Everest; the next second he’s, you know, reading every
single fashion magazine. [He’s] just a guy that knows everything
because he’s got— 24 hours in a day is like a million years to him.
Life’s so full of possibilities for him, you know, and it’s just the
idea that you can still be cool and be a super-hero when you’re 70.
What an incredible idea.
Oh, it’s such a lovely
little story, actually. We’re really pleased with it. It really came
together well. And in that issue, actually, you’re going to have a
brief appearance with Jay up against Captain Boomerang, up against
Captain Cold, and—you know, it’s just a whole—it’s like lots of
little cameos, with lots of different characters. We’ve got Sentinel.
Are you familiar with Sentinel, [the Golden Age Green Lantern]?
Yes. I am, actually.
Yeah, well, you know the
idea of him and Jay being old friends? But Sentinel—even though he’s
been rejuvenated, even though he only looks 30 years old now—he admits
that when he’s around Jay HE feels like the old guy, because Jay is so
cool.
All the young guys want
to hang out with him, and you’ll get Jay having lunch with Nightwing
and Arsenal and everything, ‘cause Jay knows about all the modern
music and Jay knows about what books you should be reading. He’s like
the coolest old guy you know. He’s William Burroughs in a tin hat.
[Laughs.] William
Burroughs with a tin hat. Interesting.
[Pause.]
Give me a moment to shake
that image.
[Laughs.]
Any other plans for
Sentinel, or—?
Oh, no, he’s just
really a cameo in there. [W]e’re really just trying to reflect all the
aspects of his life with the other old JSA guys and everything, so we
tried to give them—
It was really just an
excuse on our part as huge fanboys to get, even just for a few panels,
to write some dialogue by the Golden Age Starman or something, you know?
It was really good fun.
And actually, the issue
that follows that ties in with Green Lantern and Green Arrow. It’s a
three-part storyline that runs through—The first issue’s in Green
[pause] Lantern, then Green Arrow, and it ends in The
Flash, where the
three guys go on holiday. And they go on holiday to the same place as
these super-villains.
continue
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