That’s the question fans of the DC superhero speedster have been asking since yesterday, when the publisher released a teaser image for The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13 featuring the hero seemingly vanquished by the members of his famed Rogues Gallery. And while superhero deaths and eventual rebirths in the comic business are as commonplace as making a right turn on red, the Flash has had a longstanding tradition of seeing one iteration of the character die only to have his legacy picked up by another speedster. The latest of these changes came a little over a year ago in DC’s Infinite Crisis miniseries, which saw Bart Allen, the teen hero known as Kid Flash, age rapidly and take up the scarlet cowl after then-Flash Wally West disappeared in a wave of extra-dimensional energy. Allen’s subsequent run as the Flash has had a rough go of it in the Comics marketplace, despite the recent positive response to the series’ new creative team of writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Tony Daniel.

Wizard Universe contacted Guggenheim last night shortly after DC’s teaser image appeared to pick the scribe’s brain on what the picture means, fans’ reaction to the possible death of yet another Flash and how the current “Full Throttle” storyline ties into DC’s massive weekly series Countdown.

WIZARD: So, the image DC just released shows a pretty beaten-down Flash at the mercy of his Rogues and stone letters conveniently covering the word “alive” in the title. What do you think fans are going to take from that?

GUGGENHEIM: [Laughs] It’s really funny, actually. I went online on the Flash boards, and I saw what people’s reaction was. Yes, obviously people are jumping to the conclusion that it’s Bart, and the question that I posed was, “How can you tell that’s Bart?”

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Source: wizarduniverse.com

[PREVIEW] FIRST BORN FIRST LOOK

Taking place some time after the series finale of Xena: Warrior Princess and before the events of the "Contest of Pantheons."

Rating: Teen+
Covers: FABIANO (Marvel Zombies) NEVES (25%), STJEPAN SEJIC (25%) AND PHOTO(25%)!
Writer: JOHN LAYMAN
Penciller: NOAH SALONGA
Colorist: INLIGHT STUDIO

Taking place some time after the series finale of Xena: Warrior Princess and before the events of the "Contest of Pantheons." - featured in DYNAMITE'S Xena #'S 1 - 4 - "Dark Xena" finds Gabrielle making a request of the Gods and learning that you must be very, very careful, what you wish for, and how you wish for it!

In this issue: Gabrielle and Joxer concoct a plan! A plan to infiltrate Xena and her her ruthless Criminal companions. Can Gabby and Joxer find their way in, convert Xena and not lose their heads in the process? Plus the return of Ares!

Featuring a trio of art covers: Stjepan Sejic, Jonathan Lau and Fabiano Neves along with another Xena photo cover!

Adam Hughes is a genius! Following up on his breathtaking Emma Frost Comiquette, which Sideshow lovingly rendered, Hughes has tackled the oft-sculpted bride of Spider-Man, Mary-Jane Watson-Parker, and it’s another winner!

BY: Sideshow Toy
RELEASE DATE: Summer

Adam Hughes is a genius! Following up on his breathtaking Emma Frost Comiquette, which Sideshow lovingly rendered, Hughes has tackled the oft-sculpted bride of Spider-Man, Mary-Jane Watson-Parker, and it’s another winner! Not only did Hughes cleverly work the Spider-suit in as laundry, but he also managed to work in a classic cheesecake pose, thong and all. Next to her, the 10-inch, 1/2-scale Legendary Scale Daredevil bust may seem unexciting, until you learn that the Sideshow-exclusive nameplate edition shown here is limited to only 100 pieces. 100!

Legendary Scale Daredevil Bust

Mary Jane

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By Brian Warmoth

Lara Croft is 10 years old, and GameTap’s gift to the video game vixen is a trove of animated makeovers by some of Comics’ biggest artists and writers in its exclusive series “Tomb Raider Re\Visioned.” Launching in July, the 10, five-minute episodes viewable at GameTap.com will take place at different junctures in the ponytailed heroine’s history, with stories by Peter Chung, Brian Pulido, Gail Simone, Warren Ellis and Christos Gage and character designs by Chung, Jim Lee, Ivan Reis and Cully Hamner.

“We wanted to line up content creators who excelled at creating unique visions and had a distinctive style,” explained Ricardo Sanchez, the series’ creator and executive producer. “Peter Chung created what is arguably the most ICONic character in animation, Aeon Flux. Warren Ellis, Brian Pulido and Jim Lee are just as notable for the characters they have created or re-imagined.”

Several of the episodes will serialize their stories over two- and three-part arcs, including Chung’s “Keys to the Kingdom,” which introduces the series when it becomes available beginning July 10, according to Sanchez.

Each story was developed by its unique writer and artist team, providing a spectrum of new takes on Eidos’ gaming ICON.

“Ivan Reis’ Lara is more sophisticated-looking and has an almost classical animation feeling to it,” describes Sanchez. “Cully Hamner has created a very athletic and streetwise-looking Lara that really complements the script that Warren Ellis did. And of course, Jim Lee is doing four different versions of Lara and accomplishes in one episode the overall goal of the project, which is to take familiar video game characters and do something unique and different with them that fans haven’t seen before.”

Simone’s pairing with Flash animation studio SixPointHarness, who designed Lara's schoolgirl rendition, takes a look back at Lara Croft’s formative years in the episode “Pre-Teen Raider,” which flashes back to her childhood. “She’s at a boarding school funded primarily by her father, and she’s an early teen or so,” Simone states. “We get to see the famed Croft grit and rebelliousness, but it’s at a time where her skills are just developing. It’s just a fun, brief glimpse into how she became what she eventually became.”

Simone brings her fully honed skills scripting heroines over from her regular writing duties on titles like Birds of Prey and Gen13 to spin her shot and crafting her own Croft. “She belongs in that rare field that includes characters like Wonder Woman and Xena,” Simone characterizes, “the daring and dangerous female adventure hero who can stand up to their male counterparts easily.”

Croft also has a home on Simone’s video game playlist. “Oddly, the last game that I finished all the way to the end was the last Lara Croft game for the [Xbox] 360,” she says.

A fan of fighting and puzzle games, in addition to an admitted recovering addict to the PC MMORPG City of Heroes, Simone cites Lara’s transcendence as a character from video games to the world consciousness as an ICON. “People know her and love her who have never picked up a game controller,” says Simone. “That’s very powerful stuff.”

“Tomb Raider Re\Visioned” will follow GameTap’s nine-part documentary “Ten Years of Tomb Raider: A GameTap Retrospective,” which recaps the history of the Tomb Raider franchise, including a look at the character’s creator Toby Gard, past Lara Croft models Nell McAndrew, Lucy Clarkson, Jill De Jong and Lara Weller and current model Karima Adebibe.

The documentary and animated episodes coincide with the release of Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition this summer. Additionally, classic Croft games Tomb Raider Chronicles, Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation are currently all available to play online through GameTap.

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