Now that Barry Allen's back in the pages of Final Crisis -- and it's been announced that he'll be sticking around for The Flash: Rebirth by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver -- the current three-issue Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge series has a whole different slant to it.
For Rogues Revenge artist Scott Kolins, it's a relief to finally be able to talk about what plans Johns has for the Flash Universe and how the Rogues Revenge
mini-series plays into those plans. Johns and Kolins have been
associated with The Flash since working together on the speedster's
title in 2001-2003, and now they're one issue into Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge, marking their return to the Flash villains they helped define during their run.
As Newsarama stopped to talk with him at his table in Artist's Alley at
San Diego Comic-Con, Kolins seemed thrilled to hear that the Rebirth
announcement had taken place so he could speak freely about how his
series' writer is preparing for what's to come, and how the next two
issues of Rogues Revenge fit with it all.
Newsarama: Scott, it's obvious you're a huge Flash fan. How do you feel about the news that Barry's going to be the star of Flash: Rebirth?
Scott Kolins: I think it's great. I feel a little bad for Wally
on a personal basis. But then that's like how I feel a little bad for
Kyle right now because Hal's the thing. But that's part of publishing.
You can't have too many focuses, especially if you're bringing someone
back. So Barry's going to be the focus for the time being. He's going
to get the best stories and everything. Wally, I'm sure, is going to
get a lot of cool stuff in there too, but it's not the same.
But you know, Barry's due. I've talked to Geoff about a lot of this
stuff. He's got some great ideas. It's going to be a really good book,
and I've already begged and pleaded with him to do something with me
after Rebirth with Barry.
NRAMA: There has been more than one hint in Rogues Revenge that Barry's playing into this story. Is Rogues Revenge a prequel to what Geoff is doing next with the Flash?
SK: It leads into what's going to happen next with Rebirth. Barry's already in Final Crisis. And in Rogues Revenge,
you can see that Iris is already in there. And there are more things
like that. These are all some of the pieces he's putting together that
are going to lead to that storyline.
NRAMA: Now that an issue of Rogues Revenge has come out, have you gotten a good response from fans to the issue?
SK: I'm very happy with the response. Even the most negative reviews we got were people complaining about the Final Crisis
angle or some little thing I did, but then they went on gushing for the
rest of the review about the issue and how happy they are that Geoff
and I are back on the Flash.
NRAMA: Probably the biggest twist in this issue was Zoom's mission, which was revealed at the end.
SK: That was a surprise to me too, when Geoff first told me
about it. You know, we've talked about doing a "Rogues" mini-series
since... well, ever since back when I was on The Flash with
Geoff. But last year in San Diego, I got a phone call from Geoff saying
he'd just had a big meeting, and he said, "Dude! Now's the time to do
Rogues! I've got all these ideas. We're going to do this, and it's
going to lead to all this stuff going on in the DC Universe. We've got
all these things going on, so now's the time to do it! Come on back!
Come on back!" And I thought, OK, this sounds great! So I came back to
DC.
And he told me right then what was going on with the Rogues. And we'd
talk every once in awhile, getting ready for it. But there would be a
couple weeks that would go by that I wouldn't hear from him because he
was busy writing all his 20 million other books he's working on. And
finally, he called up and said, "I just got something! I want to bounce
it off of you and see what you think!" And he does that. He always
tells me his latest ideas. And he told me the one about Zoom, and my
jaw just fell on the floor.
That's when I knew that not only would Rogues Revenge be a
great project that would be fun and personal for me and Geoff, but --
and I've joked with Geoff in the past about this, how I see him working
on, like, Rebirth and Sinestro Corps and some of these
other things that are so giant for Geoff, but I don't end up working on
them with him -- and I heard this thing about Zoom and I thought, OK,
this is big. This is that fanboy moment when you just drop your jaw.
And I thought, this project just shot up to a level way beyond what I
thought it would do.
NRAMA: As the story continues, will we see more Libra, more Zoom, more lightning and more Rogues?
SK: Yes! All of that! There's all that and then we also get
into, once again, Geoff formulates it so it's great for brand new
readers to walk in, and there's great stuff where we start getting into
all this background information about who the Rogues are and where they
came from. But for those who know where they came from, like if you
know where Captain Cold came from, you'll be rewarded with some of what
we do in these issues. Some of these things with the Rogues may not
affect the huge overall DC continuity, but for somebody like Captain
Cold, it affects his continuity greatly.
NRAMA: So something big is going down for Captain Cold?
SK: I think it's safe to say that. And we'll be getting into
that more with all of them as the series goes on. There's a really cool
Captain Cold scene in #2. And then he ends #2, and the last page is one
of my favorites because it's going to refer to one of my favorite
storylines from the first series dealing with Weather Wizard. You think
you know what's going to happen, but this one is more of a surprise.
It's so cool.
NRAMA: After Rogues Revenge, do you have any idea what you'll be working on next, Scott?
SK: This is my only official project right now, but I've got a
meeting here in San Diego with the powers that be at DC to talk about
what's next. And some of it is also Geoff and I talking about where we
can work together on a monthly basis. Until we can make that happen,
with Geoff working on so many books right now, there's always a need
for a fill-in guy from time to time, so we're talking about that stuff
to keep us working together until some monthly thing can gel together.
