My name's Joe, and I'm the fastest blog alive

Or something like that.

For those of you who have no idea what that's a reference to, it's a comicbook character called "The Flash" (it's in italics because it's moving quickly).

The Flash is one of DC's longest running superheroes, and there's been a Flash in some form or another through most of comicbook history. Unlike characters like Spiderman or Batman though, the mantle of the Flash has been passed on to younger characters a few times as the book has gone on.

I won't bore you with all the details (you can find them quite easily on Wikipedia) but I will say that I was a huge fan of Wally West. The writing on the book was good, there was a more lighthearted feel to the book and it was just good old fashioned superheroistic fun.

Then came the reboot. A year ago, Flash got a new title, a new issue number 1, and the mantle was passed on to Bart Allen. I was a bit miffed, but I'm a big boy these days, and I was prepared to give it a chance. Unfortunately, they also changed the writer. They changed from a good writer, to a bad writer. Danny Bilson should have been good. He wrote the Flash TV Series, which though hampered by dodgy special effects and cheesy acting was a fun series to watch. So I wasn't expecting the writing to be bad. But it was. I lasted 4 issues before I couldn't face it any more, and I went into mourning for a character that I'd enjoyed and was now dead to me.

So today comes the good news. Not only is Bilson off the job, but he's being replaced by Mark Waid - a writer who was responsible for one of the best runs on the Flash ever. Not only are they getting rid of the new title, but they're even going back to the old title and continuing the numbering as if the shitty new title never existed. But best of all is this - Wally's coming back. With his corny jokes, his laid back easygoingness that no-one else in the DCU seems to have and with his ability to be a superhero that isn't screaming about angst all the damn time.

And that's a flash fact.