Supersonic Man

Apart from the classic Aquaman outfit, the Flash - hands down - is my least favorite DC costume of all time. When you think about grabbing the low hanging design fruit of comics superheoes, this guy kind of takes the cake. "You mean he can run really fast?" the newbie asks, only to be answered "not just that he can blah blah blah ..." answers the comics afficionado.

This is a classic problem of comics that follows something the Heath Brothers (Made to Stick) call the expert problem. We have all run into it at one point or another - it's referrred to as the curse of knowledge - where you become so innured in some subject that you become unable to successfully explain that subject to someone else. Their eyes glaze over and they tune out becuase you have essentially blown them away with too much information.

The Flash sufferes from that with me when I meet ardent fans of the Scarlet Speedster - they thunder through the incarnations and plotlines before I can say "I hate the Flash". I don't really. I can't get past how badly it comes across on the page - wingtip feet, wings, lightning bolts - what maniac would go out in public with that one even if they in truth had superpowers? It's a giant flashing sign screaming "when I stop for long enough for you to take aim, please shoot me!" Just kidding.

The personality of many people I have met over the years who are basically thrill seekers, has been that they are openly "showy" - extroverted to a fault, gawdy but lovable. Somehow that explains the Flash to me but I had to make some adjustments.

The current DC redesign has tried to give functions to the cute wingtips, but I threw them out completely for totally technical versions - much like the Rocketeer fin helment gives some directional vectoring capabilities I have done the same. But I wanted to add the helmet to the Flash to indicate "test pilot" or "flight helmet" to go with the supersonic human motif. At one point I was going to cover this guy with corporate stickers and logos but to avoid having more than just DC corporate types berating me I skipped it.

The suit would basically be something like a heavy duty speed skater outfit - something which could withstand the wear and tear, help him manuever, breathe, communicate etc. There is an interesting fact about insects when they run essentially saying that at some point in the run cylce, an insect will stop using it's other limbs to propel it forward - I magine at some point it becomes irrelevant for the Flash to use his arms for running. But the helmet serves another function - while performing at high speed, to be a member of a team requires communication and coordination - running at high speed without something to protect your mouth would be like trying to use a jet engine exhaust like a megaphone. You will NOT be heard. I guess I just wanted to address the obvious questions I have about the Flash when I read his comics totally - nitpicky crap, of course. Guilty as charged.