I meant to publish this post on the day my final Flash book landed on bookshelves both real and virtual, but that ugly thing called Life got in the way. Anyway, here are some ruminations on two Barrys — Barry Allen and yours truly…
I’ve been a Flash fan my whole life, but my journey into the Arrowverse began in late 2016 with Andrew Smith (publisher at Abrams Books). Andrew and I had worked together a bit when he was at Little Brown — he was the guy who made it his mission in life to get I Hunt Killers on the bestseller lists…and he succeeded!
A few years later, he was the Big Cheese at Abrams. He called me one day and, after some pleasantries, said, “We just signed a deal to publish middle-grade novels based on the CW Flash TV show–”
“I’m in,” I told him. “How much do I have to pay you?”
After assuring me that, in fact, Abrams would pay me (what???), it was a done-deal. Three books, to be approved by the CW. I wrote up an outline, bound and determined to do things in prose that a TV budget would prohibit.
A year later, the first book hit. I felt like I really needed to prove that I could write “on model,” so I did my best to keep the characters and situations as close to the TV show as possible. Still, I dropped in some fun stuff, like using Madame Xanadu and the super-obscure villain Earthworm, as well as references to Pink Floyd that the target audience wouldn’t get…but their parents would.
I also put in this joke, which I can’t believe no one pulled…
For the second book, Johnny Quick, I wanted to have Barry travel to the villainous Earth Three of my childhood comics, a world where good guys were bad and bad guys were good. But the TV show had its own, different version of Earth Three. So… I did what any geek would do: I cubed the number three and invented Earth-27, which was now my evil Earth.
I’m really happy with the way the second book turned out. I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to write the characters, so I branched out and strayed a bit from the show. I even got to introduce the Phantom Stranger, though I never called him that…
I was also really proud of the swerve in Book Two, where I made it seem pretty obvious who the villainous Johnny Quick was…and then did something that they probably wouldn’t be able to pull off on the show, purely due to actor availability. (And yes, I’m being deliberately coy here so as to avoid spoilers.)
By the third book, The Tornado Twins, I went all out. I sent Barry into the far future, not merely to the 31st century (where he met the titular twins), but also to the 64th century. Two futures, both of them incredibly far-flung, and it was a blast! At this point, I was dropping a metric ton of Easter eggs and in-jokes into the story. For example, Barry goes to get his costume repaired and witnesses the origin of Bouncing Boy…
The origin of Bouncing Boy, from the comics (left), and in my book (right).
Why? Why did I feel the need to reproduce (down to the goofy double exclamation points!!) the origin of a minor hero from 1968 in my book?
Well, because I could, that’s why!
Look, half the fun (maybe more than half) of writing a series like The Flash is getting to play in the sandbox with all the toys. It’s not just me saying this — I didn’t invent Easter eggs. The people who make the TV show(s) are in on the fun, too, with all sorts of references, callbacks, and in-jokes scattered throughout the seasons. It’s a geek tradition…and a pleasure! And the more obscure the reference, the bigger your geek mojo.
So, when it came time to bring the first trilogy to a big conclusion, I just had to do it in true fanboy style, with a reference that — thus far — no one has called out.
Here’s the setup: In the 64th century, Barry battles the insane techno-magician, Abra Kadabra. Kadabra uses his mind-control ability to compel Barry to stand in one spot so that Kadabra can zap him into oblivion. Barry can’t run away and he can’t vibrate, and a beam of deadly light is headed his way.
So he stays in the same spot, but spins at tremendous velocity, using the friction-heat to bend the light beam back to Kadabra:
Where did that idea come from? Well…
Yeah, I wrote an entire trilogy to build to a moment cribbed from a cartoon I watched as a seven-year-old in 1978. If that doesn’t make me King of Nerds, I don’t know what will!
Come back tomorrow for the inside scoop on the second trilogy, Crossover Crisis!