The early years of the Post Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe is a fascinating place and the house ads from that era are a big part of that.

The image above is the house ad for the new Flash series that was coming out in March of 1987. Barry dying in the Crisis was a big deal and now Wally is the first hero to really fulfill one of the mandates of being a kid sidekick. He was taking the mantle of his mentor, but this was the new DC and it had to be different.

Choosing Mike Baron, a writer known more for his independent work Nexus and Badger, to write the character was a good step in this direction. Get someone that wasn’t known for mainstream work and give them a high profile mainstream gig. Tap Butch Guice, an artist that did the bulk of his work for Marvel, and you have another name to add to the “all new, all different” Flash.

But the images they used for the ad are…odd. These are panels from the first issue and they’re dramatic, but they don’t really scream “an exciting new era begins here!” I’m interested to know what the thinking was. Did they not want to do the “show the cover to the first issue” thing? Did they think that these images would make the reader more interested in checking out the new book?

It’s weird.

Then again Baron’s run on the book is kind of weird too. I like it more than others seem to but it was a strange way to kick off Wally’s time as Flash and it took years for the character to even out.

Still, the ad is neat as an artifact from the era.

More to follow…