Interview: Marc Guggenheim

DC Comics has announced that Marc Guggenheim will be replacing Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo as the regular writer behind the Flash beginning with The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #9 in February of 2007. This follows the news that Ken Lashley will pass his artistic duties to Ron Adrian. Newsarama has an interview with Guggenheim in which he discusses his take on the scarlet speedster and the plans for his first story arc.

When you’re young, change seems like a constant -- for DC’s Flash, it is -- a change in men under the mask and, coming early next year, a change in writers. Originally, it seemed like a slam-dunk of putting the former writing team of the Flash television series, Paul DeMeo and Danny Bilson on the latest incarnation of the character at DC -- and initially, the newly launched series was met with solid sales. However, as things continued, the writing team’s version of Flash found some tough going with fans of the series who were already reeling with the changes made to the character in Infinite Crisis. In February, Flash will get a new voice in the form of Marc Guggenheim, who joins the title as its new regular writer...

“My instinct is not to dwell too much on Bart's getting older. Rather, I want to focus on him being the Flash. He's the Flash now and we all have to get used to that -- including Bart. One of the things I think is cool about the successive mantle-passing of the various Flashes is that all four of them have distinct personalities. Jay is the older, mentoring type. Barry is the icon. Wally is the irresponsible upstart who evolved into a responsible adult. My inclination is not to dwell too much on Bart's complex backstory and recent ‘maturing,’ but those elements clearly define his personality and set him apart from the Flashes who came before him. So I'm going to use those elements to inform my writing of the character without necessarily referring to them directly or, at least, often.”