[Jay Garrick]’s like the coolest old guy you know.
He’s William Burroughs in a tin hat.

Let’s see: I read FLASH this morning, had a ball while I was reading it.

Great. Oh, I’m glad you liked it.

Lots of quirky villains.

Yeah! [Laughs.]

Double Negative, the Fashioneer—the Suit, for God’s sake! I mean, come on—!

[Laughs.]

Is this going to be something that we can look for to be a hallmark of the Millar/Morrison run? Are we going to look back next year and go, "Oh, man, remember all those great villains from ‘97-’98?"

Yeah; for some reason, that’s what THE FLASH means to me. I mean, somehow the Flash, as much as he’s the hero of the book, the villains were always the stars as well. No one else’s rogues gallery, I think, (except Batman’s) is as good as the Flash’s. The Flash has got at least eight great villains, you know? And really colorful ones! They’re not the sort of guys that would have you trembling in your boots, but it’s great fun writing a Mirror Master story or something.

So we just thought we’d add to that crazy legacy with a good few. And we’re doing this all the way through it. This is going to be bubbling with villains. That’s the kind of thing we like.

Oh, terrific.

[N]ext issue ends with a super-villain break-out at Keystone Prison, and we’ll get a million of these crude characters.

[Laughs.]

We’ve had a ball doing THE FLASH. It’s been great.

You know, the one thing I’m looking forward to [about] handing it back to Mark [Waid] and Brian [Augustyn]—and us end—is because I’m looking forward to reading it again. Because it was really sad this month whenever the freebie box came in from DC and suddenly I didn’t have THE FLASH to read because I’d already written it, you know

[Both laugh.]

‘Cause ... there’s nothing I enjoy more than sitting my little pile of comics there and reading through THE FLASH and all the things I like. So it’ll be nice to give it back to Mark in that sense.

Are we going to be seeing any of the Flash’s traditional villains during your run?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, very much so, actually.

Because Mark and Brian redefined some of the villains through UNDERWORLD [UNLEASHED] and in the recent "Hell to Pay" storyline, the one just before we took over. And they’re supposed to be back now with a slightly darker edge than before. They’re back with more of an agenda.

And so the first thing we did—Well, we’ve got this three-parter where you don’t see any of them ... in the first storyline. But issue 132 ends with the Mirror Master coming back—you know, the Scottish Mirror Master that Grant had in ANIMAL MAN.

Oh! I haven’t seen him in a while.

Oh, yeah. Well, see, no one can do the Scottish dialogue. That’s why.

[Both laugh.]

But we loved it, you know. We had such a great laugh doing it, we did the next issue as just an all-Mirror-Master issue ... . And it’s crazy shit, you know? It’s the weirdest one of the lot. I mean, the opening scene has got the Mirror Master creating a big prism in the middle of Keystone, and as the Flash is running towards him—and he’s running at the speed of light—the prism splits him into seven Flashes, like all the different colors of the [spectrum].

Mm-hm.

So it’s just crazy stuff like that, you know?

Oh, we’ve a great—

The one I’ve just finished, actually, [is] a Jay Garrick—an all-Jay-Garrick issue, which is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever written, I think. I had a great time doing that too. ‘Cause I love Jay, and actually doing a whole story about Jay Garrick was a treat.

Is Steve Lightle going to be the regular cover artist on the book?

As far as I know, yeah. [H]e’s certainly drawing the first four.

Terrific. And what’s coming up after "Emergency Stop"? How much can you reveal about the master plan?

I’ll tell you all.

[Laughs.] The tape will run out, yeah?

But immediately after "Emergency Stop" you don’t get a breather, actually. "Emergency Stop" ends with the next thread, you know? It’s the Flash in his new suit up against—

You know the Flash has broken both his legs at the end of the first issue? And we have to come up with a way of getting him mobile again? So the Flash has got this new costume just made of pure Speed Force that holds him upright while his super-metabolism’s repairing his legs.

And right after "Emergency Stop," he’s up against the Mirror Master.

The issue after that is an all-Jay-Garrick issue, which is the one I was saying is a really, really sad little story, but it’s trying to show Jay in a light we’ve never seen him [in] before. [T]he most obvious thing to do with old super-heroes is to make all the jokes about incontinence pants and all that kind of stuff, and I thought it’d be quite cool if somebody who had been connected to the Speed Force for 30 years [was] actually so glad to be alive and so full of life that he and his wife are always—

You know, one second he’s up Mt. Everest; the next second he’s, you know, reading every single fashion magazine. [He’s] just a guy that knows everything because he’s got— 24 hours in a day is like a million years to him. Life’s so full of possibilities for him, you know, and it’s just the idea that you can still be cool and be a super-hero when you’re 70.

What an incredible idea.

Oh, it’s such a lovely little story, actually. We’re really pleased with it. It really came together well. And in that issue, actually, you’re going to have a brief appearance with Jay up against Captain Boomerang, up against Captain Cold, and—you know, it’s just a whole—it’s like lots of little cameos, with lots of different characters. We’ve got Sentinel. Are you familiar with Sentinel, [the Golden Age Green Lantern]?

Yes. I am, actually.

Yeah, well, you know the idea of him and Jay being old friends? But Sentinel—even though he’s been rejuvenated, even though he only looks 30 years old now—he admits that when he’s around Jay HE feels like the old guy, because Jay is so cool.

All the young guys want to hang out with him, and you’ll get Jay having lunch with Nightwing and Arsenal and everything, ‘cause Jay knows about all the modern music and Jay knows about what books you should be reading. He’s like the coolest old guy you know. He’s William Burroughs in a tin hat.

[Laughs.] William Burroughs with a tin hat. Interesting.

[Pause.]

Give me a moment to shake that image.

[Laughs.]

Oh, no, he’s just really a cameo in there. [W]e’re really just trying to reflect all the aspects of his life with the other old JSA guys and everything, so we tried to give them—

It was really just an excuse on our part as huge fanboys to get, even just for a few panels, to write some dialogue by the Golden Age Starman or something, you know? It was really good fun.

And actually, the issue that follows that ties in with GREEN LANTERN and GREEN ARROW. It’s a three-part storyline that runs through—The first issue’s in GREEN [pause] LANTERN, then GREEN ARROW, and it ends in THE FLASH, where the three guys go on holiday. And they go on holiday to the same place as these super-villains.