DC Comics made a number of announcements at the San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday none of which was bigger than the news that Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver were bringing back the long dead Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, in a miniseries entitled Flash: Rebirth, which is slated to debut in early 2009.  Fans will remember that Johns and Van Sciver formed the creative team on the highly successful resurrection of Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern in the similarly titled Green Lantern: Rebirth series from 2005.  Since the Green Lantern is now one of DC’s top titles, Dan Didio and company are clearly hoping that Johns and Van Sciver will be able to perform their magic on the Silver Age Flash who took a “dirt bath” more than two decades ago during the Crisis on Infinite Earth event in 1985.

Also announced today was the return of Kevin Smith to the DC Universe.  The film director (and part-time comic book writer) will be writing a three-issue Batman miniseries that will debut in November.  Smith plans on bringing back the enigmatic villain Onomatopoeia that he created during his two-issue run on Green Arrow.