[Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers.]
The Flash #1: Synopsis
The reader is taken on a run through Central City and the life of a forensic scientist. The thing is, as you could expect, He is no ordinary forensic scientist. His name is Barry Allen and he is the Fastest Man Alive!
The Positive
As this is a Flash story, the pace is breakneck. Writer Joshua Williamson calls this piece “Lightning strikes twice” so artist Carmine Di Giadomenico’s art is not only full of lightning bolts, but it works like a lightning bolt. It zigs. It zags. It drags the viewer’s eyes all over the page. There is no way to take it all in on the first view. Ivan Plascencia’s colors feel like they are struggling to be contained. He stays within the lines, but just barely.
On the cover, Di Giadomenico has Barry running right at us and we better jump out of the way or we are going to get run over by the story that is coming.
This story reminds us why we love Barry Allen as The Flash. He never wants to let anyone down. His frustration at being the fastest man alive who can not be everywhere at once weighs on him and the reader feels it. You want to buy him a drink or give him a hug or just remind him that he can run up buildings and isn’t that totally amazingly cool? Huh? Barry? Come on man.
The Negative
The cover is a bit misleading as young Wally West is not in costume in this issue nor does everyone’s favorite rogue, Captain Cold, rear his ugly head.
This book flies by, which is the thing that drags it down. Twenty-one pages are not enough really get the reader where he or she needs to be. Since this is just “part one” of a longer story-line, we go in knowing that we will not have all the answers we want. The subtitle of this story is Deus Ex Machina, which means “God from a Machine.” Who is the God? What is the Machine? What is going on? Well, wouldn’t you like to know? There are a lot of questions and a lot of those questions go unanswered.
The Verdict:
Like the original Flashpoint series, Barry is all too aware of what he knows and what other people do not know. That makes this part of the Rebirth series the most interesting. DC readers know that at the heart of any universe shake up, there is a speedster. While this time it is the elder Wally West doing the shaking, Barry Allen is still the one who needs to figure it out.
The last panel is totally going to make you wish you could run through time to get the second issue.
