Written by Geoff Johns
Illustrated by Francis ManapulBRIGHTEST DAY rushes forward! Now, make way for Hot Pursuit — the latest speedster to come out of the Speed Force! He’s here to make sure no one breaks the speed limit — hero or villain! And just wait until you see whose face is under Hot Pursuit’s helmet…
Flash is one of the best characters in the DCU, but the book is marked repeatedly with heavy delays. However, the Flash is also at the center of a huge upcoming event this summer for DCU called Flashpoint, and issue #9 marks the beginning of “the Road To,” so hopefully the delays don’t hurt it to much.
Find out after the cut.
The Scarlet Speedster has had a very rough reintroduction to the DCU. Coming back in Final Crisis, the mega-event saw delays. Spinning out of this was Flash: Rebirth, once again met by delays. Now we have the Flash’s ongoing, and right out the bat, we have delays. For someone whose ability is to run at the speed of light, something is trying to hold the Flash back from outside of his own universe, and to a certain extent a gloom lightly hangs over the book that is caused by these actions. Of course, this feeling of anxiety towards the title is generally assuaged when actually reading the book, because when it all comes down to it, the Flash is a fairly uneven yet still relatively entertaining title.
What the Flash lacks in schedule, it maintains in accessibility. The new arc starts just as fresh as the first arc, with a brand new murder to solve. A few threads begin to get woven as Johns transitions between arcs, and the beginning of Flashpoint is otherwise hinted at. Of course, there are two main detriments to the story. The first is that as much as Johns begins to weave some story elements – finally bringing the extended Flash family into the story – one can’t help but feel that outside of this arc, with Flashpoint an arc away, that this might be in vain towards a greater emotional resonance with the characters. As it is they only appear extremely briefly, and while they appear on an upcoming cover, Flashpoint exists to “reset” everything… so is it worth devoting any time to that aspect? Meanwhile, the second detriment is the ultimate reveal to Hot Pursuit, which if nothing else feels rather telegraphed and unexciting. Hot Pursuit was certainly an interesting chance to further evolve the Speed Force, and while that is perhaps inherently true, as it stands at the end of the issue this just feels incredibly familiar towards other stories Johns has already told.
Johns used to be one of the best writers DC has, but it seems that his other duties are taking away from his writing. Johns is great at the large scale ideas, because on a purely conceptual basis Hot Pursuit and Flashpoint sound incredibly exciting. However, as those elements play out in this story, they are actually the most unexciting part. What really works about the issue is the crime scene/murder element. The death of the Elongated Kid provides a great new mystery for the title, and one can’t help but notice that if the title simply focused primarily on that and didn’t so quickly set itself up to be a title that heralds a major event, Flash could be great. The Flashpoint stuff of this issue fizzles, but everything in between very much sizzles. Barry Allen has only just gotten back to the DCU, despite Final Crisis #1 coming out four years ago. After an incredibly dense in mythos introduction, we should give him more time to stay grounded before trying to get all time crazy on the story.
However, as much as the story might be uneven, Francis Manapul is reason to pick up the book alone. Manapul’s art is completely kinetic, and he lights the page on fire. Hot Pursuit blazing across the page on a lightcycle powered by the Speed Force is great, and colorist Brian Buccellatto is a great compliment to Manapul’s inks. Manapul even manges to pull out some fun scene juxtaposition between Barry and Iris that helps to accentuate the separation between the characters. Manapul is a great talent to the book because not only can he make the large and loud scenes grandiose but he can also make the quieter scenes really matter. It’s such a shame that the larger Flash Family is not a bigger part of the story because Manapul is so great at tender moments, and his art really brings the “family” feeling to the story. Manapul and Buccellatto are a fantastic pairing for the book, and it’s more than a welcome pleasure to have them back on the book.
As it stands, Flash should be a lot better of a book than it is. On the one hand, this is great place for new fans to hop on board and get prepared for Flashpoint, because the book is very open in that sense. Barry taking on a new case is exciting, and the mystery behind it stands to carry a good storyline (assuming that a) Hot Pursuit doesn’t take over the rest of the story and b) this is all just really yet another tricky Flashpoint misdirect (which it most likely is)). However, the issue with this title is that as soon as it is really getting good by taking time to elaborate on Barry’s new situation as a cold case investigator and someone with an estranged larger family, it all gets kind of muddy in what is ultimately just an event tie-in/prelude. It’s hard to invest in the mystery of a new case when the book so desperately wants us to only focus on this one future element. Flashpoint could assumedly be a lot of fun but when it comes down to it, it’s definitely happening too soon and that is felt in the book by the end of the issue. The last page does give a nod to “classic Johns,” but for once that’s really not that good of a thing. Flashpoint is just becoming too much of a telegraphed storyline, and it’s kind of disappointing. If DC and Johns had waited until perhaps the end of this story to reveal Flashpoint was coming, the reaction might have been different, but as it is right now with DC beating everything Flashpoint over our heads from every direction as they hype it to every corner they have, it just lacks the excitement a last page reveal should create.
Final Verdict: 7.8 – Buy
