Flashpoint: Reverse Flash – Review

By: Scott Kolins (writer), Joel Gomez (artist), Brian Buccellato (colorist)

The Story: No, no, Reverse Flash—don’t hold back.  Tell us how you really feel.

The Review: After the shudder-inducing debut issue that was Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #1, I had but one hope: to not have to read another Kolins-penned title for a good long time, at least until after he’d gotten to hone his writing chops some more.  So much for wishful thinking.  Before we’ve had enough time to recover comes yet another Flashpoint tie-in written by Kolins, right on the heels of the last.

Immediately red flags pop up from the opening pages.  Kolins has a very direct, almost simple-minded approach to character work and writing in general, and it shows in the very title for this story: “My Revenge”, which suggests Hitler’s Mein Kampf, but without the sociopathic ingenuity.  Reverse Flash is simply a disturbed sociopath, and Kolins makes no effort to portray him with any more depth than that.

Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Lisa does a science experiment proving her hamster learns faster than Bart?  There’s a scene where he tries to touch an electrically-noded cupcake and repeatedly, even determinedly, shocks himself.  Reverse Flash channels much the same attitude, trying again and again to exact pain on the Flash (often using the same tactic multiple times in a row) and consistently failing.  It’s the most perversely fascinating example of AA’s definition of insanity.

Even more problematic with the sheer repetitiveness of all this is the fact that it’s also all redundant.  Kolins essentially briefs you on the most significant Reverse Flash storylines ever written, but he does so with little to no craft.  With the Flashpoint stamp all over the issue, you’d think Kolins would spend some time giving light to what Reverse Flash’s role in the overall plot will be, but you get none of that.  A waste, to say the least.