The Flash #15 – Review

By: Francis Manapul (story & art), Brian Buccellato (story & colors), Marcus To (pencils), Ryan Winn (inks), Ian Herring (colors), and Carlos M. Mangual (letters)

The Story:  Grodd is jonesing for his Speed Force fix as Barry sees into the (possible) future(s) of Central City.

The Review:  This right here is a tale of two books.

For the bulk of the issue, it’s business as usual plot-wise, this time drawn by Marcus To.  The problem is that, if I’m being totally honest, it’s all just a little bit dull.  That dullness has been afflicting the Flash’s writing for some time.  Grodd, thus far, isn’t a compelling villain and lacks a distinct motivation beyond CONQUER!!!  Even stranger, for a book that for a while was moving TOO fast, things suddenly feel glacial – Barry is unconscious for the majority of the issue, Daniel West is still running around the city looking for Iris, Patty is still doing…not much, and Charles Xavier gorillas continue to suck up brainpower at the stadium, and the Rogues are still punching gorillas.  Precious little happens this month and worse still, Barry, Patty, and Grodd feel like little more than character archetypes: super-hero, super-villain, love interest.  None of them really jump off of the page.  Script-wise, this is pretty dry.

Animal Man #15 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Steve Pugh (art), Timothy Green II (pencils), Joseph Silver (inks), Lovern Kindzierski (colors)

The Story: So it seems like the monster has become the master—of the monsters.

The Review: Being an ardent follower of both Animal Man and Swamp Thing can be, to use a well-worn cliché, a double-edged sword.  The sharp, shiny side is you have a plot enriched by two titles working together.  The dull, blunted side is dealing with moments where the two books cover the same terrain.  And let’s face it: if you’re reading either one of these series, you’re probably reading both.

That meant dealing with a lot of the same kind of exposition for the early issues of this arc.  Animal Man particularly suffered because Lemire doesn’t have quite the fleetness of language that his writing buddy does and he hasn’t been quite as aggressive with the pacing as he could have been.  Last issue felt like an especially low point for this series as a whole, burdened with more talk than action, and only the barest exploration of what’s left of the Rot-infested world.

The Flash #9 – Review

By: Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato (story and art)

The Story: For God’s sake, Barry, don’t do anything stupid like quote Planet of the Apes around here.

The Review: The Silver Age of comics might have superficially drawn upon an ever-growing understand of science to tell stories, but that did nothing to stem the tide of totally illogical and bizarre ideas and storylines upon which comics fed.  The Flash (Barry Allen flavor), perhaps as a resulting byproduct of that era, thus comes attached with some seriously wacky history, probably epitomized by his completely random relationship with gorillas.

It’s always been hard to take DC’s gorilla villains seriously—and yes, I use the plural because DC actually has at least two reputable villains of simian persuasion.  If you’ve watched Young Justice, you might know Monsieur Mallah, a hyper-intelligent gorilla who wears a beret, speaks French, and is a mutually reciprocated romance with an out-of-body brain.  Gorilla Grodd thus seems plausible by comparison, a hyper-intelligent, telepathic ape who feeds on brains to increase his mental power, but he’s still just too goofy to be considered a legitimate threat.

The Flash #8 – Review

By: Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato (story and art), Ian Herring (colors)

The Story: Having to look at a stranger’s life for untold years would drive anyone crazy.

The Review: I often talk about “lack of direction” on this site, and that’s a stuffy, English-major type word that deserves explanation.  If you’re going to invest your time and interest into a long-form piece of fiction, you need more out of it than simply a series of entertaining tales; you need to see a clear progression in either the characters’ development or an overarching plot/theme.  If you hit issue eight and neither has changed much from the first, the title clearly lacks direction.

Now, obviously there have been a few changes to the status quo from #1: the Flash discovering the Speed Force’s effects on time and space, a couple villain clashes, a new girlfriend.  But if you take a step back and examine the book as a whole, these alterations are largely superficial.  They’ve done nothing to make our hero a different person than when he started, nor have they established a clear path or tone for what this series wants to be.

The Flash: Secret Files & Origins 2010 #1 – Review

by Geoff Johns (writer), Scott Kolins & Francis Manapul (art), Michael Atiyeh & Brian Buccellato (colors), and Rob Clark Jr. (letters)

The Story: A primer serving as an introduction to the Flashes’ universe, preceded by a short story where Barry grapples with his past.

What’s Good: If you’re a reader unfamiliar or only slightly familiar with Flash lore and are looking forward to get into April’s relaunched Flash monthly, it doesn’t get any better than this.  In a little less than 40 pages, this book gives you everything you need to know about the major heroes, villains, and locations in the Flash’s corner of the DCU.  As a reference work, this book is a lot of fun for new readers.  The encyclopedic entries are written in about as lively a style as is possible and are matched with absolutely beautiful full-page illustrations.  If you know nothing about the Flash’s world, you will leave feeling 100% comfortable heading into the ongoing and with your Flash knowledge in general.

The short story that precedes this primer is also some pretty outstanding stuff, touching on many of themes Johns clearly views as important in a Flash comic, while also ominously setting up for things to come, directly leading into Johns’ first arc.  All told, the story touches upon family, the camaraderie of DC’s speedsters, Barry’s battles with his past, and what the Rogues are up to, while also making really great use of time as only a Flash comic can.  As a first taste of Johns’ upcoming run, this is really solid stuff and an enjoyable, at times surprisingly emotional, read.  It gives a good sense of the tone Johns will be writing in.

I also have to reiterate just how awesome the art is throughout this double-sized book.  There really isn’t a single page here that isn’t a total blast.  Both Manapul and Kolins, though very different from each other, are perfect for the Flash, both artists emanating the sort warmth and energy that perfectly suits the books tone and atmosphere.  If the art on the ongoing can live up to this standard, we are in for something special.