The Flash #12 – Review

By: Francis Manapul (writer & artist), Brian Buccellato (writer & colorist), and Wes Abbott (letters)

The Story:  Glider is crowns herself the new leader of the Rogues as Central City is torn apart by a Rogue civil war.

The Review:  While I think Marcus To is an excellent artist, I can’t overstate how happy I am to see Manapul and Buccellato back on art for this title.  They really have visually defined how best to draw a Flash comic in 2012 and, next to a JH Williams III illustrated Batwoman, I feel their Flash is the best looking book of the new 52.   We get fantastic action sequences, great lay-outs, naturally likable characters, and a wonderful sense of speed and motion.  All of this is, of course, covered by the lush, painted colors of Buccellato.  The action sequences this month are particularly enjoyable in their creativity, their tremendous awareness of space and setting, and their basic flow; once again, I feel that in the Flash‘s action scenes, you really do feel the benefit of the same guy(s) being behind both the writing and the art.  I also love their take on Glider: she’s a burst of peachy pastel colours, ethereal and constantly flowing with a sense of weightlessness.

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.