The Flash #7 – Review

By: Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato (writers and artists)

The Story: This attitude of not knowing where you’ll end up and barging in anyway tells me you’re not the greatest road-trip companion, Flash.

The Review: I lost my first copy of this issue about five seconds after reading it on the bus—and while remaining in the bus.  If you know me personally, this shouldn’t shock you one iota.  My theory is a wormhole within the time-space continuum sucked it in, and any moment now, news will be breaking about someone finding a fifty-year old copy of The Flash #7, an ad for Resident Evil: Raccoon City on the back, in the middle of the Badlands.

Or maybe the homeless person next to me sat on it when he came in and didn’t notice, which isn’t out of the question as he was quite snookered with McGuinness at the time.  Whatever the case, the mention of wormholes seems appropriate in discussing this particular issue of The Flash.  If Barry had any doubt about Dr. Elias’ hypothesized connection between excess use of the Speed Force and time warps, he has incontrovertible proof of it now.  It does beg the question of how he never noticed this effect before if big honkin’ rips in space burst nearby whenever he does this, but let’s set that little bit of inconsistency aside.

If you have a glass-half-full mentality, you might say that this disaster at least prompts Barry to true, self-initiated action for the first time this series.  Considering his upstanding character, and his tendency to wait for the starting gun before running, his decision to use Dr. Elias’ treadmill for his own purposes is practically revolutionary, especially since he himself admits he “can’t pretend to know what will happen” if he generates another wormhole and runs into it.

WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Prophet #23 – This series is probably legit now: Three really HOT issues in a row.  The world-building is great and the art is great, but what sets the series apart is this sorta stoicism  that I’m not getting from any other comic right now.  Everything in this comic is very direct and blunt and sometimes it’s nice to creators do that than try to show us how clever they are.  The only thing this series wants you to “get” is what is on the page, yet it isn’t a kiddie-comic either.  As a bonus, this issue gave us our first BIG reveal of the series.  Hop on now while we’re only three issues into the series!  Runner-up: Batman #7

Most Anticipated: Scalped #57 – That last issue was kinda unexpected, right?  There are only 3 issues left after this one and I’m sure it won’t be happy endings for the good guys of the Prairie Rose Reservation because that just wouldn’t be Scalped.   Something awful is probably going to happen to Dash, but what will it be given that most of his antagonists are already dead?

Other Picks: American Vampire #25, The New Deadwardians #1, Spaceman #5, The Unwritten #35.5, Choker #6 (after ~2 years!), Elephantmen #38, Morning Glories #17, The Walking Dead #95, Daredevil #10, FF #16

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Wonder Woman #7 – Honestly, this issue went buy in a flash and really sticks to one locale, but there’s so much coolness here.  The designs for Hephaestus and Eros were fantastic, Azzarello’s tinkering with Amazonian culture/history is great, and Diana’s lesson in assumptions making an ass of you and me was a solid character moment.  Oh, and Cliff Chiang returns.  Hurray!  A really fantastic book that every DC fan should be picking up and one that’s easily in my top 5 of the new 52. (for the record, the other four are Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Batman, and either Batwoman or Flash)

Most Anticipated: Spaceman #5 – Yes, I realize there’s a proverbial elephant in the room written by two of my favourite writers in AvX #0 this month, but there are two reasons for picking Spaceman this week.

1.  While I’ll be picking it up, I’ve never been a huge fan of zero issues.

2.  I have completely and utterly fallen in love with the world of Spaceman.  Every issue is like a vacation to a favourite destination.

Other Picks: Avengers vs. X-Men #0, Aquaman #7, The Flash #7, American Vampire #25, Scalped #57, Daredevil #10, FF #16, Mighty Thor #12, Moon Knight #11, New Avengers #23, Secret Avengers #24, Uncanny X-Force #23

The Flash #7 – Review

by Geoff Johns (writer), Scott Kolins (art), Brian Buccellato (colors), and Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: As Captain Boomerang has a meeting with the Reverse Flash, his back-story is explored.

What’s Good: At the very least, Geoff Johns gets an A for effort on this one, as he works his butt off to put as much emotion, heartbreak, and hatred into this retelling of Captain Boomerang’s origins.  There’s a sense of trauma and a building up of seething anger that works quite well.  This issue does wonders in making the reader actually care about Digger, which is crucial given his position in Brightest Day.  It brings the reader close to Digger, and that’s certainly a good thing.

Johns does a decent job of making Digger’s life follow the track of a boomerang; that being that everything comes back or comes full circle, often violently.  It’s a nice way to structure the issue and plot Digger’s emotional trajectory.  That said, Johns plays it fast and loose with this structure, which means that it’s only ever a subtext and never becomes overbearing.

The end result is a character that is still most certainly a bad guy, no questions asked.  That said, he’s the sort of bad guy that’s comprehensible and human, even if there aren’t many shades of grey.

Moreover, Johns, through focusing on Digger, manages to write a Brightest Day tie-in where the Brightest Day stuff doesn’t feel out of place and doesn’t detract from the comic or distract from its actual story.  Instead, Brightest Day fits well here, forcing an otherwise small-fry villain in Captain Boomerang to look at the bigger picture.

Johns also does a fantastic job of writing the Reverse Flash, who is nothing short of pure evil.  It’s nothing particularly overt or detailed in his dialogue, only its tone.  While Thawne may be a bad guy like Digger, he’s far less human and clearly functions on a different level.  Praise is also due to Scott Kolins, who does an absolutely fantastic job illustrating the Reverse Flash, making him seem downright demonic, which really went well with Johns’ dialogue.

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: American Vampire #9 – This is becoming the Scott Snyder award after his win (for me) with Detective #871 last week, but it is impossible to ignore the artistic and story excellence of AV.  Endings to story arcs are very difficult to pull off and this was an outstanding one.

Most Anticipated: Lady Mechanika #1 – With art and story by Joe Benitez the #0 issue was very promising and featured a steampunky, attractive cyborg-ish lady who is trying to figure out her role in the world.  Definitely interested in seeing where this goes and enjoying more of Benitez’s art!

Other picks: 27 #1, Starborne #1, Batgirl #16, Red Robin #18, Chaos War Ares #1

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Sweet Tooth #16 – This was an issue that proved that Jeff Lemire can right the loud issues just as well as the quiet ones.  The action flows and so does the excitement, leading to an issue that was downright thrilling.  Really cool layouts are the icing on the cake, making this an easy pick of the week.

Most Anticipated: Fables #100 – Yeah, this is another great week for comics, with the second issues of THUNDER Agents and Superboy coming out, not to mention a new installment of Matt Fraction’s Thor.  But I simply cannot deny Fables #100, an absolute behemoth of a floppy and a landmark achievement for not only a Vertigo comic, but a creator-owned comic, period.  I can’t wait to see what Willingham and co. have in store.

Other Picks: Superboy #2, THUNDER Agents #2, Thor #618, New Avengers #7, The Flash #7

DS’ Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Adventure Comics #521 – I had totally expected Brightest Day #15 to take this week’s crown, but the intense suction happening there caused me to dump even WCBR’s spoiler-free policy to trash it, leaving Adventure Comics #521, a pretty classically-styled Legion story to take the lead.

Most Anticipated: Batgirl#15 –  While I am always eager to see the Man with the Plan (Red Robin) and the Detective Comics Annual is tempting, I have to say, the cliffhanger ending of Batgirl #15, leaving her framed for a crime she didn’t commit, has the out-of-the-gates tension that will drive Batgirl #16 to the top of my pull list. Bryan Q. Miller delivers consistently satisfying stories and I’m waiting to see how my next exposure to Nguyen and Fridolfs works for me on Batgirl.

Other Picks: Red Robin #18, R.E.B.E.L.S. #23, Detective Comics Annual #12, Queen Sonja #12