The Flash #5 – Review

by Geoff Johns (writer), Francis Manapul (art), Brian Buccellato (colors), and Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: The Flash and Top try to stop the Rogues from unleashing the Mirror Lords while the Rogues and Renegades to battle.

What’s Good: Despite my feelings to the contrary during the first couple of issues, I’m really starting to warm up to this whole Rogues/Renegades plot.  The involvement of Captain Boomerang, Top, and the Mirror Lords have imbued the story with a needed life.

Top in particular continues to be an asset this month.  He gives the otherwise bland Renegades personality, giving us an individual character to latch onto.  There’s also something rather cool about seeing Barry Allen team up with a Rogue lookalike.  While I can’t go into things too much for fear of spoiling the issue, Top is most definitely a star this month and is just as much fun to read as he is to see in action.

And really, between the giant Mirror, the Rogues, the Renegades, and Captain Boomerang, there’s a lot of action this month.  There’s a feeling of total mayhem that lends the issue quite a bit of excitement, truly making it feel like the penultimate issue of a story arc.  There are explosions and desperation aplenty, and as a result, this ends up being a pretty fun ride.

Of course, Francis Manapul again deserves his due on this end, as his art really defines this new volume of the Flash and is a good chunk of why it’s as much fun as it is.  Manapul’s action scenes and his depictions of speed are fantastic, and his illustrations of the Rogues’ powers in action are no different.  Seeing the Weather Wizard conjure a cyclone is magnificent and when it combats a spinning Top, it’s all the better.

Speaking of Weather Wizard, I liked how Johns gave him a moment to shine this month.  It’s these little moments that show how great Johns is when it comes to dealing with the Rogues.  While the rest of them don’t have big moments like Weather Wizard does, each of them maintains a distinct and uniquely villainous voice.

The Flash #4 – Review

by Geoff Johns (writer), Francis Manapul (art), Brian Buccellato (colors), and Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: The Flash battles Captain Boomerang in downtown Central City and learns the secrets behind his future murder of Mirror Monarch.

What’s Good: I think part of what marks out this issue is the sense of wonder that is present in the depictions of the Flash’s powers.  It shows Johns’ love for the character and it’s creative in a way that evidences that Johns has thought quite a lot about the Flash’s super-speed.  Johns and Manapul, together, are masters at depicting the Flash’s powers, putting Barry in positions that allow for cool feats and ridiculously awesome demonstrations of his speed.  The result is truly awe-inspiring, at one point resulting in a double-page spread that got an audible “holy shit” from me.

The battle between Captain Boomerang and the Flash feels every bit like the classic duel between old foes that it is.  Johns is doing a great job at building the character back up.  I also enjoyed Boomerang’s feeling out of sync with current events, always trying to catch up after being out of the loop; this only makes him a more appropriate nemesis for Barry, given Barry’s own recent struggles.