Reilly2040's Blog

Interestingly enough, Flash Rebirth continues to be a bit slow out of the gate for me. Given the name and creative team, it immediately invites comparison to Green Lantern: Rebirth, but while that book was a complete page turner for me, Flash: Rebirth is not entirely clicking yet, although it is still a good read.

Geoff Johns continues to build on the mystery from last issue, although the killer from issue 1 is all but ignored this issue in favour of flashbacks to Barry’s past, and re-establishing Barry in the current DCU. Using Wonder Woman’s Government connections to fake Barry’s witness protection was a good move, and neatly gets rid of the issue of where Barry’s been. Likewise using last issue’s murders to provide the reason Barry gets his old job back works great.

Its always nice to see Wally and Barry together again, and here its nice to see them team up the minute there’s problems with the speedsters.  Of course, Barry’s quick to realise that the surge experienced by Wally, Jay and the rest not only didn’t affect him, but also occurred at the same time Savitar died.   They travel to Barry’s original hometown, which we find was the place the Black Flash was discovered last issue.

Here we get a nice nod to Final Crisis with them mentioning how the last time they saw the Black Flash was when they used him against Darkseid (nicely addressing my concerns that the Black Flash/Black Racer connection was being ignored), and again there’s a big nod to Max Mercury.  With Max’s name continually cropping up, and the surprise release of an Impulse Trade (Mercury Falling) this week, surely this is hinting the Barry and Bart won’t be the only resurrected Speedsters by the end of this story?  Certainly, in light of events at the end of the issue, having the Zen Master of Speed around could only help.

Furious over Savitar’s death last issue and empowered by the speed from his followers, Christina attacks Barry and Wally.  Here, Ethan and Geoff make the nice trick of having her initial attack rip apart Wally’s costume, making Wally and Barry easy to differentiate in the action scenes.  There’s also the really nice line where Christina is boasting how she’s now got the speed of 100 speedsters and Barry catches her with a simple “We’re faster”.

Of course, on being touched by Barry, Christina suffers the same fate as Savitar, immediately crumbling to dust.  However this time, it has a more lasting affect on Barry, as Wally finds Barry turning into the new Black Flash.

The end revelation was widely speculated last issue, but it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out over the course of the series, as I think it ties into one of my key problems at the moment with this series.

Barry Allen.

He’s coming across as a very plodding character here.   While I love the CSI side to him Geoff’s embracing, at the moment he’s so introspective and gloomy, its hard to get excited for his return.   Bart also picked up that something was wrong with him last issue (I wonder if Bart’s recent death and run-in with the Black Flash is why he could sense something wrong with Barry?), so hopefully now that its revealed, the Flashes can get about the business of how to restore Barry.   There’s a heck of a lot of emphasis on how Barry is the slowest man alive, and out of place with the world, and I’m hoping that over the course of this series Barry will find himself settling into his role as the Flash once again, and picking up some enthusiasm towards it. 

Its here where I think the comparisons to Green Lantern Rebirth probably hurt the book. Geoff is writing a very different story here. Back in Green Lantern Rebirth, Hal coming back as Green Lantern was a punch-the-air moment, and you then had him revelling in being back while he fought Sinestro. I think I was probably expecting the same feeling of celebration in Flash: Rebirth, but that’s been shot dead really with Johns going for this much more introspective take. In that regard, I think re-reading the series as a whole once more issues are released will probably serve the series better, in much the same way as I think Final Crisis (which also started much slower) will work much better read back-to-back.

I also found the art in this issue not quite working for me.  While Ethan’s art is as detailed as ever, I found something a bit muted about it all, which I’m putting down to the colouring.   The whole book and art seem to really come alive whenever Barry’s in his Flash costume however, but for the scenes where he’s standing still or in plain clothes, it doesn’t quite click and, as I say, comes across muted.  Possibly that’s deliberate though, tying in thematically to Barry’s introspection, in which case I can appreciate what they’re doing.

I’m aware I’m sounding very down on the series here, and I don’t really mean to.  While there are aspects that aren’t quite clicking in this issue, I’m still excited for the series as a whole, and events in this issue are key to the rest of the series, with Barry revealed as the new Black Flash, and his role as a CSI in Central City restored.  Yes, there’s a slow pace here, but I think that’s largely due to the amount of setup going on, and now everything’s in place, we’ll have the Speedsters investigating Barry’s condition, while Barry is also going to be investigating the murders from issue 1.  I’m enjoying the mystery very much, and if the book just cheers up a bit (Kid Flash needs to be in more than 1 or 2 pages) it’ll be really cracking.

At long last, the much-delayed Legion of Three Worlds issue 4 is here. As with issue 3, despite the delays its still a good read, and there’s no denying that the detail George Perez is putting into his artwork is worth it. Despite the delays, there’s no hint that they’ve allowed the art to be compromised, and the issue is great to look at.

Picking up from where the last issue left off, everyone’s still in battle against Superboy Prime and the Legion of Supervillains.   However, with phase 1 of Brainiac 5′s plan complete, the newly resurrected Bart Allen is back in the game.

Hats off to Geoff Johns, in this series he’s been handed the fairly unpleasant task of trying to sort out the mess that was made of Bart during his Flash run.   Geoff has made the obvious choice of bringing back Bart as Kid Flash once again.  And in this issue he’s left with the thankless task of trying to provide a reason Bart came back as Kid Flash rather than his older self.  

(For the record, I will give the writers of Bart’s Flash run kudos for attempting to bring back elements of his Impulse run that had been ignored for a while – like Intertia – and you could see Bart’s impulsive nature was still there.  However the whole idea of replacing Wally with a super-aged Bart I think was just a bad plan from the start.  Wally was at his peak, and Bart had only recently become Kid Flash, so it was just pushing him into another role too soon.)

The explanation for Bart’s youthful return it has to be said, is pretty muddy, but as readers, we all know its essentially an excuse for something that creatively had to happen.  Essentially its to do with Bart’s tangle with Superboy Prime in the speedforce causing him to superage.  Brainiac 5 tells us that this superaging was like a cancer in Bart’s body that would’ve run unchecked until he’d have died anyway in a few months.  However, the lightning rod managed to capture Bart’s true essence, freed of the speedforce infection.    As I say, a bit muddy, but who cares, Bart’s back where he belongs.

The attention then flips back to phase 2 of Brainiac 5′s plan.  And here, while well written and drawn, I think the delays have probably hurt the book.   The upshot of the plan is the resurrection of Conner Kent, and this had been pretty much figured out months ago, helpfully aided by a spoilerific DC Nation showing art of Connor back in action (seriously, why does DC Nation keep spoiling big events?  Especially after the backlash over Dan Didio spilling the return of the multiverse).    If this book had been coming out monthly, then with events moving a lot faster, I think Connor’s return might’ve had a bit more impact for this reader.  Instead it felt more like reading a book in retrospect.  I already new Connor was coming back, so it was just the curiousity of how it actually happened.

I do like the manner of his resurrection though.  The use of the same pod that resurrected Superman was a nice touch, combined with the strand of Lex’s hair to aid the pod in regenerating Connor’s human side.   I will say though that I was sure that pod got smashed up in the Return of Superman (Superman burst out of it), however I guess its easy to file under “Super-robots fixed it” or “New Earth – Superman infact exited the pod gracefully”.

Regardless of complaints about delays and lost impact, I am incredibly glad to see these two characters back.  Both their deaths felt pretty needless at the time, especially with Teen Titans at its height, heavily involving both Bart and Connor.   Of course, the question for issue 5 will be, does Connor return with Bart?  We’ve not seen any sign of him in the current DCU yet, while we’ve seen Bart in Flash: Rebirth, and if Connor was back then you’d have expected to see him with the rest of the Teen Titans in that scene.  Now I’m assuming that Connor’s definitely coming back to the modern day, so I’m presuming the explanation will simply be that he stays behind for a while to help the Legion rebuild, and will return to the modern day in due course – presumably in the pages of whatever Superman book it is the Legion are due to appear in.   

The impact his resurrection will have on Cassie will be interesting to see.  And does this mean we could be looking at a Teen Titans relaunch?  I know I’d be keen to start collecting the book again with a line-up along the lines of Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Blue Beetle and a few others.  Robin’s a bit of a question mark, but if Tim’s around as Red Robin, then chuck him into the mix as well.

Of course, I’ve not really talked much about the Legion stuff in this book yet.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really a Legion fan, so if I’m being honest, big events like the reveal of Time Trapper’s true identity at the end are completely lost on me.  With three versions of two big superteams kicking around as well, I’m finding it hard to keep track of any particular characters.   However I will say that I’m enjoying the interplay between the three Brainiacs.

There’s a very interesting moment as well, where one of the Legionnaires instinctively turns the ground to Kryptonite beneath Superboy Prime and it affects Prime, much to his horror.   We know that Kryptonite only works on Kryptonians from the correct universe, so it looks like that particular version of the Legion is from Earth Prime, which should have interesting implications, especially Superboy Prime’s own reaction when its revealed.

While I’m still not really into the Legion, I will say this is an enjoyable series.  Its not a good jumping on point for the Legion at all, and from that point of view I don’t agree with the comments I’ve read online that this book should’ve been the main Crisis.  However there’s enough non-Legion stuff with Bart and Connor’s resurrections and Sodam Yat’s appearance to keep this non-Legion fan entertained.  In fact, I’d say its a testiment to the writer and artist that despite not being a Legion fan, I’m still picking this up.