I’ll say it now, I think this is the best issue of Rebirth so far.  The pace finally felt right to me, and it built on the Zoom stuff from issue 4 well, and resolved some of the lingering subplots.

Most of the issue is taken up with the fight against Zoom and the subsequent revelations.  Professor Zoom takes great pleasure in telling Barry how he’s been time travelling back and changing the past, affecting Barry’s personal history, and explaining things like Barry’s mother’s death (prior to Rebirth, Barry’s parents had both been alive).  It also explains why Barry’s mood has been so affected since the start of the series, as its explained as nothing to do with Barry struggling to adapt to being back, but infact his mood was a side affect of Zoom’s continual changing of Barry’s history (which was presumably happening off panel during the first few issues).

We also get the Flash family re-established for the franchise going forward.  Max, of course, returned last issue but this issue also brought the much-heralded revamp to Wally’s outfit (to solve the issue of Wally and Barry’s outfits being so similar visually).

I must admit, I was slightly dreading the revamp, half-expecting it to be some modification of his old Kid Flash outfit that a lot of fans have such affection for.  Thankfully though, this wasn’t the case, with the costume only receiving slight tweaks, and still recognisably being a “Flash” costume.  The changes work well, and it reminds me of the Return of Barry Allen storyline, which never ran into the issue of the characters looking similar, due to the dark red used in Wally’s “shiney” outfit he was wearing at the time.  Its also interesting to note the lifts from Wally’s outfit as seen in the JLU cartoon, with his belt and chest logo (possibly the only part of the update I’m not sure on.  I prefer the normal lightning bolt) being from that variation of the costume.  I’m definitely pleased with this updated look for Wally.

The other development I was very pleased with, was Iris West’s transformation into the new Impulse.  Its a move that had been signposted throughout the series, with her hero-worship of Bart and Zoom’s comments about the twins’ connection to the speedforce last issue, and I for one am really pleased to see not only Iris turned into a proper speedster, but also that she’s adopted Bart’s old identity.  It adds another nice link to the chain of the Flash legacy.

It also nicely places the characters for the upcoming monthlies.  Presumably Iris will be in Wally’s co-feature, but also sets her up for appearances in Bart’s Kid Flash book.  I think it’ll be quite interesting to see how Bart deals with her following in his footsteps and it could be quite amusing  And you have to assume it’ll not be long before Jai starts to resent the fact that he’s been left powerless by Iris taking on their previously-shared Speedforce connection.

Speaking of Bart, it was interesting watching his interactions with Max.  Bart’s grown a lot since Max was trapped in the Speedforce, and it was interesting to see how sometimes he was ahead of what Max was telling him, with Max attempting to guide him as he did when he was Impulse.  It was a nice way of showing that not only has Max been out of the loop for a while, but also how much Bart’s developed as a hero.  It does promise that their relationship in the upcoming Kid Flash monthly will have evolved beyond their relationship in Bart’s original Impulse book, and it’ll be interesting to see what direction the writer takes there.

Overall, this was a great issue.  I’m glad to see that the second half of this series has improved a lot over the first.  I’m still not entirely sure this series has been a success for me overall, but these later issues are at least ticking the right boxes.  I look forward to the last issue, and I really hope it doesn’t suffer the crippling delays this issue did.  Interestingly, the solicit mentions some new threat to the Speedsters, which I’d really expected to get some hint of here.  Throwing in a new villain in the last issue seems a little Final Crisis to me, which suddenly had Mandrak turn up and felt a bit forced (even if you had read Superman: Beyond), so I’m intrigued to see what this actually means.

The solicit of Blackest Night #6 is being kept pretty quiet beyond seeing that we’ll be learning some of Nekron’s secrets (presumably relating to the white light we learned about this month and how he’s returned?), however the real meat is in some of the other solicits.

The two that really lept out at me are Green Lantern Corps and Blackest Night: Flash.  In Green Lantern Corps we see things get just that bit worse for the Lanterns on Oa as Guy falls to his rage and becomes the latest recruit of the Red Lanterns. Its something that was hinted to in one of the last two issues where we saw Black Lanterns approaching Guy and a few other GLs, and they saw willpower eminating from the other GLs, but rage from Guy.  I must admit, I wasn’t really expecting any of the four “musketeers” to switch to another side during this event, but it looks like I was wrong.

But what does this mean?  Well, we know its an event related to the Corps that pushes him over, so that to me discounts the obvious cause of Ice being killed.  I’m personally wondering if its related to Salaak and the Alpha Lanterns.  We’ve seen the Alphas getting slowly out of control over the last while, and after Salaak shot down their attempt to take control of the Corps in the last issue there was the undercurrent of threat from them.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve made a move against Salaak, attempted a coup, either killing or injuring Salaak and that’s pushed Guy over the edge.  And if Salaak’s out of the picture, and Guy’s a Red Lantern, then that leaves only Kyle in their way.

I also wonder if Guy will necessarily be out of action due to this?  He’s always been portrayed as an angry character, and he’s got a heck of a lot of willpower.  Hal’s willpower was still manifesting in the form of constructs when he had a red ring, and Atrocitous has shown the red rings can be mastered, so I wonder if it infact means that Guy will still be able to fight alongside the GLs.  If so, then his red ring combined with any of the green rings on Oa will make short work of the Black Lanterns.

The other solicit that really caught my eye was Blackest Night: Flash.  Firstly due to its brilliant Scott Kolins cover, mimicking the Ethan Van Sciver cover to Flash: Rebirth #1.  And the solicit itself shows us that this isn’t just a bit of fun by the artist as there’s a very strong tie-in between the few.

In Rebirth #4, Thawne mentioned to Barry that he had a rebirth of his own in the coming days.  This indicated that the Thawne currently terrorising Barry had actually come back in time, from a point after his resurrection, and that was a separate story waiting to be told.   Many had speculated that it would tie in with Blackest Night, and its now looking like that is indeed the case, as the solicit specifically mentions the Reverse Flash as one of the Black Lantern Rogues returning.

How this works should prove very interesting.  And is it our first hint that some of the Black Lanterns will indeed be fully restored to life by the end of Blackest Night?  It would certainly make sense for DC to use this event to bring back popular characters like Aquaman and Firestorm (as mentioned in my Blackest Night #3 review, Geoff’s already given us strong hints of what a post-BN Firestorm could be like).

Finally the solicit mentions that “The Flashes of Two Cities – Barry Allen and Wally West – battle the undead Rogues”.  I’m taking this as a solid sign that while he may be getting a new costume, Wally will still be keeping the title of “Flash”, which makes me very happy.  After all, Jay’s been using the name during Wally’s run so that idea of multiple Flashes is long established now.  Presumably Wally will still be protecting Keystone as he has been, just in a new costume, with the main series following Barry’s adventures in Central City.  Now we just need a hint as to what titles we can expect Wally to feature in.

There’s very obvious parallels with Green Lantern: Rebirth here.  In that series, Sinestro was revealed as the villain at the end of issue 3, who then spent issue 4 explaining the plot.  Much the same happens here, and like issue 4 of GL: Rebirth ended with Hal’s restoration, this issue similarly ends with Barry back and with a renewed sense of who he is.

Also like issue 4 of Rebirth, there’s retcons aplenty here.  The “giant yellow space bug” came under a lot of flack when Parallax’s true nature was revealed in Green Lantern, and while that change has since been accepted and become a major part of how the GL universe is shaped (with the emotional spectrum and its avatars) I must admit, I’m finding the revelations in this issue a little harder to swallow.  Barry as the source of the Speed Force just seems to open up questions and problems that previously didn’t exist.  If Barry powers the Speed Force, what powers Barry?  And what was powering it while he was dead?  If Barry’s accident created the Speed Force, and Zoom’s recreation of that accident created his, why doesn’t Wally have his own?  Unless that’s something that’ll be revealed in Flash #25…

The existance of the Negative Speed Force (surely that should be the Reverse Speed Force to keep the theme?) is something I’m torn on.  I could see it as a counterpoint to the Speed Force we’re familiar with.  A hell for Speedsters versus the heaven we’ve previously seen.   That could at least tie into Savitar being incredibly glad to be out of the Speed Force in issue 1.  However I can’t help but think that Zoom having his own evil speed force makes him a bit too much like Sinestro.  I’m also not keen on the changes to Barry’s return in Final Crisis or Barry’s turning into the Black Flash being a sign of the negative speed force’s infection.  Heck, if this was always the plan for Barry’s return, couldn’t the reasons for him coming back just have been left a mystery in Final Crisis?  It seems a bit strange that they’re already retconning a series less than a year later.

However, while I’m unsure about the retcons in this issue, I can still say I really enjoyed it.  There’s a load of great “Flash Family” moments here, and Professor Zoom is reestablished as a real threat, and a chilling villain.  The scene where he turns up at Wally’s house and threatens Linda and the kids was genuinely scary.  Which only made the appearance of Jay and Bart a real punch-the-air moment.

This is one area where Ethan’s art really excells in this issue.  Here he gets the chance to do some brilliant splash pages.  Be it Bart and Jay turning up to take on Zoom or Wally running into the Speed Force, determined to bring everyone back out of it, Ethan renders these moments beautifully.

And the return of Max.  What can I say?  A moment that had been well telegraphed from the first issue of this series, and a loose plot thread that had fans crying out for resolution.  Max has always been a really popular character.   I loved his use in Waid’s Flash run as the Zen Master of Speed, and this popularity was only reinforced when he became Bart’s mentor in the Impulse series.   The splash page when he returns to Earth, having been persuaded by Barry that he’s the closest thing Bart has to a father (especially powerful when you consider Barry is Bart’s actual grandfather) brought a huge grin to my face.

This issue was definitely a big improvement over the first three.  Although improvement is probably being a bit unfair in that I think the whole thing (like Final Crisis) will read better all together in trade form.  But as a standalone issue in a monthly series there was definitely a more satisfying read than the previous issues.  The series is probably still not up there with Green Lantern Rebirth for me, but its definitely starting to tick the right boxes, especially with the way the whole Flash family was showcased here.

The one thing that’s been leaping out from Rebirth so far has been that its been a struggle to care about Barry being back, however I did also say that I hoped issue 3 would be a big turning point.  From the solicit for issue 6, I’m now feeling a lot happier that it will be.

The solicit hints at big changes in store for the Flash family.  Obviously we know that Wally is due a new Ethan Van Sciver-designed costume, but what’ll happen to his family, and will he be making a bigger change to his life to accomodate them other than a change of outfit?  The stuff about Kid Flash’s destiny is also interesting.  I wonder what exactly that means.  What choice will he be facing?

There’s also the talk of a new archnemesis for the Flash family.  In my Rebirth #3 post I’d speculated that the Reverse Flash may be revealed as working for someone else, and it sounds like that may be the case afterall.   I’m very glad this is the case (unless they’re just referring to Reverse Flash being redefined for the new series, but it does sound like its an original villain being introduced).

But most important is the picture of Barry on the cover.  He’s smiling at last.  Whatever happens in the second half obviously refocuses his outlook on life (specifically his own).  Of course, its not a surprise that Barry will be sorted out, character-wise.  Obviously Geoff Johns wasn’t going to leave us with a moping Barry Allen at the end of this, that people were going to struggle to like, and most importantly, it wouldn’t really jibe with Barry’s appearance in Blackest Night #0, which I really enjoyed, and has probably convinced me more about Barry’s return than issues 1-3 of Rebirth have so far.

This solicit has been perfectly pitched to me.  It raises a lot of interest in me in terms of where this series is going to go over the next 3 issues, as well as leaving me optimistic about the second half of Rebirth.   I said it in my Rebirth #3 post, but I’ll repeat it here.  I suspect this series will read better as a whole, and I imagine that by the end of the run, I’ll be excited for the direction of the Flash going forward.

Barry has been revealed as the new Black Flash, and the JLA have been called in, quick time.  Jay’s already on the scene with Wally and explains they’re going to try and separate Barry from the Speedforce.  This way, he’ll no longer have his speed, but he’ll be alive and normal once again.

It quickly gets out of control though, Barry’s still not convinced he should be back, and breaks free.  Superman tries to catch him, but Barry easily out runs him (in a scene very reminisent of Impulse’s first appearance in Smallville).  Barry attempts to return to the speedforce, hoping to use Iris as an anchor so he’ll be able to escape again, cleared of the Black Flash possession.  However as he enters the speedforce, he is stripped of his memories until Max Mercury and Johnny Quick appear to help him, and the villain of the piece stands revealed as Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash.

As I mentioned above, the pace is quicked into high gear in this issue.  Despite a short flashback, this issue ditches the solemn introspection of the first two, and gets on with the reveals.

The main one, isn’t really a surprise.  And in some ways I’m glad Professor Zoom’s been revealed here rather than dragged out much longer.  It definitely feels a bit too much like a repeat of the Sinestro reveal in Green Lantern Rebirth though, and I think that’s a bit of a shame.  Thawne’s return had been widely predicted from the moment the words “Johns”, “Van Sciver”, “Flash” and “Rebirth” were said together, and after Hunter Zolomon was depowered in Rogue’s Revenge it was taken as a lock.   I certainly understand the desire to bring him back alongside Barry, but given the obvious Green Lantern Rebirth parallels, I can’t help but wonder if it might’ve been better left until the new Flash ongoing, allowing for more of a surprise villain in this series.  Saying that, we still don’t know how he returned to life, and the series is only halfway through, so there’s scope for a big twist or surprise mastermind yet.

Its a bit of a shame for Johnny Quick to appear just to get immediately dusted by Barry.  Max looks to be in trouble as well, but unlike Johnny we don’t actually see him die (if that’s even the right word, since they’re essentially speedforce ghosts anyway).  The heavy name-dropping of Max throughout this series does make me wonder if there’s not a bigger plan for this character.  In this issue, Jay specifically mentions how Max was the speedforce guru, so it leaves me wondering if Max isn’t yet to provide the solution to Barry’s Black Flash problems.

And regarding Barry as the Black Flash, I was very glad to see Ethan Van Sciver didn’t pull his punches here and just draw Barry in a black and red costume.  There’s various panels throughout where we see Barry taking on a more monstrous form as he fights against his transformation, and I found them very effective.  With regards the art, I’ve still got the slight peeve that Kid Flash’s boots are wrong, but Ethan has said that’s deliberate, so there’s not much to be said about it.  Other than that silly fanboy complaint, Ethan is continuing to do his usual great job on the art

So overall?  I’m glad to see things pick up pace over the slow first two issues, and I’m definitely feeling a bit more into the storyline this issue than last.  The only way I’d say this series is failing is that its still not selling me on having Barry back as a character.   When Hal’s spirit was led back to Earth by Ganthet, and he stood up from his coffin in his new outfit to take on Sinestro, it was a real punch-the-air moment.   I’ve yet to actually have anything in this series to convince me to care that Barry’s back and will be taking over from Wally.   Now that Professor Zoom has been revealed as the true threat, I’m really looking for Barry to kick things into gear, stop moping, and show us how he, and he alone is the man for the job (and yes, I’m aware I said something very similar last month).  I’ve got confidence that Geoff Johns will pull this out of the bag with the last three issues.   This issue very much strikes me as a turning point for the series, with the introspection covering Barry’s history well during the first two issues, and here almost non-existant, it occurs to me that this could well be structured as a series of two halves, with the first half interested in establishing the character of Barry, and the second dealing with the actual threat.   It’ll be interesting to see if I’m right.

Buying the Final Crisis Hardcover (which I’m very much looking forward to reading) has made me wonder something about this series as well.  Especially with its slower first two issues.  I’ll be very interested to see how this series plays out when read back-to-back in one sitting.   I suspect it’ll flow a lot better, and my complaints about pacing etc will vanish.

Its nice to see Mark Waid’s Savitar story being so heavily referenced so far in this series.  I’d figured his appearance in issue 1 would be more  a throwaway nod, however here we return to Savitar’s citadel, and see his accolytes and Lady Savitar reacting to his death.   It looks like his accolytes were killed off, but I wonder if this means Christina is going to come gunning for Barry?  Also I wonder if it means we’ll be seeing Johnny Quick turn up, since that was the story he was killed in.

Again, we see Geoff laying on the CSI aspects of Barry’s character, an aspect I’m very much enjoying, and something I think will be key towards making Barry interesting and bring something different to the Flash title.

My first immediate thought was that it was nice to see they reverted back to the original cover. The replacement that was floating around in the solicits for a while just wasn’t as good as the original Moose-inked version. Its a shame Moose isn’t inking the series itself, but the inker they’ve got replacing him does a fine job.

I did have a look for the variant cover at my local comic shop, but sadly it wasn’t to be seen. I guess they held it back for their subscribers, which is fair enough.

Probably the most surprising thing about this first issue, especially given its the Flash, is the pace. Whereas Green Lantern Rebirth started out with Kyle’s ship crashing and various big events, the focus in this issue is very much on getting inside Barry’s head. Of course, unlike GL: Rebirth, Johns has the advantage that the actual resurrection is already taken care of. Barry’s been back since Final Crisis, so instead that allows Johns to focus on how Barry is coping with his resurrection.

Not well is the answer. There’s a great scene with Barry and Hal meeting in the Flash museum where we see Barry surrounded by people talking on their mobiles and about download speeds etc. Hal comments that Barry’s finding the world much faster than he’s used to. Barry comments that its just caught up, but you can’t help but feel Hal’s on the mark. Barry doesn’t feel at all at home in the modern world, and makes the comment that he wasn’t supposed to come back.

We also see other’s reactions to Barry’s return, with most overjoyed. However Bart’s not as impressed. There’s been a lot of comment about this scene online and how out-of-character Bart was. For me though, I was ok with it, since the point of the scene seemed to be that he’s more upset that Max is still trapped in the speedforce (foreshadowing a return?).  And I can just say how nice it was to see Bart with his proper yellow eyes again?  Not to mention the Impulse statue in the Flash museum clearly having the more cartoony look Bart had in that series (no surprise given who the artist of said series was though ).

As well as seriously getting into Barry’s head, we also see the setup for a lot of mystery in this series. At the beginning we see some Police forensic scientists killed by someone who then recreates the accident that gave Barry his speed, and also claims to be behind Barry’s resurrection. However, separate to this, a couple of kids find the Black Flash flying dead in a field. We then see Savitar free himself from the Speedforce through Barry, only to crumble to dust once Barry catches and touches him. Is Barry becoming a new Black Flash through the process of his resurrection?

Special mention must go to Ethan’s art in this series as well.  Its possibly some of his best work to-date.  There’s not been too much action so far, but the Flash museum scenes were spot-on, with you really feeling the hustle and bustle of the crowd.

There’s a few niggles though. Barry’s wife Iris took me a lot by surprise.  For years she’s been portrayed as in her 40s at least.  This always made sense to me given the character’s respective age to the supporting cast, but here she suddenly looks like she’s in her 20s.  I guess she’s a victim of comic book aging that has some characters age (Red Arrow/Arsenal, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson), while others have to stay more-or-less constant, but it really lept out in a way that others (Carol Ferris for example must be a victim of the same thing) haven’t.

While I was ok with the Bart scene, there’s some retcons being thrown around here. The Black Flash is dead, but Final Crisis established that the Black Flash was the Black Rider. Shouldn’t the Black Rider now on Earth-51 with the other New Gods, or are they back to being separate characters? Granted, this could be something that will be addressed in subsequent issues, but I’m combining it with the fact that the mysterious murderer now seems to be responsible for Barry’s resurrection. Now Final Crisis was quite clear on the fact that Barry was resurrected by the universe itself as a defense mechanism against Darkseid. However here, Barry rubbishes this himself, pointing out he didn’t do anything Wally couldn’t (perhaps true, but not the point here). So this leads me to feel that only a couple of months after it ended, Final Crisis is already being contradicted. Doesn’t exactly make you feel the series is that well respected.

There’s also this plot development with Barry’s father possibly killing his mother. It’s definitely something that screams “I’m new!!!!!!” about Barry’s backstory, however I’m not calling retcon on it yet. Rather I’ll wait and see how that storyline unfolds over the next four issues.

These are all minor things though. This is a very different feeling series to GL: Rebirth so far. Much more introspective, but also a compelling read. Geoff’s set up some interesting mysteries with this first issue, and I like that idea for a Barry Allen book. To focus on his detective traits. If we just wanted a book about a guy who runs really fast, then they could’ve just kept Wally as the title character. Very much looking forward to issue 2.

Of course, the issue doesn’t quite finish there. And, presumably in line with DC’s policy of adding value to $3.99 books, we get a several page preview of the new Power Girl series at the end of the book. Which I very much enjoyed.

However, while I really enjoyed it. It also felt a bit out of place. Given that Flash: Rebirth is an event book, I’d have thought the extra pages would’ve gone to making the main story a bit longer. Nonetheless I’m still really looking forward to Power Girl coming out, and this preview did look good.

First up, it looks like there’s no issue of GL.  Well that sucks, especially with them building up the Blackest Night at the moment.  I daresay the issue will be more than worth the wait, but I hope its the last delay for a while.   They’d done a cracking job of getting the delays sorted out after Infinite Crisis with the one-arc-on, one-arc-off rotation for Ivan and a guest artist.  Its a shame to see them creeping back into the title (although, in fairness they’ve already hit the Rage of the Red Lanterns arc).

GLC sounds excellent though, with a riot in the Sciencells leading to GLs versus Sinestros versus Red Lanterns. Wonder how that comes about. I think I’m right in saying that as it stands, its only yellow Lanterns in the Sciencells at the moment, so either the GLs manage to capture some Red Lanterns at the end of the current story arc in GL, or the Red Lanterns attack Oa looking to get some revenge over the Sinestro Corps. Either way, we’ve just seen just this kind of showdown taking place on Ysamault (only with the two blue Lanterns thrown in). The idea of this conflict taking place on Oa itself adds a level of danger to things, but it’ll be interesting to see how it comes about.

Strange Adventures is another no-brainer for me. I’ve been loving Jim Starlins take on the other side of the DCU’s cosmic tales, so I’m interested to see where he’s going to take things in this series. The idea of Rann being rebuilt in secret that he setup in the last series will be interesting to see played out here. Its looking like it’ll be a reduced cast as well, without the Hawks, or Space Team from the previous book.

Another no-brainer is Power Girl #1. I previously blogged about looking forward to this series here, and so I’m glad to see it finally hitting the shelves.

Of course, we now know that my speculation about it being set on Earth-2 was way off, although how Power Girl’s trip to that alternate world will affect this series will remain to be seen.  I personally felt the Earth-2 stuff in JSA didn’t really work (I’m sure I’ve previously ranted about the mess Earth-2 is in the DCU at the moment) but if this series can do something good with that mini-arc, then so much the better.

Of course, in the comments we’ve already mentioned the latest developments in the Superman New Krypton arc.  Just what could have led Superman to the point of joining up with Zod’s army on New Krypton?  I’m really not sure what I think of this direction, but we’ll see how it goes.  While I appreciate them taking Superman off in a bold new direction, I’m not sure how much I’m actually interested in Superman taking a prolonged stay on New Krypton, especially if he ends up in their army of all things.   I’m going to give it a few issues though to see what I think of the direction.

Other things that caught my eye are the Battle for the Cowl books (most of them I’ll be skipping for budget reasons, but I’ll probably nab the Oracle mini, even if I’m terrified for what it’ll do to the excellent Birds of Prey series).  Flash Rebirth #2 finds Barry Allen hiding yet another Dark Secret.  Again, not sure what to make of this solicit.  Is it really necessary to have Barry hiding a dark secret?  Afterall, Geoff did that fairly recently during Identity Crisis.

Final Crisis Aftermath Run and Dance should be interesting as well.  I’m interested to see what they do with the Human Flame (although again, perhaps similar to the recent Rogues storyline following Bart’s death?), and The Super Young Team were a lot of fun in Final Crisis, so what happens to them next should be fun.

I’ll start by saying that I’m presuming that this is very much a pre-release copy, and that’s temporary inking, so I’m not judging the art. We do know that Moose is no longer inking the series though, which is a real shame as his work on GL and the original Flash Rebirth cover is some of my favourite inking. However with this being such a high-profile book, we can pretty much guarantee that DC’s going to ensure the final product is still very nice to look at.

There’s little story to really gauge from this preview really. I enjoyed it, but it does amount to the various Flashes saying “Barry Allen was awesome”. There’s a couple of interesting things though.

First was seeing Bart back in that first page alongside Barry and Wally. I think I’m right in saying Bart’s never really had the chance to team up with his Grandpa Barry, so that’ll be interesting to see addressed in this book. Its just really nice to see Bart back where he belongs. I was very worried that Legion of 3 Worlds was going to see him staying with the Legion, and I’m pleased to see that this isn’t the case, and he’ll be heading back to the modern day DCU to remain part of the Flash family (and hopefully rejoin Teen Titans).

I was a bit dodgy about Jay’s hero-worship of Barry on his page though. A lot of that felt a bit forced and over-the-top from me. We’re used to Wally worshipping the ground under Barry’s feet, but while Jay undoubtedly respects Barry, it didn’t really work for me, and it seems odds to hear Jay say that he could never run faster than the speed of sound before he met Barry. That sounds like one of those infamous Geoffcons to me.

But apart from that, I really enjoyed this preview, and I’m excited to see what direction they’re going to take the Flash family in.  After last year being Marvel’s year with Secret Invasion, and Marvel off to a strong start this year with Dark Reign, I’m really looking forward to Flash Rebirth, and later Blackest Night, really bringing some big buzz DC’s way.