Surprisingly Well-Constructed, The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse Finally Creates An Awesome Villain For The Flash!

The Good: Good characters, Awesome plot development, Much of the artwork
The Bad: Erratic artwork, Some thematic elements are oversimplified.
The Basics: The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse creates a New 52 incarnation of the Reverse Flash that is incredibly cool and well-developed!


Recently, I started reading The Flash again and picking the books back up have been decidedly mixed. The New 52 featured a number of reboots that left me more or less unimpressed. Sadly, The Flash was a book that lost me initially in The New 52. But, as I neared the end of The Flash, Volume 3: Gorilla Warfare (reviewed here!), I felt like there was some hope for the series; in seeding the next story, the Reverse Flash made an appearance. The proper return of the Reverse Flash comes in The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse.

The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse is an anthology of six books that may make allusions to prior volumes, but is remarkably accessible to new readers. Some of the allusions make it almost worthwhile to go back to the prior volumes to see if the evidence for the creation of the Reverse Flash was there, but The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse is complete enough on its own to not require that. The story introduces the Reverse Flash - or the latest incarnation of it! - in a full and compelling way, which is tough to do in a single volume. Fortunately, the New 52 incarnation of the Reverse Flash is pretty awesome and worthy of the mantle of his predecessors.

When Barry Allen and Patty Spivot move in together, Barry decides to put his past behind him. He returns to the streets as The Flash and soon thereafter, Barry Allen is able to come back to work at the Central City Police Department. In Iron Heights, Marissa is killed by the Reverse Flash, which comes shortly after Albert (another person Barry rescued from the Speed Force) appeared to die in a random accident. Barry hunts down Gomez, the only other person he rescued besides Iris, and learns that Albert was killed, too. But a device left behind by Albert clues Barry into the idea that a speedster murdered Albert and The Flash's initial evidence points to Kid Flash.

Chasing Kid Flash around the world, Barry Allen learns the young speedster is from the future, not quite tapped into the Speed Force, and not the killer he is searching for. After Sprint is murdered, Dr. Darwin Elias awakens from a nightmare, committed to developing a power source based upon The Flash and Barry figures out how to shield Iris from the speedster killer. When he goes to interview Dr. Elias, The Flash finds the Reverse Flash there depleting Elias's Speed Force capacitor and rescues the unethical scientist. In the ensuing fight, The Flash learns that his opposite wants to become master of the Speed Force in order to turn time backward. In protective custody, Iris learns the identity of the Reverse Flash and that activates her powers, putting her in the fray for the critical battle. But when the Reverse Flash is able to thwart the Flash, he pulls The Flash back in time with the intent to destroy all the wrong in his life, starting with killing his own father!

The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse culminates in a Zero Year story involving Barry Allen being in Gotham City during the formative event of Batman's career. As Barry Allen investigates the use of the new street drug Icarus, he meets Iris West, who is an intern reporter in Gotham City. Barry Allen is able to show off his heroic instincts, long before he had super powers, by rushing into a burning building in Gotham, which impresses Iris.

The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse includes wonderful characterization for Barry Allen. Allen finally reveals the backstory of his parents to Patty Spivot and he shows maturity by moving in with Spivot. The book is generally mature in that it does not make the tension between Patty Spivot and Iris West into something overly melodramatic. Allen has a decent amount of heroic potential even in the flashback chapter, which is well-developed over The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse.

The subplot with Iris and her estranged brother Daniel seems initially tacked on and like a divergence that is utterly uninteresting. Fortunately, The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse takes the distant subplot and makes it integral to the story of the Reverse Flash and the murders going on through Central City. The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse starts making Iris West important to The Flash in an engaging way.

What is not overly impressive is the terrible "move on" theme. The Flash presents a ridiculous notion that everyone should just "get over" their past and "move on" with their life. For anyone who has gone through real trauma, this is a truly insulting theme. Fortunately, The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse features a character who can't move on and that leads to a sense of realism that most graphic novels do not possess.

The art in The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse is very inconsistent. While some of the battle scenes are immaculate and the Reverse Flash is rendered in a cool and terrifying way, the art does not hold up throughout the entire book. For example, the art in the dance scene is decidedly sub-par.

That said, The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse is an engaging read that wonderfully creates a new villain and deepens the heroic character of The Flash.

For other The Flash volumes, please visit my reviews of:
The World Of Flashpoint Featuring The Flash
The Flash Archives
The Flash: Rogue War

7/10

For other Graphic Novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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So Many Threads Mar The Flash: Gorilla Warfare!

The Good: Moments of character, Plot moves along, Some interesting panels and concepts
The Bad: Very erratic quality of the artwork, Very fractured plot flow.
The Basics: The Flash: Gorilla Warfare moves along the story of The Flash, but does so in a way that is not very compelling and requires a lot of prior knowledge to understand or care.


It was only yesterday, when my wife and I sat down and watched Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox that I realized that it has been a terrifically long time since I last read a The Flash graphic novel. For sure, we watch The Flash (season two is reviewed here!), but since my Flash Year, I've been pretty negligent on keeping up with the books. I decided it was time to rectify that situation and I decided to leap right back in where I left off with The New 52 graphic novel The Flash: Gorilla Warfare!

The Flash: Gorilla Warfare begins in the midst of a much longer arc, as evidenced by the fact that The Flash is not present in the first few pages of the book. Instead, Patty Spivot opens The Flash: Gorilla Warfare with a new character who claims to have knowledge of where Barry Allen is and that he is still alive. For those who have not read The Flash, Volume 2: Rogues Revolution (reviewed here!), picking up The Flash: Gorilla Warfare and leaping right in puts the reader at an immediate disadvantage. Given how many threads The Flash: Gorilla Warfare picks up on to weave its story, it is hard for a new reader to pick up this volume and not stay lost.

Patty Spivot brings Mr. Turbine to the Central City Police station because Turbine claims to have information that proves Barry Allen is alive and how to find him. Unfortunately, before he can reveal his information, Central City is attacked by Gorillas. On the streets, The Flash has been thwarted by the Rogues, but the sudden appearance of King Grodd and his super-powered gorillas forces the Rogues and The Flash to team up. The Flash is surprised given that the gorillas seem to be tapped into the Speed Force and able to fight him faster than ever before. Grodd wants The Flash's Speed Force and is convinced that possessing it is his birthright and so begins an epic fight to bring The Flash down and feed upon his brain.

While Dr. Elias is brought to the hospital, Iris's paroled brother searches the besieged Central City for Iris. The Gorilla Elder sets up on a football field and creates a psychic barrier that makes it appear to the outside world that Central City has been obliterated and is now a radioactive crater. To keep up the mental energy, the Elder needs more brains to siphon psychic energy from, so the Gorilla army begins rounding up humans for him to use. While Spivot and Turbine track down Solovar (Grodd's political enemy) in the Central City wildlife preserve, inside the Speed Force, Iris and her fellow refugees find themselves on the run from a Woolly Mammoth. Patty and Solovar rescue the near-death Flash, which leads Patty to the revelation that Barry Allen is the Flash. As The Flash fights for life, his mind melds with the Speed Force and he sees different potentials to solve the siege. Awakening, The Flash runs to Dr. Elias' Laboratory to sacrifice himself in order to thwart King Grodd, in the process rescuing Iris and the others from the Speed Force.

The Flash: Gorilla Warfare concludes with exploring the ramifications of the actual war, with The Flash working to rebuild Central City and his relationship with Patty Spivot. While on police suspension, Barry Allen works at a bar, where he encounters Axel Walker (The Trickster) who is recovering from his gorilla-inflicted wounds. Allen discovers that Keystone City is now the home to copycats who believe they can use the Speed Force, like Sprint and Turbo Charger. Taking down the Trickster is minor work, but leads Barry Allen to explore the idea that others who were stuck in the Speed Force may have come out with powers of their own. When the Outlanders claim Trickster and storm Iron Heights to rescue him, a suddenly powerless Barry Allen is caught in the middle!

The Flash: Gorilla Warfare is very much a final act for one story, even as it seeds the next major arc for The Flash. The graphic novel picks up with so many threads of unresolved plot issues - like the group lost in the Speed Force and The Flash being downed by the Rogues - that the reader who picks up The Flash: Gorilla Warfare is starting from a disadvantageous position. The book continues to become more and more complicated as it includes motivations for Barry Allen, Grodd, Patty Spivot and Turbine, The Rogues, and plot events featuring Iris West and the return of her brother rather abruptly for no clear (in volume) purpose.

While I like varied narrative techniques, the time jumps between "Now" on the street with The Flash and "Twenty Minutes Ago" at the police station with Patty are just distracting and kill the story's momentum in The Flash: Gorilla Warfare. The Flash: Gorilla Warfare poorly integrates the various storylines and characters, especially the appearance of Daniel West and his weird tie-in to the relationship between Barry and Iris from five years prior. Writer Frances Manapul does a fair job of moving the plot of The Flash: Gorilla Warfare along, without getting the reader to actually care about the characters involved.

On the plus side, The Flash: Gorilla Warfare features a good character analysis of Grodd by Barry. The idea of the Speed Force as a drug that could make the psychic gorilla a power trip of superhuman proportions is interesting. Similarly, Manapul manages to make the Trickster momentarily interesting by having Axel unwilling to leave Iron Heights when he is captured without his toys. The implicit sense of compulsion for the Trickster makes his character into something other than a joke.

Unfortunately, that's the bulk of the character depth in The Flash: Gorilla Warfare. Barry Allen does not significantly grow or develop in the volume; he employs new techniques suggested to him by others. The idea of the Speed Mind is actually pretty awesome and it is the best-rendered concept in The Flash: Gorilla Warfare.

The artwork in The Flash: Gorilla Warfare is not consistent. Even the coloring is faded and sketchy on some pages when it is vibrant on others. The characters range from immaculate studies with incredible detail to artwork which is little more than rough sketches of the characters depicted.

The result is a very average collection of comic books that feels far less satisfying than an act resolving many of the prior seeded events ought to. The Flash: Gorilla Warfare is too tough a sell to recommend.

For other The Flash volumes, please visit my reviews of:
The Flash, Volume 1: Move Along
Flashpoint
The Flash: Season Zero

5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Reboot Failure: The Flash: Rogues Revolution Undermines The New 52 Flash!

The Good: Moments of story, One or two character moments for the villains
The Bad: Glosses over huge moments of characterization, Rushed plot, Erratic artwork/coloring
The Basics: The Flash: Rogues Revolution is a mediocre continuation of Barry Allen’s rebooted story of the Flash as the hero returns to the twin cities where he tries to stop the Rogues . . . with the unlikely help of Captain Cold!


While my Flash Year is long over, I found that the year of studying the character left me very interested in the super hero. I might be one of the rare fans of Wally West as the Flash as opposed to the traditional Barry Allen version of the Flash. As a result, I was not hugely impressed by The Flash: Rebirth (reviewed here!) and the big Flash-related crossover, Flashpoint (reviewed here!). With Barry Allen as the sole Flash, DC Comics’s “New 52” strategy rebooted the character. Following on the heels of Move Along (reviewed here!) was The Flash: Rogues Revolution. Unfortunately, The Flash: Rogues Revolution does not continue the story of The Flash in a compelling way to make one want to continue to revisit his corner of the new DC Universe.

The Flash: Rogues Revolution features almost no character development for Barry Allen and it focuses much more on the various villains in the Flash corner of the DC Universe. Almost as much as Batman, The Flash has an entire gallery of recurring villains who pop up to torment the hero and during the best-written phases of The Flash, the villains were incredibly well-written and deep. Sadly, The Flash: Rogues Revolution lacks that depth and it also has gaps in the storytelling that makes the book have a poor flow and an erratic quality to it that makes it impossible to recommend. The book also begins somewhat in the middle of a serialized story with only context clues for part of how the story got where it is, which makes it harder to get into for new fans.

Trapped in Gorilla City at the hands of the merciless Grodd, the Flash is essentially powerless and confused. While some of the intelligent simians believe that Barry Allen is their savior, Grodd wants to eat the brain of the Flash in order to gain his power and knowledge. When Allen is rescued by some of Grodd’s pacifistic political adversaries, he returns to Central City and Keystone City. There, The Flash discovers that in the years he was gone, an anti-Flash and anti-super hero sentiment has overrun the twin cities. Also, an industrialist has gained credit and notoriety for making the cities completely energy independent . . . using batteries that the Flash super-charged.

Given that the world thinks that Barry Allen is dead and Patty Spivot has mourned and moved on, Barry lays low as an anonymous bartender in the slums. There, he encounters Leonard Snart (Captain Cold) who is on the outs with the Rogues. When Heatwave breaks into the bar and tries to kill Cold, it becomes clear to Barry that there has been a fracture within the Rogues. Working together, the Flash and Captain Cold try to stop a crime spree which further seeks to discredit the Flash and destroy his reputation in the twin cities. But just as Barry comes to trust Cold to help him stop the Trickster, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, Heatwave, and an ethereal version of Snart’s sister, his ally turns on him and leaves him (and the twin cities) at the mercy of an even worse enemy!

The Flash: Rogues Revolution does the heavy lifting of explaining how the Rogues were altered for the New 52 vision of the DC Universe. As it turns out, the idea is a good one: tired of being constantly disarmed by the Flash, the Rogues banded together to try to give themselves super powers. The idea is a neat one, as is the clever idea that the attempt to incorporate their gadgets as super powers had horrible side effects. Those side effects include Heatwave getting horribly burned and unable to control the fire within him when his emotions get the better of him and Leonard Snart’s sister becoming a disembodied entity who has minimal influence in our universe.

The idea of the mechanized conceits becoming biologically incorporated into the villains is an interesting idea, though it seems somewhat goofy (it’s the super-hero universe equivalent of creating a device that would allow anyone who had a blender to develop the super power of blending); at least it is derived by a clever means. The villains recognize the power of the Flash and have a reasonable way to minimize their vulnerability to him. The execution of their plan leaves people like Mirror Master with terrible consequences, though his being trapped in a mirror universe is erratically executed. The brief time the Flash spends trapped there in The Flash: Rogues Revolution implies that it is a much more permeable membrane than in prior storylines (and it is left unclear why others can move in and out of the Mirror Master’s pocket universe, but McCullough remains trapped there).

Just as the story has gaps and does exceptionally little to further the character of Barry Allen, The Flash: Rogues Revolution has erratic artwork. While the penciling is less blockish than in some of the recent prior graphic novels of The Flash, the coloring is far less vibrant and realistic than it could be. That gives The Flash: Rogues Revolution an unfortunately flat look and feel to it. The result is a book that lacks a sense of being visually stunning just as the story leaves the reader unimpressed.

Ultimately, The Flash: Rogues Revolution is what it is and it feels like it: it is a middle act in a storyline that is surprisingly underwhelming.

For other “New 52” graphic novels, please check out my reviews of:
Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection
Batgirl: Knightfall Descends
Green Lantern: Sinestro
Green Lantern: Revenge Of The Black Hand
Green Lantern: The End
Green Lantern Corps: Fearsome
Green Lantern Corps: Alpha War
Justice League: Origins
Red Lanterns: Blood And Rage
Wonder Woman: Blood
Wonder Woman: Guts
Wonder Woman: War

4/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Reinventing The Wheel Fairly Average, The Flash: Move Along!

The Good: Moments of character, Interesting science
The Bad: Artwork, Dull episodic portions of the plot, Not hugely character-driven
The Basics: The Flash: Move Along opens the New-52 version of The Flash in a way that expands the character, though not in a terribly impressive way.


It is no secret to my regular readers that I am not a huge fan – in general terms – of the DC Comics reinvention of the DC Universe known as the New 52. I thought it was an arrogance concept (especially in the middle of a recession) and that doing a wholesale reboot of the DC Universe following Flashpoint (reviewed here!) was a mistake. Figuring out what came before that gels with the new universe and what doesn’t is weird and it is a jerkaround to loyal readers who have been invested in those characters for decades. In the case of The Flash, the reboot is pretty extensive and it begins in The Flash: Move Along.

The Flash: Move Along provides a pretty dramatic overhaul to the Flash character. Returning the focus of the book to Barry Allen, The Flash: Move Along creatively presents a Flash who is learning his full range of skills and combating classic Flash villains (who seem to have memories of going up against the Flash before) and a new adversary. The reboot has a noticeable lack of Wally West, who was my favorite version of The Flash. But this incarnation of The Flash is new and while it works hard to push Barry Allen in a new direction (with a serious scientific bent), the story feels remarkably like a Superman book with the way Barry Allen and the Flash interact with reporter Iris West.

While Barry Allen is dating Patty Spivot, Barry’s old friend Manuel ends up dead. But soon, circumstances take a turn for the strange when it appears that Manuel is alive and there are more versions of him . . . hunting him. As the villain Mob Rule, the alternate versions of Manuel are hunting down Manuel and the people who made Manuel into the duplicates. With Dr. Elias trying to explain to the Flash how his powers might be pushed in different directions, Mob Rule fights to survive as the duplicates begin to expire and try to get a solution from Manuel that will save their lives.

Following that, Captain Cold resurfaces. When Dr. Elias realizes that the Flash is creating micro-wormholes whenever he approaches a certain speed, Captain Cold freezes the local river and in rescuing the victims, the Flash inadvertently sends Iris into another dimension. Entering the Speed Force, the Flash discovers a new truth about himself and his powers. Negotiating with Turbine, a pilot trapped within the Speed Force, the Flash begins to realize the full depth of consequences that come with his powers.

The Flash: Move Along is very plot-heavy after the Manuel chapters. The introduction of Leonard Snart is a welcome one and his fundamental characterization is compelling, which has been one of the primary marks of the interesting Flash villains. After Manuel is dealt with, The Flash: Move Along spends a lot of time exploring what the power of the new incarnation of the Flash are. The New 52 version of the Flash explores more the character’s relationship with time and alternate realities, which is a big change from the prior versions of the Flash. The change in tone is all right, but it seems to explain the science of the Flash, but not truly advance his character. Learning about his new abilities and fighting the new villain does little to change his character. The insertion of Manuel into Barry Allen’s backstory helps to relaunch the character, though it does not fundamentally alter the character of change his outlook on life.

The artwork in The Flash: Move Along is unfortunately erratic. There is a washed out quality to most of the panels and the coloring looks much less refined than many of the other Flash books. The interactions between Barry Allen and Patty Spivot are interesting, but given that Iris West is still in the picture, it is hard to read the book and feel like the book is not just moving toward Barry and Iris getting together. This story has erratic pacing, but illustrates some potential for the character. After Flashpoint, Move Along is an interesting, but not exceptional reboot.

For other Flash graphic novels, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
The Flash Archives, Volume 1
The Flash Vs. The Rogues
The Trial Of The Flash
Born To Run
The Return Of Barry Allen
Terminal Velocity
Dead Heat
Race Against Time
Emergency Stop
The Human Race
Wonderland
Blood Will Run
Rogues
Crossfire
Blitz
Ignition
The Secret Of Barry Allen
Rogue War
Full Throttle
Lightning In A Bottle
Flash: Rebirth
The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues
The Road To Flashpoint
The Life Story Of The Flash

5.5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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