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A review by clarks_dad
The Flash: Rebirth by Geoff Johns
4.0
So I admit that my previous Flash experience is pretty skimpy. I never read Flash comics, and when I did, they were usually Wally West issues. He was the Flash in the Justice League cartoon as well. He was goofy, he was fast, but I didn't see him as a character that faced deep moral conundrums the way people like Batman and Superman do. I recently binge-watched The Flash tv series on the CW because I've heard good things, and man was it awesome. Barry Allen is a fascinating character and the death of his mother, the drive to clear the name of his father, and the burden of choice when faced with such overwhelming ability such as traveling through time to alter the past made for compelling viewing, and I figured it was time to explore the character a little more in print.
I turned to reddit to get a handle on essential Flash readings and decided to start with Rebirth. I agree, in essence, with what Anne in that the title is a bit of a misnomer. You don't get to witness Allen's return from the Speed Force in this tale, you get to see how he deals with it. The actual return is told in [b:Final Crisis|5173602|Final Crisis|Grant Morrison|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391572613s/5173602.jpg|5240667], which is a mess of a story to say the least. Or again, maybe it's the way it was collected. It's damn near incoherent and not at all clear on major story points, like the death of Batman or the return of Allen.
Rebirth centers around Allen's adjustment to modern life and a kind of scary compulsion to remerge with the Speed Force and abandon his individual identity again. It turns out that Allen's return was complicated somewhat by Eobard Thawne, who uses Barry to set into motion plans to eliminate all of the speedsters that rely on the Speed Force by destroying it's source: Barry himself.
The art is incredibly well done and there a constant sense of fluid motion in the movement of the speedsters that's compelling and interesting. The tale itself can be a little bit esoteric, but I actually didn't mind it all that much. It deals with big cosmic questions about as sensibly as anything does in the DC universe. If nothing else, it definitely inspired me to read more of Johns's run on the Flash and probably start reading the New 52 title as well.
I turned to reddit to get a handle on essential Flash readings and decided to start with Rebirth. I agree, in essence, with what Anne in that the title is a bit of a misnomer. You don't get to witness Allen's return from the Speed Force in this tale, you get to see how he deals with it. The actual return is told in [b:Final Crisis|5173602|Final Crisis|Grant Morrison|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391572613s/5173602.jpg|5240667], which is a mess of a story to say the least. Or again, maybe it's the way it was collected. It's damn near incoherent and not at all clear on major story points, like the death of Batman or the return of Allen.
Rebirth centers around Allen's adjustment to modern life and a kind of scary compulsion to remerge with the Speed Force and abandon his individual identity again. It turns out that Allen's return was complicated somewhat by Eobard Thawne, who uses Barry to set into motion plans to eliminate all of the speedsters that rely on the Speed Force by destroying it's source: Barry himself.
The art is incredibly well done and there a constant sense of fluid motion in the movement of the speedsters that's compelling and interesting. The tale itself can be a little bit esoteric, but I actually didn't mind it all that much. It deals with big cosmic questions about as sensibly as anything does in the DC universe. If nothing else, it definitely inspired me to read more of Johns's run on the Flash and probably start reading the New 52 title as well.