Only two bummer points, which were minor: I felt that the Rogues stuff could have been more balanced out with the Flash action. And I got a really bad feeling with the “lets acknowledge Wally and then pretty much forget about him” approach we got… I hope that doesn’t become typical.

But the fun factor of this issue was way up. Some things that amused me:

Totally dancing around having to mention Fiona Webb, despite her being integral to the whole Barry killed Zoom fiasco. Though I have to wonder if Zoom will bring that up– to eat at Barry.

The totally silver-age Barry rationale of “Hmm something weird is going on” SNAP! “I know, I’ll go to gorilla city and consult my friend Solovar to help me figure it out!”

The weird “Just in case anyone asks” comment about only having Solovar look at his moms case file, and specifically not Batman. (okay, this half amused me and half rubbed me the wrong way)

The super-speed Zoom fling!

Barry being one of the first people in all of the BN books I’ve read to actaully think of turning off his emotions to combat the Black Lanterns. Duh!

Anyhow… it was a fun issue, I really felt like I got the Flash back, and I also felt like this was definitely BARRY, which was pretty cool.

FINAL NOTE in my ridiculously long comment: while I’m still not warmed up to the Wally costume yet, I’ve dug the (if only breif) Kolins and Reis takes on it much more than the EVS rendering… strange but true.
.-= mattchee’s latest blog post: A Couple of Killers =-.

I did love the book, I can reread it at least another couple of times until #2 comes out.

I agree with the earlier post, the Solovar bit where he was begging Barry was to evoke emotion. That wasn’t sincere. Barry knew this. But I think it’s a ploy that would work better for Black Lantern Blue Beetle trying to goad Booster over in his book.

Wish we could’ve seen some ghosts from Wally West’s past as well. Savitar and Cassiopeia of Red Trinity come to mind.

Maybe we’ll even see Black Lantern Inertia and Black Lantern Weather Wizard Junior?

There’s also Johnny Quick of course.

In general I was much happier with Kolins’ art than his first few issues of the Flash regular series. His work indeed does fit the Rogues well but now and then it steel feels a little jagged for the Flash character and in particular Barry. The splash over page two and three were just right in my opinion and I hope Kolin’s can do more of this quality.

Two major points I had a hard time with – the tortured hero narrative bit at the beginning referencing Barry’s “new hero origin” – where the moment of transition from man to hero essentially boiled down to Zoom murdering Nora Allen. The central focus of his origin and sense of justice comes from being victimized. Of course, this is exposition for Flash: Blackest Night in the wake of Rebirth.

The second is a misuse of the term electrical. Yeah, I know it’s a comic book – but the word electrical references a very specific kind of energy. Despite being hit by lightning, Flash isn’t powered by electrons. If his power was “electrical” in nature he’d never get anywhere near the speed of light.
It would probably be less visually exciting to see what Flash would really leave behind (water vapor) running several hundred mph and the origin synopsis on page 3 is probably used to explain the fireworks that are drawn around Flash now – but they could have just stuck with “speedforce discharge” – whatever that is.

Based on the other Blackest Night stuff, this is probably a lie to evoke Barry’s sympathies. The black lanterns feed off strong emotions.

It’s been established that they are not the people (gorillas) brought back to life, but the ring re-animating the body and using the person’s memories to pretend to be the person.