Category Archives: Reviews

Review: The Flash #3 – “The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues Part 3” *SPOILERS*

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First off I know the reviews are usually Kelson’s thing (and you can expect to see his later in the week) but I decided to share my two cents and take a shot at it. This is my first time reviewing a comic book online so all feedback is most assuredly appreciated. Now on to the review:

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Francis Manapul & Scott Kolins
Color: Brian Buccellato
Letters: Sal Cipriano
Cover: Manapul w/Buccellato
Variant Cover: Greg Horn
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Editor: Eddie Berganza

Ok, this is the way a Flash relaunch needs to be done; Fast and Furiously. Through the last two issues we’ve been on a nonstop action-packed, roller coaster ride that shows no signs of letting up with Part 3 of The Dastardly Death of The Rogues.

As many of you may be aware I was not the biggest fan of Barry’s return. I love Wally and he has been a character that I loved reading about and identified with for years. He was the Flash that I got into and despite the once off story featuring Barry (JLA Year One, The Secret of Barry Allen, and Rogue War), he seemed like a distant memory of a character that died an awesome memorable death. I’m also a huge fan of legacy characters in general. It’s what made DC kind of stand out on it’s own. They had characters that got older, retired, or died and then a new hero would take their place. When Barry died and Wally took his place as The Flash this was huge. It was the first time we had seen a character developed as a sidekick take on the role of their mentor, the first time the inherent promise had been fulfilled. In other words this was ground breaking and it stands out as one of DC’s defining traits. Allowing their heroes to age and move on (quasi) organically while still allowing the character’s previous developments to shine is what DC has been doing pretty well for years.

Just one reason why I don’t like all the back tracking. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve done some great stuff with Barry Allen and Hal Jordan since their returns but I feel like nothing is making them that unique other than that they are older heroes returning to take back their mantles from their previous sidekicks (or letting them co-exist like the superhero equivalent of Gallagher Too). I loved the steady progression we were seeing in the DC Universe and it really made me feel like I was growing up alongside these characters. I wouldn’t be disappointed if a newer younger version would take his place, I would expect it. It needs to happen in order for others to have that feeling as well. Of course as I said, it needs to happen organically; when a character has without a doubt outlived their usefulness and needs a shake-up. The problem is that this is mostly subjective, but certain things like sales, the ability to hold a solo title, etc, etc can (and should) be factors in whether a character is worth keeping around.
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Retro Review: Flash #2

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Sorry this review is so late. Things just kept coming up, and I pushed it further and further back. Then my local comic store didn’t receive their order of The Flash #3 on time (Diamond sent them extra copies of Deadpool Team-Up instead), so I haven’t had a chance to read the new issue…and it occurs to me that this is my last chance to review The Flash #2 before reading issue #3!

So, on to the review!

I’m still enjoying this series a lot more than I did Flash: Rebirth. Francis Manapul’s artwork has a lot to do with that, but also the fact that they’re just telling stories about a guy with super-speed instead of trying so hard to justify why they’re telling stories about this guy with super-speed.

Admittedly not a whole lot happens in this issue, but it continues to move as quickly as the previous chapter did. I expect that when “The Dastardly Death of the Rogues” is finished, pairing it with a collection of Silver-Age stories like Flash vs. The Rogues will provide a great example of the change in comic-book storytelling styles from 1960 to 2010.

The expected confrontation with the Renegades is cut short, leaving the rest of the issue divided between the mystery aspects (presented through Barry Allen’s civilian life) and a visit with Captain Boomerang, providing the Brightest Day connection advertised on the cover. Also: the Flash evacuates, then rebuilds an apartment building at super-speed. Once again, the issue ends on a cliffhanger, only this time it has to do with Barry Allen, rather than the Flash.

Francis Manapul’s artwork continues to stand out, especially in sequences like the apartment evacuation, though there are some places where it seems a bit more static than last issue. Last issue I thought his faces seemed a bit off, but this time I started noticing the way he handles expressions. There are a couple of sequences where he really makes use of changing expressions with similar panel layouts. The last two pages stand out, as does a sequence earlier in which a girl complains that she lost her doll in the building collapse. (His attention to detail holds as well. If you flip back a few pages, there she is…and there’s her doll.)

Okay, spoiler time!

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Review: Velocity #1 – “Decoys”

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The first issue of Ron Marz and Kenneth Rocafort’s Velocity miniseries delivers an effective blend of action and exposition. Appropriately for a book about a speedster, it hits the ground running, and while the main conflict doesn’t really begin until the end of the issue, there’s plenty going on in the opening chapter.

The setup for “Decoys” is simple: A mad scientist infects Velocity and her teammates with a virus that will kill them within an hour, and she’s the only one who might be able to stop it.

Wait, Who?

A bit of background for those not familiar with Top Cow’s resident speedster: Carin Taylor is a member of Cyberforce, a team made up of former (unwilling) test subjects of Cyberdata. Cybernetic implants give her super-speed, and a layer of Kevlar under her skin gives her some degree of invulnerability.

The comic is actually quite new-reader friendly. You get a good sense of Velocity’s personality (snarky, tends to get ahead of herself), powers (runs fast, jumps fast, dismantles killer cyborgs fast…but vibrating through walls and into other dimensions is right out), and the basics of her origin. The villain’s motives are established clearly. There’s even a page in the back with short profiles of Velocity and her teammates.

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Review — Flash: The Human Race

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Flash Week continues at Collected Editions with my guest review of Flash: The Human Race. The trade covers the second half of the year-long Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run: The Flash must run in a cosmic race or else the Earth will be destroyed, but even afterward, death comes for him in the form of the Black Flash. Finally, rounding out Grant Morrison’s Flash solo stories is a short from Secret Origins which retells the classic “Flash of Two Worlds” in modern Post-Crisis continuity.

Review: Flash — Emergency Stop

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Flash Week continues at Collected Editions with my guest review of Flash: Emergency Stop. The trade covers the first half of the year-long Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run with art by Paul Ryan and covers four stories:

  • Emergency Stop (Flash vs. the Suit)
  • Through the Looking Glass (Flash vs. Mirror Master)
  • Still Life in the Fast Lane (a focus on Jay Garrick)
  • Three of a Kind: Part Three (a courtroom drama dealing with the aftermath of a Flash/Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-up)

Read the review at Collected Editions, or order the book at Amazon.

Review: DC Super Heroes and Villains Fandex

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Workman’s new DC Comics Super Heroes and Villains Fandex has incredibly detailed information on the DCU’s major characters, but in a format and size that presents a few difficulties.

If you’re not familiar with Fandexes, they’re a series of field guides in the form of cards attached at the base, so that you can swivel any card out and keep it available. You can also open them up as a fan. I first heard of them as nature guides, but they’ve expanded to geography, history, and pop culture.

Wide Coverage

The DC Fandex has surprisingly wide coverage. 75 profiles doesn’t sound like a lot until you consider that it’s comparable to three standard-sized comic books with every page profiling a new character, not unlike the JLA-Z guide that came out around the time of JLA/Avengers. And the text on each card, front and back, is about as long as the classic Who’s Who entries.

They’ve managed to fit in more characters by combining legacies onto a single card. For instance, there’s one card each for Robin, Batgirl, Wonder Girl and Blue Beetle, with the cards profiling the various incarnations of the character. The Flash is simplified to Barry Allen and Wally West, though Jay Garrick and Bart Allen get mentions. On these cards they tend to go for the current version of the character for the image, so Flash is Barry, Robin is Damian Wayne, and Batgirl is Stephanie Brown.

Sometimes it does lead to duplicates. They managed to avoid it with Dick Grayson by profiling him as Nightwing and then picking up the Robin card where it left off with Jason, Tim, etc. But Barbara Gordon gets spotlighted on both the Batgirl and Oracle cards.

One nice bonus: if you were confused about the Monitors’ role in Final Crisis and Superman: Beyond, their card sums it up quite nicely!

Priorities

The guide describes the DCU roughly between Final Crisis and Blackest Night, featuring new versions of heroes such as Batgirl and Robin, and glossing over temporary changes. The Martian Manhunter and Aquaman entries don’t mention their now-reversed deaths, for instance, and Batman’s card focuses entirely on Bruce Wayne, with Nightwing’s card mentioning that Dick has taken over while Bruce was “presumed dead.”

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