Written by Jeremy Adams | Art by Amancay Nahuelpan | Published by DC Comics
If I had to review just The Flash and Nightwing books every month it wouldn’t bother me in the least. Both are great reads, both are consistently entertaining, and both manage both fan service and engaging storylines for new readers. The Flash has always been a fun book, where a character with pretty much one-dimensional powers on the face of it (he can run really fast) has been transformed into a book where the multi-generational Flash family speedsters have centre stage in the DC Universe. It’s a book where top notch writers queue up to take on, a sharp contrast to the mid-1980s where writer Cary Bates was asked to tread water with Flash storylines long enough so DC could kill Barry Allen in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Luckily for us, Barry got better. Though he is, of course, currently missing…
We start with a brain-bending briefing. So, everyone is looking for Barry Allen, currently missing out there in the Omniverse. Mr. Terrific has found a way of honing in on Barry’s unique frequency, which is the good news, but he’s found several Barry’s, which is the bad news. How do they find ‘their’ Barry? Sheer luck by the sounds of it. This needs more than just Wally; it needs some extra super-speedster backup. How about Max Mercury, Kid Flash, Jay Garrick, the original Flash, and Jesse Quick as back-ups. Bart is missing, but he’s busy elsewhere with Young Justice, so we’ll let him off this time. So, all get kitted out, and the portal is open, time to find Barry. Except…kids.
Wally’s kids decide they want to help Uncle Barry and jump in before anyone can stop them, prompting Jay to jump in after them. They end up in city dominated by Allen Tower and Allen Tech. hmm. Max and Jesse end up in some desert location, a sort of dystopian future, where a bearded Barry is driving as fast as he can from Mad Max like pursuers. Yikes. We also drop in on a Silver Age Barry Allen, happily married to Iris, and with his trusty kid sidekick Wally West, Kid Flash. They team up to take on Captain Cold, in a classic Silver Age fight, full of quips and quirky use of powers. I loved this sequence, as those days are my favourite ones when it comes to my comics reading. As much as I loved it, the onlooking Wally and Kid Flash are just very, very confused….
This was, appropriately enough, a quick read, but not in the negative sense. There was quite a lot to unpack, and some tantalizing subplots dangled in front of us, but it all flowed so well that the read seemed over in no time. It’s a classic trope of course, the quest, and in comics the quest for the lost teammate is even more a trope, yet Adams still manages to make it feel fresh. He writes rounded, likeable characters, which helps, sparkling dialogue with just the right pinch of humour and in-jokes, and solid adventure stories that always use enough Flash mythology to keep long-time fans as engaged as new readers.
The art was excellent throughout, I especially liked the way it slightly changed with each location. The Silver Age Barry’s world was sunny and bright, clean, and simple, in contrast to the main Universe world and the Mad Max/ dystopian city locations that the West twins and Max and Jesse find themselves in. The layouts and pacing were spot on, pacing obviously a priority on a Flash book.
Another great issue. Though technically a Dark Crisis tie-in, it’s not really, its just a solid Flash family story that started well and has a whole lot of promise down the road.
Those boots are made for running. All the time.