Comic Book Of The Week - The Flash The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues - Review

This trade collects the first seven issues of The Flash along with The Flash Secret Files And Origins from 2010. Written by Geoff Johns with artwork by Francis Manapul and Scott Kolins with covers by Manapul and Brian Buccellato.

 

I picked this trade up for a number of reasons; it was cheap, it was the start of a new series, it was written by one of my favourite writers Geoff Johns and finally just flicking through the pages I could see the artwork was some of the nicest I'd ever seen. And that's where I'd like to start this review, the artwork in this book is stunning, a mixture of traditional clean comic book inking with computer added colours and effects over crisp, gorgeous water colours. It really helps highlight the difference in speed between The Flash and everything else, or how Barry Allen sees the world, where things go in and out of focus and blend together, it's top class. Even if the story had been poor I still would have been glad I bought this book.

 

 

But of course with Johns at the helm you know chances are the story's going to be good, and it is, it's really good. It's a murder mystery involving time travel,the 25th century,future versions of characters, there's mentions of Blackest Night and Brightest Day, the past, the present, the future, and it all could have ended up feeling very out there and intangible, but Johns grounds all this potentially confusing or elusive hugeness by giving a lot of play to 'normal' police forensic scientist Barry Allen, normal Central City and it's normal inhabitants, all made feel friendly and familiar by the bright endearing artwork, and this local and safe feel creates a tether between normality and the more fantastical elements of the story so the reader never feels lost.

 

The trade has a Brightest Day banner head on the cover but don't be put off if you aren't familiar with what been happening in The Green Lantern books, it doesn't have any major bearing on this story. This is really an initial set-up to a more recent event called Flashpoint, but again don't feel like your gonna need to buy the subsequent trades or that you need to know a lot about The Flash, I'm confident this story can be enjoyed in isolation. I really liked this trade, I read it all in one sitting, and that included a lot of time savouring the artwork, pick this up.

 

 

The next comic book of the week will be The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume one.