posted
I'm not following this. How many Flashes do we have now? Jay, Barry and Wally are all Flashes, and Bart is going back to Kid Flash?
-------------------- Some people are like slinkys: not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when you knock them down a flight of stairs
From: Penthouse atop Levitz Hall, LMBP Plaza, Embassy Row, Legion World | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, Barry was one of the characters I gravitated towards as a kid reading comics. He just seemed to inhabit this acid based world where he was the base about which all the insanity whirled and spun. Then, along about the time that Irv Novick left(it may have been his death, been a long time and I don't remember) they changed the run. Barry went to busting in doors and getting this phony cop personality grafted onto him. Then Iris was gone, and he was having a thing for Fiona and Zatanna, and it just didn't feel like Barry.
Then came crisis and his death. And I have to say that he became much more after his death. He truly took on an iconic quality that I thought he lacked as a blue collar working stiff in his "real" life. He, not superman, became the standard for the heroic ideal in the DCU superheroverse.
And now he's back. And I like Wally better, in spite of the last four years. I like that Wally took on the role when he didn't really want it. I like that he in many ways surpassed Barry because and only because he had barry's legacy to live up too. I like that he brought a return of the blue collar working man to comics, if in a roundabout way.
I like Wally better in the role of Flash now. I will always like Barry the character better, but Wally has the best, deepest, and most honest in a way characterization in the DCU.
Geoff is going to tell a great story, no doubt. But its a return of that grafted on persona that caused me to leave Barry's book in the first place.
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
posted
The end of REBIRTH #2-- now that turns things on their heads, doesn't it?
I like Barry and his CSI-like secret identity possibilities. I haven't been bowled over by his return to Flash-dom. The storytelling's fine.
On the whole, I'd rather read Wally as Flash, though. I'd actually like it if the afore-mentioned ending leads to something like Barry taking a different superhero ID, leaving Jay and Wally as the Flashes.
Bart's about to be back as Kid Flash-- I kind of would like to see Jenny come back in time and be Kid Flash for awhile, while Bart stayed in whatever 31st century is going to be featured and spend some time as a Legionnaire.
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow...between this series and LoTW, Geoff seems intent on bringing back a lot of characters that were dead and buried...and not in the Blackest Night sense.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Geoff Johns has written some great comics in recent years but IMO this title is most definitely not one of them. Flash: Rebirth #4 was almost incomprehensible to me.
I'll pick up the final two issues in this mini because Comic Series Completion Disorder (CSCD) is an AMA-recognised disease and I am an unfortunate sufferer of it but the new ongoing(s?) will almost certainly not be on my pull-list.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
He's still got 2 issues to straighten things out. I have hopes that the whole thing will make total sense by the time it's done. I get the gist of everything so far.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Personally, I thought #4 was terrific, having just read it. I can only assume the confusion comes from the circumstances of Thawne's retunr not being explained. Thawne alludes to an enemy of Barry's being behind it, though it apparently hasn't happened yet. This is easily explainable by speedsters' access to time travel. And I'm sure we'll learn the circumstances of Thawne's return in the remaining issues.
I'm actually pretty thrilled to see Thawne's return, moreso than Barry's! To me, Thawne is the ultimate Flash villain, and there's been quite a void ever since he was killed off. I'm pretty surprised, actually, as Johns worked so hard to build up Hunter Zolomon as the new Zoom over his tenure writing the Flash. Zolomon never really worked for me though. It's actually really odd to see a writer who associated himself so strongly with Wally and Zolomon come back to the property with Barry and Thawne.
I like the Speed Force having a "dark side" as a new wrinkle. I mean, the Speed Force has always been a bit of a riff on Star Wars' Force, so I don't really mind Johns taking things a bit further. I also like the innovation here that Barry actually created or even is the Speed Force. It's a logical way to justify bringing him back and establishing him as the prime Flash. I'm not completely sold on bringing Barry back, mind you, but it's a step in the right direction.
What does vex me more and more is Iris and reconciling her history with where she is now. During the storyline that first brought us Bart Allen and into Waid's run and the Impulse title, Iris was an older woman, possibly old enough to be collecting social security. Now she's young again with no explanation that I know of. One could argue all this is post-Infinite Crisis continuity, but she still had to have had children and grandchildren! Bart and Jenni anyone? I've heard of hot grandmas, but COME ON!
So overall, I'd say that Thawne's return is redeeming Rebirth for me, though I'm not without concerns.
Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Honestly, I think that while Geoff's original run on Flash was his way of distancing his direction from that of the popular Waid era that preceded his, Flash: Rebirth is connecting with and building on the mythology that Waid built up. There wasn't much talk of the Speed Force or much focus on the Flash family of heroes or even time travel that were all Waid hallmarks when Johns wrote the Flash. Suddenly, they're all very prominent in Rebirth whereas Johns' wrinkles, such as the focus on the Rogues are barely a part of the story if at all.
As someone who preferred Waid's run and what he did for the mythology, I applaud Johns for bringing all those elements back.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
It might just be me then. I've never liked the Speed Force as a concept (though to be fair I've never read Waid's run on this title so I might've missed all the good stories using it) so the heavy focus on in it in this tale might be part of the reason I'm being turned off.
I think the other issue I'm having with this story is that it seems to me to be all "sound and fury" but with very little focus. It reads to me like Geoff is throwing everything into it to make it BIG! and IMPORTANT! but not plotting the beats or even setting up the characters very well. (This Barry Allen for example reads very little like the Barry Allen I remember.)
Then there's the horrible retcon involving Barry's parents... but I hear an explanation is forthcoming on that one so I'll keep an open mind.
I'm not totally hating this book though - I also am happy to see 'Professor' Zoom back as well as Max Mercury and Johnny Quick (brief as it was) and the de-aging of Iris can only be a good thing IMO.
I think I was just hoping that Flash Rebirth would be more of a Barry Allen story and so far it seems to be more of an All-Flash/Speed Force story and since the new ongoing sounds like it'll be following the same format - I don't think it'll be a book for me.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm witholding judgement on the entire Rebirth mini as thus far I'm on the fence about several issues.
One thing that did surprise me was that Geoff opted to keep Max Mercury alive. I think this was a great move on his part even if it means there is another speedster. It goes against everything he's been doing lately (or at least feels) and I wonder if he recognizes some of the criticism towards him that he's kill-happy.
As to Iris's age and the long, convuluted history of Barry and Iris through time, I think that's a thread Geoff plans to expand on, given his recent interviews. The explanation will of course be: time travel, but it'll be interesting to see the nuts and bolts of it.
I'm still clueless as to what this all means for Wally and Linda and the *groan* Flash kids who still remain a never-ending annoyance.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well. 5 is finally out, and we have another full fledged speeder, or two, on our hands. Jesse is back...and there is a new Impulse.
So we have Jay, Barry and Wally...Flashes all. Max and Bart (Kid Flash). Jesse and a new female Impulse. Plus XS in the Legion.
A lot of Speedsters again...but That's okay. I likes all of them.
As far as the story itself...it answers a lot of questions. A lot. I can live with the answer, I mean it is a comic...and someone will eventually come up with something else to explain certain things.
I believe that Zoom is being utilized as the Duex Ex Machina here, and I'm not sure why Geoff is changing some of the things he has. Will wait for final judgment on that until next issue. Will the changes to Barry's life stick, or be reversed again.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think the failure of Flash: Rebirth had less to do with the fact that it was about Barry Allen and more to do with the fact that Geoff Johns wrote a completely boring story with mediocre art by the internet's most overrated artist, Ethan Van Sciver.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic | Subscribe To Topic
