This will have spoilers to Flash: Rebirth, continue at your own discretion.
Synopsis:
The issue starts off with Barry Allen and a few other police officers attending to a gruesome crime scene similar to the murder of Barry Allen’s own mother. While the detectives state their assumption on who perpetrated the murder, Allen insists that they shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet.
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As Allen sees events of his own past that doesn’t remember he arrives to his father to try and figure out what these images mean. His father suspects that this is either the speed force effecting him, or Allen is simply overworking himself. Donning the uniform of his alter-ego the Flash, he begins his work protecting the people of Central City.
It’s at this point that we see a swift recap of the events DC Rebirth where Allen rescues Wally West from being dissolved into the speed force. Following a quick discussion on how much has been altered by a certain naked omnipotent reject from Blue Man Group, Flash decides to visit Batman, who is already working on figuring out why the Comedian’s bloodied smiling button is in his cave.
Both men decide to keep this information to themselves until they get further answers, and the Flash races past the murder scene earlier in the issue, where he over hears (I think) the detectives talking about how they were right on their assumption, and that Allen is sometimes wrong.
Thoughts:
For a single issue story this wasn’t too bad. Dialogue was enjoyable and no one went poured purple prose on the other. I was hoping to have more development on what occurred in Geoff John’s Rebirth. It was nice to see that this was not going to be a story point that was dropped as soon as it was introduced. But it would’ve nice to see Batman and Flash do something more than a glorified “You too!”
This was a problem with Marvel’s recent Avenger’s Standoff, in that the prologue and first chapter were essentially the same story, this was not the case for Rebirth and The Flash: Rebirth. We just didn’t get that much more in moving the Rebirth narrative forward. Though the story was a bit lacking in regards to the greater Rebirth story arc, this was a well written single issue story for the Scarlet Speedster.
Artwork was fantastic, particularly the use of the speed force when either Wally West or Barry Allen were on the move. And the use of color in the issue was in top form as well.
I also thought the memorium to Darwyn Cooke at the end was an excellent tribute someone who knew the value of these heroes.
So what were your thoughts on The Flash: Rebirth?
