Flash: Rebirth TPB

Ok, I’m going to get it now. This was good. And it goes a long way towards making Barry Allen an interesting character for me.

After years of loving Geoff Johns’ work, I really should trust the guy more. In this story he does build up Barry with some ridiculous quotes (like when the JSA give Barry credit for keeping them in heroics), but none of the Flashes get shafted. Wally West is pretty important to this story and he gets a lot of respect from Barry and the other heroes, it makes sense, I think Wally has been the Flash about as long as Barry at this point!

Bart Allen comes through as a great voice for the disgruntled reader like me. He’s annoyed Barry came back and not Max Mercury. He’s annoyed that “Saint Barry” gets all this respect when Wally was a great Flash. And he’s annoyed that he never got to know his grandfather at all. Look at that! An explanation for that awkwardness between Barry and Bart in the Flash comic that had confused me! It really seems like Rebirth was chapter one in the ongoing story leading up to Flashpoint.

And that brings me to Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash. He gets some new powers here, tying him to an anti-Speed Force. This energy is different than the Barry Allen’s Speed Force, and it lets Zoom actually go back and change time. It’s wonderful seeing Zoom go back and cause problems for Barry before he even becomes the Flash. And some retcons and changes get an explanation here too. And the setup is fantastic, with Zoom II, Wally’s enemy, offering to team up with Zoom at the end of the book. Good stuff.

I should mention that Iris’ de-aging is explained as well. It seems the Speed Force keeps people young, as we knew from Jay Garrick. It also keeps people close to the speedsters young, so Iris is actually de-aged a bit when Barry comes back. (There’s a neat page talking about this in the bonus materials, where Ethan Van Sciver drew Iris too old.)

Speaking of art, Van Sciver does a nice job with the re-designs in this one. Zoom, Bart Allen, Impulse II, they all fit into the speed family perfectly. And sometimes, not changing stuff is the right choice too; the re-designs for Wally West were not good, so going with the old Greg LaRoque metallic suit is the right move. Jesse Quick looks fantastic on her big splash page too.

The back material is quite helpful and provides a nice setup for Flashpoint. And with Wally West’s son destined to become the new Turtle, surely there’s more Wally West action coming up post-Flashpoint.

Good