To be blunt, I've always found The Flash to be kinda annoying. Well, not annoying, but no where near my top 5 favorite heroes. Even in the animated Justice League cartoon. Just in the DC universe, I'd much rather talk about Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and sometimes even Supes *gasp* instead of Flash. But then I read Blackest Night, and as Arnab accurately pointed out in his Blackest Night Tie-In Part 3, Barry Allen is kind of awesome. Add to that the fact that in a lot of the Brightest Day promotional releases there has been a strong Flash presence, and that I really enjoyed reading the new Green Lantern Secret Origin series, I thought I'd give it a go.
25 words or less: Overall I enjoyed it, even if I'm not entirely sure what was happening at any particular point.
The story opens with everyone getting ready for a party to celebrate Barry Allen's return. Having not read Final Crisis, it took me a bit (and a Wikipedia search) to realize that's when he had returned. It's kind of evident from the beginning that while Barry is happy to be back in one sense, he's not in others. I guess if you join with the very essence of speed, it's hard to slow down.
Which brings me to my "What the hell is the Speedforce?" portion of this recap. Even after reading the whole series I'm not entirely sure. To pull a Star Trek reference out of my ass, I feel like it's kind of similar to subspace, in that it's this energy that powers all the speedsters and sort of exists across all time. If you learn to control it well enough, you can enter the Speedforce and then exit it at any time? Is that how that works? I think I'm showing how green I am on Flash mythology.
Anyway, Barry suddenly finds that when he touches other speedsters they die, because he's kind of the Black Flash, but apparently that's because the Reverse Flash has started an anti-speedforce which is radiating backwards through history and has somehow infected Barry's speedforce (which we also find out was started by him). However, Barry manages to cleanse himself of the anti-speedforce by running really fast, and then he and Wally go back in time to stop the Reverse Flash from screwing up Barry's past anymore than he already has.
It just seems very convoluted to me. I'll readily believe it's because I jumped into the mythology without getting a proper backing on it. I sort of already knew about the Reverse Flash from reading Blackest Night, but on the whole I spent a lot of time going "Huh?" All that being said, I did enjoy the story, and hopping into a new hero mythology that I was completely unfamiliar with. I found the time-travel twist of the Reverse Flash especially interesting, since I love me a good paradox. Now I have a much better idea of who Barry Allen and Wally West and Bart Allen are now that I've read this, and I think I'm much better prepared to handle what comes after Blackest Night.
So in a final estimation, I'd give the whole series four stars, if I think each individual issue would only get three. I'd definitely read them all together though, as I'm not sure issue 6 was worth waiting whatever ridiculous amount of months it took after issue 5 to get released. Luckily for us, that's not really an issue. Unless you get lost in the Speedforce, of course.
There's a lot of stuff here, but I think I'll just stick to a couple of things.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what this subsapce is, but the Speed force is essentially, in my understanding of it, what you say it is. It is this all encompassing, almost like kinetic energy personified and to the max, force that fuels and interacts with the speedsters. I do want to add that one does not realy control it per se, rather they are able to harness aspects of it. I can't really explain my train of thought, but the word control makes it seem like it's something finite, which I guess it is, that can be contained.
With regards to entering the Speed Force and going backwards in time, as opposed to forwards, is a more difficult action. Wally has been, in the past, the speedster that is the most in tune with the Speed force. Although this series explains that Barry's existence created the Speed force and Barry said Bart may rival Wally. Regardless, up till this point, and basically with regards to everything in print, Wally is the most in tune with the Speed Force and I think is the only speedster to be directly linked to it, allowing him to manipulate its properties, such as when he rejuvenated all the speedsters. But I digress, going backwards in time is a much more complex process because the Flash powers are meant to take you forwards in time. However, as Wally explained, you can break past the Speed Force Barrier, much like breaking the sound or light barrier, and thus move backwards in time.
Also, you say Barry's Speed force, which essentially it could be called that seeing as it was created as a result of his becoming the Flash, but it should be noted that there is only one Speed force. So there isn't a, Barry's Speed force and a Wally's Speed force, it's all one thing.
I feel that you are belittling the entire cleansing portion of the story by saying Barry cleansed himself by "running really fast." Barry's initial intention was to revert back to being one with the Speed force, essentially committing suicide in order to save his family, the other speedsters. It's not just running fast. Superman runs fast. And Barry made it effectively clear where he matches up with the Man of Tomorrow. Reaching the Speed force is running at speeds that put the Speed of Light to shame.
Lastly, or maybe penultimately, Bart's role in this, while important, doesn't really give much headway into who he is. Same with Wally I think. This is really a Barry Allen rebirth, that juices up the Flash family. Plus I think you might've missed a couple key aspects to the story. Irey being the newest speedster, leaving Jai powerless is pretty big. Thawne did say one of Wally's children would destroy his life. Also, the ending set up, I believe, for the upcoming Flash series. What with Professor Zoom and Zoom teaming up, Abra Kadabra's ominous words, the Gorilla man implying, again in my opinion, that the Reverse Flash may have many, many minions who are in tune to the Negative Speed Force.
I loved the series, as my tragically lengthy comment might imply. And I think the 6th issue was pivotal for Flash fans, if for nothing else than the information it provided regarding the Flash history as well as the previews of the future.
You have to remember I knew next to nothing about The Flash when I started reading this. I'm not trying to undervalue any particular point, I just didn't understand what was happening for most of the story until I did some outside research. All of the assorted other characters were introduced to me here, so perhaps I don't have the same attachment to them that you do.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Barry or Wally having more connection to the speedforce, did the Speedforce even exist back when Barry died? I just feel like we've seen Wally exert more control over it maybe because Barry wasn't around, cause I definitely got the impression that Barry was able to do things Wally couldn't.
And an out-of-order addition, when I meant Barry's Speedforce, I was more just referencing the force that isn't controlled by Thawne.
The Speed force did indeed exist. As Thawne mentions, it was created when Barry first became the Flash, and had been around prior to Barry's death. I think you've seen Barry do things Wally hadn't done, although I'm not particularly sure what you mean here, because you haven't really read anything that focused on Wally. And I had totally forgot about the time that Bart had complete and sole control of the Speed Force. But then again, he's died and returned since then, so that doesn't particularly apply anymore though.
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