#new 52

Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

Flash is one of those guys I’ve never had a huge attachment to, but love the idea and vibes of his rogues gallery, and in general I think he’s got a strong theme and potential. The collective criminals he clashes with always held my attention better, but maybe this issue will turn things around. Mind you I have previously read bits and pieces of this run previously, but never this inaugural issue, so let’s get things moving.

The scene is the Central City Tech Symposium, where Barry Allen and his friend/date Patty are in attendance because… well, it’s never really stated as to why they’re there other than it’s where they decided to go on their date, I guess. It isn’t long before Barry’s train autism gets the better of him and soon he’s enamored with a model Monorail that runs on a proposed renewable green energy. Soon he and Patty get wrapped up in conversation with a Doctor Elias, who has a very sinister haircut indeed. The monorail is a passion project of his, and for a few panels the trio talk about “the law of congestion”, which has no real relevance in the rest of the issue, but is so specific it must come up again in a later one.

Anyways, GOONS burst through the glass ceiling and fire sleeping gasses into the crowd. Time for The Flash to race into action!

I just like the way Barry’s costume warps around him here. Manapul’s artwork and Buccelleto’s colors in this book are gorgeous, I love this painterly style, and they’re the only creative duo in the New 52 that I’ve looked at so far who have actually used the medium of comics in a way that suits the storytelling capability of comics.

Case in point, look at this. This is how you utilize the strengths of comic book pacing and time, this is so good. I could write the entire review about how smart and refreshing this page is compared to every other New 52 No1 I’ve looked at in totality, but I digress.

The Flash summarily beats the goons, who retreat in a helicopter, leaving one of their own behind who Barry throws through a building window to prevent him being smashed on the sidewalk below. Barry vibrates through the city street but the intensity of the vibration causes the street to be destroyed anyways. It’s a fun sequence of an early hero still working out their abilities, even if it doesn’t read as well as it could.

Remember that guy Barry heaved through that window on his trip down? Well, he didn’t make it. After returning a “portable genome decoder” to Dr Elias that had been stolen by The Goons, Barry goes to do his real job as a forensic scientist on the very body of the man he tried to save. You kind of just have to assume Barry’s job title is forensic scientist based on your pre-existing knowledge of who The Flash is because they don’t ever actually say it here expressly. To make matters stranger…

The armed mercenary is none other than an old friend of Barry’s, who we learn a little about in flashback, but not enough to make Manuel engaging as a person. The crime scene team are ambushed by determined reporter Iris West, whose advances to learn “the truth” are rebuffed by Barry. We get introduced to Barry’s crime lab team at the precinct, but don’t learn much about them either outside of a few names.

Singh’s got a good vibe, I vaguely remember him being a major player later. Is that blonde girl Patty? Who even is Patty? Who’s to say. I’m also embarrassed to admit it took me a few read throughs to even clock Barry was in the scene, he’s just so inconsequential to this sequence.

Barry reminisces on Manuel and the last few days on a rooftop in a page that’s not compositionally impressive but beautifully colored all the same. Much to his relief, he did not kill Manuel, who died mysteriously unrelated to being smashed through plate glass. Flash asks to borrow Elias’s definitely not evil MacGuffin Genome Decoder device.

Cannot stress enough how much I like the art in this book.

Barry spends the evening trying to work out the mystery in yet another well composited page that very nicely captures the simultaneous impatience and monotony of research while avoiding Iris’s calls.

As he’s doing his detective work, a hooded figure creeps in, revealing himself to be none other than, who could have guessed it, Manuel, alive and (man)well. Manuel’s on the run from mysterious plainclothes assailants, and before you know it, he and Barry are hot-footing it through the city streets with their pursuers close behind. Barry takes an opportunity to “clumsily” fall into the river and let The Flash emerge in his place.

The Flash catches up with Manuel only to discover:

MANYuel!

It’s a decent enough set up, there are definitely more than a few strings to pull here, and you get a decent scope of Barry and the immediate people in his life, even if all of them are relatively light on characterization, particularly Manuel, who despite the whole issue hinging on, never really presents himself as likable, interesting or worth investigating the death of outside of being Barry’s “friend.” I am not at all intrigued by the mystery of Manuel.

In relation to this, characters like Iris don’t really have much to say or do, and not enough of this version of the Flash is different enough from any other version. It hardly feels like a reboot, you could say this is just a continuation of any previous Flash run and you could probably justify it. Maybe even if there was a simple change like Iris being Barry’s coworker in the forensics department instead of Patty, that could go a ways to making this feel like a fresh new era with different ideas for the Scarlet Speedster.

It is a solid issue though, if nothing else the art alone is enough to keep coming back.

7/10.

Would I read more of this? I might revisit the Reverse Flash arc that I read years ago, and maybe see how weird the New 52 Rogues are, but I don’t know if I’d read it consecutively from here.

end

H

I think the new 52s existance is really unnecessary, like logically i get that after a time jump like flashpoint there would be some consequences but i dont get why they tweaked every single character again just to change them, especially since the characters were already solid and established within the main universe.

They changed things just to be confusing and as if that wasnt enough they also nerfed the fucking goat alfred (personal opinion, FUCK city of bane with a passion).