Please keep up with all of my old Graphic Novel Reviews here as I quest for 365 in 365 days! Or search #365GN on Twitter.
Hey, all! I have some cool things coming your way in February, so make sure that you are checking back every day. I appreciate you for reading.
As my student reviews keep pouring in, I’m going to be featuring a number of them because they are exceptional pieces of student writing, I believe in showcasing quality student work, and these titles have not been featured on my 365! Win, win, win…
Today…
Title: The Flash: Rebirth (a Josh M. review)
Author(s): Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver
Publisher: DC Comics (2011)
Age Rating: 13+
The Flash is one of DC Comics most iconic characters; he has some of the greatest
stories and has one of the biggest superhero families, one that rivals that of Batman. This story
being one of his most well known. The Flash: Rebirth, takes place pre New 52 being published as 6 issues starting on April 1st of 2009 and ending March 1st of the same year.
After his death during the events of Infinite Crisis, the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, returns for
reasons unknown. Feeling out of place in the world and Central City already having a new Flash
in the form of the previous Kid Flash, Wally West, Barry now has a new purpose, which is to solve
the mystery of his mother’s killer, but there is more to Nora Allen’s end as it is revealed that
Barry Allen’s life has been manipulated by the same twisted person that had killed his mother
and who is now after his family.
The writers and artists who crafted The Flash: Rebirth also did another rebirth story on Green
Lantern after he was the villain Parallax and Kyle Rayner was the new Green Lantern of Earth.
Due to the same author and illustrator, the two comics read very similar. The artwork is great and showcases the characters and the minor details between Barry Allen and Wally West’s suit.
This book is incredible: it ties in everything in the Flash mythos including The Speedforce and Wally West and Barry Allen’s huge family of other speedsters. The Speedforce in particular, plays
a huge role in this story, and it makes Barry Allen one of the most important characters in DC
Comics. There’s also some side plots between some of the other characters in the story such as
the current Kid Flash, Bart Allen, and Max Mercury which tie into the story, and those characters help explain the story and what’s going on with Barry Allen.
One of the biggest problems with this book though is if you do not follow The Flash and
are not aware of his history, you’re going to have a hard time understanding most of the things
going on in the book, with tie-ins to Infinite Crisis and a lot of other Flash story-lines, the common reader is going to be really confused most of the time. They wouldn’t know how Barry Allen died or his relationship to Wally or Iris while reading this since this book rushes through those key points.
The Flash:Rebirth is a great read and a great story, having some well known characters and
then some characters that readers who are not fully involved in the franchise might not know,
altogether if you know the history of The Flash, you’re really going to like this book.
-Josh M.
Josh, thank you for the great review!
Happy reading!
Eric
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