The Flash #0 - DC Comics

THE FLASH No. 0, November 2012

A big fan of Wally West, the fastest man alive, since the late Eighties, I’ve bought many an issue of “The Flash” in my time. But lately, like the handful of other “DC Comics” titles I collect monthly, I’ve been buying the book out of habit not through any particular desire to read them. To make matters slightly worse I am not a big fan of the publisher’s cancellation of its entire line of superhero books in 2011 and the New 52 re-launch that followed it. Such a “soft reboot” event may entice new readers with more modern characters but I’m still confused as to which stories remain part of the new continuity for the regular titles and which have been lost.

 

Reservations aside though, Issue 0 of “The Flash” seemed an obvious edition for me to once again return and read about the dangers of Central City… whilst the cover art by Francis Manapul is rather captivatingly good as well. As origin stories go co-authors Brian Buccellato and Manapul have put together a rather impressive read, albeit the plot revolves more around the murder of the Scarlet Speedster’s mother than the laboratory accident which doused him in a strange mixture of chemicals. Clearly a man of many talents Francis Manapul’s pencils are also excellent, and beautifully coloured by Ian Herring and (writer) Buccellato.

 

Unfortunately what this comic book does not contain are the exploits of the character ranked eighth on IGN’s 2011 list of the “Top 100 Super Heroes of All Time”; the third Flash, Wally West. Instead “DC Comics” have decided to both bring back Barry Allen, the CSI scientist who has been dead since 1985 in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and erase the past twenty odd years worth of “The Flash” storylines… and that’s hard to assimilate in the time it takes to read a single comic book.