I don’t think I ever made this clear when I reviewed “Flash Rebirth #1” so many months ago:

Geoff Johns previous run on Flash helped me get back into comics.

He isn’t the main reason, but one of many writers who intrigued me to get back into the industry. Him writing the Rouges was obviously the highlight of his run. He turned into what were truthfully bad Golden/Silver age characters into something menacing. People wouldn’t think Captain Cold or Trickster are legit villains if it wasn’t for Johns. I’m not saying that he never wrote a good Flash, he did. He got Wally West down during his run; but there’s the problem with Rebirth right there. Johns never wrote Barry during his first run, he’s done the other Flashes, but not Barry.

But who needs Flash when we have a quite possibly the best Rouges story ever? I am reading to defend that statement cause I think this is the most fun I’ve had with a trade in a long time. What this essentially is for Geoff Johns, is writing a clean slate for the villains. For a good one to two years, the Rouges have been nothing but a stain on DC thanks to the death of Bart. Now with Final Crisis hanging over their heads, the Rouges feel obligated to do one more job before calling it quits. Simple mission: Kill the man who lead them down this path in the first place, Impulse.

Over the course of the next three issues is an action packed, emotional ride as we follow the Rouges go from place to place. Trying to avoid Libra but also confronting their demons such as Captain Cold having to face his abusive father or Weather Wizard coming over murdering his brother. But it’s not all dark and depressing….wait scratch that, it is. I mean that even if it is dark at points, Johns writes some really entertaining moments. The whole issue of the original Rouges fighting Libra’s Rouges is really fun to read. Just seeing the new school get their asses kicked by the old school is fine by me. Also, as Paul as shown with the Twitter banter earlier this year, the bickering by the characters is really funny. Anytime Cold talks down to one of the others is funny and he sounds like a legit leader. Again this comic can get pretty heavy at points, but it definitely feels like an 80’s action film more then anything else.

I like to think of Scott Kolins art as ‘a poor man’s Frank Quitely’. That doesn’t mean I think his art is bad, but the two are so similar it’s hard to tell the differences sometimes. Kolins also worked on John’s previous run with the Flash, so it’s almost like running the same track again. He definitely draws a some great characters in this, and I love how bright and color this comic can get. My only drawback with this art is the rain in this. It’s ment as cover for the Rouges and also sets the mood for the whole issue. Overall though I think it distracts some of the detailed backgrounds and characters. Or at least too rough for me, but it’s all subjective.

The comic also collects two origin stories from the previous run of Johns/Kolins on Flash. It’s simple origins for Captain Cold and Zoom, but it really shows just how great Geoff Johns was as a writer before he became the man he is today. If this trade does anything for me: It gets me pumped up for the Barry Allen ongoing. The Flash: Rebirth series really made me a bit down for the revival. I didn’t need a six issue mini series to get us back to speed with an old friend. All I needed was to read this trade and get reader for, hopefully, another title Geoff Johns will bring back to the brink of death.