BLACKEST NIGHT THE FLASH #1 (OF 3)

Review by: akamuu

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809
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Avg Rating: 3.9
 
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Size: pages
Price: 2.99

I am still amazed that Flash stories always seem to read so slow.  It seems that every issue of Johns on Flash involves him having to tell and retell every item of his past, so that the reader can catch up with Barry Allen, Wally West, or whichever speedster is the star of the title.  This issue lost me right away, page three is just all narration boxes and the oh-so-familiar Flash running with his yellow lightning, and Reverse Flash with his red lightning.  Ugh. 

The real unselling point of the book is Scott Kolins’s pencils, which are wildly inconsistent.  Some pages, like the one that features speed force diagram look fantastic, but there are a lot of panels where it looks like he created the faces using a scratch pad and a dull kitchen knife.

Story: 2 - Average
Art: 2 - Average
 

Comments

  1. Avatar photo vadamowens says:
    December 3, 2009 at 1:05 pm

    missed you bro. welcome back!

  2. Avatar photo akamuu says:
    December 3, 2009 at 1:09 pm

    Thanks vadamowens, I missed the site, but wouldn’t have traded my vacation for very much.  8D

  3. flapjaxx says:
    December 3, 2009 at 2:46 pm

    "It seems that every issue of Johns on Flash involves him having to tell and retell every item of his past"–THANK YOU! BINGO! Also glad to see that you had problems with this guy’s art as well. I wanted to like Rogue’s Revenge as well, since everyone on here keeps acting like it’s better than the three best issues of Watchmen or whatever, but the art seems at turns amateurish or cartoony. If it would just slick to the dynamic "rough"/cartoony style, it’d be okay, but like you say it’s just so inconsistent.

    That said, I liked this issue ALRIGHT. I’d give it 3s instead of 2s like you did. I needed more, though. There was no hook to bring me back for the next issue. I get the feeling that the people who like this are people who find things like the mere appearance of Captain Cold to be endlessly amusing. Good for them, but there isn’t quite enough here for me to care about Johns’ Flash stuff. I’ve tried and tried and tried, and it’s just uninteresting to me.

  4. Avatar photo akamuu says:
    December 3, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    @flapjaxx: I loved Rogue’s Revenge because the story endeared me to characters I previously didn’t give $2.99 about.  But, yea, the art was pretty meh.  Should you and I start a "we like Geoff Johns just fine, but just can’t get into THe Flash" club?

  5. Avatar photo zombox says:
    December 4, 2009 at 3:37 pm

    Geoff John’s has a strong tendency to ‘Claremont’ in his writing. Smothering the book with word baloons and exposition. When he can avoid this, his writing is decent. He has difficulty shuttign up, though.

  6. Avatar photo akamuu says:
    December 4, 2009 at 11:37 pm

    @zombox: I completely agree.

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