FLASH REBIRTH #4 (OF 6)
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: pages
Price: 2.99
In Flash: Rebirth, a man who sacrificed himself to save the world years ago now returns to that world, only to discover that it has passed him by no matter how fast he can run. How does this man rejoin that world? How can he ever reconnect with his friends and find his place among them? And what about his wife, who has been living as his widow for the last several years? Where does all of this leave his protege, the man who has taken his place in the world? These are the questions that a story like Flash: Rebirth grapples with.
Or at least, these are what it should be grappling with. Unfortunately, what we actually have is something else entirely, though what that is I could not tell you.
After some early promise in its first issue that the book would offer real meat and emotional weight, we now find ourselves slogging through endless exposition about crimson lightning “infecting” yellow lightning and becoming the speed force and creating the speed force and a group of identically-dressed men running on nothing in a red cloud while talking, talking, talking. I am sure that there are people my age somewhere to whom all of this eighties-era bloviating was fascinating and revelatory. I am also sure that this book is new reader poison.
A dead man has returned to life, a life that sits waiting for him in a more interesting book. Instead of that book, unfortunately, the reader is presented with an exhaustively-detailed litany of mumbo-jumbo explaining the technicalities by which he came back to life, as if the speed force is an accounting error or physics problem. Who wants to read this ledger? Who can muster up the energy to care about any of this? His wife and friends are waiting for him at home. Why purport to tell the story of his return to the world and then take him out of it to literally run around in circles? It is ultimately just frustrating to watch a man that can do so much running and not get anywhere.
Art: 4 - Very Good
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
I mentioned this on Twitter and I’ll say it again here. Johns is at his best when he’s as straightforward as possible. In his books exposition and enjoyability are inversely related. I know just enough of the Flash history to find this enjoyable, but can understand how someone not interested in these details can find them entirely tedious. I suggest you give Green Lantern: Secret Origin or Sinestro Corp War a shot if you want some fun work from Johns. I also liked most of Legion of 3 Worlds, but it contains a lot of exposition that, if this is any indication, you wouldn’t enjoy.
Well written review.
Wow, props on having the guts to give Johns a 1 on writing. Or maybe that’s the wrong way to phrase it, as if Ron, for example, is "taking a big risk" by having an X-book as his PoTW or something. I only read the first issue of this, liked it alright but didn’t see the hoopla. On the other hand, I liked Legion of 3 Worlds, which seemed to devolve into similar bloviating. With Lo3W, though, I found the bloviating amusing and disorienting in a good way.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. This is my first Flash comic and I have no idea what’s going on.
Green Lantern: Rebirth was my first time reading Green Lantern and I was completely confused and hated it. For some reason I tried the the ongoing even though i didn’t like the rebirth mini and now Green Lantern has grown to be one of my favorite comics.
I’m sticking with this, hoping I will start to gradually understand the Flashverse and care about what seem like important events that as of now mean nothing to me.
I think this review is dead-on. I don’t know that I’d rate the story that poorly, but it certainly is missing out on the opportunity to be a *story* rather than continuity porn. I was mostly looking at this going ‘ooh, pretty pictures,’ and if I don’t try to make sense of what they’re talking about, I enjoy it well enough. But not what I’d hoped.
I don’t see how this story doesn’t make sense. I’ll agree that it’s not new reader friendly, but it makes sense. The whole story is Barry trying to find out why he’s back. He didn’t want to be back; he felt like he didn’t belong, like there was no reason for it. And now we find out that he wasn’t supposed to be back. The book is basically building up why Barry Allen is so important to the DC universe.
Pretty much agree exactly with this review. And this is the exact thing I said about GL: Rebirth back in the day. I don’t care for the stories that "reset continuity." It’s not that I care if continuity itself is reset — it’s that the stories formulated to explain and justify it are usually very bland plot points strung between giant buckets of exposition and explanation.
The issue may make sense, but it doesn’t make it interesting. There’s a lot to do with Barry Allen, super-hero and police scientist, but this doesn’t make use of that and instead offers up lengthy explanation of a speed force that really shouldn’t be delved into too far in the first place.
I think that the comparison to GL: Rebirth is unfair. GL: Rebirth was a much stronger book, and the plot was quite linear. The art was also better, especially the memorable colors. Flash: Rebirth hasn’t been as bad as Jimski writes, but it was the kind of book that requires 3 or 4 trips to Wikipedia just to make sense.
As a writer, Johns is supposed to be without a chink in his armor – someone who can tell any story. I’m not sure, however, that the sci- end of sci-fi is his forte; this new concept of the speed force as something originating in Barry seems a little contrived.
Wow. This went from ‘best thing ever’ to ‘clunker’ within four issues.
Guess Geoff Johns isn’t a mythological god after all. Great review.
It suddenly occurs to me that I forgot about the seemingly huge murder mystery surrounding his dad. Because it hasn’t come up in months. It’s more pressing, apparently, to run in the big red cloud.
@jerichobp, I hear what you’re saying, but if "new reader friendly" doesn’t mean "makes sense to new readers," then maybe I’m using it wrong.
@coltrane68 – oh, I’d respectfully disagree with you there, my friend. I think that this Flash book is pretty linear in its base plot as well… I think it’s so deeply mired in time travel and little details of continuity. But then again, GL:Rebirth was also mired in continuity. And I was reading GL through all those time periods (including Hal going crazy), so I definitely was aware of everything it referenced and explained.
But that’s really why I compare them: both Rebirths are story that exist mainly to explain the past and bring the character back into the present. Both stories involve detailed explanations about why what we thought was true wasn’t actually true. Both are fairly generic plots. So, for me, there’s a direct comparison.
@jimksi – totally forgot about the murder mystery plot. That, to me, is far more interesting that the types of lightning they’re talking about here… sigh. Well, the series that follow this, once the status quo is finalized, could really be interesting if they delve into the character of Barry Allen and follow up on that lead.
I am relatively knew to the Flash, but I thought this was pretty good, if a bit exposition heavy. However, Jimski is usually right about these type of things so I have to re-read this issue, change my opinion and pretend I have a mind of my own to make such critical analytical evaluations.
My biggest thing with Barry Allen is that I haven’t found him all that likeable other than the characters telling me how great he is/was.
Aha! I knew it! Jimski is not a REAL nerd! Get him!
@dacampo
That’s actually a fair comparison. I didn’t find GL: Rebirth as tedious as it appears you did, since I wasn’t reading GL at the time. So I guess what you found to be a regurgitation of status quo I found to be new info.
@coltrane – I do agree with you that GL was probably easier to follow, though. I think this book is a little more complicated because of issues of time travel and the complexity of the Flash family. That’s what I was trying to say above, but I didn’t express it clearly, as I was writing too late at night. 😉
Something else I was thinking about today… I feel like both Rebirth stories are so heavy in continuity that if you actually look at the main characters’ actions in the PRESENT moment of the story, they seem lacking by comparison.
My (really oversimplified) summary of GL: Rebirth would be: Hal Jordan realizes he’s been possessed. He shouts, "I’m not gonna take it anymore," and then fights back, suddenly powerful enough to overcome whatever. With Flash: Rebirth, it feels very similar. Barry comes back to life, but something’s wrong. He runs. He realizes the problem, says "I’m not gonna take it anymore," and then he suddenly finds the strength to fight back. There’s still an issue left, so it could still change, but… purely from a character ACTION standpoint… all both characters do is just have an epiphany and then… overpower… whatever is after them. There’s no nuance or cleverness of action. Nothing that says "oh only Barry would think of that." I guess I want more from such a plot.
Now, maybe I don’t remember Rebirth that well, but does that seem right to you guys? Did that bother anyone else?
@daccampo I can certainly see that and the similarities, but really, if the series is about a superhero coming back from the dead and reclaiming their identity/life, wouldn’t they come up against a big problem and say "I’m better than this and I’m bigger than this and I’m going to be a superhero?" That’s how I interpret this. I see this as a piece that does deal with a lot of continuity surrounding The Flash, but really, I see it as a story about Barry Allen and his place in the DCU. That’s all it’s ever been (if I remember Geoff Johns correctly). And here he is, stuck in reverse, stuck in the backwards world of Professor Zoom’s reverse speed force and he can’t get out, so he sticks out his hand and grabs for help. In a way, the Speed Force becomes a giant allegory for Barry himself and how easy it is for him to get warped and twisted into not being super and not focusing on what’s important. And then he breaks free….
And we also have two issues of this, so….
@GungaDin — certainly. I don’t mind the epiphany part of the equation. I’m probably not explaining myself well, but… it’s the ACTION after the epiphany that falls flat to me. It seems to me that both Barry and Hal just kinda go "raaawwr!" and break free of whatever is holding them back. It feels a little generic to me.
Really, for me, I just see these Rebirth stories as weaker than the norm because the whole aim is to reset the status quo, which naturally involves a lot of weird plot devices. I don’t doubt Johns can do some really interesting stories with Barry AFTER this, but this story feels limited by its initial aim.
@daccampo I definitely see that. Definitely, but I think it’s one of the few things on Jeph Loeb’s Wordballoons that stand out for me that’s a difference between him and Johns. He said (and I paraphrase) that he wants to be everything right out of the gate, whereas Geoff Johns will tell it a bit slower and build towards it. I see this as a great leaping off point for the rest of Johns on the Flash. I just see this as the warm-up opening act, and for an opening warm up act, it’s really, really kick ass…
Oh, and Ethan Van Sciver is really kicking the hell out of these issues. Seriously. Great art.
I think what Dave is saying here bothers me more in the Flash book that it did in GL. Because, really, Hal Jordan’s thing is being a man of will — so he basically IS the guy who says ‘raaaawr!’ louder and better than anyone else. But Barry isn’t the same as Hal — that’s what makes them interesting as friends — so I would have liked this to be more of an intellectual puzzle/something he has to figure out, which was what it seemed like the murder mystery was leading to. I don’t dislike the story — I like it better than GLR in some ways, because I found the GL retcon unsatisfying in a really basic way that this one isn’t — but I do agree with Jimski’s point about all the missed opportunities.
Caroline – I can kinda get behind that idea. If Hal is all about Will, and he has more willpower than anyone — then yeah, he should be able to summon an inner strength from deep down.
But — and admittedly my memory is a bit hazy on the actual mini — when you read ALL the GL stuff from month to month over the years, and you watched Hal go crazy, then become the ambiguous Parallax, and then the tortured, repetant Spectre… it just seemed kinda silly that he’d "suddenly" find that strength and fight back in Rebirth. It might have been a different experience if you hadn’t been reading all that stuff all along, though.
But I definitely agree with Barry. I mean, he’s the epitome of the Silver Age, "we’ll use science to solve our dilemma" mindset, and it’d be great to see him do something like that. Instead, he’s "infected" by the, um, wrong kind of mystical lightning, and he shakes it off. VERY similar, in that sense, to Hal realizing he’s infected by Parallax and then shaking it off. Barry needs something more here…
After giving it some thought, I find that your criticism towards the story spending to much time in the speed force is … exaggerated. Issue #3 was about Barry running back to the speed force in order to prevent hurting others. This issue had to resolve that situation. And to resolve that situation the reader must understand it. There are still 2 issues left to explain the connection between the time jumping Eobard and the mystery of the murder of Barry’s mother.
I just read all 4 issues in a row and the story progreses naturally and logically to me.
Agree with your review, which to me reads as oddly gutsy.