Let me start off by saying that I don't think there was a single characterization in this book that didn't feel at least slightly off.

Now, I don't have a problem with Ollie renegade, vengeance-seeking, morally ambiguous hero. I actually kind of like the idea. But if you're gonna do it, do it so that I at least feel for the guy. (Well, you should be doing that regardless of what's happening in the story, but you get my meaning.) Everyone in this book just felt flat. Ollie didn't really even seem all that outraged or heartbroken. He was just kind of going through the motions. I guess I could sort of buy that if he's in some deep depression/denial stage at the moment, but every character felt like that. Dinah didn't seem all that concerned. With anything really. Not Ollie's actions. Not Roy. Not the dead granddaughter. Not Star City or its inhabitants in the wake of devastation. She was just kind of following Ollie around, letting the reader know that his current actions weren't "normal." Hal and Shade were just big blank slates of nothingness. Wally and Dick were marginally better but their dialogue felt forced at best, and just really poorly structured. (Dick: "You know Roy." Wally: "Yeah. Seems like a lifetime ago we all came together as Titans." ... Thank you, Wally, for briefly summarizing your relationship with the man for any innocent bystanders who may have been unfamiliar with it. That line is right there is worthless. It bogs down the flow of the dialogue and doesn't even really add anything to readers who don't now that they were in the Teen Titans together as kids. This issue is full of lines like that.) The worst victim of these character assassinations, though, was Mr. Barry Allen. I didn't grow up with Barry. I grew up with Wally. If this is how Barry is going to act, he can just go back to being dead. Although if he routinely throws out closing lines like, "We have to stop him... before he kills AGAIN!" he may be worth keeping around just for ludicrous comic relief. (Based on everything else I've read with Barry, which admittedly isn't a TON of stuff, I have no reason to believe he will be anything like this, which is quite heartening.)

I give it a 2 on the story, just because I kind of like this concept, but this was just very poorly executed. And the art was pretty much just average. It certainly didn't add anything to the book, but it didn't take much away from it either. There were a few odd facial expressions, mostly everything on Dick on the aforementioned forced dialogue page, but other than that there wasn't much to complain about. The one thing I really DID like about this book was seeing Wally's new costume in action. I was a bit skeptical upon its debut, but it's growing on me. It reminds me of John Stewart's Green Lantern costume. It's just different enough to be distinguishable and unique, but you KNOW that man is the Flash.

I'll pick up the next issue just to see where this goes, but I'm not getting my hopes my up.