By Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, Scott Kolins & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3195-8
In the aftermath of the intergalactic Zombie Apocalypse known as Blackest Night, a number of heroes and villains were mysteriously resurrected. Just prior to that, Barry Allen, the second Flash and scarlet herald of the Silver Age of American comicbooks, also returned from the dead to play a pivotal part in the long-prophesied Crisis.
Once back, however, his life became increasingly complicated…
This first volume of his post-revival exploits collects The Flash volume 3 #1-7 (June-December 2010) and portions of The Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010, revealing how the hero’s desire to return to a normal life proves a forlorn hope in a world still reeling from a swift succession of cosmic upheavals…
The high-octane rush begins in the six-part ‘Case One: The Dastardly Deaths of the Rogues’ by Geoff Johns & Francis Manapul, as Barry returns to his old job as a CSI at Central City‘s Crime Lab.
His old friend Captain Darryl Frye is happy he’s back and believes the returnee’s claim that he’s been in Witness Protection, but is far too busy to chat. Recently the City’s been swamped with nuisance crimes committed by the costumed crazies of Flash’s Rogues Gallery as well as lesser, more pedestrian felons …
Barry knows all about it: his trip to the office has already been interrupted stopping a bank job by the new Trickster…
Before he has a chance to settle in, and already missing his old lab partner Patty Spivot, Barry is then dispatched to examine a body in East Park. Apparently somebody has murdered the Mirror Master…
As his wife Iris joins the Press-pack behind the police tape, Barry makes a disturbing discovery: the ravaged corpse is neither of the two criminals to have operated as the Reflective Rogue but a mysterious unknown third…
This cadaver apparently appeared in a blaze of light and, when a second flare occurs, the Scarlet Speedster suits up and races across town to be greeted by five more strangers tricked out as his greatest foes…
The second issue finds Flash reeling at an incredible accusation. The costumed newcomers – Commander Cold, Weather Warlock, Top, Heatstroke and Trixster – are from the 25th century; a special law-keeping unit dubbed The Renegades come back in time to apprehend him for the murder of Mirror Monarch – an act he will commit in eighty-four days hence…
The team have been trained to tackle their own era’s greatest menace – Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash – and have no qualms about testing their tactics on his 21st century inspiration. Moreover, reasoned debate and the fact that he is still innocent of any crime are wasted on the future cops. The ensuing cataclysmic clash sees the Vizier of Velocity drive off his attackers, but only at the cost of an entire apartment building…
After diligently rebuilding the dwelling, Barry talks things over with Iris and decides to check on Zoom, currently incarcerated in the forbidding Iron Heights super-penitentiary, where at that very moment Digger Harkness – one of the dozen dead metahumans resurrected in the aftermath of the Blackest Night – is being confronted by the true Rogues.
Captain Cold and Co. have decided not to free their old ally, preferring to see if Captain Boomerang still has the necessary grit and class to be one of them…
At the harassed, stressed and over-worked Crime Lab, Barry has just annoyed his boss by reopening a cold case nobody has time for, when DNA evidence comes back that irrefutably proves that he is the murderer of the anachronistically expired Mirror Monarch…
Pressure mounts in the third chapter as Barry is understandably accused of contaminating a crime scene. His worry however, is that perhaps he is – or will be – the actual killer…
When Boomerang discovers he has returned to life with a new and deadly super power he murderously busts out of prison, arriving back in Central City just as the Renegades attack Barry and Iris.
Whether out of mistaken identity or sheer bloody-mindedness, Harkness joins the blockbusting battle, targeting the tomorrow cops and leaving Flash to frantically save the endangered bystanders…
Despite the bad odds and mounting chaos, Barry is subduing the riotous Rogue and Renegades when Top delivers a chilling warning and ultimatum. Unless Flash surrenders, Iris will die and the rest of the Rogues will unleash a horrific menace from the Mirror Dimensions…
Afetr Top apparently switches sides, the speedster is propelled into an all-out attack on Captain Cold’s crew. The battle is soon wildly out of control but is interrupted when Boomerang is contacted by the White Entity responsible for bringing back the Dead Dozen…
His response ends the street war in an unpredictable manner which allows Flash to divine the true nature and target of all the time shenanigans – and stop the real architect of all his present woes.
…At least he would have, if the Renegades hadn’t used that moment to shanghai him into the future to face trial for murder…
The epic encounter concludes with the resurgent Scarlet Speedster deducing the reason for all the temporal turmoil, foiling his secret foe and heading home to Iris, utterly unaware that a mystery rider from the unknown is heading for him bearing a warning of a coming splintering time stream and an oncoming “Flashpointâ€â€¦
The Flash #7 shifts focus to Captain Boomerang as ‘What Goes Around, Comes Around’ (with art by Scott Kolins) reveals the origins and offers career highlights of the Ozzie outlaw, culminating in portentous meeting with the incalculably dangerous Zoom and an ominous confrontation with Captain Cold’s Rogues…
Perhaps narratively parked in the wrong place, ‘Running to the Past’ – also illustrated by Scott Kolins – then offers insights into Barry Allen’s troubled past as the hero dreams again of his mother’s murder and rededicates himself to one day closing that particularly painful cold case, before being welcomed back to the fold of his Speed Force Family, whilst across town the Rogues find the final legacy of Sam Scudder, the original Mirror Master…
Also included are a 2-page preview teaser for upcoming publishing event Flashpoint (inked by Paul Neary), a selection of wry and pithy Flash Facts (‘How Does a Boomerang Work?’, ‘How Do Captain Boomerang’s Boomerangs Work?’, ‘How Does a Mirror Work?’ and ‘How Do Mirror Master’s Mirrors Work?’) plus a mesmerising covers-&-variants gallery by Manapul & Brian Buccellato, Tony Harris, Ryan Sook, Greg Horn, Kolins & Michael Atiyeh, Fernando Pasarin, Joel Gomez, Randy Mayor & Carrie Strachan, Alé Garcia, Sandra Hope & Alex Sinclair and Darwyn Cooke.
The Flash has always been the epitome and paradigm of Fights ‘n’ Tights comics adventure and this blistering – if short-lived – iteration offers so much more than the requisite dose of thrills, chills and spills to satisfy the craving of every tension tripper, suspense junkie and (super) speed freak. Catch it if you can!
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