Flash Rebirth #3 (OF 6)

I'm pretty sure I'd bet on the Flash in that race, it is his book.

I'm betting on an inconclusive result tied in to Barry being Black Flash. Still, very excited to see the saga unfold, as it were.

Gotta be Flash for two reasons:

1. He's the fastest man alive.

2. Barry is the fastest Flash.

I think of it like betting on who can make more solid light green constructs Superman or Green Lantern. Everyone has their thing, Barry's thing, he can move faster then anything else.

They did this race idea in several different times, usually with an oil tanker crashing or weather wizard harnessing the speed of the flash to destroy America or some such thing to distract them.

Then they'd realize they needed to finish the race and would continue on the last page with them neck and neck without showing who won.

In my head Barry or Wally as the case may be, were always humouring the Big S, or respected him so much that to go around the globe 5 times by the time Superman had gone from New York to California would be rude so they always kept it close.

Also, Superman's cape will cause too much resistance.  He certainly isn't as streamlined as Flash. 

Why the heck is Barry racing Supes? Doesn't he, like, have a murder mystery to solve?

i'm pretty sure Jerry Sienfild would want to read this issue

So this mini got expanded an issue?

yes it did.  ive seen this hackey race a hundred times but i bet geoff is going to make it worth while and put a new twist on it.

I didn't have a TON of interest in this after #1, but after #2 i'm all on board. I starting to get more familiar with the DCU and the characters and i'm really starting to dig the bonds Johns tugs on. Really excited for this book this week.

I gave this series some shit after the second issue. I reread the issues and have a better opinion of them.

Issue one and two were not the comic book reading experience that the Sinestro War Special was for me. Those expectations had me underwhelmed by the series.

'Can it outrun the Flash?'-Student

'You bet!'-Lyle Lanley

'Can Superman outrun the Flash?'-2nd Student

'Eh.....sure why not?'-Lanley

I'm hoping Barry wins, as it would only help to solidify his existence as the Flash.

Crazy excited for this!

@ Conor: Your point being that the Flash is the fastest MAN alive, but Superman is not a human man. His is kryptonian.

really excited for this issue after the first two got me sucked in

since the around issue 100 of the Flash Wally has been the fastest Flash(once he truly tapped into the Speed Force) and as he was on par with Superman then he would leave Superman so far behind now.

maybe in this Dan Didio world that Barry is faster than Wally, then Superman in goingto be left at the starting gate. 

Fun! Go back and read my review of #2 if you haven't already and you're interested in a theoretical physics slant to this story. I'm calling it. Dexter Myles is the dude who commits the murders in the first scene of issue one. Also, 5 gets you 10 Supes eats Barry's dust.

HE'S GOT YOU THERE, CONOR

@supertrackmoney: Barry doesn't discriminate among human and alien. He's the fastest man alive. Superman is a man. Just ask Lois.

If Superman flies he'd totally be cheating! No flying Superman!!!

he's a man

He's a man.  A super man.

@jpdash - Just because he is a Super Man, doesn't mean that he knows how to run.  He has relied on flying pretty much exclusively, while Flash has always ran.  There was a story in Flash years ago when a lot of people acquired super speed but didn't know how to use and thus ran into walls killing themselves.  If Superman was limited to just running he doesn't have the skill or experience that Barry does at running and manuvering at high velocity.  Thus Flash will win.

Anyone else get an absolutely retarded grin across their face like I just did when I saw this out this week + features Supes? I got a slightly less retarded grin last week w/ the Superman-Green Lantern cover on WoNK (heh, wonk) only because I already knew that was happening beforehand.

Man, I have gone from casual comic reader to avid Marvel reader to casual Batman fan to casual DC fan who was really confused by Final Crisis to middling DC fan to now being a huge fan on both sides of the street in the span of a year. All thanks to Geoff Johns and, of course, the iFanlads!

Oh, and either Barry's gonna take the win on this one or go, "I can't be late!!" and ditch the race to get to work on time.

"At last, the answer to the question that's bored DC fans for decades:"

It's all about technique.

Whoever's recently studied with Usain Bolt will win.

@conor Isn't there some silly logic propagated by Johns, Morrison and Millar from Waid that of all the Flashes, Jay Garrick was the fastest, only he lacks the stamina of the others? (Not to mention the Speedforce?) So that over a very short distance, Jay is faster than everyone, but Barry and Wally are able to stay at it longer? Maybe that doesn't apply to Barry, though. Anyway... Silly as I said. ;-)

As well, I hope this so-called "Superman" gets his comeuppance in this race. The years of "Opps, a tie" or "Opps, Darkseid ruined the race" have really jaded me to this. Didn't the race between on the Superman Animated Series the 90s have Superman handily beating the Flash, too?

We should test these guys, we dont know what type of 'enhancing' drugs they took before the race.

Ha, I love the idea that Jay is the fastest sprinter of the Flashes. That's great.

Jay is the fastest, but can't keep it up?  While Barry and Wally can keep at it for longer periods of time?  Yeah, that sounds about right to me. ;-)

As confusing as the first issue was in some ways, the second issue was alot better. Its nice to have a fun, important Flash book.

Barry always won....the camera angles were just bad.

the race is on good SuperMan

@PraxJarvin: As far as I know, Jay is the slowest of the Flashes.

Flash: Rebirth and Batman & Robin give me hope for DC Comics. Has it been announced or even hinted at as to who will be writing/drawing th Flash ongoing that follows this mini?

@J4K3: Geoff Johns is writing the Flash on-going after this mini ends.

@Conor I'll have to see if I can dig up Infinite Crisis from my long boxes over the weekend. I think Wally makes an off hand comment about it in there, but since then I've remembered this odd bit of continuity that Jay Garrick was faster than them all over a short distance. (Which seems odd, I know. Then again, their power sets have almost universally been fuzzy from the get go.)

Are they...are they running sideways on a building? Ooooh an unconventional race... I may buy this yet... we'll see if I'm impulsive enough at the shop come wednesday.

I mean come on: Barry is going as fast as....Mach 5!?

He clearly has some HGH in him :)

Don't I own this comic already? I know I own at least one Flash comic where they race, possibly two.

@Ameer: They can never race enough.

@Prax: i can't wait to see you dig up the evidence for that little piece of trivia

@conor: yes they can. i declare this one FINAL RACE

@JK43: Van Sciver, on Word Balloon, did talk at length about his potential ability become to become a monthly comic artist and of his desire to tell more great Flash stories.

First Race around the Earth in 1967 in Superman 199 resulted in a tie

Second race from Earth to the edge of the milky way and back in 1967, Flash 175 also resulted in a tie

Third race around 2 galaxies in 1970 resulted in a win for the Flash

Fourth race through time in 1978 I can't find the winner.

Wally West goes on to beat superman twice and Jay Garrick beats him once, proving Superman is a young punk who should learn his place ;)

 In Smallville Bart whoops Clark at the end of an episode.

I'm thinking Superman is going to have to go on the 'Roids if he's going to compete against Barry Allen. 

It would be awesome if this issue was 22 pages of pictures of the race with no dialogue & then on the last page it says "to be continued".

@Wade   I would buy the hell out of a comic like that if it came out as a one-shot with a good artist on it!!

Who would win a hotdog eating contest?

I loved the whole "Don't Let Me Forget" bit. Great issue.

Im guessing Professor Zoom will be starting his own (Reverse)Flash family.

Professor Zoom

No way a race? Can't wait to read this.

 @Crucio, best comment ever. What are you? A scholar?

I thought this was cool as all get out! Still processing. Might write a review later in the week should time permit.

@DenverDave definetly not a scholar, put "flash superman race" into google and pulled the pertinent facts, I do remember reading a few of them though, I think the Superman or JLA cartoon had the Supes and Flash race around the earth for charity and never resolved it due to evil doing.

#Spoiler# 

Yeah, Barry totally crushed Superman, loved his reply when Superman said he was as fast as him and beat him in a few races 

@Crucio-Exactly what I was thinking.  Best part of the book for me

"Those races were for charity" and the following panel get moment of the week for me, hands down.

I'm so confused.  I like it, I know that much.  Still new to the DCU and trying to understand everything I just read.  But I liked it and this mini so far.

And just to add my two cents; yes, Flash blowing by Superman was fan-freaking-tastic!!  Loved it!

I can't believe I didn't see this reveal. Stupid, stupid, process of elimination...

This was quite good.

Quite good, but not as good as past issues. I was actually thinking of giving this a 4/5 until the "Don't let me forget." and "Those were for charity" parts. They sealed the deal on the 5/5. Another home run for Johns.

@slockhart Agreed - that part was great!

I think this was pretty much awesome through and through for me except for the last page. I'm not familiar enough with the character for it to be mean anything to me. It's a thing unique to serial stories where you can just plop a character in the story and have it be a major plot point but not have to flesh that character out before. I didn't really like but I understand why it was done. Also, I realize that "I shifted you in reverse" is supposed to be a cool way of telling us who the character is and it's meant to be a dramatic trope but really, that's a pretty hokey line of dialog to me. It kind of yanked me out of the story with the lettering change and everything. Just like many superhero comics do. Huntress: Year One did the same on the last page. Johns does this a lot. He did it with Red Lantern, Agent Orange, Black Flash. I'm not warming to it but I can roll with it.

Man between this and the batman books i am buying as much DC as Marvel these days

@Roi: I've heard that from many people. 

@RoiVampire Actually my pile had more DC Books than Marvel this week. Despite generally like DC better, I used to over skill on Marvel. This week was a tipping point.

Great issue. 5/5. Runner up to POTW for me. Really enjoyed it. Lots of great small moments going on here. As well! Classic Zoom! I've missed him. Next issue should be epic. As well, I was glad to see Superman get dust kicked in his face. I was also particularly happy to see that when  Barry needs help, he calls out for Hal. It was a nice moment. Loved this issue.

still waiting on some evidence to back up that little nugget of trivia, prax

@edward Disappointment Flash fans! It wasn't Infinite Crisis. For those curious, I was referring to the scene where Wally, Jay and Bart bum rush Superboy-Prime into the speedforce. Looking at the scene (in issue #4) Wally says they "needed Jay for the initial speed" or something like that and then Jay craps out. I'll have to take some time tomorrow to go through my Johns Flash run. I can't have randomly come up with this from nowhere.

@BettyWhite: The audience.

Finally finished this. I'm "struggling" with this mini.

I started issue #3 and there are a ton of heroes with Flash inside some containment unit and I thought I missed an issue. So I go back and check issue #2 and realize I didn't miss anything but some stuff happened between issues. Then I reread issues 1-2 and read #3.

It was cool, but I think I don't know enough about this character to be totally invested in what is happening.

I admit, I had never heard of any character in this book other than the A list heroes, and that last page reveal still put a huge smile on my face. Sure, I don't know who Professor Zoom is, but Geoff made it a great reveal anyways. It felt like it had weight. I love how the mystery is quickly unraveling, and I get more excited with each issue. My soul longs for a Barry-centric monthly written by Johns, and I'm hoping we get it.

This book was SO stupid. Barry stops the black flash from possessing him by running really fast? that's not interesting, it's stupid. what the hell happened at the end of the book? he runs really fast and sees he's life, that makes not sense.

Yeah, a lot of people didn't like this. I liked it. I thought it didn't make not sense.

I'm really enjoying this mini. To me the best parts of this issue was Barry Allen reflecting on the different relationships he has with the other Flashes. The speed force stuff is kind of a stupid plot device, but it didn't make me hate the book like most people who read it. Its just a part of the weird logic of superheroes.

@massacre1050: Most people did not in fact hate it.

I think the most interesting thing that Johns is doing here is restarting Barry's story where it left off.  If I remember correctly, Barry killed Prof. Zoom, got kicked out of the JLA and then went to trial just as the Crisis on Infinite Earths began, so this storyline was never wrapped up.  It looks like after all this time, Johns is going to force Barry to pay the piper. 

Yes, that may have been a lame flash pun.

I loved the first two issues, but not this one so much. I loved the race and dialogue with Superman. 

The thing that threw me off the most was Barry just running really fast to avoid becoming the Black Flash. In one panel he is black, in the next he is red, WTF!?! 

Didn't care for the first one, really liked the second one, didn't care for this one.  I figured it wouldn't be that great with only about 6% of the ijohns/morrisonfanboy.com population picked it as POTW. ;)

I didn't realise until I was actually holding this, but the cover is fucking horrible, which baffles me, because Van Sciver is one of the best artists in comics (IMO) ... Look at Superman legs & his "outter-undies" the anatomy is just .... yuck.

Anyway, I won't pretend I understood what the hell was going on in this book, but I loved the (interior) art. Hopefully next issue has a bit less mumbo jumjo sci-fi talk & is a bit clearer.

I don't think the speed force is being used as a plot device. We're only beginning to explore it as a concept, like the colored rings. I'm willing to give it the benefit of doubt.

The speed force has been used like this for over ten years.