Comic Books

FLASH #1

A BRIGHTEST DAY tie-in! Get in on the ground floor of DC’s next epic in the making! The Flash races out of BLACKEST NIGHT and into his own monthly title as the all-new adventures of The Fastest Man Alive start with “Case One: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues!” Barry Allen runs back to his life in Central City, but when one of the Rogues turns up murdered under mysterious circumstances, it’s up to The Flash to not only solve this bizarre crime, but protect those that are still targeted by the elusive killer. Plus, don’t miss a peek into the future of the Flash universe in this special, extra-sized starting point issue!

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art, cover and variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
Variant cover by TONY HARRIS

Price: $3.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 8.8%

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Avg Rating: 4.7
 
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Comments

  1. Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod

  2. Normally I don’t like saying this but….

    How on Earth will this not be POTW for the majority of users? Just pointing that out, cause I feel this will be badass in every way.

  3. Fun fact:  Flash Rebirth was the first single issue I ever bought, and this is my 52nd week doing the POTW/iFanbase thing.  So I’ll be getting the successor to what got me into issues on the one year anniversary of buying that issue.

    Okay, so maybe it was just fun for me. 

  4. Thizs is coming with a Flash ring right? RIGHT?!

  5. Congrats Slockhart!

    Can’t wait to read this!

  6. Fuck to the yeah. I was sad to see the Johns/Manapul team up with Superboy over on Adventure Comics end, but if it means we get this, I’m completely down with that.

    Right now, I’m in the midsts of reading the older Johns Flash stuff, so I’m a bit of a newbie when it comes to anything Flash related. I liked Flash Rebirth though, and thought the Flash Secret Origins book was fun. I’ll be looking forward to this.

  7. Flash Fact: I can’t fucking wait for this!

  8. issue one of Flash Rebirth come out a year ago?  Fuck me running…(get it?)

     This will be my first real Flash issue, not counting Rebirth and his appearances in crossovers etc…

  9. Manapul is on track to becoming a ‘can’t miss’ artist for me.

  10. @wolf yes this is the ring issue. 

  11. I’m already predicting this as my POTW. Johns on the Flash is like heaven and hot fudge sundaes…absolutely perfect.

  12. I foolishly never even looked at any of the Johns/Manapaul issues of Adventure, but I was pretty stoked about this series when the announcement was made. Having seen the previews running for this issue in recent DC books though, I cannot WAIT to read this book! That art is gorgeous!

  13. Here’s to hoping for big fat re-prints of the original Johns run after this does well.

    I don’t know if I’m more excited for the goofy ring or the issue!

  14. Manapul is amazing and I LOVED him on Action Comics, but I feel that Barry looks too young when he draws him. It still is beautiful art …

  15. If this isn’t Ron’s pick of the week i will lose all faith in Geoff Johns and Mr. Richards

  16. Johns + The Flash = first book on my reading pile.

    I know that it has nothing to do with this new series but I have the feeling I may be pulling the Johns/Kolins run out of my long boxes soon.
     

  17. I’ve re-read the Johns/Kolins run recently and it’s become one of my all-time favourite runs. I’ve been gibby with excitement for this series since it was announced. I just hope the creative team stays put – unless Kolins comes back, of course. 

  18. Im not that big of a flash fan, but after the secret files last week….I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!

  19. I don’t like Geoff Johns, I have no interest in Flash, but whatever- I have to get this b/c I want to be in the loop for at least ONE issue.

  20. Must. Resist. Urge. To. Bag. People. That. Say. Flash. Fact.

     

    Should be good. I’m going to wait for the comic before passing judgemnet

  21. I want my RING. 

  22. Never thought I’d be looking forward to a Barry Allen book.

    Johns loves the Flash so much, you just know it will be brilliant. Flash Fact.

  23. @Slockhart We’re single issue brothers! Flash: Rebirth was in my first pile of single issues all those weeks ago.

    So excited for this. The Flash is hands down my favorite character. I like saying that because it’s so nebulous. I love Wally, Barry, Bart, and the rest of the gang equally.

    Flash Fact: I will murder Edward in his sleep. Now, if only I knew where he lived…(But Mr. FBI Man, it was only an internet joke. Please don’t take me away, I’ve never hurt anyone before in my life!)

  24. Wasn’t kolins supposed to be drawing a Wally West co-feature?

  25. @Win There was suppopsed to be a Wally West feature and a Kid Flash ongoing by Sterling Gates, but those plans were scrapped (for now). I think they want to make sure The Flash will sell, grow a respectable readership, and then grow more organically like the Green Lantern franchise has.

  26. He was but DC unfortunately cancelled it, without really publicizing it, which sucks b/c its the only co-feature Ive ever been excited about. Most co-features are either not directly related to the main feature or just plan bad but this one had me all jazzed up. Too bad DC, this is one book I would have payed $3.99 for every month. 

  27. Flash Fact: Some. People. Need. To. Lighten. Up.

  28. Always wanted to jump on The Flash so I guess this is my chance, huh?

  29. @Drake: help me, help you. This flash fact meme isn’t good.

    @Rusty: better men have tried. (they haven’t, i typically stay home and eat cereal)

  30. Wait, wait, wait… what’s going on in that cover the flash is running into a murder crime scene and skidding over the evidence? Flash Fact: that’s pretty stupid. Looks rad though

  31. @edward: Heh I never noticed that before. He is tampering the evidence.

  32. Time for me to do my happy dance!!!

  33. @Edward & @TNC – No problem, he is the Flash, he can just speed up, go into the past and change his mistake. Oh wait … he can’t.

  34. It would be good to see McNulty and Bunk go up to the Flash and say "what the fuck are you doing, you fancy fucking fuck?"

  35. Is it sad that the ring give away was the tipping point to me getting this?

  36. @edward: Just in general if the cops talked to him.

    "Hey buddy nice work! Now we can’t use the blood stains to identify the victim."

    "B-but I was able to solve the…."

    "No no no. We’ll figure it out ourselves. Have a nice fight with Captain Cold…..Jerk"

    *cue Curb Your Enthusiasm theme*

  37. if somehow a young Larry David could play Barry Allan (either the names are simlier) i would see that move

  38. Flash Fact: If my LCS doesn’t give me a ring, the same way they didn’t give me my Green or Blue Power Rings, heads are going to roll.

    @DarthDuck

    It actually came out a little over a year ago.  I didn’t pick it up until it was a week or two old. 

      

  39. I thought this series was going to have a Wally West back-up? But, it doesn’t look like it … anyone know what’s going on with Mr West? Is he getting his own book? That’s the one, I’d be excited for, after the way his book was ruined, I’d love to see a good writer back on a Wally-Flash book.

    PS- Is that what we will call them now? Barry-Flash & Wally-Flash? 

  40. This is the only book on my list this week. How did that happen? Blackest Night ends and suddenly I’m down to one book a month. Come on Marvel get your nwe Avegners books out.

    Anyway, I’ve only read Flash: Blackest Night and the Secret Files but I’m interested in checking this out. Did the Secret Files give anyone else the impression that Johns isn’t going to be on the book for very long, Sterling Gates wrote a lot of the information. Curious, right?

     

  41. Wally should adopt a new name like The Whizzer or The Streak or The Sneaky Ginger

  42. @Zeppo, I think Sterling is being groomed to write a secondary Flash Title.

  43. @JumpingJupiter

    I hope your right. Though I had heard the Kid-Flash series had been canned.

    Maybe I’m just paranoid after Rucka and Williams on Detective, became Rucka and Jock, then Collins, and todays news about Action Comics, and Gotham City Sirens creative team seem determind to skip issues. Can DC hold onto a creative team? Hopefully Johns and Manapul.

  44. What’s the news on Gotham City Sirens?  I didn’t hear nothing about that.

  45. @WadeWilson: The answer to your queston has already been discussed in the comments.

  46. What you fail to realize is that Barry is the forensic scientist for that crime scene. That was a multiple homicide and was going to be A LOT of work. So a random Flash (and really it could have been one of a dozen people) runs through the crime scene and ruins it. Ah, what a tragedy. Now Barry has no work to do and can go home and catch the Central City Knicks game. This ain’t your daddy’s Barry Allen.

  47. Hmmm, conor’s given you a lot to think about, wadewilson.

  48. @JimBilly4

    LOL.

    I for one actually like that we don’t get a shoe-horned Wally back-up and a $4 price tag. 

  49. @edward- lol I don’t see in the comments where it says what’s happening with Wally West … but anyways, I’m looking forward to this.

    It is weird that people are saying how great it is to have Johns/Kollins back on the Flash, when they’re run was a different Flash/character lol. Are Wally/Barry totally interchangeable?

  50. @robbyzwonar

    I was just talking about how GSC hasn’t been able to hold onto it’s creative team. Paul Dini seems to only be involved with very other issue, and we’ve had a few fill in artists along the way as well

  51. @WadeWilson: because of the new costumes, not anymore.

  52. Apart from Flash Rebirth, this will be my main jumping on point for Flash. I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed by his big role in early BN. The only hesitation I have at the moment is that the villains I have seen so far look like really outrageous Saturday morning cartoons, more so than other dc characters.

    I just hope we don’t get Rebirth Flash who is constantly in depressive angst mode and upset to be alive. This is a new start though, so hopefully it will be a fun, confident and kick-ass confident Flash.

  53. Ah yes, the continuing debate regarding The Rogues: are they awesome, or lame?  Seems to me that they don’t necessarily want to be pure evil but instead, aim to make The Flash’s life harder whilst commiting crime for survival.  If you read superhero comics, I don’t see how anything can be too ridiculous.  The Flash could possibly be one of the best examples of a suspension of disbelief.

  54. On the art front this was very very gorgeous. Manapul is brilliant to be the artist for this. He does everything so beautifully. Right from the start we see how he can make the Flash speed work with that introduction. The background and little touches in the art also make this stand out.

    Johns story (so far) is a bit too exposition heavy for my liking though. It has to happen because it’s a #1 issue but he is usually better at keeping anyone’s interesting with #1 issues. The secondary characters are generic and not interesting, and the overall mystery right now isn’t much to get excited about. Not as bad as Brightest Day, but I hope Johns wow’s me with something next month.

    Still a very solid first issue and I can’t wait to see what Manapul gives us each week. 

  55. I was hoping to find out whats in the case marked "Break glass in case the flash returns" but aside from that i loved this

  56. Wonderful

  57. @WadeWilson: You must have missed this comment: "There was suppopsed to be a Wally West feature and a Kid Flash ongoing by Sterling Gates, but those plans were scrapped (for now)."

    That is literally all anyone outside of DC knows about Wally West at the moment.

  58. @Conor Man i hope he doesn’t get forgotten. They did a really good job of keeping Kyle Rayner relevant and I hope they can do the same for Wally

  59. @Wadewlison: how could you have missed that off-handed comment?! i’m very disappointed

  60. This is exactly what I want it to be.  A reintroduction to the character, his rogues, and his supporting characters accompanied by some magnificent art.  That’s what it is.  I’m looking forward to issue 2.

    @edward – No offense to @WadeWilson (he’s a good man), but if I was looking for Wally news in this thread I would simply search for the word "Wally" with my browser’s search tool.  Pretty easy.

  61. @WadeWilson: You fail! You will not be featured on "the best comments of the week" thread.

  62. @Stuclach: here’s the first thing that pops up when you search wally in google

    http://www.wally.com/default.asp?bflash=1

    There’s also some stuff about Where’s Wally. No offence but that was a really stupid thing to write

  63. @edward – I’m referring to your browser’s search tool (as I mentioned in the post).  Not Google or Bing.  For example if you are using Chrome then you simply hit Shift+F3 and the search tool pops up.  It allows you to search for things only on the page you are viewing.  The text Conor quoted is the third one that comes up.  Some people aren’t aware of this feature.  That’s why I mentioned it.  I was not trying to be a douche (perhaps I failed). 

  64. @Stuclach: You’re right. Only a very small precentage of people use google to search for things as opposed to what you’re talking about

  65. @edward – I think my sarcasm detector just exploded.

    Just to steer us back on topic a bit: How did you feel about the actual comic?  I enjoyed it considerably.

  66. Randomly grabbed this and really enjoyed it! My first non-vertigo dc book.

  67. Yeah, it’s 10.37am here and i’m already drunk

  68. Cool.  I’ll let you know when I finish robbing a bank to pay for the boat.

  69. Thanks for keeping me in line, guys. I’ll try to pay more attention, behave better & be a better person in general.
    On my way to get comics right now & I almost definitely won’t steal this Flash issue.

  70. But what if I like to do my best to ask a human about stuff?

  71. @JJ: … what?

  72. If possible, I would like to nominate the "I’m the Flash, nice to meet you" panel for best panel of the week.

  73. Anyway, now that we’ve gotten the jerk out of ourselves and each other…
    😛
    *spoilers*

    I liked this book a great deal actually. So bright! Lots of great details. That kid saying "whoa" at the sight of The Flash has the same expression as Barry when he sees Forrest. It’s a great way of stating that Barry sees ordinary people as heros. There is a humility there that I really like.

    The visuals here are so good! Such as when Barry climbing the building and then he snaps up hardb on the roof. That looks friggin’ cool to me! Good Job Manapul.

     I also love how the "mundane" shots of the city have like a thousand things going on. Jogging, ipod listening, walking the dog, dog’s peeing on the tree, folks buying coffee but complaining about the slow service. City dwelling tends to cause one to overlook how many things are actually going on and Johns and Manapul expressed that extremely efficiently.

    Another thing Johns does well is tell stories within stories. For instance, when a flash of blue light occurs on the street and a silhouette appears saying "I’m sorry". That’s an entire story right there in addition to being a plot point (I suspect that the silhouette is actually Barry and that the pseudo-mirror master is a decoy). But yeah, two panels, several layers. Very well done.

    The entire tone of the book seems to be pulsating with energy. It exudes such a strong vibe of what I can only express as "emotional brightness".

    I love the "future rogues that are actually cops" thing too. Very strange and interesting.

    Additionally, the texting thing is real smart. Our generation is an "instant" one, and that is a very natural theme for this character.

    Another great thing was starting the book with a swift action sequence. It’s A Flash series. It should have an explosive start. Bang! Out of the blocks!

    There were a few things that tripped me up. Such as: "name’s The Flash."… Uhm, The is in the name? Like first name = The, last name = Flash? No, just, no. The Flash is not his name, it’s not even a name. Rather Barry is The Flash. As in "Hi, I’m THE FLASH". I suppose Barry is wanting to make the kid feel comfortable? So he exchanges names with him? But whatever, it’s still a bump in the book for me.

    And why do they always put those retarded tacky fonts in the word balloons? "COMMANDER COLD". It’s Joel Schumacher lettering.

    Anyway, really good stuff according to me. This is one I’m preordering to my file at the shop.

  74. @Edward: It’s a GIYF retort. Nevermind… 🙂

  75. @JJ … GIYF?

  76. Oh this was fantastic. Just good comic books right there. Some amazing moments in this issue "Whoa!" The WANTED page layout (Very JH Williams). But most of all there was a real sense of motion and power in Manapaul’s pencils. Just great work there. 5/5 for me and my POTW. Flashpoint looks interesting. Also, my money on the "I’m Sorry" guy is John Fox. One of the great unresolved plot points from Waid’s run!

  77. @JJ No, his name is not Flash like Flash Gordon. His name is The Flash. 😉 

  78. Wow, this comic blew me away.  I was not a fan of Flash Rebirth and wasn’t going to pick this up, but decided at the store to at least try the first issue.  I’m definitely on board.  This didn’t feel like a Johns book to me.  I’ve never read his earlier Flash stuff, but the lack of narration or thought blocks definitely made this feel different.  And of course the art was amazing.  I hope that both these people stay on for a while.

  79. @WadeWilson-Don’t let it happen again. 

    "Commander Cold", I love it.

  80. i thought it was a fun issue. Definatly in for issue 2. I really like the future rogues. the nice thing about flash books in general, is for some reason i can never take them too seriously, and question them like i would other books… for example…20 some centuries in the future…is Captain Colds decendant REALLY gonna be in the rogues? WHO CARES?!?!?! it was awesome. Johns will always have my money.

  81. Man Johns is seriously on another level right now. i dont understand how he puts out so much work in one week and still keeps his quality on par or better than most writers out there. This issue was awesome. To be honest this was the first flash issue i have ever read other than last weeks case files issue. Manapul made the book beautiful and the story had me wanting more. There are so many threads that can lead anywhere that it kept me wanting more. 5/5 POTW

  82. I want there to be an entire military lineage of Colds, going all the way up to Admiral Cold and General Cold.

  83. @comicBOOKchris-I’m waiting for the Weather Warlock.

  84. Just for the record (in case this thread ever ends up in court) — I had read all the posts earlier when I asked about Wally. I was asking if anyone knew DC’s plans for him now that the co-feature stuff (mentioned in above posts) was scrapped.
    Anyways, onto this issue … even though the art was really nice, I thought this was a pretty standard set-up issue & (sorry to say) I was pretty bored reading it. I don’t think it was bad & I’ll keep reading, but I wasn’t anywhere close to being blown away by this issue.

  85. @prax- John Fox.  That’s what i was thinking too.

  86. My favorite part:

    "What are his demands?"

    "He doesn’t have any. He’s just being a jerk!" 

  87. @NawidA  Yeah that got a laugh out of me

  88. Let me just say this: I was a lot less lost in the first issue of this than I was in Rebirth for the first couple issues.

    But I also picked up that Flash Special from last week.

    That sucker really helped catch me up on the Flash world.

  89. The Flash ring, unlike the Lantern rings is a lot more cooler looking and a lot less bulky. If the ring size  wasn’t so big on my skinny fingers, I’d totally wear it!

  90. Only book I bought, so kinda has to be my POTW. Though I’m sure it would have been a strong contenter anyway. My LCS didn’ get any rings 🙁

    I didn’t read brightest day, so what this had to to with that, I have no idea.

  91. @Crom: Agreed, much better ring design. Still a little clunky but much better.

  92. A big grin appeared on my face when i saw that Barry had tied up trickster and his goons in the nanoseconds between destroying the car and catching the wheel. 

  93. I must say that this issue alone makes Francis Manapul one of my favourite artists. Absolutely fantastic art in my eyes.

  94. Wow, this book’s POW stats topped out at 87% today and is now at 67% and it does not appear that any one book took away that 20% It seems spread out in fractions of percentages amongst books I wouldn’t expect.

    On a friday? I guess it’s the weekend and people are home reading and POWing?

    Is this something that happens regularly?

    Conor?! Help!

  95. Additionally, have other books burst the thousand pull bubble before?

  96. This made me happy in oh so many ways.

  97. @JJ-Yes, it happens regularly and there have been 1000+ pulls before on books.

  98. i pulled this out of curiosity since geoff johns apparently is gold nowadays. not really knowing alot about Barry makes me a little confused, I still don’t understand why this isn’t about Wally since he’s alive, but being a fan of 90’s comics like Young Justice, I like Impluse/Bart Allen better than any of the old flashes so at least he’s not dead anymore and might make an appearance in this series. I’ll probably pick this up until Johns moves on to something else.

    as for the comic, the story was fine but the art on this one is amazing. i thought adventure comics looked good but this was really nice to look at. a must buy for the art alone. 

  99. anyone try to decipher the 2 page flashpoint preview in the back?

  100.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I especially loved how there was more of a focus on the forensics of the crime scene. "Super Heroes meets CSI" is a perfect approach for a Barry Allen lead Flash book. Definitely looking forward to more. 

  101. Am I the only one who thinks Manapul draws Iris looking a bit like Emily Deschanel from Bones?

  102. @heroville Yes! I thought the same thing! Glad I’m not going nuts.

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