Flash: Rebirth

Kelson wrote:I was underwhelmed. I liked a lot of the little moments, but I really wish I'd gotten to read 6 issues of real story-for-the-sake-of-story rather than 6 issues getting from point A to point B on an editorial decree. And I wish the book had convinced me that I'd want to read the new series. Shouldn't that have been its primary goal?

At least I finally felt like I was reading a book with Barry Allen in it, and not some guy who has the same name and haircut.

Full review at Speed Force.

Batman25JM wrote:Issue #6 was meh. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. I agree that the whole series felt like it was just trying to get to a point. It was all set up. I was looking so forward to this series and it was a pretty big disappointment. At least it's over and now hopefully we can get some awesome stories in the new Flash book.

Bigtymin504 wrote:Flash: Rebirth was quite the disappointment for me. I was never a huge Flash fan but I thought Johns would do what he did with Green Lantern: Rebirth and streamline the franchise and make it much better. But it just hasn't worked out like that for Flash IMO. In some ways, Johns made things even more convoluted and turned me off on Barry even more. Hopefully the Flash ongoing is good though.

Well, in summary I pretty much agree with all of you. I just found myself not caring about the outcome of this story or the character and that's disappointing. We all love Geoff Johns but I have to say I'm not a fan of his writing when he becomes overly sentimental and I sort of think that's what this whole series was.

Anyway, I actually find it a little ironic that this mini series about the "fastest man alive" came out so slowly and pretty much dragged on for 1 or 2 issues too many.

Overall I was underwhelmed.

Yeah. I used to love Barry Allen until this book. Flash Rebirth - an attempt to do for the Barry Allen Flash what Johns had so successfully done with the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. and it fell at the first hurdle. There was no story. Barry turns up from the dead ( a storyline that has been done a good few times before since he 'died' in Crisis on Infinite Earths) A buncha old Flashes and a few baddies turn up and everyone emotes all over the place The end. Lame. The overwhelming fault was in the plotting, there where just too many characters who where either different people in similar costumes or the same person in different costumes or old people you had never seen before unless you'd been reading DC comics since the year dot (which I have by the way!) I gave up trying to figure out who was who after issue one yet still I came back for more. Why? because it was Geoff Johns and I trusted that he knew what he was doing. I was wrong. And that really pissed me off. I hate being wrong.

Jherek wrote:I gave up trying to figure out who was who after issue one yet still I came back for more. Why? because it was Geoff Johns and I trusted that he knew what he was doing. I was wrong. And that really pissed me off. I hate being wrong.

I know. Shocking that he disappointed. I don't think it was this crapfest that everyone is saying, it is still better than most, it was just the pacing. Not the title delays, the actual pacing of the story. Plus, the expectation for Geoff and a Flash title are absurdly high. I let it go, though. I'm sure he can pick things up again.

I think it's a good example that every creator no matter how much we love them can stumble a bit now and then. Nobody's perfect and when a guy is loaded up with work it's not a surprise that they maybe don't produce the goods 100% of the time.

The problem as I stated before is that I feel that Geoff tried to hard to make Flash: Rebirth feel too much like Green Lantern: Rebirth. There were to man similarities to the two series and so it just didn't feel like the Flash to me. This series simply didn't have it's own voice and that's why in my opinion, it suffered.

Jherek wrote:Yeah. I used to love Barry Allen until this book. Flash Rebirth - an attempt to do for the Barry Allen Flash what Johns had so successfully done with the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. and it fell at the first hurdle. There was no story. Barry turns up from the dead ( a storyline that has been done a good few times before since he 'died' in Crisis on Infinite Earths) A buncha old Flashes and a few baddies turn up and everyone emotes all over the place The end. Lame. The overwhelming fault was in the plotting, there where just too many characters who where either different people in similar costumes or the same person in different costumes or old people you had never seen before unless you'd been reading DC comics since the year dot (which I have by the way!) I gave up trying to figure out who was who after issue one yet still I came back for more. Why? because it was Geoff Johns and I trusted that he knew what he was doing. I was wrong. And that really pissed me off. I hate being wrong.

Who exactly did you have a hard time identifying? I am by no means a DC expect, but I knew everyone. I can't really think of a character that would be hard to identify. I will say that before Wally modified his costume it was a little hard to differentiate between him and Barry, but other than that it seemed pretty straightforward.

Batman25JM wrote:

Jherek wrote:Yeah. I used to love Barry Allen until this book. Flash Rebirth - an attempt to do for the Barry Allen Flash what Johns had so successfully done with the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. and it fell at the first hurdle. There was no story. Barry turns up from the dead ( a storyline that has been done a good few times before since he 'died' in Crisis on Infinite Earths) A buncha old Flashes and a few baddies turn up and everyone emotes all over the place The end. Lame. The overwhelming fault was in the plotting, there where just too many characters who where either different people in similar costumes or the same person in different costumes or old people you had never seen before unless you'd been reading DC comics since the year dot (which I have by the way!) I gave up trying to figure out who was who after issue one yet still I came back for more. Why? because it was Geoff Johns and I trusted that he knew what he was doing. I was wrong. And that really pissed me off. I hate being wrong.

Who exactly did you have a hard time identifying? I am by no means a DC expect, but I knew everyone. I can't really think of a character that would be hard to identify. I will say that before Wally modified his costume it was a little hard to differentiate between him and Barry, but other than that it seemed pretty straightforward.

Hi Bats! Well it was a number of elements that made identification a problem. The whole Eobard Thawne/ Professor Zoom axis I just found fundamentally confusing and the Wally/Barry costumes which, as you point out, were redisigned to prevent just this kind of confusion, just weren't different enough. I don't want to have to check a hero's belt design in the middle of a fight scene to see who I'm looking at. But in addition to the visual lack of differentiation there really wasn't much real character development. In place of this there was far too much angsty moaning and whinging about what a tough life it is being a Flash, which then inevitably got resolved by someone punching someone else into next week (often literally). Iris West is one of DC's most interesting female characters but here she was written like a dumb girlfriend from the Silver Age ( which even in that era she never was). That coupled with the fact that the action flipped between time periods without warning and the actual threat was never clarified made for a very dull read most of the time. Bottom line - The Flash is just a guy who can run fast. In the hands of a good comic book writer this becomes an interesting limitation to use for literary and dramatic effect. I was surprised that Johns (arguably one of the best writers DC has at the moment) decided to just give us 6 issues of a bunch of guys in similar costumes running fast, punching eachother and whinging.

^Hey Jherek, I've missed our Morrison arguments.

I'm with you about the story. It was really sub-par. I was expecting to be blown away, but it just wasn't very good.

Batman25JM wrote:^Hey Jherek, I've missed our Morrison arguments.

I'm with you about the story. It was really sub-par. I was expecting to be blown away, but it just wasn't very good.

He heh I was gonna add that Flash Rebirth woulda been a whole lot better written by Morrison.

Jherek wrote:

Batman25JM wrote:^Hey Jherek, I've missed our Morrison arguments.

I'm with you about the story. It was really sub-par. I was expecting to be blown away, but it just wasn't very good.

He heh I was gonna add that Flash Rebirth woulda been a whole lot better written by Morrison.

#3 was decent. Boomer's new power is interesting.

rwe1138 wrote:#3 was decent. Boomer's new power is interesting.

Isn't there a regular Flash thread?

Whoops.