Rating: 
Summary: Mark Waid's Best
Review: When this comic story came out in 1992, no one knew what was about to happen. Superman had just died, and Batman was about to be badly beaten, and we figured that the hype and the darkness were here for good. But along comes Waid, young and still not that highly regarded but talented, and shocks everyone with this. We didn't expect anyone would ever deal with Barry Allen again, and we didn't think anyone could make comics so much fun again.This is a Flash-lover's dream and a wild ride young and old can appreciate. The art was the best Greg LaRocque ever offered, a fitting end to his years of work on this title. And Wally West, the third hero to be called The Flash, finally became a man. Seven yars ago, I said that Waid would never top this. And with perhaps the exception of "Kingdom Come," he hasn't. It's that good.
Rating:
Summary: Be careful what you wish for...
Review: With all due respect to the great work Geoff Johns is currently doing with the Flash, Mark Waid was the writer who really defined the character for me and remains my favorite. This is the storyline that first made me take notice. Published in the midst of the "Kill/revamp/screw around with your hero" craze that started with the Death of Superman, when Barry Allen showed up in the Flash comic book, a lot of us didn't know what to make of it. Barry, alias Flash II, had died the ultimate heroic death in "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and had become the Official Martyr of the DC Universe. His nephew, Wally West, took on the Flash mantle but had always struggled, trapped under Barry's shadow. The best way to sum up this story is with the old chestnut, "Be careful what you wish for." When Barry returns, it seems like the greatest thing that could happen. As it turns out, this isn't the case. The twist doesn't come as too big a surprise to anyone familiar with Flash history, but this story wasn't really about the twist -- it was about the legacy of the Flash, one of Earth's heroes, created by Jay Garrick and immortalized by Barry Allen, and it was about the efforts of the heir to that legacy to rise to the challenge and become not only a hero, but a man. It's a marvelous, touching story, and it's something every Flash fan should read.
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