Flash: Blood Will Run

Rating:
Summary: quality DC fare, constrained by format
Review: "Flash: Blood Will Run" collects issues 170-176 of the regular series, plus a story from the third "Flash Secret Files" special. The title feature, "Blood Will Run," takes up the first four chapters, and deals with a Flash-worshiping cult. An interlude story follows, setting up the two-part "Birth Right," in which Flash learns he may have an illegitimate son. The final "Secret Files" story introduces police profiler Hunter Zolomon, a character who will radically alter the Flash's life over the next two years of the series.

All of the stories feature above-average story and art, but do not transition well into trade paperback format, as there is little to link the initial four chapters with the final four. This is one of the problems with the popularity of trade paperback reprints these days: author Geoff Johns was writing these stories to be read as a monthly serial rather than as a graphic novel. Major subplots are set up in this volume that don't take off until the next ("Flash: Rogues"). The reader does get the "Blood Will Run" and "Birth Right" stories in their entirety, but events take place throughout that remain unresolved beyond the end of the volume. If you are a fan more of self-contained graphic novels than of monthly comics, you might find this fact a bit off-putting.

That having been said, there was enough good stuff in this volume to make me want to buy the next one (and also to ask why Geoff Johns' first "Flash" stories from 164-169 haven't been collected yet). The relationship between Flash (a.k.a. Wally West) and his wife Linda has long been one of the most believable in comics (definitely outdoing Lois Lane and Clark Kent!) and Johns continues to keep the reader interested in Flash's domestic situations: I laughed out loud when super-hyper Wally met Linda's dull-as-dishwater dad! Johns also builds on the hero's environment by giving him a closer relationship with his city's police department. Speaking of Flash's home base, artist Scott Kolins was the perfect choice to capture the industrial feel of Keystone City, seemingly a fictionalized Detroit. The interlude chapter and epilogue let us know that the setting for Flash's adventures has potential to double as a character in itself, much like Batman's Gotham.

In summation, these are four-star stories in a three-star package, since the long subplots make for choppy reading in between volumes. I quit reading "Flash" when preeminent scribe Mark Waid left a few years ago, but now regret having missed out on what Johns is writing. Fortunately these paperbacks are allowing me to catch up!



Rating:
Summary: FLASH IS A FAST READ!
Review: Ever since I was a little comic book geek I'd always had a fascination with the character of The Flash. He had cool powers and a unique costume. His assortment of great villains was probably second only to Batman. And the majority of his comics ended with some of the best cliff-hangers ever. Alas, in the past 20 years The Flash title has had numerous high and low points (or slow and fast if you'd prefer). Well, I'm happy to inform you that with THE FLASH: BLOOD WILL RUN, we're heading towards another HIGH point!

Writer Geoff Johns has brought an incredible level of energy to his story-telling. These stories move along at rapid-fire pacing and don't give the reader a moment to catch their breath. Whether the Flash is battling the new villain Cicada and his evil followers, or dealing with his illegit-son, or in just trying to handle the myriad of characters from past and present who continually enter and re-enter his life. My personal favorite being mucho-weird ex-girlfriend Francis Kane (the super powered Magenta). Wally West is the rare hero who had such a promiscuous past that it's always fun to see some of the EX's return to wreck havoc in his life.

It's clear with this first collection of John's work on Flash that he is a long-time fan of the character. He delivers plenty of action, humor, and the essential chapter ending cliff-hangers that will keep you guessing...HOW DOES THE FLASH GET OUT OF THIS ONE?

Rating:
Summary: FLASH IS A FAST READ!
Review: Ever since I was a little comic book geek I'd always had a fascination with the character of The Flash. He had cool powers and a unique costume. His assortment of great villains was probably second only to Batman. And the majority of his comics ended with some of the best cliff-hangers ever. Alas, in the past 20 years The Flash title has had numerous high and low points (or slow and fast if you'd prefer). Well, I'm happy to inform you that with THE FLASH: BLOOD WILL RUN, we're heading towards another HIGH point!

Writer Geoff Johns has brought an incredible level of energy to his story-telling. These stories move along at rapid-fire pacing and don't give the reader a moment to catch their breath. Whether the Flash is battling the new villain Cicada and his evil followers, or dealing with his illegit-son, or in just trying to handle the myriad of characters from past and present who continually enter and re-enter his life. My personal favorite being mucho-weird ex-girlfriend Francis Kane (the super powered Magenta). Wally West is the rare hero who had such a promiscuous past that it's always fun to see some of the EX's return to wreck havoc in his life.

It's clear with this first collection of John's work on Flash that he is a long-time fan of the character. He delivers plenty of action, humor, and the essential chapter ending cliff-hangers that will keep you guessing...HOW DOES THE FLASH GET OUT OF THIS ONE?

Rating:
Summary: Very good comics, but maybe a bit dark for the Flash?
Review: Geoff Johns is one of the best in comics, and he does an admirable job here of creating a taut, exciting story. The only problem I have as a longtime Flash fan from the days of Wally West's (the current Flash) predecessor, Barry Allen, is that perhaps the content is a bit too dark for a hero who has always been fundamentally about optimism and the "bright shiny" stuff in life, about the ability of scientific knowledge to defeat any foe. This newer, bloodier direction really moves away from that to a huge degree. Is society now too jaded and corrupted to read about a noble, scientific hero?

Rating:
Summary: Geoff Johns Knocked My Socks Off
Review: I was a huge fan of the work that Mark Waid had done on the FLASH title, and when I heard he was leaving the book, so did I. But I just kept hearing all of this stuff about what Geoff Johns (also the writer of JSA,) was doing in the Flash book and I got curious and tried this book.

Wow. I underestimated the work of Geoff Johns on Flash. I don't know why I did, but I did, and I was proven dead wrong. I hated the artist, Scott Kolins, as well when he took over from Paul Pelletier, whose work I thought was definitive for the title. Scott Kolins, however, has already taken Paul's place in my mind as definitive Flash artist.

BLOOD WILL RUN has a lot happening in it. New characters are introduced. Various ongoing plotlines are begun. Old characters are RE-introduced (Weather Wizard being the biggest.) But even Wally is different, and it's a welcome change. He seems so much more sure of himself and his role as the Flash, but I can't explain how. I can't put my finger on any of it. It's something you need to see for yourself. But the work of Johns (and I've read up through #187 now; this book collects #170-176 and the lead story to Secret Files #3,) is superior to Mark Waid's Flash work which rested almost its entire premise on Wally entering and re-entering the Speed Force, and Linda being his guiding force, and living up to the memory of Barry Allen. The book is now more focused on dynamic stories, great characterization, and living up to the memory of Barry Allen NOT by internal monologues, but by ACTIONS.

BLOOD WILL RUN is the best TPB I've read all year, and any Flash fan (but you don't have to be a Flash fan! It's still good!) would be a fool to pass it up.

Rating:
Summary: Johns knows how to keep you reading
Review: I've been a flash fan for years, and Geoff Johns has turned his world upside down (in a good way). Once you start reading this book, you'll never want to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: This graphic novel is a reprint, in a book form, of the FLASH #170-176 (2001). In this story, Wally West, the Flash, is shocked to find that some strange cult is tracking all of the people that he has ever rescued, and is killing them! When Magenta (aka Frankie Kane), one of Wally's old flames, turns up, it is only the first in a line of Wally's old indiscretions turning up to haunt him. There's a cult out there that loves the Flash...and wants him dead!

In reality this book contains two stories - or perhaps one and a half. The second story grows out of the first, pitting Magenta and several other Flash baddies against him. When Wally's old girl friend Julie Jackam is murdered by Cicada's cult, questions begin to arise as to who the father of her baby is, especially now that he is beginning to manifest superhuman powers. This is not a good day for Wally.

This is a pretty good graphic novel. Flash's battle with Cicada's cult is fascinating, and how he pulls off his victory is great! When the story continues with Magenta and her cohorts (who were not in the first part of the book), it becomes much less clear, and the story doesn't really seem to have an ending at all. But, that said, I did enjoy this book, and recommend it to all Flash fans.