Blackest Night: Flash #1 - Review

As Blackest Night roles on and I find myself enjoying it more and more, I have decided to go back and pick up various tie-ins that I missed, including this title Blackest Night: Flash by one of my favorite writers Geoff Johns and artist Scott Kolins.

The book opens with Barry traveling the world at super speed sending his message to all the heroes of the DCU warning them of the threat of the Black Lanterns. I have seen this in various other tie-ins so I liked the way this is tied-in bringing Barry very much to the centre of Blackest Night, almost as much as Hal Jordan, which seems to have been Geoff Johns idea from the start. Next we get a brief Flash history round up which is very handy for new Flash readers like me but I do feel kind of sorry for people who have been reading Flash Rebirth as It basically sums up the Flash in a couple of pages, without having to pay out for a six issue mini series that is not even finished yet. I bought the first couple of Flash Rebirth issues but as a non regular Flash reader, I found the character’s history and explanation of the speed force extremely confusing, but here it is dealt with simply and effectively. Job done.

Barry’s next mission is to speak with his friend, the leader of Gorilla City who Barry believes is one of the most intelligent beings on the planet, and a person who can help the heroes in the war against the Black lanterns. One slight problems though, Barry’s friend died in his absence which Barry is unaware of and the former leader of the great Gorilla City has now been resurrected as a Black Lantern. There are some great scenes drawn by artist Scott Kolins as the two friends battle and Johns writes Barry well as he tries not to give into his emotions, as he knows this feeds the Lanterns power.

In this issue we also meet the new Black Flash, who is the resurrected Zoom/Reverse Flash, and though he is dealt with pretty swiftly by Barry, we know this won’t be the last we see of him.

A second story within this book is that of the current Flash Rogues (led by Captain Cold) who prepare to face the former, newly resurrected Black Lantern Rogues next issue. Johns writes these characters so well and I’m sure that the inevitable showdown between the Rogues next issue with be great entertainment.

All in all this is a well rounded issue with a lot of action packed in that accompanies the main Blackest Night Series nicely. Check it out.

4 out of 5

DC Previews

There’s a couple of nice previews over at The Source for you DC fans.

First up a preview of Flash Rebirth #4. I stopped picking up this title after the second issue as I wasn’t really enjoying it. I’m normally a big fan of Johns work but ironically for a Flash book I found this was really slow at moving the story along. I’m not really a Flash fan though so that might be another reason I didn’t enjoy it. I’ll see what the reaction to the title as a whole is once it’s finished and if its’ good I might pick up the trade. Anyway, you can check the preview here.


Next up is JSA #30. The last issue was really good with the JSA getting their butts kicked by a group of super-villains so I look forward to reading the issue this week to find out what happens next. Check the preview here.

Geoff Johns interview @ CBR & My dream Geoff Johns project!

Comic Book Resources has a great interview posted today with one of my fav writers, Geoff Johns. He discusses all his current projects with DC (Flash Rebirth, Green Lantern) plus drops hints on some future projects including Adventure Comics, Superman: Secret Origins, All Star Batgirl, a Captain Marvel project and more! Check it here.

Now a quick question for you Geoff Johns fans, what would be your dream next project for him and with which artist? I know in the past ‘Aquaman Rebirth’ has been mentioned by fans and according to this interview he is working on All Star Batgirl and another secret project with artist Gary Frank after Superman: Secret Origins.

Now as Gary Frank is also one of my fav artists right now I would keep that pairing for my dream project and the character used would be……………Batman.

From what I can recall Geoff has not really worked much on the Batman books (please correct me if I’m wrong) and I know Batman is sort of Grant Morrison’s baby right now and is the creator with the main ideas that the other books seem to be following, but Id love to see Johns & Frank take on the Dark Knight when Morrison finally leaves or even take over from Winnick and Bagley on the main ‘Batman’ title as that last issue did not impress me at all.

So what would you guys like to see?