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DC Comics
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Daniel Acuna
Covers: Daniel Acuna, Doug Braithwaite
This is the first issue of the Flash comic book series, following the end of the 13-issue run after the DC Comics event, One Year later that skipped ahead one year. It’s probably sixth to nine months since the one year later reboot, and Wally West, the current and third Flash and his family adjust to life, after dealing with the murder of the fourth Flash and his cousin, Bart Allen, the in the All Flash #1 one shot.
In this issue, keeping the numbering from the previous run of the Flash before the 13 issues run with Bart Allen, readers are introduced to West’s twin kids who each have powers developed from super speed and have grown into six to nine years-olds in about a year. Flash and his kids are on a rescue operation, trying saving people from a shipwreck commuter ferry. Will the West family succeed in saving as many lives as possible, while keeping their identities secret?
It’s a feel-good issue introducing all the major players of this new series. As the Flash now has fully grown kids as partners, it will add up much more storytelling opportunities. However, I deplore the fact, like soap operas, young kids are artificially aged to play stronger support roles. There was a time where adopted sidekicks provided such shortcuts to kids versions of the main characters. Nowadays, just like cousin Bart Allen, the Flash’s kids only have to be aged quickly or brought from the future. Of course, their growth is stumped magically at the age where the writer needs them to be. I would have preferred if the kids would continue to age into old age . . . That would have made quick work of the device of using kids and the Pixar’s Invincible’s template, to make this comic book series relevant.
Last, I thought that the Flash’s wife, Linda West was a reporter? Do we need another super smart doctor?
This issue looks better than the previous All Flash special and has a total unity factor, as the artist handles both the illustrations and the colouring. Of course, out of this, the inking part of the comic book staple is nowhere to be found in his work. While normally, I would deplore the lack of strong inking in a comic book, artists like Acuna are proving that perhaps it is time to look past old comic books’ standards when it comes to artwork. A comic book can still be a dynamic piece of storytelling without the overbearing penmanship of an inker. As comic books have always been the sites of exploration in all visual arts, I welcome the opportunity of straying away from the norm.
Acuna’s work is a comic book version of what a realistic comic book of the Pixar’s Invincibles would look like. The kids, look like kids, even with their amp up physiques. Wally’s son, even looks half Asian. One caveat. Usually, with children in comic books, it is difficult to tell their age. Here, at their height, they seem to be like six-years-olds. But their characterizations suggest they are older, mentally (the kids are really overgrown one-year-olds). More consistency would be better.
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