Absolute Flash #1 – Jeff Lemire, Writer; Nick Robles, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 10/10
Ray: It’s time for the second wave of the Absolute line to begin, and the first to debut is a coming-of-age reinvention of The Flash by Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles. Next to Dick Grayson, Wally West is probably the most iconic DC legacy hero. He comes from a troubled home life, but was mentored by Barry Allen and eventually gained his own powers. So like the rest of the line, this book asks the question – what if he didn’t have that safe landing? The Wally West we see here has his powers, but he’s the first Flash – and he barely knows how to control his powers. Some very interesting stuff is done right at the start about how he processes the world now, and he seems to be on his own – on the run from his own father, and ruthlessly pursued by a gang of trackers patterned after the Rogues but far more effective and intimidating. And he’s haunted by..something he caused when he got his powers.
The story flashes back and forth between the two timelines a lot, as we get to know this version of Wally. He’s the son of a stern, military commander father and a deceased mother who he was close to, and is stuck on a military base where he has no friends. He bonds with Barry, here an ordinary scientist working on a classified project, but his father quickly steers him away. We don’t see exactly what goes down when Wally visits the project again, but it results in a tragedy that completely changes the trajectory of the character’s life. As strong as DC has been lately, it hasn’t had a great teen-centric book in a while. This shows that Jeff Lemire, amid all the other genres he’s a master of, has an amazing handle on coming-of-age tales, something he really hasn’t worked with since his short Superboy run pre-New 52. It’s another home run right out of the park for the Absolute Line.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
