Tag Archives: The Flash

The Flash Review

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All right folks it’s time to talk about the Flash. This film was getting quite a lot of hype for the Batmen and Supergirl appearing. You could say that the guest stars were the main draws in this one and it is deserved since they all upstage the Flash. This ends up being a good movie but unfortunately that’s about where it ends because this film had the longest amount of dead time I’ve seen in a CBM. The long middle act really ends up limiting its potential.

The movie starts with Flash saving the city while Batman saves the world and it’s a pretty solid way to kick things off. It felt like the intro to a Justice League episode. Flash then gets the idea to go back in time to save his mother and in turn save his father from being falsely accused of murdering her. So the Flash pulls this off and saves her but now the timeline is going in a rather odd direction. Will he be able to fix this new timeline or will he have to become the ultimate villain and let his mother die?

Fans who know of the Flashpoint event from the comics or the previous animated movie will likely know a lot of the story beats right out of the gate and I’d say most people seemed to figure out the villain right from the trailer so this isn’t about the twists so much as it’s about the adventure. There is one twist that I didn’t see coming involving the main Flash and his powers since the trailers cleverly hid/misdirected from this but unfortunately that’s actually one of the biggest issues in the film. There are a lot of things I can’t really talk about without getting into spoiler territory so I’ll leave that for the end.

The special effects here are really solid. They do a good job with the lightning bolts from the Flash costume and with the slow mo. The fights with Zod have some good sound barrier blows although the fights are noticeably a step below Black Adam and Man of Steel so the director/producer need to work on showing off the power levels a bit better for the next one. The costumes and visuals are good so I have no complaints here. The soundtrack is also good with a lot of variety among the hero themes and of course some really solid ones from the past as well. It’s effectively like a big crossover track selection which makes sense for the movie.

The whole climax is pretty solid on the action front even if they do fumble the ball with some decisions by the end. The ending’s definitely not good but I’ll delve into that in the ending segment. Unfortunately the after credits scene is also one of the weakest ones I’ve seen. You won’t even break into a smile while it plays and the whole time you were waiting for something big to happen. It’s not as disappointing as the after credit scene involving Venom where he teleported again but this was still very lackluster. They could have shown Zoom, Reverse Flash, Savitar, or some other really hype character. Instead…well you’ll see it when you see it.

The film works as a Flash origin story to an extent as they manage to squeeze that in while we learn more about his past. It’s an origin you’ve pretty much pictured all the way through but that part’s not bad even if it lacks the mystery and mystique that you’re used to from it. The way we don’t see much of who actually bumped off the mother does lead me to believe that eventually they’re still going to set up the real culprit. It’s just going to be a little dicey because there should be some clues that would have come up during the investigation, like nobody actually approaching the house or something. These things can be easily explained though so we’ll see how that goes.

Ultimately the film lives or dies on the Flash which is fitting since it’s his movie and unfortunately he is one of the weakest parts of the movie. There are two Barry Allens due to this second timeline and the second one is super annoying. Part of why the middle portion of the film flops is because it’s basically trying to be Bill and Ted. The characters are just being annoying the whole time, the original Barry gets wrecked by everybody while the second one takes everything as a joke.

That can be fun but the problem is that the writing isn’t nearly up to par with Bill and Ted. That film on the whole is considerably funnier. This film does have some good humor scenes like Batman and Flash getting blasted with a mental attack to try and humiliate them. Yes, I’d say the attack was clearly intentional and not accidental. It’s fun just because you can imagine how difficult that scenario would be if you were hit. Beyond that though, the film’s humor doesn’t really land all that well. The Flash is often times just annoying.

Additionally from the jump I said that the Flash actor wasn’t really right for the part and he still doesn’t feel like the Flash. Part of that is writing to be sure but part of it is ultimately just the actor. Grant from the CW still has the definitive Flash look and also the much better suit which is always odd to think about since a TV show costume shouldn’t beat a big budget movie version right? Sometimes it’s just a case of overdesigning and that’s what happened here. With a bunch of DC heroes getting recasted soon I definitely don’t mind if Flash gets recasted. Honestly Affleck and Cavill were the only two definitive ones. I don’t mind if the rest get recasted but I’m good either way on most of them. The Flash is just the one that really needs it.

The Keaton Batman gets a fairly big role here. He has a super rough start though, his first scenes are really just painful and you’re wondering how this could possibly be Batman. That whole string of scenes is another sequence that is just painfully unfunny. I don’t want to say it’s the worst sequence but it was rather brutal in a negative way and same for all of his scenes prior to the costume. Once he puts on the suit then he’s good though. He gets his share of action scenes and puts up some good fights which is always really good. I’m always up for some good Batman action after all and the suit really holds up well. The film also did a good job of showing the different fighting styles between him and the main timeline Batman.

The first Batman doesn’t get to appear a whole lot but he definitely made the most of his scenes. He perhaps had a little too much trouble against some ordinary minions but the point of the scene was really to show off his motorcycle. I really liked the design of that thing and the afterburners were really cool. We also saw his gadgets in more detail and it reminds me of why a film about a super experienced Batman like this sounds really good right about now.

In terms of the villains, well we have Zod who is an interesting character. See, he looks incredibly weak in the fights as he struggles to land a single hit on Supergirl at all so on one hand she seems to be massively stronger and faster. On the other hand, he always seems to come out on top for contrived plot reasons. I suppose I’m satisfied since it shows his tactical skills. The others don’t get to do as much and are practically mindless monsters. In general the Kryptonians don’t look as strong as they should since the rank and file should still be very strong but that’s how it goes sometimes. Supergirl herself looks really good though. She has a solid amount of super strength at her disposal and does well in the fight. She’s definitely a very different take on the character but one that works well I would say. She reminds me a bit of Wolverine or Superboy and still comes with the aggression and eagerness to fight which is important.

You may be wondering why the Flash doesn’t just solo the whole movie in an instant right? Writing a speedster is the single hardest thing for a writer to do because their speed is so unreal, particularly the Flash since he’s the fastest of all. Well, the movie introduces a few weaknesses to try and prevent this. The first is that the Flash’s appetite has been drastically increased to the point where he loses his powers if he’s too hungry. Great…..but hey it is a legitimate way to nerf him into the ground and does widen the gap of why Superman’s way more powerful so I can get behind this.

Flash also can’t move people at super speed more than a few feet or they get super sick and could possibly die. I’m not sure about this one since you’d think the speed force would protect anyone that he’s carrying but it’s also a way to make sure he doesn’t just evacuate a whole country in a few minutes or anything like that. There is one other element used to prevent him from soloing the movie but the trailers intentionally hid that so I’ll keep that for the spoiler section. So that did at least help with some of the power level issues you’d usually find but the film still had enough of them to go around.

Okay it’s time for the spoilers! Skip the next paragraphs if you haven’t seen the movie yet since we’re about to dive in! First up we have to talk about the middle act and why I didn’t care for it. Long story short, the Flash gets depowered because he wasn’t fast enough to dodge lightning. That’s already absurd but the worst part is that it defeats the purpose of this being a Flash film. I never like when the main character is depowered for a movie, particularly when it lasts for a long time. Do that as an episode plot in season 5 of a TV show or something but not for a movie. I’m watching the Flash to see the Flash run around and do cool things with his powers.

Instead this is used to prevent him from saving the day and using his cool powers. Instead we have to watch the other Flash learn how to use his powers. Again they’re trying to make this the big origin story kind of moment as he slowly goes through the motions. I get what they’re doing but to me it just did not work. The other Flash is just way too annoying the whole time and without his powers the first Flash isn’t particularly interesting. The whole plot felt very forced and lasted for a super long amount of time which was the roughest part. Depowering the hero is never a good idea imo.

Then we get to the core of the issue which is the dilemma of choosing to save the mother or not. Now you know where I stand on this, you absolutely do have to save her. The instant that you have the ability to manipulate time then you are now required to use it to save people. Why? One big reason is if you have this ability then it stands to reason that someone else does as well. The instant that time travel becomes real, there is no such thing as a correct timeline because you have no way of knowing if someone else has already changed time. So now you do need to use it to save as many people as possible. I’ll dive more into this in an editorial someday but yeah that’s a big one.

Then this scenario is even worse because it’s not like you’re trying to save a random person to which you would still be obligated to do so. It’s his own mother and he has to actively murder her by removing the can of tomato sauce from her shopping cart. That’s a huge no no, it’s virtually as bad as Eren by the end of Attack on Titan with the decisions that he made. Flash should not be doing this and unfortunately it’s a part of every Flashpoint adaption and never gets any better.

Now Batman makes the argument that some points in time cannot be changed because they’re fixed points. I didn’t buy into this in Spider-Verse and I certainly don’t buy it here. At least in Spiderverse you had some reason to buy into Miguel’s speech because the characters have been going across dimensions so they have something you can tangibly look at. In this one? Batman’s arguing pure hypotheticals because he’s never gone through time or to other dimensions. He talks with such confidence about how every other time travel theory is wrong but why should he believe this to be a fact? Personally I don’t buy into this time theory myself but even in universe I wouldn’t.

In fact, the film breaks its own logic. At the very end the Flash ends up moving the tomato sauce which causes it to be on the wrong shelf so the father looked up and that’s why the cameras caught him this time causing his innocence. This changes who Batman is and likely changes a whole lot of other things along with it. So…he just changed the past with no future effects. What the film should have done is end Jingle All The Way style with Flash realizing that he actually can change the past and he gets ready to dash off as the music flares.

I’ll never accept a reality where he has to destroy his mother and the film did a very poor job of trying to convince me otherwise. It’s the only good point I give to alternate Barry because at least he tried over and over again for numerous years to the point where he got old. That’s true dedication as opposed to Barry who gave up after 2-3 tries. Seriously you’d think he would have tried a little harder than that.

Additionally another issue I have here is that with time travel there will never be such a thing as a fixed point with the amount of options and speed that Flash has. Just go further back in time so you save Supergirl before the government gets her or some other radical changes that ensures the present won’t arrive. When you tell me that time will always happen the same way I don’t buy it because it’s just impossible. It didn’t work in the Booster Gold comic, it didn’t work in Mashle, it’s never worked convincingly in any form of media. When you have the ability to freely move through time then nothing is inaccessible.

The ending’s definitely a sour point to be sure. As to the power level issues, they’re not as big a deal but the Flashes taking on an army of Kryptonians and blasting them away with thunder? Eh, I’ve seen worse but I’m not totally buying that. By the same token though once time travel is on the table, they should have had no problem taking out Zod and friends with their unlimited prep time. After all that’s what it is…unlimited prep time. Take the scene where Flash tells Batman not to take on the ship and he quickly dodges. That’s an excellent way of using time to your advantage and he just had to keep on going.

Ultimately Alternate Barry makes for a cool villain design. Not as cool as Savitar from the show but it looks neat. I just wish he got to do more since he probably has less than 5 minutes of screen time. The movie needed a villain who was around longer. There was Zod but he’s always in the background for the Supergirl plot. We needed a villain for the Flash and that would have helped to elevate things or just give this guy more screen time and a true fight. Isn’t it a waste that this is a Flash movie yet there are no speedster battles? Cmon that’s kind of crazy since that’s something you look forward too.

The movie dropped the ball on a lot of potential with things like that. No speed battles, all of the cameos don’t get to fight with each other or help the Flash. The only one who got an action scene was against a giant monster which was cool and all, the best scene from the cameos. You just wanted a little more than that. Throwing in some extra excitement and action would have done the movie a world of good. Okay this ends the spoiler bit so lets wrap things up now.

Overall, The Flash is a good movie but the super long middle act really hurts the replay value of this one. It’s the kind of film you’ll probably have fun watching the big action scenes on Youtube but you don’t really need to watch the whole film again for that. It’s definitely still worth the watch though to see the next big DC adventure. Even if the ending’s no good, there is still a chance to fix it in the sequel. Just have the Flash find out who actually bumped the mother off and if it’s a certain speedster, then he’ll realize that the timeline was already messed up from the jump and he can make another attempt. That’s definitely how I would do it. As the Avengers would say: “Whatever it takes!”

Overall 6/10

The Flash Volume 3 Gorilla Warfare Review

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It’s certainly been quite a while since I’ve checked out a Flash comic, that’s for sure. Or any comic for that matter. Volume 2 ended with Gorilla Grodd and the troops heading to Earth just when the Rogues Gallery had been having a big fight with the Flash. Now they have to break that up in order to fight off the invasion but it may already be too late for Central City. That was a good cliffhanger to end things off with so Volume 3 is really able to start quickly. The arc really takes up almost all of the volume but you would expect no less for Grodd.

So as mentioned, Gorilla Grodd’s army is here and the Flash has a very tenuous partnership with the Rogues for now. By that I mean that the Flash definitely has to watch his back at all times or it could be game over for him. This won’t be as easy as normal though because Gorilla Grodd has obtained super speed of his own. Meanwhile Iris and friends are still stuck inside the speed force and trying to get out but they have to make sure not to mess with the timestream too much. That never tends to end well.

The arc takes up the first 5 issues out of 7 in the volume so quite a lot happens. I always had a hard time taking Grodd seriously as a Flash villain because super speed means this guy should not be able to do anything. Giving him the Speed Force as well helps to change that because now Flash is the one in a tough spot. I won’t say unwinnable, but it would be difficult to cause an upset if they both have the same level of speed only Grodd is massively stronger. You could argue that the Flash’s experience would allow him to win but I’d argue that the experience isn’t enough to even give him the advantage let alone make this an easy win.

It’s honestly a very impressive showing for Gorilla Grodd to the point where the Flash pulls a Dr. Strange and thinks through hundreds if not thousands of scenarios and can’t find any way where he can directly defeat Gorilla Grodd. Ultimately he has to think outside of the box on this one. The plan is certainly an interesting one. Depending on how his plan went I may have been shaking my head but ultimately it was well thought out. It may not guarantee his victory but it does stack as many possible advantages as possible in order to at least make this close.

The volume really shows off Barry’s intelligence which is always good. He is a genius in his own right even if he’s not as smart as Batman or Superman. Barry knows how to come up with a plan and is quite self sufficient. The guy’s been the hero of Central City for a while after all and the volume treats him with a lot of respect. Part of why the Justice League is so fun is because you can make an argument for several members ultimately being the deadliest person in the group. Flash is no exception with how he can bend time to his will and move so quickly. Usually this means you may have some power level hax but the comic solved that issue by giving Grodd his speed. Ultimately the arc was a lot of fun.

There are two main subplots here, one of which is solid and the other which is underwhelming. The good one is with the Rogues fighting off the Gorillas. It’s always fun to have a villains vs villains kind of confrontation and this one lives up to that. The rogues are just lucky that the rest of the Gorillas don’t have super speed. Captain Cold is still bickering about trying to be the leader a lot but the group does ultimately team up to stop the threat. I look forward to seeing them step in as villains again in a future arc.

The plot I was not really feeling was with Turbine, Iris, and the gang. So they were hopping around a lot and ultimately show up in the speed force to help but it was a little hard to care. They didn’t help a whole lot and while I know Turbine needs to get home, you would just be waiting to get back to the Barry plot. It seems like Turbo’s plot will end up being important in a future arc so maybe next volume will be his time to shine. In the meantime though it just wasn’t very big yet. Also, Iris is just so unlikable in the New 52 so far so she tends to be annoying in most of the scenes.

We get a flashback where she went on a date with Barry just to try and use him to get her brother out of prison. Manipulating someone with a fake date’s definitely not good. In the present they’ve patched things up well enough but Barry is currently dating Patty and you can’t help but feel that Patty is ultimately doomed. It’s too bad because Patty seems like a good character throughout. She’s been very understanding of his Flash persona and has just been nothing but supportive throughout the series. I’d like to see Iris and Barry just have a very constructive friendship but we’ll see how that goes.

The final two issues deal with the Trickster being charged with murder. He denies the charges and Barry believes him because he knows the Trickster wouldn’t murder someone. Personally….I’d be a little dubious since the guy is a villain even if he usually seems harmless. Also, some of the guys who went into the Speed Force have started developing super speed. Interestingly, only Iris has not awakened her abilities yet which concerns Flash but he doesn’t have time to tackle every issue at once. He needs to convince these guys to stop using their powers so freely and he needs to find evidence to help out the Trickster. One last problem though…his speed has mysteriously vanished. Can he still prove that the Trickster is innocent?

Albert and Gomez are the two guys who awakened the super speed abilities and they are rather annoying. They get themselves into trouble almost immediately and are extremely aggressive right from the jump. Sure, they’re right that they can’t just get rid of their powers and may as well use them but you’d think they would take babysteps first. Maybe train in abandoned areas, get used to the speed, etc. There are so many ways to prepare yourself with super speed since it’s such an amazing power. Jumping right into big fights is not the way to go. I think what rubs me the wrong way is how upset they are and it really feels like they will turn evil in short order. They’re also quite rude to the Flash for no reason. If they keep their powers I definitely expect things to get dicey.

The Flash losing his powers feels pretty random for now. At the end of the volume we find out that this may tie into a Batman case involving a power syphoning device. Cyborg is looking into it and this is a nice nod to the rest of the League being around. It’s the perfect way to include their presence while still having the Flash doing his own thing. Without this happening the mini arc would be extremely easy so I see why the plot device was included.

After all, the stakes here is that a group of rebels are planning to break the Trickster out and that could cause some political strife as the group is a part of an independent nation. It’s certainly impressive that they started this up since these guys don’t seem all that ready for politics. Still, apparently this could cause huge issues so the Flash has to be careful on how he handles this. We get to see how he would fight with gadgets and such to also try and avoid hurting anyone. It’s a fun adventure which may be a lot more low key than the Grodd fights but works well enough.

Finally, the cliffhanger is about the Reverse Flash showing up. I have no idea which version or iteration this one is but he seems to be taking the title literally as he may have just saved someone he murdered only to destroy the guy again? The whole setup is about doing things in reverse which is fun. I want to see more of this gimmick going forward. He’s already talking big and I expect he’ll try to bring some pseudo moral argument over to Barry which the lead should just disregard. Reverse Flash is historically one of his most dangerous foes though so this should be a tough fight.

As expected, the artwork is really solid here. The New 52 era always looked super impressive visually and this comic is no exception. The fight scenes are on point and it makes the comic very easy to read. You never have to pause and wonder what’s going on or anything like that. The whole story just flows together real easy. The writing is good too with all the characters remaining in character and acting sensible. Even Iris who I wasn’t a big fan of is still written well. I just didn’t like the decisions she would end up making.

Overall, The Flash continues to be a strong run for the character. Each arc is interesting and brings a good amount of action and adventure. With the Reverse Flash coming in, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next arc is the best one yet. The beginning to a long comic run is always super important and I’d say the writer’s been nailing it here. Each story keeps introducing new elements for the future so there’s always quite a few plot threads to juggle. The toughest thing will be keeping the Flash from instantly winning without constantly reverting to taking his powers away or just making the enemies also gain super speed. Of course if you have to choose an option to reuse, I would always go with the latter because high speed battles never get old. Also, it just makes sense for his gallery to have super speed as it’s logically the best way to put up a fight against him.

Overall 7/10

The Flash: Starting Line Review

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It’s been a while since I read a comic, especially a Flash one so it was good to see the ole speedster back in action. It’s a fairly modern one too so we get to blast through the origin stuff and get right to the adventures. The Rogues get a solid revival and quite a bit happens here. The story sets up a lot of future plot lines that’ll keep on going for some time so this line is off to a good start.

While each issue has a different villain for the most part there is still a larger plot in the background. The Flash used to be a very well liked figure in Central City but lately people have been turning against him. The cops think he is a wild vigilante who causes more harm than good and the reporters are all trying to frame him. One of Barry’s best friends even betrays him to run a social experiment. The guy has a point that they weren’t all that close though. Only Barry really took it hard while to the friend it was just good business. It’s why you certainly have to be careful on who you trust because some will turn around and back-stab you quite quickly.

It always makes for an interesting plot to see everyone turning on the Flash or whoever the hero of the adventure is. It’s annoying too as you can easily lose respect for these characters. The fact of the matter is that the Flash has saved all of these guys time and time again. It’s a bit late in the game for people to say that they’re better off without him. I could never comprehend the argument of the hero attracting trouble. If Flash wasn’t around then the city would have been destroyed many times over. You need a super hero when it comes to tricky cities like this. Otherwise the villains will just have their way. You also can’t do much better than the Flash. With his speed there is always a chance that you can be saved.

The first main arc deals with Mob Rule a lot. One of Barry’s old friends went missing one day. He has returned, but seems to now be a villainous sniper who is way in over his head. Barry tries to talk with him about this, but it’s a complicated situation. Some experiments were done on Manuel and now every time he is injured or a part of him is severed it turns into a whole other him. Now they are an army known as Mob Rule and they want to find a cure. The downside to having all of these clones is that they die after a few days. They kidnap Manuel and work on a bunch of cures but nothing is working and the group is getting more and more radical. Barry has to try and get Manuel out of this while he still can.

It’s more of a mystery thriller than the other Flash stories. Not only is the mob pretty discreet and hard to stop, but Flash has also been creating a lot of temporal anomalies lately so he is’t sure if he should be running full blast. I’m not a fan of Manuel though. He does seem to start a lot of the trouble which gets him into these sticky situations. He’s also quite quick to ditch Barry which puts him in a lot of danger. Finally the guy had no real gratitude to the Flash for saving him. Somehow he did the mental gymnastics of saying that it’s Flash’s fault that the cure didn’t work when it was obviously about to destroy him anyway. Everyone was really giving the Flash a hard time throughout the whole series.

The other big arc in the series saw the return of Captain Cold. He blames the Flash for the big blackout which prevented the hospital from helping his sister out when she was in critical condition. He now wants the Flash dead so their fights are a little more serious than usual. Flash just got done dealing with a crazy guy in the Speed Force who was messing things up so he doesn’t have a lot of time to worry about this. Captain Cold’s new freezing abilities make him much more of a serious threat than he used to be though. The fact that he naturally makes the Flash slower is quite handy in a fight. We also get to see the rest of the Rogues show up as they banded together under a new leader known as the Golden Glider. She wants the Rogues to be a purely evil group as opposed to what she considered to be weak tactics under Cold’s leadership.

They’ve got a very different approach on how to run a group. Cold believes that having an honor code is best and he does seem better equipped to be a leader. It is hard to keep that level of nuance while you’re a villain group though. I don’t see most villains really playing ball for very long. Most of them are in this business to murder the heroes and civilians. Captain Cold also isn’t a strong enough fighter to keep them in check. He was having trouble with Heatwave who isn’t exactly known as a powerhouse. Regardless, he does have a lot of experience and credibility though so people tend to listen to him. Golden Glider’s leadership was fairly short lived although I doubt her ambitions are over for now.

I mentioned him briefly before, but Turbine is a guy who was stuck in the SpeedForce for decades. I really don’t blame him for trying to get out. Flash guilt trips him because Turbine’s attempts for hurting the planet, but what else could he do? The Flash can’t reasonably expect this guy to just stay stuck for his whole life right? Turbine seems like he’s going to end up turning evil, but at least right now he seems pretty reasonable to me. The guy just wants to get home and Flash seemed to have absolutely no sympathy for him.

Meanwhile Iris gets a smaller role than usual as there is a new heroine around. This has allowed Iris to get her own plots away from Barry though. She’s now more of a detective/reporter like Lois Lane to the point where I’m sure they’re basing this interpretation on the iconic DC character. She’s an interesting character and this is probably her best portrayal. I think there’s a lot the series can do with her so hopefully she doesn’t go back with Barry. Patty is the new character involved with Barry and she seems reasonable. The relationship doesn’t seem too stable though since she can’t stand the Flash. Whenever the heroine doesn’t like the hero form you can’t help but think that things won’t really end well. That’s just too big of a split to remedy since the hero has to break the news at some point right? At least she does seem quite loyal when Barry is around and does her best to help him out. Patty has connections and skills in her own right so she can contribute quite a lot when it comes to detective work and solving cases.

There’s a whole plot with Gorilla Grodd which serves as his origin. It’s the least interesting part of the volume although it’s not like it’s bad or anything. I just can’t bring myself to care about them at the moment and the Flash getting amnesia felt incredibly convenient since otherwise he could have gotten out of there pretty easily. They’re clearly going to have a big role soon so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve never been impressed with Grodd’s strength even if he is technically considered to be one of Flash’s deadliest opponents. Give me the Rogues any day.

I basically talked about everyone except Barry so let’s take a step back here. Flash is a solid lead who does deal with some issues at the beginning but ultimately gets past them. He realizes that his speed is necessary to saving the world and stops overthinking things. He’s trying to learn how to speed up his mind as well and once he does this he should really be a super powerful hero. The Flash is already one of the strongest characters in DC if you ask me so if I were the writers I would make it take a super long time for Flash to actually master this technique. It’s effectively Ultra Instinct in the DC world. Barry’s always been my favorite Flash because he’s also got those detective skills on top of his super powers and he’s a very reasonable guy. His Barry Allen persona is simply interesting and the comic did a good job of showing that off.

The artwork is also pretty solid here. It may not be the most colorful I’ve seen, but it holds its own pretty well. I like the speed effects and there’s a lot of weight behind each hit. There was a good amount of effort put into the artwork for sure and it shows. It’s part of what makes this an easy read along with the quality writing. You’ll be drawn into the pages and ready for the next adventures to come.

Overall, This is a pretty solid collection of comics. The best issues are the ones where Flash is dealing with the Rogues and going undercover in the shady part of town. The Grodd stuff is less interesting but the comic does use him for a good cliffhanger. You can’t help but feel like Flash should wreck them all as soon as he wakes up so their gameplan should be to destroy him while he is still knocked out. If you haven’t checked this comic out yet then I’d recommend reading it. There are a lot of other plot lines going on that I haven’t even mentioned. While there are references to earlier comics you don’t really need to read them to get what is going on.

Overall 7/10

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash Review

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It’s time to look at one of the newest Lego films around! DC has had a pretty good track record with their Lego adventures and are certainly leading the pack. This is because their specials actually have some pretty solid action scenes to go along with the good one liners. I dare say that DC has taken Legos to the peak of where they can reach and this one continues their roll. It still has some competition ahead of it for being the best DC specials, but I would put this one up there as probably top 3. Flash makes for a great main character and always makes the right moves.

The story starts with the Justice League trying to fend off an attack from the Joker. Unfortunately for them they are getting creamed. Flash should have been there to help, but he was busy enjoying a donut with a milkshake. Truly that is an underrated combo if you ask me. Still, he manages to save the day anyway, but then a mysterious being known as the Reverse Flash shows up. Flash chases him, but finds himself back to the start of the day. This keeps on happening and it seems like Flash is stuck in a time loop. In order to get out he will have to move even faster, but what if doing this ends up wrecking reality itself!? Only one way to find out!

I’m always up for a good time travel story. Nowadays this usually goes hand in hand with the Flash and his story arcs. Flashpoint is probably the most well known Flash event of all time and then the TV show also likes to casually mess around with the past and the future. It makes for good story arcs that open up a lot of moral questions like should you change the past or simply ignore it. Typically they go for the worst possible moral though and that is that the past shouldn’t be altered. Fortunately, it’s safe to say that this special doesn’t really go there at all. The trope can be especially annoying when the villain changed the past first and the hero still isn’t able to go back and correct it. A bit off topic though so lets get back to the adventure.

I do like how Flash handled the situation though. He kept on going after the Reverse Flash because he knew that one day he would surpass his limits. Even though Batman kept telling him to wait Flash would go anyway. The montage showed that he probably tries this at least 50 times. Imagine living through the same day that many times and not going crazy. Flash really kept it together and in the end he made the right move since Batman’s great advice was simply to say “Run faster.” That’s really the best advice that Batman’s got? Flash was able to do it of course, but after Batman’s constant “Wait” moments I was expecting something else. Still, Flash was easily the best character here and that’s not easy to do in a special where Batman and Superman are present.

In the other plot we have Reverse Flash proving to the world that he is a better hero than the normal Flash. Instead of trying to join the League or anything like that he spends his time trying to prove that they aren’t needed anymore. With the speed at which he solves crimes it may even appear to be true. If he were a legitimate hero then he would have a mild point, but of course he would run out of energy at some point so the league would have to step in again. It’s fun how he makes everyone look pretty petty at times like when the League was caught eaves dropping on him. Batman saved the situation from being a tragedy, but it still was not their greatest moment. Ah well, they did their best.

As far as the Justice League goes, they were all in character. Batman and Superman were a great contrast to each other as you would expect. Superman was super cheerful and would try being nice to Flash while Batman would just give him the tough facts. Wonder Woman was more of a mediator and Cyborg was busy messing everything up like usual. Likewise with Plasticman but to a greater extent. The new member of the group who got a lot of screen time was the Atom. If they wanted him to look terrible than they succeeded.

Considering that he is a new recruit the guy seems to have a considerable ego. He complains quite a lot and you have to repeatedly wonder how he actually got on the team. The guy definitely doesn’t seem like he belongs, but I guess that’s just one of those mysteries that you have to think about for a little while. He gets a subplot of his own where he tries to contact the league while he’s tiny and it’s a treacherous journey for him. I’d like to say that it helped him get likable by the end but not really. At this rate the new recruits are all going to keep on losing out.

I will say that the first half of the special does beat the latter though. I enjoyed the Groundhog shenanigans from the beginning as Flash kept trying to stop his evil doppelganger. His route to the trouble involving all of the food and villain arrests were fun as well. The movie accurately shows just how overpowered the Flash should be and since it’s part comedy they are actually able to pull this off instead of totally nerfing him. That’s not to say that the second half is bad, but Dr. Fate singalongs just don’t have the same appeal you know? It was definitely a radically different take on him, but at least it had personality. Dr. Fate usually doesn’t actually do much except get in everyone’s way. I do feel bad for Zatanna though since her training seems like it will take a very long time to actually get anywhere.

There’s not much to say about the animation that hasn’t been said before. It’s Lego animation so it’s pretty much the same every time. I’m not a huge fan of it, but it looks well enough and at this point it’s pretty polished. The action scenes are still solid as I mentioned earlier and they did a good job with the speed animations. As far as I’m concerned, they put in the proper amount of effort there. There isn’t much of a noticeable soundtrack here so it’s a few steps behind some of the others, but the sound effects are good and what music we do get tends to be solid as well.

The writing is on point which is always very important for a film like this one. The humor is actually good as opposed to just being obnoxious or annoying. Well, those two things are kind of the same I guess. Either way, the writing really understands the characters here. Cyborg and Atom are annoying, but it’s not necessarily the humor that makes them annoying, but the characters and I wouldn’t hold that against the writing since I’m pretty sure that it’s intentional. It may not be laugh out loud funny (Almost nothing is) but it works pretty well and the sarcastic wit from the heroes is part of the charm behind the Legos.

Overall, The Flash is a solid movie and one that I would certainly recommend. Whether you are a fan of Lego adventures or comic book films this is one title that you don’t want to miss. It really pulls out all of the stops and each act of the film feels like a complete film. Honestly the first act alone could have worked as the whole movie and I would have been satisfied. It’s a long 70ish minutes, but not in a bad way. They manage to squeeze a lot of content in there so I’d say that it’s actually very fast paced. There really isn’t anything majorly negative to say about the film and that’s how you know that it’s quite solid.

Overall 8/10