The Flash: Season Zero #22 - A Review

Like the previous issue, The Flash: Season Zero #22 is a flashback devoted to Len Snart and Mick Rory and their criminal careers before they became Captain Cold and Heatwave. It is revealed that the two crooks exemplified their respective elements long before they got their hands on high-powered super-guns. More, we see why the calculating Snart works with a loose cannon like Rory.


The script captures the attitude of the characters from the show perfectly. Nevertheless, some of the action doesn't make a lot of sense. I can swing with Rory's plan to throw off the police by setting the museum they're robbing on fire before they go in. The problem is the plan doesn't work (despite the burglar alarms being disabled) and the police somehow beat the fire department to the museum, purely because we need a reason for Joe West and his partner to be there. This issue is a great character piece but it strains credibility as an action sequence.


Thankfully, the artwork saves the issue.  This is the kind of story Phil Hester draws best and the inks by Eric Gapstur beautifully enhance Hester's pencils.  But what really makes the artwork pop is Nick Filardi's colors, with a palette of strong oranges and cool blues creating a perfect visual representation of our two main characters.

The Flash: Season Zero #21 - A Review

Before they became Captain Cold and Heatwave, Len Snart and Mick Rory were ordinary criminals. But how did two such different men become partners in crime? Now the tale can be told of how a cool and calculating mastermind came to trust a passionate hothead.


Phil Hester's in his element here with a dark, atmospheric story set on the wrong side of the tracks. His pencils are a little sloppy at times but not to the point where it's distracting. The inks and colors - by Eric Gapstur and Nick Filardi respectively - perfectly enhance Hester's pencils.


The script by Andrew Kresigberg and Lauren Certo is decent enough. There's a suitable number of gags regarding the characters personalities, including their differing drink orders - Cold orders an ice-cold beer while Heatwave orders Fireball Whiskey. Still, I can't help but wishing Geoff Johns had written this story as nobody writes The Rogues quite so well.

The Flash: Season Zero #18 - A Review

The good news is that Barry Allen has stopped the so-called King Shark from killing again. The bad news is that, in the process, he allowed a terrorist to escape from The Suicide Squad. The worst news is that they all have just ten minutes to stop a bomb from going off... and Deadshot just pumped Barry full of enough tranquilizer to make sure The Flash doesn't get in the way of The Squad and their target a second time...


The script for this issue is fairly good, with dialogue that sounds like it came right from the show. Cupid is appropriate flirty, Captain Boomerang makes a number of puns involving his favorite weapon. All well and good.

The actual story, however, suffers from a few logic gaps. The big one here is that Deadshot - a character not known for his compassion  - just happens to be carrying enough tranquilizer to take down a speedster in one shot. And then there's Amanda Waller's apparent stupidity in utilizing a blood-crazed monster as an agent on a mission requiring them to capture and question a suspect.


I've said before that I didn't think Phil Hester was the right artist for this series, but his talents prove well-utilized here. With the focus of this issue largely on The Suicide Squad, Hester's gritty style and talent for drawing monsters seems a good fit. And Eric Gapstur's inks perfectly enhance Hester's pencils.

The Flash: Season Zero #17 - A Review

Trapped in the bowels of ARGUS, Barry Allen has only minutes to save the unfortunate King Shark from killing again at the behest of Amanda Waller.  Naturally The Wall doesn't care about the toll the shark-man's endless hunger is taking on his mind - only that he's an asset that Task Force X can use. A little help from his friends may get Barry loose but can even he reach Coast City in time once he's free?


This latest issue is thrilling right up until the very last page where a whopping big plot hole reveals itself as we find out King Shark's target was a terrorist who needed to be questioned about an active bomb. Of course Amanda Waller wouldn't lose sleep over a dead terrorist. But the idea that The Wall would send an untested resource - to wit, a man-eating shark-man - out to capture a target who needed to be taken alive and hope that it could be kept under control long enough for an interrogation to occur is just plain idiotic!


Phil Hester is back in the artist's chair this time around and I can't say I've missed him too much. Some of the pages in this issue look rushed and sloppy. And I really do believe Eric Gapstur's style better fits the brighter aesthetic of The Flash universe.

The Flash: Season Zero #16 - A Review

Barry Allen is still determined to rescue the so-called King Shark from the clutches of The Suicide Squad. But even with Cisco and Caitlin backing him up and blueprints of ARGUS' headquarters and security systems, can The Flash accomplish this impossible mission? Not if Amanda Waller has anything to say about it. And armed with some newly built drones designed specifically for bringing down The Fastest Man Alive, she may indeed have the last word.


This issue marks the first time Eric Gapstur has handled the art duties on this series himself and it proves a welcome change. I love Phil Hester's artwork but his blocky style seemed a little stiff for The Flash. Gapstur's style is more fluid and there's a greater sense of motion to the book as a result.


The script itself is as enjoyable as we've come to expect from this creative team. Cisco makes A-Team references nobody else gets but proves to be far more than simple comic relief as he takes charge in the field and comes up with the plans that keep Barry in once piece. And while I side with those who dislike the newer, slimmer Amanda Waller design, I cannot deny that John Ostrander's Wall is very much here in spirit, no matter her appearance.

The Flash: Season Zero #15 - A Review

King Shark has been captured by The Suicide Squad, though they nearly killed Joe West in the process. This sets Barry Allen to tracking down this dangerous new villain group and sends him to Starling City looking for answers. Answers Oliver Queen has but doesn't want to give away...


With all the secrets upon secrets and shared information that has been revealed on The Flash and Arrow, it never occurred to me until now that Barry knows nothing about ARGUS or The Suicide Squad.  As such, the central conceit of this issue - that the sudden reemergence of Captain Boomerang with a gang of other killers would send Barry running for answers - is a brilliant one that helps to tie the two series even closer together.  As one might expect, there's a high humor quotient to this issue as Barry intrudes on Ollie's 'Arrow' time and fails to notice that while he might casually hold a conversation in the costume, The Arrow does not do anything casually.


Phil Hester is on familiar ground with his artwork here, having been the artist on Green Arrow for a number of years.  Hester's work with The Flash hasn't been bad but I think he's a better fit for the aesthetic of Arrow, which offers more opportunities for the shadowy, dramatic scenes that Hester excels at.  It's a debatable point but what can't be debated is that this issue is as well illustrated as it is well written.

The Flash: Season Zero #14 - A Review

Barry and Cisco survived Round One with King Shark, but the mutant shark-man's bite has slowed Barry's hyperactive healing-factor to a crawl. As Barry returns to work trying to hide his bloody bandages and Cisco and Caitlin return to tracking King Shark, little do they know that someone else is hunting the monster.

How soon will be be before Team STAR Labs crosses paths with The Suicide Squad? And has Captain Boomerang come back to finish The Flash off once and for all?


Fans of the show who have yet to give this tie-in comic a try will be pleased to know this issue contains the same humor. Phil Hester sneaks in a few funny visual gags, such ac Cisco's "research" into the biology of sharks involving a screening of Sharknado.  And the script by Kai Wu and Lauren Certo boasts several equally amusing one-liners.


Arrow fans will probably want to check this issue out as well, since it gives us our first post-arrest appearance of Cupid as well as the return of Captain Boomerang.  And Deadshot. There's always room for more Deadshot.

Green Arrow #40 - A Review

Green Arrow #40 is one of the most contrived, over-the-top and outright ludicrous comics I have ever read. And I loved every page of it! This issue is a fitting capstone for a run that has tried to do as much as possible to resurrect elements of the Green Arrow mythos long dead while simultaneously turning the New 52 reality into something recognizable to fans of the Arrow television series.

It remains to be seen just how successful Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Soklowski will be in that regard in the long-term. With a new creative team set to come on post-Convergence we could well see yet another shift of the status quo on a book that has been continually unstable since the first issue!

For the moment, at least, I am content.  Whatever faults this run had - and there are many - it managed to at least be amusing and avoided being dull.  How can it be dull when you have the likes of Lex Luthor, Batman, Katana, Arsenal and an army of Green Arrow's other allies, enemies and acquaintances uniting to bring down the tyrannical billionaire John King and his Subjects.


This issue is packed with a lot of action and very few explanations. For instance, the panel above is all we get to see of the villain Cupid in this issue. Except for a quick cameo on the final page of last month's issue, Cupid has not been seen in The New 52 Green Arrow book.  No background has been given for her and there is no explanation of who she is. So if you didn't read the Green Arrow/Black Canary book almost a decade ago or see her recent appearance on Arrow... well, too bad. Perhaps it is unreasonable in the Internet age to expect these things to be included as part of the narrative when we are given enough information to look up Cupid's page on ComicVine. Call me old fashioned but I like to see these things in the book itself. That just seems like Storytelling 101.

A similar problem comes up in the final battle, where - in defiance of all logic - King elects to go after Green Arrow with a sword. He hasn't been shown to be a swordsman before now. Nothing has been said about him using a sword to kill people. And it adds nothing to the final battle (other than looking cool) as this is merely a set-up for an obvious trap.

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE... billionaire playboy with a royalty-based surname in this town!
The artwork of Daniel Sampere and Jonathan Glapion lends an epic scope to this material that it doesn't truly deserve. With a lesser art team, this series might have looked as ridiculous as it seems.  As it is, it looks amazing and the fight scenes that make up the majority of this issue are all well depicted.

In the end, I'd say this run on Green Arrow was a success.  It lacked the depth of Jeff Lemire's run but it did set out what it was meant to do. And an Arrow Cave with Felicity Smoak and Mia Dearden in the house should prove to be a welcome starting point for the series to begin with in two months time.

The Flash: Season Zero #13 - A Review

The Flash has King Shark!  Or does King Shark have The Flash? It's a bit hard to say but it may fall to Cisco Ramon to be a fast thinker before they have to test if Barry's quick-healing powers can let him grow back an arm!


This issue is exciting and yet something of a disappointment at the same time.  The action is well played out and some hints are dropped about Cisco's eventually taking up the role of a hero himself (You know which one!). But it's a bit of a downer that - unlike the comics - King Shark was once a human cancer patient undergoing radical treatment at the time of the Particle Accelerator Explosion rather than a shark who evolved into a semi-intelligent being. I guess the writing team would rather not explain why there aren't more of these meta-animals running around if the energy released affected non-humans.  But c'mon - it's not like evolved sharks are any more implausible than dark matter interacting with a drug made of Shark DNA to create a wereshark!


I've commented before that Phil Hester wouldn't be my first choice of artist for a Flash comic but his work here is quite effective, catering as it does to his talents for horror.  There's none of the forced poses or odd angles that marred previous issues.  Even Eric Gapstur's inks don't seem to be as randomly applied this time around.

The Flash: Season Zero #12 - A Review

I fear I may be turning into a skipping audio file (kids these days don't say 'broken record' unless they're hipsters)  but I find myself running out of ways to say how much I enjoy The Flash: Season Zero.


The story this fortnight is a gripping one, as our heroes investigate a frightening possibility - that the explosion of the STAR Labs particle accelerator affected animals as well as humans.  Worse, one of these so-called Meta-Animals - a humanoid shark - is on a feeding frenzy in Central City, seeking out the scientists who abused it. Could this be a hint as to how Gorilla Grodd might be brought into the TV show?  Probably, but this comic is a ripping yarn regardless of that question.


Comedy continues to be the best thing this series has going for it.  The humor of The Flash is intact and all of the characters are written true to form.  You can hear the voices of the actors from the show speaking the dialogue by Kai Wu and Lauren Cetro in your head as you read the comic.


The only real negative thing I have to say about the book involves the art.  Understand that I love Phil Hester's work and have enjoyed it since his run on Green Arrow.  But for every awesome page like the one above  featuring King Shark feeding, there are several pages where the human characters look blocky and stiff. Hester and Eric Gapstur are amazing when it comes to drawing monsters jumping out of the shadows.  Humans on a sunny day?  Not so much.

The Flash: Season Zero #11 - A Review

Barry, Caitlin and Cisco were enjoying a nice working vacation in Coast City, testing Barry's powers in a coastal environment to see if he might be the Fastest Swimmer Alive. Sadly, the fun is cut short when Barry gets called back to investigate a strange murder.  One seemingly committed by a walking shark...

The script for this issue is a fun one, with most of the focus being on the interaction between Barry, Cisco and Caitlin.  There's a fair bit of humor with Barry and Cisco cracking wise about the possibility of werewolves and zombies being potentially realities in their post-metahuman world (Caitlin is not amused, naturally) and the writing perfectly captures the spirit of the show.


Phil Hester is back as the series penciler along with Eric Gapstur on inks and, again, I must say that they seem an odd choice for the regular art team on this book.  They are both undoubtedly talented but their style seems at odds with the basic aesthetic of The Flash. The best bits of the artwork occur at the beginning and the end, where we see a shadowy monster attacking its victims at night. Unfortunately, most of the book takes place on a sunny beach in the middle of the day and Gapstur's inks are at their best when they are at their heaviest, strongly defining Hester's pencils.

Green Arrow #38 - A Review

As Green Lantern and Green Arrow reluctantly team forces to save a hospital full of victims from John King's men, Mia Dearden falls into her father's clutches.  Even with the aid of Katana, can the Emerald Allies save the day? Can they even stop arguing for two minutes?!


If I were to sum up my feelings about Green Arrow #38 in a word, it would be 'torn'.

There is so much about this comic that doesn't sit right with me.  I don't like that Mia Dearden's past as a drug-using teen prostitute has been brought back into play. There was just no reason for it with her new background as the daughter of sociopath billionaire John King.


Another problem I have with this comic is with its lack of explanations for any of the new characters' backgrounds.  We have no idea how long Mia has been on the streets, but the previous issues suggested that it hadn't been long - perhaps a year or two at the most. And we've been given no explanation as to who the heck Mack Morgan is and just why he is so important to John King.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this issue is John King's descent from ordinary rich jerk villainy into "cartoonish supervillainy".  Now, granting that this IS a superhero comic, the best Green Arrow comics have had some grounding in reality regarding their villains motivations. And yes, John King is a social Darwinist who would think nothing of killing an entire hospital to cover up one murder. But when we reach the point where the bad guy is ordering his minions in a hospital to stop providing care to the dying and expecting people to just go along with it with no questions asked, you have also passed the point at which one can still credibly believe John King to be an arrogant but subtle manipulator. Captain Planet villains are more subtlety evil than this!

So why am I torn on this book if the villain is so melodramatically awful?  Because the treatment of the heroes is so perfect!

The Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen of the New 52 universe are not the best of friends.  Heck, they don't even like each other that much! But the chemistry between the two characters is apparent here - the classic situation of two people not liking each other because they are so much alike. The banter between the two is hilarious and becomes doubly so when Katana is forced to put up with them.


One thing I'm not torn on, however, is the artwork of this issue.  Daniel Sampere and Jonathan Glapion provide their usual high-quality work.  The action of the issue is well blocked throughout and colorist Gabe Eltaeb depicts everything with a rich and vibrant palette.

I'll continue to read this book for now, but I hope that John King's madness is exposed soon and that there are no plans for him to be a long-running villain.  There's just no way for the character to last that long at his current pace of deterioration.

The Flash: Season Zero #9 - A Review

Felicity Smoak finds herself distracted at work, as Barry Allen's televised battle with a water-manipulating metahuman causes her to miss an important meeting. That turns out to be the least of Felicity's problems this morning. Because there's a group of terrorists out to turn everyone's favorite White Hat Hacker into street pizza and only The Fastest Man Alive can save her!


This issue of The Flash: Season Zero is somewhat perplexing.  The script by Andrew Kreisberg (based on a story by Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim) is well-written and quite funny, with a fair bit of quirky banter between Felicity and Ray Palmer and many accidental double entendres. Typical fare for an episode of Arrow or The Flash, in other words.

The problem is that it is unclear just when the events of this story take place relative to events in the show. As of the halfway point of the first season of The Flash, the existence of metahumans is still a closely guarded secret - at least so far as the team at STAR Labs and Joe West are concerned.   Explain then how it is possible for The Flash to be fighting a super-villain on a live television broadcast, with the reporter watching the fight acting like such fights are commonplace?

I'll admit this is a minor nitpick but it is an important point given the continuity of the TV series.  That said, the action of the story is well paced and it wouldn't feel out of place in a classic Flash comic.  The only real problem with this story is how it fails to fit into the reality of the show, unless it is set at some point in the not too distant future where The Flash is operating more openly.


The artwork by Marcus To is a definite improvement on the previous creative team.  There is a sense of motion to To's style that meshes well with the general aesthetic of The Flash.  To also does a good job caricaturing the series's cast and in blocking out the action of the story.

The Flash: Season Zero #8 - A Review

Here it is!  The Big Finale under The Big Top, as The Flash faces off against Mister Bliss and his Fabulous Freaks! Can Barry Allen prevail against an army of murderous clowns, a car-crushing strongman and a mind-controlling ring-master?

Yes.  Yes he can.  Unfortunately, this final battle falls flat and ends anti-climatically.  Thankfully, most of the issue isn't concerned with the fight so much as it is with the aftermath.


Unfortunately, the aftermath of the battle raises more questions than it answers, such as what happens to the snake-charming woman Barry had to save from Bliss when she turned on him?  Has she been imprisoned in The Pipeline among with the rest of the circus?  And looking at the cells in the make-shift metahuman prison, those inclined to ponder such things are bound to ask questions about the lack of toilets.

Though the fight is a bit lackluster, this comic is still likely to provide amusement to fans of the show through the comedic dialogue and the trivia relating to the show.  For instance, this issue establishes that this story took place sometime between the third and fourth episode of the show, owing to the facts that The Pipeline exists and Barry is already subsisting on the super-protein bars Cisco first started making in the second episode. Also, the issue ends with Barry running off to face Captain Cold for the first time.
The artwork continues to be decent but unspectacular.  Phil Hester is a great artist but his firm, darker style seems at odds with the more fluid tone one expects of The Flash.  The inks of Eric Gapstur only compound the problem, with the finished artwork seeming more appropriate to a urban-action or horror title than the brighter, more colorful world of Central City.

Green Arrow #37 - A Review

The mysterious Mia Dearden has been rescued and the reasons for her endangerment have been brought to light.  It seems she's the illegitimate daughter of billionaire philanthropist John King and she's gotten a hold of a list of thousands of "Kings Men" - bought officials ready to do whatever Mr. King wants. And what Mr. King wants right now is Seattle under his thumb and Green Arrow dead!


By all rights, I shouldn't like this new run on Green Arrow as much as I do.  Virtually all of the supporting cast has been jettisoned, with Felicity Smoak quickly sliding into the trusted techie role after only a single issue.  That sort of thing is normally a big no-no for me when it comes to established titles.

And yet, here it works to the book's benefit.  The honest truth is that for all the good Jeff Lemire did during his run on Green Arrow, he didn't do much to develop the supporting cast.  Most of the characters he introduced were unmemorable at best or outright annoying in the case of Ollie's half-sister Emiko.

For lack of a better way to say it, this comic just feels more like what a Green Arrow comic should feel like. Not only in terms of bringing in characters like Mia and Merlyn (he isn't identified by name in this issue but - c'mon, we all know who that archer in black is!) but in terms of setting Oliver up against an enemy who is a symbol of everything Oliver Queen should fight against - corruption and corporate power.  The final page of this issue is also a nod to the classic DC Comics of yesteryear and a relationship that has been sorely missed in The New 52 universe.

While some may quibble about the continuity of aesthetics between creative teams, I do not believe anyone can complain about the artwork on this issue.  Granted, my opinion may be biased as I'm a fan of Sampere and Glapion's previous work together on Batgirl but I do love the artwork on this book. The characters are all uniquely designed and the fights are well laid-out.  My one complaint is that colorist Gabe Eltaeb could try and offer a little more variety in the shades of yellow used to depict the many blond cast members.

The Flash: Season Zero #7 - A Review

The Flash is still shell-shocked after his encounter with the empath Mr. Bliss. As Dr. Wells tries to snap Barry out of his terror-induced coma, Caitlin and Cisco must try to warn the public before Bliss gets a chance to unleash his powers upon a captive audience of millions.


I've noted before that I questioned whether or not Phil Hester was the right artist for this book.  Yet this issue confirmed for me that whatever faults this book has artistically, few of them can be laid at Hester's feet.  To speak plainly, Phil Hester is not well-paired with the rest of the art team for this series.  Inker Eric Gapstur does an erratic job of enhancing Hester's original art and the colors chosen by Kelsey are questionable at best.  Many pages have the look of something out of a coloring book rather than a professional comic.


Thankfully, the story by Andrew Kreisberg (with script by Katherine Walczak and Brooke Elkmeier)  is as riveting as ever. There isn't a lot of action in this issue but there are still some good character moments for the supporting cast that fans of the show will enjoy.  The greatest revelation, however, is  a peek at a collection of high-tech tools that will fuel further speculations as to just who Dr. Wells really is and may actually offer a concrete answer answer to that question.

The Flash: Season Zero #5 & #6 - A Review

The good news is The Flash has tracked down the circus performers who have been committing crimes all around Central City. The bad news is that all of them are metahumans and their leader - the ring-master Mister Bliss - had his natural talent for manipulating a crowd transmuted into an empathic ability to manipulate emotions and cause hallucinations. Thankfully, Cisco and Caitlin are on-hand to pull-off a speedy getaway when Barry fall into a catatonic state. But what hope do they have against a gang of super-freaks?


This story-line is an interesting one for me to read as a fan of the Starman series which inspired the character of Mr. Bliss.  There, Bliss was a literal demon - an incubus who fed on the suffering of others that had a particular fondness for the suffering experienced by circus freaks who didn't want to be stared at.  This Bliss possesses the same powers and personality but is all too human. It's a new wrinkle that helps separate this carnival of criminals from the Circus of Crime from Marvel Comics.


The artwork by Phil Hester and Eric Gapstur is still a mixed blessing.  Hester's a great artist when it comes to horror and Gapstur does a fine job when enhancing the darker moments of this story and the hallucinations caused by Bliss' power wonderfully.  But the scenes that don't require dramatic shading seem indistinct and half-finished. Again, I have to voice my love for Hester's artwork but wonder if he's really the best artist for The Flash or if he might benefit from being paired with a different inker.

Green Arrow #36 - A Review

On reflection, while Jeff Lemire's run on Green Arrow was a well-written series, I think I'm enjoying Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Sokolowski's run a little bit more.  That's a bold statement after two issues, I admit, but the new writing team brings a sense of fun to the material that Lemire didn't and that sense of fun is something that Green Arrow needs but has sorely lacked for a long time.

Don't get me wrong - I loved Lemire's run and its gripping sense of drama. But The Outsiders War, while setting up a grand mythology in the tradition of the ninja clans Frank Miller added into the canon of Daredevil. didn't really feel appropriate to Oliver Queen as a character. The storyline also turned Oliver Queen into a passive character in his own book, frequently confused and shunted from one information dump to the next as other characters explained what was going on.


On the surface, that seems to be true of Green Arrow #36 as well.  Very little of the action until the end of the issue involves Oliver Queen and our hero is in the middle of getting a huge information dump from Felicity Smoak when we first see him. And why is Felicity delivering all this information?  Because she was hired to kill Green Arrow, but had a change of heart about the job and decided she'd rather work for him doing good things instead.

Unlikely?  Yes, but John Diggle and Oliver Queen are both appropriately skeptical and cautious, even as they acknowledge that Felicity's knowledge is proving useful. Besides, they'd have no idea she was a hacker for hire unless she'd told them, so that proves she's trustworthy... right?

Another difference between two runs is that the story here makes greater use of the Green Arrow mythology.  Whereas Lemire utilized names while refining concepts, Kreisberg and Sokolowski stay truer to the classic form.  This issue finally gives us our first glimpse of homeless teen Mia Dearden and her attitude is ripped right from the pages of Kevin Smith, even if her circumstances are different. than that of the Pre-New 52 prostitute who became the second Speedy.


Some fans of Lemire have groused that Green Arrow is being turned into another Arrow comic. I personally fail to see why that would be a bad thing even if it were true. And I don't think it is. Yes, some trappings of the Arrow show are being introduced but Kreisberg and Sokolowski are also introducing a number of classic elements from the original comics that have been sorely missed.  The book may feel more like Arrow than it did before but it also feels more like Green Arrow than it did before.  And as far as this Arrowhead is concerned, that's pretty damn good.

In any case, I do not think anyone can argue against the fact that the artwork on this book is amazing.  Daniel Sampere and Jonathan Glapion deliver more of the quality work that made their recent run on Batgirl so magical.  Gabe Eltaeb makes everything appear bright and vibrant with his colors and Rob Leigh manages a neat effect with his lettering to emphasize Felicity's half-muttered sarcastic remarks.

The Flash: Season Zero #3 & #4 - A Review

The third and fourth chapters of the Freak Show story-line see Barry Allen having to surreptitiously deal with a number of incidents involving wild animal attacks all around Central City.  The clues he uncovers lead his crew at STAR Labs to conclude that the mastermind behind all this is a carnival owner named Mr. Bliss.  But will that information be enough to prepare The Flash for what he discovers under the big top?


Freed from the constraints of a television show's budget and the boundaries of reality, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has gone hog-wild with the story for this series and it works out wonderfully. The scripts by Brooke Eikmeier and Katherine Walczak perfectly capture the tone of The Flash TV series as well as the characters involved, even as we're treated to such silliness as The Flash having to raid a local fruit stand to deal with a mob of hungry chimps.


Sadly, the artwork doesn't work quite as well.  Phil Hester is a fine artist but I question if he is the right artist for The Flash.  Hester's style is blocky, with a lot of hard lines. That aesthetic worked quite well on Green Arrow but it doesn't seem to fit a character as fluid as Barry Allen.  The heavy inks of Eric Gapstur don't help matters, but the artwork isn't bad.  It just doesn't seem to fit the characters.  Despite this, fans of the show will enjoy this comic immensely.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 1 - Pilot

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Nine months after being struck by lightning, forensic scientist Barry Allen wakes from a coma and quickly discovers that the accident has given him the power of super-speed.  The scientists at STAR Labs want to analyze Barry and find some way to use him to benefit mankind but Barry thinks he has a higher purpose than being a guinea pig. When reports reach the police of a bank robber who seems to be able to control the weather, Barry concludes that he wasn't the only one empowered by the accident and that he may be the only one who can stop the criminal before he does some major damage to Central City.


Influences

The Flash: Rebirth (Barry's childhood as depicted in the flashbacks), Showcase #4 (the comic which first told Barry Allen's origin story) Sherlock (the visual cues and words overlaid on the crime scene as Barry examines evidence) and the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies (the opening/closing narration by Barry and Barry's overjoyed reactions while testing his powers.)


Goofs

The scene with Barry Allen and Oliver Queen is incredibly goofy. And Oliver Queen must have super-speed himself to put his mask on so quickly at the end of his conversation.


Performances

Grant Gustin wows in his first run on the center stage as The Flash.  Every note is played perfectly and the charisma he displayed in his first appearances playing Barry Allen on Arrow seems to have increased.  With most of the supporting cast being given only basic development (well, this IS the pilot) it falls to Gustin to bear the burden of carrying most of the episode and he succeeds admirably.

The best scene in the episode?  Barry's meeting with his father in prison, with Henry Allen played by John Wesley Shipp, who played Barry Allen in the 1990 The Flash TV series.  Both actors nail the emotional resonance of the scene.


Artistry

The special effects for the final battle in which Barry must neutralize a tornado using his super-speed are phenomenal and set a new standard for what can be accomplished on a television series budget.

The music is perfect, particularly the speed-building orchestral Flash theme.


Flash Facts

Barry Allen, in the original comics, was a blonde.  In terms of personality, however, Barry is pretty much as he is depicted on the show: a good-hearted geek who works as a crime scene investigator for the Central City Police Department. As the show opens, he is 25 years old.

Iris West, in the original comics, eventually became Barry Allen's wife. Her history in the comics is rather complicated compared to what we know of her in the show. In the comics, she's a reporter who could give Lois Lane a run for her money.  The two were not originally childhood friends nor were they raised together. And yes, Iris wasn't originally black.  Iris was also sent back in time from the 30th Century by parents who were trying to save her from some cataclysm... like Superman.

Detective Eddie Thawne is likely related in some manner to Eobard Thawne - a scientist from the 25th century who was also an obsessive Flash fanboy.  He would later get speed powers and go on to become The Flash's greatest enemy - Professor Zoom, The Reverse Flash.

In the comics, Caitlin Snow is the real name of the super-villain Killer Frost.  A STAR Labs scientist doing research on perpetual motion engines, a lab accident transformed her into a "heat vampire" who had to drain the warmth from human bodies to survive and - indirectly - generated extreme cold around her.

In the comics, Cisco Ramon is the real name of the superhero Vibe, who gained the power to emit powerful blasts of sonic energy after being exposed to a piece of alien technology.

The Science And Technology Advanced Research Laboratory - aka STAR Labs - in the comics was originally founded by a man named Garrison Slate.  In the reality of The Flash TV Show, the founder is a scientist named Harrison Wells.  This name may be a tribute to science-fiction writer H.G. Wells, who wrote on a number of subjects that would not be out of place among STAR Labs' studies, including alien technology, invisible men and time travel.

Detective Joe West is an original creation with no relation to any of Iris's fathers in the comics. Iris' birth father was a man from the 30th century named Eric Russell, who had his daughter sent back in time.  Iris's adopted father was a man named Ira West, who was a physicist - not a cop.

David Singh was the name of the director of the crime lab for the Central City Police Department and Barry's boss in the original Flash comics.  Here, he is a police captain, who has no direct oversight over the lab but still seems to favor quantity of cases solved over quality work, like his comic book counterpart.

Detective Fred Chyre - Joe West's partner, who dies in the shoot-out with the Mardon brothers - is named for a reoccurring character from Geoff Johns' run on The Flash.  The comics version of Fred Chyre was an beat cop rather than a detective.

The weather-manipulating Clyde Mardon is something of an original creation, though heavily based upon a number of characters from The Flash comics.  In the original Flash comics, Clyde Mardon was a scientist trying to develop a way to control the weather. His prototype Weather Wand was stolen by his career criminal brother, Mark Mardon, who killed Clyde with a lightning bolt and began to commit crimes under the name The Weather Wizard.  Later, Mark Mardon developed the ability to manipulate the weather without the need for his wand.  In the New 52 Flash comics, Clyde Mardon was named Claudio Mardon and a crime boss who was killed by his brother, Marco Mardon, who acquired weather control powers from a device called a Genome Recoder.

Barry's parents - Nora and Henry Allen - both appeared for the first time in Flask #126 in 1962.

As in the comics, Henry Allen is a medical doctor.

Barry's father's nickname for him is Slugger.

The death of Nora Allen, as depicted here, is taken from the comic The Flash: Rebirth by Geoff Johns (who co-wrote this episode).  The yellow lightning that killed Nora is indeed a man with super-speed, as Barry later speculates. In the comics, it was Professor Zoom, who went back in time to alter Barry Allen's past for the worse.

Barry Allen's inability to be on time is a running gag straight from the comics.

Barry is good enough at his job (or at least enough of a car buff) to identify a get-away car based on the tire track without any reference material.

The purse snatcher to grabs Iris' bag is played by Curtis Braconnier - a.k.a. Colton Haynes' stunt double on Arrow.

Eddie Thawne is a recent transfer from Keystone City.  In the DCU, Keystone City is the sister city of Central City and the home town of the original Flash, Jay Garrick and the third Flash, Wally West. The two cities have been likened to Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri.

The timeline for Barry's accident is changed slightly from its depiction in the Arrow episode 209 - Three Ghosts.  There, Barry missed the cut-off of the line to get inside STAR Labs.  Here, Barry does attend the first part of the ceremony, but leaves to chase after the purse-snatcher who steals Iris' bag before going back to his lab.

Barry is a Lady Gaga fan.

Barry spends nine months in a coma. This is symbolic of his rebirth as The Flash and may be a literal pun on the title of the story The Flash: Rebirth which inspired much of this episode.

Harrison Wells claims to have been left unable to walk by the accident with the STAR Labs particle accelerator.  17 people were killed by the accident with many more injured.  One of the dead was Caitlin Snow's fiance.

The broken cage with the GRODD sign at STAR Labs is a reference to Gorilla Grodd - a well-established Flash villain who is a talking gorilla with psychic powers.

Iris Allen works in a coffee shop.

The laundry van Barry uses to make a soft landing when he first discovers his ability to run super fast belongs to a business called Gambi Cleaners.  This is a reference to Paul Gambi - a character from the original Flash comics who was a tailor who acted as a costume designer for many of The Flash's supervillains.

The air field where STAR Labs conducts the speed test of Barry's limits belongs to Ferris Air. Comics fans will recognize this as the employer of test-pilot Hal Jordan aka The Green Lantern. Ferris Air also appeared in the first season of Arrow, with Oliver Queen thwarting an attack that was meant to destroy a Ferris Air jet.

Caitlin Snow does not smile much.

Dr. Wells' pose in his wheelchair while wearing sunglasses as he and his team are blown back by Barry's running may be a visual reference to the Blown Away Man used in advertising for Maxwell Cassette Tapes.

Barry clocks out at just over 300 MPH during his speed test.

Barry breaks his arm upon impacting with a water barrel.  We're told he heals the break completely in three hours.  Given that a broken arm takes three to ten weeks to heal, this gives Barry the ability to potentially heal from injuries 560 times faster than a normal human.

Barry's father is being held in Iron Heights Penitentiary.  Iron Heights is also the name of the prison in Arrow and it was the name of the high-security prison for super-villains in the original Flash Comics.

Iris began dating Eddie Thawne while Barry was in a coma.  They are both trying to keep this secret from her father.

Barry's clothes spark while running toward Starling City.  This was a frequent problem in The Flash comics and required Barry creating a friction-proof costume.

Starling City is 600 miles from Central City.

Barry notes there was a sharp increase in unexplained deaths and missing people during the nine months he was in a coma - potentially the work of other metahumans.

Cisco says that Barry will have to run over 700 MPH to neutralize a tornado.  This is just under the speed of sound at sea level. (761.2071 MPH)

Running around a tornado in the opposite direction to reverse it is a frequent stunt in The Flash comics.

By episode's end, Joe West is aware of Barry's secret identity. He agreed to keep it but asks Barry not to tell Iris about it in order to keep her safe.

It is Cisco who designs The Flash's emblem so that Barry's costume doesn't look boring.

The end scene reveals that Harrison Wells is capable of walking and does not need glasses.

Wells accesses a future newspaper - the April 25, 2024 edition of the Central City Citizen - through a device that vaguely resembles a Motherbox - a piece of high technology from the DC Universe, utilized by The New Gods, capable of all manner of amazing things.

The newspaper's front page has a picture of Barry in costume and reads FLASH MISSING - VANISHES IN CRISIS.  This is likely a reference to Crisis On Infinite Earths - the comic story in which Barry Allen sacrificed himself to save the universe.  This seems to be born out by secondary headline - RED SKIES VANISH - as the skies turning red was a part of the strange things that happened during the event.

The newspaper also has a secondary headline - WAYNE TECH / QUEEN INC MERGER COMPLETE.  This is a reference to the companies of Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. Batman) and Oliver Queen (a.k.a. The Arrow).  Curiously, Oliver's company in Arrow is currently known as Queen Consolidated.


Technobabble

Barry describes Harrison Wells as the world's greatest expert on quantum theory.

Barry's analysis of the poop found at the crime scene determines that it is cow manure laced with an antibiotic that is rare enough that he narrows the location it came from to four local farms.

Barry develops abs while in a coma.  Caitlin Snow explains this by saying that Barry's muscles - which should be atrophied - are instead in an chronic and unexplained state of cellular regeneration.

FEMA classified STAR Labs as a Class 4 hazardous location following the accident.

Dr. Wells describes the accident with the STAR Labs particle accelerator as an anomaly.

While hospitalized, Barry's heart was beating so fast an EKG couldn't register it, creating the appearance that he was flat-lining while in the hospital.  The hospital experienced odd power outages at the same time Barry was having these episodes, which were misdiagnosed as cardiac arrest.

Cisco designs a radio head-set for Barry with a camera, modified from a design used to block battlefield background noise or - in Barry's case - potential sonic booms.

The anomaly released "unknown energies", including anti-matter, dark-energy and x-elements, after a dimensional barrier ruptured.

Metahumans is the term coined by STAR Labs for people with super powers.  This is also the term used to describe people with genetic super powers in the DC Universe.

The costume Cisco designs for Barry is modified from a design he was using to create a new fire-fighter suit.  It is made of a reinforced tri-polymer that is heat and abrasive resistance.  The aerodynamic design should help Barry maintain control and it contains sensors the STAR Labs tam can use to monitor him from a distance.

Caitlin Snow is able to track Clyde Mardon by using STAR Labs satellites to track meteorological abnormalities.  She found a sudden drop in barometric pressure at a farm outside the city.

Cisco tracks Mardon generating winds up to 200 MPH.  He notes this could eventually lead to an F5 Tornado.  F5 Tornadoes are any tornado that generates winds over 200 MPH.

Mardon's ability to control the weather seems to offer some immunity to the effects of his own powers.  Otherwise, it's hard to explain how he could survive being in the middle of a tornado.


Dialogue Triumphs

Barry Allen: To understand what I'm about to tell you, you need to do something first. You need to believe the impossible.  Can you do that?  Good.  You see that red blur?  That's me.  That too.  There I am again.  My name is Barry Allen.  I'm the fastest man alive.

Nora Allen: It's better to have a good heart than fast legs.

Joe West: Why in the hell would God need to rob banks?!

Harrison Wells: You can do this, Barry. You were right. I am responsible for all of this. So many people have been hurt because of me and when I looked at you, all I saw was another potential victim of my hubris. And yes I created this madness, but you, Barry - you can stop it.  You CAN do this! Now, run, Barry, RUN!

The whole scene between Barry Allen and his father as they visit in prison.


Dialogue Disasters

Oliver Queen: Watching over your city like a guardian angel.  Making a difference. Saving people... in a flash!


Location

Barry runs to Starling City to discuss what has happened to him with Oliver Queen (aka The Arrow)


The Bottom Line

Perfect. Just perfect.  The special effects are amazing, the script establishes Barry Allen as a likeable protagonist and sets up the core idea of the show smoothly.  The only real problem is that the large supporting cast is barely given enough defining characteristics to develop further in the future, but that's a frequent problem with pilots.  I predict this show will become a fast favorite.