Comics! The Flash Annual #1

The Flash Annual #1

Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato, Marcus To, Scott Kolins, Diogenes Neves, Oclair Albert, Marcio Takara, and Wes Craig

The Solicitation

• The Rogues – victorious? If THE FLASH had trouble with them individually, together they’ll kill him!

• Something worse than The Rogues is just waiting for the right moment to attack....


Preview

Why I Bought It
Flash. Let's see how an extra-sized issue, which is basically what this annual is, brings about a story in you.

What I Liked
I was actually surprised that I really enjoyed the first chapter. This had the touch of Wally West to it, meaning that I feel like I got to know a bit of Barry Allen for the first time in a long time. We get some perspective and what really feels to me like his character was explained a little more. And it all comes from a memory that feels very real to him.

Chapter two brings back Scott Kolins to Flash and focuses on the Rogues. And it looks great. We don't need any development for the Flash, but the one line he has in here sums everything up for the Rogues: No matter how high tech the weapons, they are all just toys to the Flash. Instead the story focuses on developing the Rogues, and Cold in particular.

The very end of the comic got me a little excited for the next issue. It will be interesting to see how this gets played out with the zero issue next month and then back to the regularly scheduled issue.

Overall, I would say the first half of the book made for some strong stuff. Introduced characters, set things up for a resolution, and even spotlighted the Flash a bit for some of the best characterization work for the character since the New 52 began.

And really, if this comic would break out of this format and was shown in the main series some time before this issue, it would make the regular series writing that much better. Seriously.

What I Didn't Like
Let's just start off right off by saying I am disappointed that Manapul handled the breakdowns for each story. I really thought we hadn't seen him that much in the regular book so he could catch up and finish off things with the annual. Which he did, in a way, but there were certain artist that could pull off what he wanted and there were some that just couldn't. And it makes me wonder what "breakdowns" implies.

Dr. Elias. He just wants to see what would happen. Bullshit. He's played both the Flash and the Rogues. If he isn't going to be the next Zoom, I don't know who will be. But if you don't know Flash history, you don't see this happening. You just see a throw away character who is very one dimensional right now. Bah to that.

I don't like it when science is infused into the story, much like how I don't like magic infused into the story. I get that comics are a bit of wonder and things gone awry, but if you are going to try to give a scientific explanation for things, try to have it make logical sense. Doing something like having a Gene encoder and then making it work by having the bad guy place his weapon on it to infuse the power of the machine into the person doesn't quite make sense when you break it down. Even if you were to just run with the idea that it worked, how then does Glider make any sense if she was just holding a compact case when the blast hit her? I don't have an idea for another way for the Rogues to suddenly gain these powers, but I just wouldn't go there myself in the first place. And if i did, I might not show it to this extent, but maybe have the villains tell it in some sort of flashback.

Chapter four is simply a small section that should have been called "Let's not forget about Patty!" The art is pretty good though.

Chapter five is just where everything seems to break down for me. The art just is inconsistent to me throughout the chapter. It really has a different feel from all the art before it. And it has so much late additions to the game that you are left wondering what is going on. The part with Pied Piper seems to come from no where other than to name check someone from a previous issue, just like in chapter four.  And while the ending did thrill me, if this is your first time picking up Flash, you're lost. And it felt like the story was actually there and going somewhere, until a bunch of Gorillas and the end of the comic was near and they had to try and wrap everything up quickly.

Panel to Remember
I'm going with the cover on this one. There are a couple of good ones on the inside of the book that I could spotlight, but that cover is just fantastic. The only thing I could see improving on is getting Turbine out of there since he is already hidden and not really in the book and that would free up some room to spread the characters out a little more.

Quotable
"No Matter how high tech your weaponry is...they're all just toys to me." Really is the line that this issue is defined by, and I really wish we could have seen something like it in the main comic sometime before now.

Grades
Words: 7/10 - Better than the regular series, but it didn't hold up in the end. Up until then, awesome stuff.
Pictures: 8/10 - Everything but the last story. Really, it was all great, and if I could take away the last artist, i would. Manapul needed to upgrade from breakdowns to doing it himself there.
Buy Next Issue: It will be interesting to see how the Zero issue will work within the context of how this issue ended. It will be interesting.